The Forum
The Marcellus Shale Workforce Forum, held on 7 and 8 December 2009 at the Blair County Convention Center in Altoona, Pennsylvania, was designed to bring educational organizations and institutions, government agencies, and industry from across the Marcellus region together to learn more about the 95,000 square mile Marcellus Shale Play, the workforce needs industry will require to safely extract the estimated 493 trillion cubic feet of natural gas within the Play, to learn about educational successes and challenges in Pennsylvania and other states, and to discuss areas of potential collaboration to meet the vast natural gas industry workforce needs. The interviews displayed on this page were conducted with ten of the approximately 130 participants in the Forum.

Aim of the Forum

Larry J. Michael is the Executive Director of Workforce and Economic Development at Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

  


James R. Ladlee is an Extension Educator with Penn State Cooperative Extension.

  


Potential of the Marcellus Shale Play

Danielle Boston is Communications Director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of Pennsylvania (IOGA of PA). Danielle is responsible for internal and external communications for the Association, working to raise the visibility of IOGA of PA and its mission. Danielle is responsible for the monthly newsletter (IOGA News), IOGA’s web site, legislative communications, educational outreach and media relations.

  


Workforce Needs

David Cook is Field Sales Representative for Universal Well Services, Inc. He has worked 12 years for Universal Well Services on both frac and cement service crews.

 


Michael Forgione is a Senior Engineer for Range Resources and has been in the oil and gas industry for 26 years.

 


Autumn Wolfe is Director of Human Resources for Gas Field Specialists, Inc..

  


Occupations That Support the Industry

Phillip W. Corey is a Senior Landman with Carrizo in Houston, Texas.

  


Craig Mayer is Legal Counsel for Pennsylvania General Energy Company, LLC, in Warren, Pennsylvania.

  


Pre-Employment Training

Tracy Brundage is Managing Director of Workforce Development and Continuing Education at Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

  


Doug McWhorter is General Manager of ROC Service Company, LLC.

  



These Videos Were Produced by the Penn State Workforce Education & Development (WED) Initiative
Availability of the Videos
All videos displayed on this web page can be viewed also at the WED Initiative's YouTube site. These videos may be embedded in other web sites, but uses of these videos are subject to the modest restrictions specified by the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license detailed at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. Briefly, these restrictions require attribution of videos to the Penn State Workforce Education & Development Initiative, non-commercial use of the videos, and uses that do not alter or transform video or audio content. People interviewed in these videos signed releases to allow their videos to be displayed. However, any person interviewed who desires to have their interview deleted should contact David Passmore for prompt removal of the video containing their interview.

Mission of the WED Initiative
The Penn State Workforce Education & Development (WED) Initiative is an alliance between Penn State's College of Education and Penn State Outreach. The mission of the WED Initiative is to support the development of the workforce in Pennsylvania primarily through the application of Penn State resources to conduct economic and workforce analyses for employers, industry partnerships, nonprofit organizations, and government entities. A two-page description of the WED Initiative is available as an Adobe PDF file.

Integrity & Independence in the Conduct & Reporting of Research
The Penn State WED Initiative often conducts research and analysis about topics and issues that, at times, are the focus of vigorous debate and public attention and that frequently are associated with diverse stakeholders who represent divergent opinions. The Initiative adds value, attention, and discussion to this debate by conducting and reporting research and analysis for decisions affecting economic and workforce development using the most objective approaches possible. The research and analysis of the WED Initiative are pursued independent of the commercial or political interests of any actual or potential sponsor of WED Initiative work. All research meeting the Initiative’s standards of quality for conduct and reporting is available to the public via links in the "Works of the Initiative" section of the Initiative's web site.

Contacts for the WED Initiative
Rose M. Baker, Director, Center for Regional Economic and Workforce Analysis, 814.865.9919, rbaker@psu.edu.
David L. Passmore, Director, Institute for Research in Training & Development, 814.8689.9337dlp@psu.edu.
Baker and Passmore are the leaders of Penn State's Workforce Education & Development Initiative, Penn State professors in Workforce Education and Development academic program, and columnists for Pennsylvania Business Central.