OWINN Team

Zach Alexander resides in Sparks, Nevada and is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) where he earned a degree in broadcast journalism. His dedication to community building and engagement is reflective in his many leadership roles serving as executive director for Hillel of Northern Nevada, where he founded Jewish student chapters at both UNR and Truckee Meadows Community College and worked to strengthen the Center for Cultural Diversity at UNR. He continues to support local Jewish causes such as Holocaust education and fighting anti-Semitism. Zach excelled in digital and content communications roles in the hospitality, food & beverage, tourism, and gaming industries. Additionally, his efforts in the private-sector applying new communications platforms to increase participation in job fairs and training programs will be valuable as OWINN continues to work toward reducing the workforce shortage and increasing labor force participation through public-private partnerships.

At OWINN, Zach manages the H1-B Rural Healthcare Grant, and has been involved in the applications for the Nevada Tech Hubs, Pathways to Careers in Infrastructure, and NSF Engines grant. He also manages social media and communications.

Villalobos is a native Nevadan, growing up in Pahrump, where he went through grade school and graduated from Pahrump Valley High School. Soon after graduation he began attending the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas while working in the Admission, Financial Aid, & Bursar’s Office. This is where he was introduced to higher education in the state of Nevada and he found he enjoyed helping students find the necessary help they needed to achieve their goals. In 2001 he graduated the College of Southern Nevada and attended Great Basin College to further his education. During this time he worked at different departments at the colleges and gained more information and expertise on student recruitment and retention. He was hired as the Project SANDI Career Navigator at Great Basin College and he was able to achieve the goal of qualifying the most Project SANDI students in the state of Nevada. Soon after, he was hired as the Project SANDI Coordinator at the Nevada System of Higher Education were he collaboratively setup a SANDI ONBASE application system where all Nevada Colleges who received SANDI funding were able to have students apply with a standard SANDI application. Most recently, he was recruited by the Governor’s Office of Workforce Innovation as the SANDI Grant Manager. He looks to finish this last grant year with the goals of serving our target population of veterans in Nevada and having SANDI Success Ceremonies through out the state acknowledging the students who received SANDI Funding and where able to finish the short-term training programs and gain employment. It has always been a pleasure for him to serve the Great State of Nevada.

Kristen Dwyer is originally from New Hampshire, received her received her Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Communications and Journalism from Texas A&M University and a Master of Arts in Communications from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and has now lived in Las Vegas since the summer of 2017. She has been with OWINN since May 2021 as the Grants and Programs Manager overseeing all aspects of the over $20 million dollars of federal grants awarded to OWINN, having come from the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) where she managed a STEM grant and was the Coordinator to the Vice President of Academic Affairs. Prior to working at CSN, Kristen served for eight years in various capacities for the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, including working as Outreach Program Manager, Assistant to the Executive Director, and Business Support Specialist

Katie Gilbertson is a Nevada native with a robust background in public policy and economic analysis. She graduated summa cum laude one year ahead of schedule from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a minor in Brookings Public Policy. Katie has worked for the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the esteemed think tanks, Brookings Mountain West and The Lincy Institute, and Nevada’s leading economic consulting firm, Applied Analysis. She has published award-winning reports on economic and workforce development, fiscal policy, and healthcare. Katie now serves as a Policy Analyst for the Nevada Governor’s Office of Workforce Innovation (OWINN) where she is the liaison for the Governor’s Workforce Development Board and manager for various GOWINN programs