Ways To Work

Susan N. Dreyfus is president and CEO of Families International, the parent organization of the Alliance for Children and Families, United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA), Ways to Work, and FEI Behavioral Health.

In addition, she is president and CEO of the Alliance; CEO of UNCA and Ways to Work; and a member of the FEI Behavioral Health Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Families International on Jan. 3, 2012, Dreyfus was secretary for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. She was appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire in May 2009 and served as a member of the Governor's Executive Cabinet.

From 2007-2009, Dreyfus was executive vice president for strategy for Rogers Behavioral Health System, Inc. in Oconomowoc, Wis., where she served as a member of the Rogers hospital and system administrations.

Dreyfus has rejoined the Families International group of organizations. From 2003-2007, she served as senior vice president and chief operating officer for both Families International and the Alliance.

In 1996 she was appointed by the Gov. Tommy G. Thompson Administration in Wisconsin to be the first administrator of the Division of Children and Family Services. Her responsibilities included child welfare, child care quality and licensing, youth development and an array of emergency assistance and other community programs.

Dreyfus serves on several national advisory boards and is a member of the Chapin Hall Center for Children Board of Directors at the University of Chicago and the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) Board of Directors.

Jeff Faulkner was appointed as the third President of Ways to Work, Inc. in 2004. During his tenure, WtW has completed a dramatic shift in its business model by centralizing its consumer lending operations, including the design and implementation of a comprehensive technology infrastructure. Also since his arrival at WtW, the organization has more than doubled its capital available for lending, and increased its annual loan production and geographic scale, both by more than 50 percent.

With its increased capacities and improved systems, WtW is rapidly advancing its scaling program that is expected to more than triple its network of loan production offices and quadruple its annual lending volume within the next four years. WtW is also actively developing new products and initiatives to further leverage its expanded capacities.

Prior to joining WtW, Jeff was the Executive Vice President of Durkin Associates, a Milwaukee-based consulting firm which serves a diverse group of nonprofit organizations who are intent on building their organizational and philanthropic capacity. Jeff's work with Durkin Associates was primarily focused on planning processes and organizational development projects. Prior to working at Durkin Associates, he spent sixteen years in private industry in the areas of corporate planning, marketing, sales management, and operations management.

Jeff earned a bachelor's degree in business from Baker University, Baldwin City, Kansas (1981) and an MBA from Harvard Business School (1987).

John Schmidt currently serves as the Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer, for Families International, Inc (FII) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The FII group of companies includes the Alliance for Children and Families, Inc.; FEI Behavioral Health, Inc.; United Neighborhood Centers of America, Inc. and Ways to Work, Inc.

Schmidt joined FII in July of 2007, prior to that he served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), a private four-year college. At MIAD, John worked closely with the Board of Trustees and its Executive and Finance committees. John has extensive previous experience at both the CFO and Controller level, having worked with a Fortune 100 company, a closely held private company and within a Government agency. His experience also includes 3 years starting and running his own business.

John earned his Masters of Business Administration with distinction from the Keller Graduate School of Management (1994) and his Bachelor of Business Administration (Comprehensive Accounting major) from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (1982).

He has experience serving on a number of local non-profit Boards and committees.

Wendell Willis joined Ways to Work, Inc. in mid-November, 2008 as Vice President of Operations. He manages all aspects of program operations for the national Ways to Work program, ensuring that performance objectives are met, financial risk is managed within approved tolerances and program design is continuously reviewed, refined and kept relevant.

Prior to joining the Ways to Work staff, Wendell served as the Director of Operations and Administration / COO at Agape Community Center in Milwaukee, WI, where he oversaw all administrative, operations, and facility functions of this non-profit community center. He also assisted in fundraising, marketing, and programming initiatives. Wendell has also worked for both local and national firms such as HNI Risk Services, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, McLeod USA, and Assurant in the areas of Risk Management, Sales, Marketing, and IT support.

Wendell is a graduate of Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, with a B.A. in Economics and Art Theory and Practice. He is a Milwaukee native and active member of the Downtown Milwaukee Rotary Club, and co-chairs their Partners in Education Committee which strives to increase interest, enthusiasm, and guidance for inner-city students' personal education and career planning. Wendell serves on the board of directors at the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center chairing one of their major fundraisers allowing the center to continue outreach programs for both underprivileged and disabled children. He also serves on the both the Fund Board of Maryland Avenue Montessori and as a staff coach for the FC Milwaukee Soccer Club, working with both organizations on fund-development and other endeavors.

Matt Mueller joined Ways to Work, Inc., the national office of the Ways to Work program, in 2004 as Director of Government Funding. As Director of Government Funding he was responsible for managing the acquisition and use of government-based sources of funding for the organization. Matt's primary responsibilities included government affairs work at the federal level; identifying new opportunities for public funding; increasing the awareness of Ways to Work at the government level; assisting with obtaining matching philanthropic funding for government grants; and monitoring pass-through funding to ensure appropriate and efficient use of funds.

Matt has been involved in helping Ways to Work procure and manage over $20 million in US Department of Transportation grants. These funds have been used to help thousands of low-income families across the country obtain reliable transportation to keep or obtain employment, increase their economic self-sufficiency, and improve their quality of life.

In 2008, Matt was selected to lead a new division of the Ways to Work national office: Funding Support Services. As Director of the Funding Support Services division, he provides nonprofit organizations operating Ways to Work programs (affiliates) with consultation and support for securing philanthropic and government sources of funding. Matt is charged with collecting and analyzing information on successful resource development initiatives for application across the Ways to Work network. Funding support services provided to affiliates include leading development strategy sessions; grant writing assistance; strategic partnership development; creation of fundraising tools and templates; pitching the program to potential funders and partners; and researching foundation, corporate, and government grant opportunities.

Matthew is a graduate of Saint Mary's University, Winona, MN with a B.A. in Biology. He is also a graduate of the Lasallian Institute, the honors program at Saint Mary's University focused on social justice and ethical leadership. Upon graduation, Matthew was awarded the Joachim and Anne award, the top award of the honors program.

Linda Brost joined Ways to Work in June, 2009. Linda is a seasoned professional with a background combining leadership experience in both the private and non-profit sectors. Linda served as Vice-President of Youth Programs for the Indianapolis Private Industry Council leading a public/private partnership that created a continuum of services for at-risk youth combining basic skills, life skills, pre-employment skills and job placement for over 2000 young people each year. In addition, she was responsible for building and facilitating community coalitions addressing teen pregnancy and private sector support of school reform efforts. As a member of the IPIC/IAJ Executive Team, Linda also provided leadership and policy oversight to workforce development programs serving displaced workers, older workers, and the merging of state employment services in workforce development centers.

In the private sector Linda has extensive experience in business development, sales leadership, marketing, and training and development. As a regional sales director representing major pharmaceutical companies she was responsible for providing strategic direction related to new product launches and maximizing product life cycle development while building and leading regional top ranked regional sales management teams.