WMCAT Names New President and CEO

We are excited to announce our new president and CEO, Jamon Alexander!

Most recently the director of Workforce Development at WMCAT, Jamon spent six years growing the nationally recognized program that provides holistic support and career training to adults seeking living-wage careers in the healthcare industry. 

As the new president and CEO of WMCAT, he will continue to advance the organization’s mission of equitable access to opportunity. Jamon will provide the vision and leadership around WMCAT’s work in West Michigan. 

“I am excited and honored to step into the role as president and CEO,” shared Jamon. “Centering the needs and voices of individuals and families is core to our approach at WMCAT. Our students have helped to drive innovation in our work, leveraging these opportunities to develop creative confidence, explore postsecondary opportunities, and secure income security for their families. With the pandemic shifting the cultures of learning and work, our next challenge is exploring the future of opportunity to ensure equitable outcomes with families. Being from and of Grand Rapids, I’m deeply invested in economic security with families as a foundation for community prosperity. I’m looking forward to this challenge with our team.”

At WMCAT, we engage adults in tuition-free career training and leadership development, connect high school students to creative exploration through the visual arts and digital media, and run two social enterprise businesses. As an organization rooted in community, we are committed to providing platforms for adults and teens to elevate their voices and lived experiences.

“On behalf of the WMCAT Board of Directors, I am very excited about the future of WMCAT under Jamon’s leadership,” shared Tim Williams, WMCAT board chair and vice president, diversity and inclusion at Meijer. “He is well positioned to both guide and amplify WMCAT’s innovative leadership and community impact. The Board and I look forward to supporting Jamon and his leadership of WMCAT.”

Prior to WMCAT, Jamon led fundraising and volunteer efforts at the YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids, Spectrum Health Foundation and Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital Foundation, and the Heart of West Michigan United Way. 

As an experienced nonprofit professional and community advocate, he has spent much time actively influencing the Kent County workforce development system through collective impact collaboratives. Jamon is part of the Equity Action Team for the Essential Needs Task Force (ENTF), an Equity Advisor for KConnect’s 4th-12th grade workgroup, and a core team member of Invest Health, a national initiative that addresses the social determinants to health.

In the community, Jamon is also a founder of BL²END (Business Leaders Linked to Encourage New Directions) and currently serves on the Advisory Committee. He is alumni of the REAL (Racial Equity in Action Leadership) cohort with the National Equity Project. In 2014, he was given the Community Advocate Award by Grand Rapids Young Professionals; and he was named one of 40 Under 40 by the Grand Rapids Business Journal in 2013, 2015, and 2019. 

Jamon earned his Bachelor degree in Public and Nonprofit Administration from Grand Valley State University, who named him Young Alumni of the Year in 2012.

We are so excited to have Jamon step into this role. Welcome him with us!