Ascend Indiana, the talent and workforce development initiative of the CEOs of Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP), announced today the newest members to its Board of Directors.
The board members include Shannon Charles, vice president of Organization Development and Talent Management for Indiana University Health, Kate Shelby, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD) and Adina Caldwell, senior director of Talent Development for Cummins’ Talent Development Center of Expertise.
Ascend Indiana recently welcomed the Indiana Department of Workforce Development to its Board of Directors for the first time and appointed Shannon and Adina to board seats previously held by Adrienne Sims and Jim Schacht, respectively.
“As Ascend works to build a more connected and responsive workforce system, Kate, Shannon and Adina bring the leadership, expertise and forward-thinking perspective needed to help drive meaningful impact,” said Brad Rhorer, president and CEO of Ascend. “Their experience across workforce development, talent strategy and workforce transformation will be invaluable as we expand opportunity for Hoosiers and support employers statewide.”
Shannon’s expertise spans workforce planning, leadership development, talent strategy and organizational effectiveness, providing a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing today’s workforce. By aligning talent capabilities with business and community needs, she has helped organizations strengthen talent pipelines and build the workforce required for long-term success. As vice president of Organization Development and Talent Management at IU Health, Shannon leads performance and succession management, leadership and organizational effectiveness, workplace culture and employee engagement strategic initiatives to help attract, develop, retain and advance talent.
As a dynamic leader, Shannon has a proven track record of shaping workforce strategies that empower people to thrive. Throughout her career, she has championed various aspects of strong people-focused strategies, including succession planning, leadership development and organizational culture, always with a focus on aligning talent strategies to purpose-driven outcomes.
Shannon is deeply committed to workforce development as a catalyst for both individual opportunity and economic growth. She is particularly enthusiastic about fostering partnerships among employers, educational institutions and community organizations to ensure workforce resources are aligned with evolving labor market demands.
As commissioner of DWD, Kate Shelby leads the agency’s efforts to strengthen workforce strategy, modernize service delivery and expand opportunities for Hoosiers and employers across the state.
Kate brings deep experience at the intersection of government operations, technology, law and strategic transformation. Before joining DWD as commissioner, she served as Chief of Staff, Chief Strategy Officer and Deputy Commissioner of Procurement at the Indiana Department of Administration (IDOA), and previously as Chief Information Officer and Chief Legal Counsel at the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). Across state government and private-sector executive positions, Kate has built a reputation for improving performance, leading complex operations, and advancing high-impact change. Her experience includes managing large-scale procurement and technology portfolios, driving process improvements and cybersecurity initiatives, and negotiating innovative public-private solutions.
Early in her state tenure, Kate’s role as DWD Chief Operating Officer included oversight of teams implementing key Workforce initiatives and Unemployment Insurance fraud protections, culminating in agency recognition by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) for program integrity leadership.
Adina leads the Learning and Development team within Cummins’ Talent Development Center of Expertise, where she has enterprise-wide responsibility for enabling learning across approximately 70,000 employees. In her role, she works to create a more coherent learning experience across Cummins by supporting a distributed network of more than 400 learning professionals through shared standards, guidance, tools and communities of practice.
Throughout her career, Caldwell has worked across the full spectrum of learning and development, including facilitation, instructional design, learning strategy and enterprise transformation. Her current work also focuses on preparing the workforce for artificial intelligence, driving AI adoption and exploring the future of agentic learning.
