MEDIA RELEASE: MACRO Charter Ratified and Initial Board Elected

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 8, 2026
Jordan D. Renken, MACRO Board Chair
(720) 335-5038‬

MACRO.CO.SP@gmail.com

METRO ALLIANCE OF CAREER READINESS ORGANIZATIONS (MACRO) CHARTER RATIFIED AND INITIAL BOARD ELECTED

Denver, CO- The Metro Alliance of Career Readiness Organizations (MACRO) announced today that two dozen post-secondary career readiness organizations from around the Denver Metro area have formally voted to ratify the MACRO Community Charter and elect an initial Board to begin operations. 

"It's an exciting time for post-secondary workforce development in Colorado" said Jordan D. Renken, incoming Board Chair. "Recent State actions, such as Governor Polis' announced plan to merge the Department of Higher Education and Department of Labor & Employment, as well as legislation such as SB25-315 covering Postsecondary & Workforce Readiness Programs, show that Colorado is dedicated to rethinking career development and how we prepare students and job seekers to participate in society and find stability in their lives through meaningful careers."

The MACRO Community was established in order to bring together the diverse ecosystem of post-secondary workforce training organizations that have been serving career paths such as those found in construction, manufacturing, energy, cybersecurity, healthcare, hospitality and aerospace. The MACRO Community will serve as a central meeting point for organizations such as Labor Unions, Trade Associations, Pre-Apprenticeships, Registered Apprenticeships, K-12 Education, Workforce Development Centers, Community Colleges, and Trade/Technical Schools to facilitate cross sector partnerships and growth. 

"There is a dire need to support these types of programs that have been left to mostly fend for themselves as they try to address critical gaps in the Colorado Workforce" continued Board Chair Jordan D. Renken. "We've asked these programs to shoulder the burden of training people to be career ready by addressing gaps in soft/durable skills, financial literacy, digital literacy, workers rights education, and mental health well-being education, but until now we haven't provided a space where these non-traditional post secondary programs can connect with each other and receive support in these areas. MACRO is going to change that."

Notable organizations whose representatives voted to ratify the MACRO Charter include The Colorado Building and Construction Trades Council (AFL-CIO), Plumbers Local 3, National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) - formerly NREL, Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), Denver Workforce Development Powered by Eckerd Connects, Construction Education Foundation, Apprenticeship Colorado, Colorado Youth for a Change, Energy Outreach Colorado, Community College of Denver, Pickens Technical College, Teach For America Colorado, CO Jobs with Justice - E.P.I.C., Front Range Community College, Energy Resource Center, Lyra, and the Collective Clean Energy Fund.

The following professionals were elected to the initial MACRO Board:

• Board Chair - Jordan D. Renken - Energy Outreach Colorado

• Board Co-Chair: Worker Rights & Union Relations - Delores Bledsoe - The Colorado Building and Construction Trades Council (AFL-CIO)

• Board Co-Chair: All-Partner #1 - Taylor Combs - Denver Workforce/Eckerd Connects

• Board Co-Chair: Finance & Financial Literacy - Joseph Tamburrelli - KeyBank

• Board Co-Chair: Website & Social Media - Jami Toombs - Community College of Denver

The newly elected board will begin meeting in order to plan the first in-person MACRO Quarterly All Partner Meeting slated for February 2026. 

About the Metro Alliance for Career Readiness Organizations

The Metro Alliance of Career Readiness Organizations (MACRO) is a community of career readiness organizations and workforce support partners. The MACRO Approach looks at the big picture when it comes to effective career readiness training and development of the workforce. The MACRO community seeks to regularly convene Quarterly All-Partner Meetings in order to facilitate connections amongst Career Readiness Organizations and provide these partners with updates around new legislation affecting their work, new funding opportunities, new training resources, and facilitating new employer relationships. 

The MACRO community is structured as a unique take on the Sector Partnerships convened throughout Colorado, but is not officially recognized as a sector partnership. 

For more information about the MACRO Community, visit https://sites.google.com/view/macro-colorado/home and sign up for Community Updates.