Headshot Maryanne

Maryanne Ham

Executive Director

As Executive Director of the Northeast Advanced Manufacturing Consortium (NAMC), Maryanne Nadeau Ham distinguished herself in many challenging roles – educator, administrator, and executive. One word summarizes those roles – leader. Throughout her multi-faceted career, Maryanne has proudly been at the forefront of orchestrating progress.

One of Maryanne’s signature achievements was the establishment of Massachusetts Girls in Trades, an organization that actively empowers high school women, alumni, and middle school girls seeking careers in construction. She has opened doors for girls and women so they could find their place in traditionally male-dominated trades and worked shoulder-to-shoulder with faculty and students in the exciting realm of career and technical education. As MA GIT’s co-founder and chair, Maryanne has forged pathways for ambitious, talented young women to live their dream of belonging to the next generation of union construction professionals.

Since October 2021, Maryanne has had one of the most impactful and challenging positions of her career – Executive Director of the Northeast Advanced Manufacturing Consortium (NAMC). In that capacity, she has again shown her talent for bringing disparate organizations and professionals together for a worthwhile purpose. NAMC thrives on enthusiastic participation from academia, industry, government, the community, employers, training providers, and the workforce development sector. With cooperation and resources from each of these partners, the unemployed, the underemployed, and career-changers now have access to fruitful careers in manufacturing. Maryanne has been an indispensable driving force behind their success.

Kate

Kate O'Malley

AMTEP Program Manager

Tedi

Tedi Markham

NAMC Apprenticeship Coordinator

Theodora “Tedi” Markham is a talented and dynamic leader in workforce development whose numerous skills include (but are not limited to) strategic planning and execution, stakeholder engagement, financial management, problem-solving, and decision-making.

She’s the person people want on their team because of her varied and impressive background, as well as the lengthy track record of successes she has compiled during her distinguished career.

Tedi holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Northeastern University in Boston and served as a business services representative for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development from 2012 to 2020. For two years after that, she was training and apprenticeship manager for the MASSHIRE North Shore Workforce Board.

In that capacity, Tedi oversaw the administration of the Massachusetts Apprenticeship Growth and Expansion Intermediary Grant for the Northeast Advanced Manufacturing Consortium, or NAMC, and the MASSHIRE North Shore Workforce Board, among her other key responsibilities.

Since 2022, she has been the planner, grant coordinator, and apprenticeship administrator for NAMC, and the MASSHIRE North Shore Workforce Board, a role that requires a host of high-level managerial and administrative abilities.

Tedi is consistently there for others, whether it’s those she works with or the individuals who benefit from what she does so well. As she said, “I want people to know I will do whatever is in my power to support them to get the job done.”

She particularly enjoys the chance to “take a grant and implement it within our communities with opportunities for career pathways” for those seeking to provide for their families, gain the upward mobility they deserve, and “live their lives to the fullest.”

Tedi is an indispensable resource for NAMC, the MASSHIRE North Shore Workforce Board, and to all those who care deeply about assuring the future of manufacturing throughout the region.

Chuck Coakley

Chuck Coakley

Apprenticeship Growth & Expansion Coordinator

As the Apprenticeship Growth and Expansion Coordinator for the Northeast Advanced Manufacturing Consortium (NAMC), Chuck Coakley’s career has been marked by his stunning professional versatility and heartfelt commitment to people’s success in telecommunications and manufacturing.

Chuck assists employers in enrolling their incumbent workers into registered apprenticeship training programs. He has excelled at customer service, project management, employee training, and teaching project management at the Carroll School at Boston College.

In each role he has held, he has distinguished himself by facilitating the growth of employees, employers, and their companies. By doing so, Chuck has truly left an indelible mark on both industries in which he worked.

Priti Patel

Program Manager - Strategic Partnerships

Priti Patel joined NAMC in March of 2024 as strategic program manager. She adds significant expertise and value to the NAMC team, as well as zeal, insight, and a truly collaborative spirit.

She engages with NAMC’s core initiatives – its advanced manufacturing training programs and registered apprenticeship program.

Priti summarized her mindset this way: “I am approachable, open minded, and I love to simplify things, making it easy for the end receiver of the program to access.”

A graduate of Wheaton College, she has an extensive and impressive resume. Priti has been strategic program manager at Ellucian in Reston, VA, senior program manager at MathWorks in Natick, software QC manager at Simulia in Providence, R.I., and manager, software engineering, at EMC Corp. in Hopkinton.

She said that she and her NAMC colleagues work together to “pave the road” for those they serve, especially the unemployed, underemployed, and career-changers, all of whom are seeking training for exciting roles with growth potential in advanced manufacturing.

Priti is part of what she calls “a cross-organizational collaboration that makes sure that opportunities are seen by those who really need them.”

Mikayla Konopka photo

Mikayla Konopka

Career Advisor

Mikayla Konopka brings a wealth of impressive educational credentials and directly applicable experience to the high-profile position of Career Advisor for advanced manufacturing career pathways for students at Salem, Reading, and Peabody High Schools.

She has a bachelor of Social Work with a Human Behaviors and Social Services Minor from Michigan State University, and a Master of Social Work, Children, Youth, and Families Concentration, Trauma Certificate from Boston College.

Her outstanding professional competencies include workforce development with students, on-site supervisors, and employers, running the program YouthWorks under the Commonwealth Corporation, utilizing technology, developing and implementing workshops creating curriculum, facilitating career awareness and exploration activities, and training new career specialists on best practices for relationship building with students, staff, employers, and community partners.

In her role as NAMC Career Advisor, Ms. Konopka works with students at Salem, Peabody, and Reading High Schools to introduce them to exciting career pathways in the advanced manufacturing industry. These pathways include engineering, welding, advanced manufacturing, robotics, electromechanical, and quality control.

Her responsibilities as Career Advisor in the three high schools are varied and include involvement with key stakeholders such as industry partners, parents, teachers and students.

 

Alex Cain Prof Headshot

Alex Cain

Career Advisor