Kaki Leyens facilitates strategic system initiatives across system partners and programs and serves on advisory committees for the Texas Workforce Investment Council. Given previous experience managing Texas Talent Connection grants, Kaki served on the task group that helped design Texas’ approach to evidence-based grant making. Before working for the Council, she developed strategic partnerships and initiatives for the Texas State Technical College System and workforce and economic development initiatives in the Office of Employer Initiatives at the Texas Workforce Commission. Prior to state government, Kaki created programs to make professional engineering design and visualization software products accessible to students and teachers while serving in the Americas Education Marketing Group at Autodesk, Inc. Kaki holds a Bachelor of Environmental Science from the University of Southern Mississippi.