Senior Director of Workforce Development & Career Pathways
Email: devon.buskin@strategiccommunitypartners.org
As the product of a caring community of coaches, mentors, and teammates, Devon Buskin is a true believer in the developmental power of youth sports and the impact of workforce development and community programming. He is passionate about offering young people opportunities for employment, training, mentoring, and education and has led many initiatives and teams across the public and private sectors.
Devon served as the Director of Workforce Development at The Greening of Detroit since 2012 for nine years, where he led a nationally recognized training and employment program, placing over a thousand Detroit residents into jobs that helped to revitalize their neighborhoods and city. Under Devon’s leadership, the Greening’s Workforce Development Department scaled into the Detroit Conservation Corps. This expansion model has now been leveraged across the country to help support adults and youth with barriers to employment in urban cities. The program has given low-income, underrepresented, unemployed, and underemployed citizens a chance for success and a renewed opportunity for a sustainable future. Devon also directed the Green Corps Youth Employment Program which employed over 1800, providing education in the fields of green jobs, urban planning, civil and environmental engineering, landscape architecture, and other disciplines, along with ACT/SAT training, resume and interviewing training, financial literacy, college visits, college fairs, and hands-on environmental education.
During his tenure with the State of Michigan (Cities of Promise initiative) under Governor Granholm’s Administration, Devon successfully scaled Detroit-area programming into state-wide and federal programs. He is a proven leader, experienced administrator, department director, and program developer whose imprint can be found on multiple local, state, and federal agencies. Devon was coached into leadership by his grandfather, who served as the Deputy Mayor for Detroit under Mayor Coleman A. Young’s administration.
Devon is appreciative and blessed to have a strong support system of family, friends, and community members to support him in his work. He enjoys spending time with his family, mentoring and coaching youth, playing sports, and being involved in his community. He is a proud graduate of the Detroit Public Schools system and earned his bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University. Devon has received various awards and recognition in his field, including an Aspen Institute Fellowship sponsored by JP Morgan Chase & Co. and The Corporation for a Skilled Workforce, a National Leadership Award from the US. Department of Labor, two leadership awards from Parsons Brinkerhoff, an Excellence Under 40 leadership award, and is a recipient of the Ford Motor Company Foundation Men of Courage award. His most recent accomplishments include being inducted into the Samuel C. Mumford High School Hall of Fame in 2019, a Community Incubator Program award in 2020, receiving the 2021 Community Keeper Award, and the 2021 Torch of Wisdom Foundation Community Enrichment Hero Award.