As President & CEO of OneFuture Coachella Valley, Sheila Thornton is guided by its mission to assure all students succeed in college, career and life – expanding and enhancing the local workforce so that our youth and economy thrive. Prior to the formation of OneFuture Coachella Valley, Sheila served as Vice President of Workforce Excellence for the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership (CVEP), where she led coalition-building, fundraising and program development for that division. In March, 2017, she spearheaded the transition from Workforce Excellence to OneFuture Coachella Valley, a separate 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose purpose is to advance a regional effort to align educational attainment with economic development. Sheila serves on the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus Advancement Board as President, the Growing Inland Achievement board of directors, the national leadership team for the Ford Motor Company Fund Next Generation Learning (Ford NGL) Initiative and the national advisory committee for Health Career Connection. She is a former board member of the Linked Learning Alliance in California, and the California Future Health Workforce Commission. Sheila received a B.S. degree in Applied Math from Loyola Marymount University. Her early career as an analyst and project manager for an economic research and consulting firm and as Director of Community Services for a non-profit hospital has established a solid foundation for her current work – building and leading an organization that uses strong coalitions to guide the region’s students and future leaders toward success.
