Adele McCarthy-Beauvais

Tech Talent Partnership Vice President

As Vice President of the Tech Talent Partnership, an employer led initiative, Adele facilitates a coalition of employers, educators, and community organizations to implement strategic workforce solutions that bridge skills gaps and support economic mobility. With a distinguished career spanning education and workforce development, operational strategy, advocacy, and coalition building, Adele brings a wealth of experience to the Tech Talent Partnership and to ActivateWork. Most recently, Adele led the executive facilitation and coaching workforce at Chief, the nation’s largest women’s leadership network. Prior to that, Adele led tech bootcamp General Assembly’s national instructional workforce and community growth initiatives. Adele’s leadership trajectory at General Assembly stemmed from the impact she drove as the General Manager of General Assembly’s Colorado campus, during which time she doubled GA’s employer partners and cultivated educational and state-level partnerships to drive tech career exposure and learner awareness. Adele lives in Golden with her husband, two kids, dog, and a rowdy community of elk.

Lizbeth Williams

Senior Manager of Operations

Liz is a seasoned office administrator with over 20 years of experience in various organizations across the Department of Defense (DoD). Liz joined ActivateWork as an executive assistant and quickly rose to take on Salesforce administration responsibilities. Her duties include Finance, Accounting, HR, Impact & Evaluations, and Systems. Additionally, she held positions in contracting, Security, IT help desk, security forces for DoD installations, and public affairs.

Liz received her Bachelor’s in IT System Management at the University of Miami, Florida. She is now pursuing her MBA. Passionate about her family, hobbies, and increasing workplace efficiency by using technology.

Tara McLauchlan

Director of Learner Success

With over a decade of experience in fast-paced startup environments, particularly in edtech, Tara has an established history of leading cross-functional teams and driving impact in growing organizations.

She has extensive experience in supporting technical education and enhancing team operations, having played a key role in building and scaling a large coaching organization and managing bootcamp-style programs, all aimed at supporting working adult learners.

Her earlier work in recruiting and HR further deepened her expertise, allowing her to successfully guide hundreds of individuals through their career transitions.

As a lifelong learner, Tara firmly believes in the importance of accessible education for all. She is dedicated to promoting job-aligned education and creating pathways for meaningful career growth, both within and outside traditional education systems.

Outside of work, you can find her hiking with her dog, seeking fresh snow on the slopes, attempting a new recipe, or hunting for airfare deals for her next adventure!

Sabrina Skinner

Senior Director of Growth and Impact

Sabrina Skinner is Senior Director of Growth and Impact at ActivateWork. She is an accomplished social impact and education leader with two decades of experience in strategic planning, program evaluation, fiscal management, impact advising, and portfolio management.

With a proven track record of driving social change and fostering innovation, she has held critical roles in prominent organizations, shaping policies and initiatives that have impacted communities locally and nationwide.

At ActivateWork, Sabrina continues to leverage her extensive experience to advance equitable access to social and economic opportunity for Coloradans.

Sabrina is proud of our state and enjoys serving on multiple boards and committees in the community. She loves getting outside—rain, snow, or shine—to enjoy time with her family.

Kathryn V. Harris

Chief Operating Officer, Managing Director

Kathryn began her career at Accenture, consulting for large financial service companies to streamline small business lending processes and to build software applications to increase productivity. For the past 20 years, she has worked in the nonprofit sector, both in Winter Park, running the Grand Foundation, and in Denver, at Rose Community Foundation.

Prior to joining ActivateWork, Kathryn spent 8 years in education, most recently focused on improving the quality of early care and education as President and CEO of Qualistar Colorado. Kathryn is a Leadership Denver member from 2012, a 2019 Buell Early Childhood Leadership Fellow, and a 2021 Leadership Foundation Civic DNA Fellow. She is a founding board member of the Colorado Inclusive Economy movement and the Colorado Equitable Economic Mobility Initiative. Kathryn received a B.A. in Economics from Middlebury College and a certificate in Corporate Social Responsibility from Boston College.

Kathryn is the rare combination of a dynamic, decisive leader and a warm, authentic relator. She’s both creative and adept in her thinking style and a relentlessly productive hands-on project manager. Kathryn delivers exceptional results, never sacrificing humor, wit, and warmth along the way. She is an avid lifelong learner and a compassionate and inclusive leader. Kathryn has worked tirelessly throughout her career to address issues such as income disparity and unequal access to education that often prevent communities from thriving. She has raised millions and formed alliances across government, private business, and the nonprofit sector to develop creative solutions to these challenges. Every day, she strives to build better, more equitable processes and systems to allow individuals—regardless of their income or color of their skin – to succeed.

Helen Young Hayes

FOUNDER & CEO

Helen is the Founder and CEO of ActivateWork. ActivateWork’s mission is to transform lives by training, launching, and coaching the next generation of technology superstars. ActivateWork is the culmination of Helen’s past for-profit and non-profit experience, harnessing the power of the marketplace to achieve a vibrant talent ecosystem that fuels opportunity, growth, and prosperity for Colorado.

The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Helen is a believer in and the embodiment of the American Dream, which she has woven into the fabric of the organization. ActivateWork bridges the gap between individual potential and realized success through rigorous recruiting, industry-driven training, curated matches, and professional skills coaching to prepare new employees to thrive in their careers. ActivateWork seeks to advance economic and professional success through new habits, mindsets, and disciplines to transform driven individuals into highly skilled, valuable team members.

Helen is a 20-year veteran of the financial industry. She was the portfolio manager of the flagship Janus Worldwide Fund, Janus Overseas Fund, and related assets totaling approximately $50 billion at Janus Capital, a mutual fund company headquartered in Denver, Colorado. She also served as Managing Director of Investments, heading up the 100-person research and investment arm of Janus Capital, encompassing equities, fixed income, money market, and trading.

In 2018, Helen was selected as one of the Denver Business Journal’s Outstanding Women in Business for her leadership at ActivateWork. Helen was honored by Girl Scouts of Colorado as a 2019 Woman of Distinction. In 2020 Helen received the GlobalMindED Inclusive Leader Award for the Nonprofit Sector and the Colorado Titan 100 CEO Award. She was a 2021 Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business and an APEX Awards Colorado Technology Association Talent Champion of the Year. In 2022, Helen was honored as a Top Entrepreneur Finalist by ColoradoBiz Magazine and was a finalist for the 2023 9 News Leader of the Year Award.

Helen is a member of the Colorado Forum, the International Women’s Forum, and the AEI Leadership Network. Helen helped launch the Colorado Inclusive Economy, a CEO-led collaborative to build a more prosperous Colorado community. Helen is a Director of MalarVx, a vaccine company that seeks to eradicate malaria in developing countries. She is an Advisor and former Board Chair to Mile High Ministries, a Denver nonprofit serving low-income Coloradans.

Helen, her husband Matt, and her family have called Denver home for 30 years. Helen is an avid, albeit average, athlete and enjoys biking, swimming, running, skiing, and surfing.