Bruce Alexander honored for work on New Haven jobs ‘pipeline’

Yale Vice President Bruce Alexander was honored in August by the New Haven Board of Alderman’s Black and Hispanic Caucus for his service to the community.

Alexander, who heads Yale’s Office of New Haven and State Affairs, was given the Communiversity Award for his work on the Jobs Pipeline Committee, a “working group” at the Chamber of Commerce that developed strategies to help the city’s unemployed and underemployed get the training they need to connect them with local employers. The committee recently launched the New Haven Works initiative, which aims to help 1,000 city residents find jobs over the next four years.

Alexander played an active role in the working group, and helped recruit local employers to take part in the New Haven Works program. Under his leadership, Yale is establishing its own internal “pipeline” to support the New Haven Works program. Longtime Yale employee Diane Turner, the newly named director of New Haven Community Hiring Initiatives, will oversee Yale’s program, which will aim to fill more of the University’s 4,000-plus jobs with New Haveners. Alexander was also actively involved in the negotiations over the recent Yale-union contract, which calls for the University to help train lower-level Yale employees so they can move into higher-skilled positions — thereby opening up entry-level positions for local laborers in the process.

Since coming to Yale as vice president in 1998, Alexander has led the University’s initiatives for the revitalization of New Haven, the strengthening of relations with the community, and the extensive redevelopment of commercial properties adjacent to the Yale campus. He chairs the Board of Market New Haven, and serves or has served on the boards of the Economic Development Corporation of New Haven, Yale-New Haven Hospital, the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Science Park Development Corporation, Tweed Airport Authority, and Connecticut Public Broadcasting. In 2009, he received the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce Community Leadership Award.