Keith Bourkney

As a native of Buffalo, New York and a die-hard Bills fan, I relocated to Florida in 2001 where I joined a lifelong friend in assisting him in running a marketing company in Orlando, Florida. In 2009 we opened an office in Casselberry, which happened to be located next to a Vocational Rehabilitation Office. I met some of the VR Counselors and learned about the services they provide. They informed me that they had clients who may be a good fit for our business, so I made the decision to contract our company as a Voc Rehab Vendor where I could receive workers through on-the-job training. Over the next couple of years, we employed several people who were referred from VR. What stood out to me was that they showed a great appreciation for the opportunity to work with us. They were loyal and they would do their best every day. I appreciated working with them and once I learned that there was an opportunity to help people with disabilities with employment on a full-time basis, I made the decision to open employU.  

Once I started receiving referrals and started working with the individuals, I realized that this was what I was meant to do. I quickly became passionate and driven to build employU to become a great company. Within a year I was able to recruit an amazing staff, including my wife, and started developing systems and processes that would result in high levels of activity for our customers. We worked in the rural areas first, where our services were most needed and found success quickly. Since 2012 we have brought our methods to over 40 counties in the State of Florida with multiple services and have helped thousands of people embark on new careers. Early on, we made the decision to never turn down a new referral and instead grow to the demand. We’ll continue to expand, and we will also continue to discover ways that we can improve and help our customers better. 

Melissa Sherry

I am Melissa Sherry, the Program Director for Adult Services at employU. When I was 18, I started working in a sheltered workshop supervising adults with developmental disabilities doing piece work and being paid just pennies for a full day of work. I knew even at that young age that everyone, including the participants at the workshop, deserved to live and work in their communities and to have the opportunity to earn a fair wage. Everyone deserves to have dreams, goals, and aspirations. 

After a few years of working in the workshop, I had the opportunity to be part of a pilot program where I found businesses that allowed my workshop participants to gain work experience and become employed at various jobs in the community. Seeing the differences in my participants’ behaviors, their happiness of feeling valued, being appreciated for their hard work, and, most of all, being accepted by their coworkers, was all I needed to know that my passion in life was to assist people with disabilities to become employed. 

I began working with all disabilities with a strong focus on mental illness. I went to college for Criminal Justice because so many of my customers with disabilities had criminal records and re-entry to society had such a low success rate if the person was not trained and given the opportunity to become gainfully employed. 

As the years went by, I was blessed to have some awesome mentors who taught me what I know now. As the Program Director, my goal is to hire and train my staff to have the same level of compassion and dedication to help our participants’ vocational dreams to come true. 

Carrie Schulz

I am Carrie Schulz, the Chief Financial Officer at employU. I have spent most of my adult life working for nonprofit organizations. I started my nonprofit work with Rollins College as an Information Technology professional. During my work there, I earned my Master’s in Business Administration from the Crummer Graduate School of Business. I specialized in accounting and management and decided to pursue the accounting side of work to earn my CPA. 

Through my time at Rollins, I moved departments and into a Director role in the Office of Finance and Accounting. I also began to provide CPA services to a multitude of nonprofit organizations in the Central Florida area. I truly loved learning about the people and the organizations I worked with. It is very motivating to see what people are doing to help the world around us. 

When I learned about employU and their mission, it hit home. My niece who lives with me is an individual that is intellectually disabled. She is a few years out of high school now and during her last year of high school, she completed a program called project search. This program helped young people with disabilities learn the basic life skills needed to help them earn a job. I remember the day she came home to tell me that she got a job at Marshall’s. She was thrilled and has managed to continue working at that job now, 3 years later. My niece would not have been able to get the job she has without the assistance of an organization like employU. These organizations help people like my niece, apply for, earn, and keep jobs. She would not have been able to do this without assistance. 

So needless to say, when I learned that employU was looking for a CFO I was excited about the opportunity. This organization is allowing me to bring together the variety of skills I have learned and use them to build a core structure for this rapidly growing organization. This organization challenges me daily, which I love as it continues my growth as a professional. employU is a wonderful place to work and I look forward to growing with the organization. 

Alex Kyhn

My name is Alex Kyhn and I am the Director of Operations at employU. When I moved to Florida from California in 2015, I knew I wanted to find a position within a company that had the same passion for helping people that I do, so I began the hunt that led me to finding employU. After speaking to Executive Director Keith Bourkney at a local job fair and hearing the vision and passion for what the organization was doing, I instantly knew that employU was the right place for me.

Shortly after that job fair, I was hired as a Job Coach for the Employment Services program in Volusia county, assisting adults with obtaining and maintaining gainful employment. I instantly fell in love with my new position, knowing each and every day I was making a positive difference in both the lives of our customers and the local community. As I continued to acquire more knowledge within our field and build stronger relationships with both our customers and business partners, I was elevated to the position of Employment Specialist. With this new role came new duties and responsibilities, but that affinity for our mission only grew stronger. The combination of this new position coupled with an even stronger desire to learn more about our field of work led to my pursuit and successful completion of a Masters of Public Administration with an emphasis in Non-Profit Management.

Upon completion of my Master’s degree, I was offered the position of Corporate Trainer, a newly created job title within employU. This new position would come with a different focus than those of my previous positions, turning attention to our staff members and helping to put them in position to achieve the highest level of success with our customers. I have since been promoted to Director of Operations. It is a role that I have a strong devotion to and I come to work each and every day excited and motivated to achieve our mission. We are truly changing lives and making our community stronger through the services we provide and I couldn’t be more proud to get to play a role in the positive impact we are enacting.

Neftali Rodriguez

I am Neftali Rodriguez and I am the Senior Operations and IT Adviser at employU, Inc. I hold a Master’s of Business Administration, Computer Information Systems from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico. My education along with over 20 years of experience in the field of information systems and technology has enabled me to provide valuable insights and guidance in all matters of information technology.   

Being a part of employU, an organization committed to helping people with disabilities find employment, has been a great honor. We have an amazing team that works closely to construct the customer relationship management system which tracks and manages each program, business, and customer. In 2019 and 2020 we have been focused on redesigning our core operation processes and establishing our automated workflow applications. Every day we are looking to identify new cost-effective ways to enhance our network infrastructure and to provide a secure environment for data management.  

I am devoted to employU’s mission to improve the quality of life of our customers. People with disabilities make up one of the nation’s largest minority group and one of which any of us can become a member of at any time. I am committed to helping create an environment where our customers have the opportunity to gain independence, increase self-esteem, and discover their abilities by connecting them with the appropriate employer. 

Torrie Baker

My name is Torrie Baker, dog mom to a handsome Golden Retriever named Captain.  I was born and raised in northern Michigan until moving to Chicago, IL where I fell in love with the big city and my career in social services. I have a master’s degree in Social Work with an emphasis on Leadership and Development from Loyola University.  Chicago was my home for many years before I relocated to the Sunshine State and landed at employU. 

I have dedicated my entire career to advocating and supporting those who are differently-abled and may be experiencing a multitude of life challenges in achieving the goals and objectives they set for themselves. But employment services truly became my passion twelve years ago when I witnessed the pure joy of an individual on my caseload obtaining his first ever job. My passion for this work grew exponentially from there and it became my mission to learn, grow, and share my joy with others. 

Since then, I have spent most of my time in the field training, developing, and leading teams of qualified staff in assisting their own caseloads reach their employment goals.  Now my joy for this work is quantified by not only witnessing client’s reach their employment goals, but also seeing the same joy I remember experiencing on the faces of the staff I support.  It is now my mission to not only assist the individuals we serve but also to guide the staff on my team in their own professional development within the field of social services.