Letter from Jan Morrison, Founder and CEO of TIES
We are a global Community of Practice of STEM Learning Ecosystems, united by our shared commitment to creating meaningful connections that ensure collective responsibility for educating our youth, building innovative local workforces, and driving economic growth. Our strength lies in this cross-sector approach—we achieve together what we cannot accomplish individually.
This moment calls us to gather, learn, and design. Our highest allegiance must always be to our learners—our children. We have a responsibility to thoughtfully engineer education-to-workforce pathways, placing learners firmly at the center. As we look toward the next decade, we must strategically leverage resources, including emerging technologies, to prepare our learners to become working learners with secure, fulfilling careers and lives. This will require us to welcome enterprise and industry as essential partners in fostering community health and vitality.
Together, we have an opportunity to powerfully leverage your expertise and insights to drive meaningful change. In partnership with our nation’s STEM employers, researchers, innovators, and communities, we must elevate and amplify practices that work. Your stories are powerful; E2Es were created to showcase them, but now we must move beyond storytelling. This moment demands committed partnerships and collective action to advance these impacts. We must deepen our connections to learners and educators, actively collaborate with businesses and informal STEM partners, and thoughtfully convene discussions around emerging issues such as artificial intelligence. It is a time for rapid, meaningful change that leads to improved, resilient systems—crafting strong new foundations and flexible frameworks. Let’s design and build together.
Our upcoming October convening in Washington, D.C. represents a critical opportunity to unite and act together. You are essential to the immediate and long-term future of your community, region, and state. Our learners depend on us stepping up, not just speaking up. The future remains uncertain only if we fail to act.
TIES has proudly worked alongside all groups and leaders, consistently demonstrating the value of collaboration and empowerment to produce meaningful results. This convening continues that tradition while forging the future.