Kristina Kukolja
KALW Board, MemberKriztina Palone joined the San Francisco office of the James Irvine Foundation as a Senior Program Officer in August 2022, focusing on the Better Careers initiative’s Public Sector Practice Change (PSPC) grantmaking portfolio. With over a decade of experience in local government, including ten years in the San Francisco Mayor’s Office and seven plus years with the City of Sacramento, Kriztina has been instrumental in addressing racial disparities and advancing social and economic justice through the public workforce development system. Her work has particularly emphasized improving access to resources for marginalized communities.
Before joining the Foundation, Kriztina served as the City of Sacramento’s first Workforce Development Manager in the Office of Innovation + Economic Development (OIED). In this role, she led various workforce development initiatives aimed at meeting the needs of vulnerable communities, creating career pathways in high-demand industries, and aligning efforts within Sacramento’s workforce development ecosystem.
One of her notable achievements was co-creating the workforce development framework for the City of Sacramento’s $15M Federal ARPA allocation for workforce services and was City-council approved to implement a comprehensive workforce development strategy, concentrating on the most marginalized communities and neighborhoods throughout Sacramento.
A native of Sacramento, CA, Kriztina holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from San Francisco State University. She is a current member of the CA Junior League, Oakland-East Bay (JLOEB) chapter and a new member of KALW Public Radio in San Francisco.
-
Australia heads to the polls on Saturday in an election overshadowed by President Trump. Will concerns over Trump's policies drive an outcome similar to what happened in Canada's elections?
-
A record 18 million Australians are registered to vote in Saturday's national election. And for the first time, Millennials and Gen-Z will overtake Baby Boomers to form the dominant voting bloc.
-
Australian researchers say they are concerned about the future of scientific collaboration with the United States after its sudden withdrawal of funding for some of the country's top universities.
-
The U.N.'s top court begins hearings Monday on the legal obligation of countries to fight climate change.
-
Australian children will be banned from using some of the world's biggest social media sites under strict new laws passed by the country's parliament.
-
An inquiry found abuse, torture and neglect of some 200,000 people in state care over 70 years. People with disabilities or from Maori and Pacific Islander communities were especially vulnerable.
-
In Australia, a federal election may still be months away, but immigration — in particular the number of foreign students — is already a focus of political debate.
-
Australia fears a more contagious and lethal type of bird flu could trigger a big crisis for the country's poultry industry