Kalen Cornelious

As Manager of Government Partnerships and Policy, Kalen oversees and administers a range of local, state, and federal-government funded programs, and supports REDF’s policy and advocacy initiatives. Her primary focus is driving forth REDF’s efforts to expand employment social enterprise access to SNAP Employment and Training funding.

For the past five years, Kalen has worked in both the public and not-for-profit sectors serving communities with low incomes in Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area. Kalen was recently the Public Policy and Program Analyst at Los Angeles County’s Workforce Development, Aging, and Community Services (WDACS) Department where she served as the lead project manager in the creation and implementation of the Cal-Fresh Employment and Training (CFET) Expansion initiative.

Prior to WDACS, Kalen was the Employment Services Coordinator and Interim Director at the San Francisco YMCA, where she co-developed and implemented the Empowerment to Employment (E2E) program, the organization’s first young adult workforce program to serve opportunity youth. As a passionate believer of workforce development initiatives that facilitate community reinvestment, she is excited to use her diverse set of skills in public policy and program management to continue to accelerate the national movement of employment social enterprises at REDF.