Winner of the William J. Harris Award Presents at Veterans Committee Meeting

The NASWA Veterans Committee held its monthly virtual meeting on May 8. Heather Stein and Ray McCoy from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development presented on their Employer Reasonable Accommodation Fund (ERAF). This project was recently honored with the 2025 NASWA William J. Harris Award for innovation in achievement in equal opportunity and nondiscrimination.

Minnesota was invited to the Veterans Committee meeting because ERAF has real implications for disabled Veterans. ERAF helps states advance equity, encouraging businesses to hire Veterans with service-connected disabilities by removing the financial barrier of accommodations.

The 45 members in attendance on the call also received their monthly update from DOL VETS, and were apprised of the latest developments for the July 9-11 Veterans Conference. The next virtual meeting will be Friday, June 13. Featured speakers will be Rosa Schmidt from the Center for Energy Workforce Development and Ellen Samoriski, NASWA Program Assistant. Ellen will provide an overview of the new Hilton Honors training model available to all states.

NASWA's Policy Committees help define policies on issues that are critical to state workforce agencies. These groups are active throughout the year and meet regularly in order to collaborate on key issues across the national workforce system.