Northern Essex Community College is pleased to welcome Laura Hastings as the new Dean of Workforce Development. With more than 20 years of government experience and more than a decade spent creating opportunities to meet workforce needs at the local, state and federal levels, Hastings is eager to expand on existing partnerships and explore new avenues to increase access to career and technical education in the Merrimack Valley.
Hastings began her focus on workforce development at Real Jobs Rhode Island, where she crafted various workforce development strategies and programs. More recently, she was the workforce development lead for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office and then led workforce efforts at the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition.
Laura Hastings
“Laura comes to NECC at a pivotal time for Corporate and Community Education and workforce development,” says NECC Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Workforce & Academic Innovation Allison Dolan-Wilson. “This is a growing and important area for the college as we continue to respond to the most immediate workforce needs of the Merrimack Valley. Laura not only brings deep experience in developing programs but also important connections and strategic insights at the state and federal levels.”
Hastings oversees the Center for Corporate and Community Education. CCCE offers business and professional development courses and trainings aligned with the area’s most high-demand industries. The most recent development is the creation of a new state-of-the-art 1,500 square-foot, HVAC mini-split heat pump training facility on the Haverhill Campus. The facility will expand and complement an existing HVAC lab at Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School. Together, these facilities will deliver hands-on technical training and credentialing to a growing number of existing HVAC workers, high school students, new workers, and former fossil fuel workers from nearby communities.
The new facility is supported by a $1 million grant from the Mass Clean Energy Center’s Heat Pump and HVAC Training Center and will open in 2027.
“I think in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts we are on the cutting edge of workforce development,” says Hastings. “It’s encouraging to see the investment in a program like HVAC and the vision for how to train for the future using new, greener technology.”
NECC’s Center for Corporate and Community Education also offers a variety of personal development courses, like the popular noncredit cooking classes and Microsoft Office Basics. Like workforce programs, Hastings says these courses serve a dual purpose of addressing community needs and strengthening vital partnerships.
“We have this opportunity to bring students to our campuses in different capacities and with different motivators. The way we approach education is more than just a degree or sometimes not even a degree at all,” Hastings points out. “Community college is a community resource, and we have the opportunity to add value to all our communities.”
For more information, email communityeducation@necc.mass.edu, call 978 556-3060, or visit the webpage.
Northern Essex Community College has campuses in both Haverhill and Lawrence. It offers approximately 60 associate degree and certificate programs and hundreds of noncredit courses designed for personal enrichment and career growth. Each year, 6,000 students enroll in credit associate degree and certificate programs on the Haverhill and Lawrence campuses; another 2,000 take noncredit workforce development and community education classes on campus and at businesses and community sites across the Merrimack Valley. Learn more by visiting necc.edu or by calling 978-556-3700.
