The Team

Chief Executive Officer
Yvonne “Bonnie” Gonzalez was appointed chief executive officer of Workforce Solutions in May 2003. She has programmatic, fiduciary and oversight responsibility of a $54 million organization that covers Hidalgo, Starr and Willacy counties. Gonzalez is responsible for ensuring that more public dollars go directly to services and investments in customized training, incumbent worker training, and other direct delivery services provided through workforce centers.

Under her current leadership, she was instrumental in the development of a comprehensive strategic Corporate Plan of Action. Her passion for community and economic development steered her toward accepting the challenges of becoming the CEO of Workforce Solutions and guiding the corporation to become more business driven.

Prior to becoming the CEO for Workforce Solutions, she served as president/CEO for the Rio Grande Valley Empowerment Zone Corporation for nine years. During her tenure, she was responsible for a $40 million federal grant that has received numerous national recognitions for its implementation of a comprehensive community strategic plan. This is evident by strategic partnerships with community, municipalities, county government and private sector involvement. Her greatest accomplishment was taking a $40 million seed investment and turning it into a $416 million return on the initial investment.

Before accepting the position of CEO for the Rio Grande Valley Empowerment Zone, she spearheaded the development of a new community college in Texas. In 1986, she established the first comprehensive alternative education school for school-aged parents and pregnant adolescents, the Teenage Parent Alternative Program. Several institutions including the State of Texas and Harvard University noticed the accomplishments of the program. She was recruited by Harvard to attend the John F. Kennedy School of Government, where she received her Masters of Public Administration in 1993. She received her Bachelors of Science in Nursing from the University of Texas in Austin and proceeded to work for several years in the preventive health care area, especially with adolescents in the barrios of east Austin.

President
Stella Garcia has worked in workforce development for more than 15 years. She has served in several capacities over the past 15 years, from serving as adult education instructor to managing one of the first five One-Stops in Texas at the local level and various capacities at the state level. Having served as executive director of Cameron Works, Inc., for two years and overseeing an organization that managed close to $30 million in workforce funds, Garcia returned to Workforce Solutions in November 2003 to serve as vice president. Now as president of Workforce Solutions, she is responsible for the day-to-day operations of this $60 million organization.

Garcia has taken on many special projects over the years, starting with an internship program for Adjudicated Youth that has evolved into a model project across the state of Texas. Another project was United Way’s Success by Six Initiative in which Garcia was on the original leadership team and chair of the initiative in its second year. This initiative encouraged educational learning opportunities for children based on research and worked in coordination with Head Start, pre-K programs and licensed day cares.

She most recently has been instrumental in developing the local customized training policies and agreements with employers and employer consortia for incumbent worker training, as well as facilitating interagency and interlocal agreements with various partners in the community. Garcia received her undergraduate degree in microbiology from the University of Texas in Austin and her graduate degree in public administration from Texas State University (formerly Southwest Texas State University).