As a research associate formally affiliated with the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources, Dan O’Shea has been conducting policy/program analyses and evaluations since 1989. He specializes in process and implementation studies, occasionally preparing benefit-cost analyses and assisting with impact studies. Mr. O’Shea has worked with a broad array of government agencies, private foundations, professional associations, academic research institutes, and labor organizations, as well as community-based and other non-profit organizations, across the span of his career.
With colleagues at RMC, Mr. O’Shea conducted an evaluation of Growing Regional Opportunities for the Workforce: Project G.R.O.W, an accelerated career pathway program sponsored by a Workforce Innovation Fund (WIF) Grant, that spans the 5 WIBs serving the Texas-Mexico border region, and an evaluation of the Integrated Child Support System for the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG). Recent research and evaluation projects include a demonstration administered by the OAG of the Urban Fathers Asset Building Project, an effort to connect low income urban males in the City of Houston’s Urban core at or near the time of fatherhood with employment readiness and asset-building services provided by Covenant Community Capital, an Assets for Independence (AFI) grantee; the Strategic Positioning Project (SPP) for Goodwill Industries of Central Texas to assess their current workforce programs for youth, persons with disabilities, and hard-to-serve individuals, and design options for improving services and outcomes; and the Workforce Potential Project for the Austin Area Research Organization’s Social Equity Committee —a group of business, academic and community leaders—to identify labor market demand and training opportunities in occupations that pay a family-sustaining wage for underemployed residents of the Austin area. He also conducted state-level analyses of strategic and operational influences of Recovery Act resources in the workforce systems of Nebraska, Arizona, Washington, and Texas. These analyses were part of the 20-state ARRA Implementation Study, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Division.
Past projects include a major research role in The Workforce Investment Act in Eight States, the first national WIA implementation study; a National Benefit/Cost Analysis of Three Digit-Accessed Telephone Information and Referral Services, sponsored by United Way of America; and the Next Generation Workforce Project, a forward-looking initiative in support of enhancing state and local capacity for improving livelihood prospects in the knowledge-based, global economy.
Mr. O’Shea received his BA degree in International Relations from Knox College and his MA degree in Latin American Studies with a major in Geography and a minor in Community and Regional Planning from The University of Texas at Austin. As a political ecologist/cultural geographer, Mr. O’Shea is well-versed in the field of regional/national sustainable development and efforts to improve livelihood prospects in more challenged areas of the globe. He is a member of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
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