DSI has assembled an outstanding and diverse group of associates whose broad range of professional experience and academic preparation provide quality support for ensuring the success of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), contract compliance and local capacity building programs. This group, known as the Technical Advisory Team, can provide a broad range of assistance. The group is also experienced in interfacing with related governmental agencies and community-based organizations. To best meet the specific needs of our clients, DSI analyzes each project in order to carefully assign the associate(s) with the most appropriate skills and experience.
Jake Sloan
Jake Sloan, president and senior project manager, has extensive experience in developing and managing labor and contract compliance and local capacity building programs. His experience in construction is comprehensive. Mr. Sloan began his working career as a pipefitter, gaining his first experience with organized labor. He has had extensive experience in contracting and construction management. Mr. Sloan has managed projects that have included responsibility for project planning, preliminary and final engineering design, and start-up and facility management activities. His project level responsibilities have spanned all disciplines: scheduling, civil, sanitary, mechanical, structural, and electrical and construction engineering. He has had responsibility for ensuring funding adequacy, agency approvals, and coordination with the staffs of city, state and federal agencies. This broad range of experience allows Mr. Sloan to bring a unique focus to maximizing the success of labor and contract compliance and capacity building programs.
Mr. Sloan is a founding member and past president of the Bay Area Contract Compliance Officers Association (BACCOA).
Mr. Sloan holds a Master of Arts degree in American History from San Francisco State University. The subject of his MA thesis was “Blacks in Construction: A Case Study of Oakland, California, and the Oakland Public Schools Construction Program, 1960-1978.”
Mr. Sloan writes and gives speeches about his areas of expertise and related topics.
Books:
Standing Tall: Willie Long and the Mare Island Original 21ers
Book Website:
https://mareislandoriginal21.com/
Articles:
Standing Tall: Courage on the Line, The Boule Journal, Volume 83/Number 1/Spring 2019
Unionism and Revolution. Authored by Ahmed Sekou Toure. Translated from the French by Jake Sloan. The Black Scholar, Vol 3, No. 9, 1972
Foundations of a Quiet Rebel. The Journal of the Western Institute for Social Research. First edition.
Interviews:
How the Mare Island 21ers Fought for the Rights of Black Shipyard Workers, KQED Radio, May 29, 2019
Remembering The Original 21ers, The Richmond Pulse, January 17, 2018
The Hero Round Table, January 18, 2018
A Powerful First-Hand Account of Courage, Activism, and Social Justice in California in the 1960s. Post News Group July 10, 2018
Maribel Alejandre
Mrs. Alejandre has 15 years of experience in the administration of Labor Compliance Programs (LCPs), Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE) outreach. Mrs. Alejandre uses web-based systems to monitor LCP and PLA requirements. Her comprehensive knowledge and experience with prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements enables her to review the automated process and manually complete any function the electronic system cannot perform. She has been developing new functions and reports to increase the efficiency of the computer system. Ms. Alejandre is fluent in Spanish, which is an asset in collecting information during site visits and worker interviews.
Mrs. Alejandre graduated from the Richmond Union High School in Richmond, California
Johari Sloan-Malek
Ms. Sloan-Malek has extensive experience in developing and managing labor and contract compliance programs, with particular emphasis on programs to monitor compliance with state and federal prevailing wage laws. In the area of prevailing wages, Ms. Sloan-Malek has a particular expertise in assisting clients to receive special wage determinations for commercial, public works and residential projects. Ms. Sloan-Malek has assisted several organizations with the initial implementation and administration of their Labor Compliance Programs as well as successfully managing those programs. Ms. Sloan-Malek has outstanding experience and skills in working with the Department of Industrial Relations Division of Labor Compliance and Division of Apprenticeship Standards.
Ms. Sloan-Malek holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Chemistry from the University of California at Davis.
Elvira Didic
Ms. Didic has 15 years of increasing responsibility in the administration of Labor Compliance Programs (LCPs). As an LCP program manager, Mrs. Didic manages the certified payroll review process and monitors for compliance with prevailing wage determinations, apprentice utilization and any other applicable labor code regulations.
Ms. Didic specializes in conducting thorough audits, analyzing certified payroll reports to source documents. She is an expert at conducting site visits and worker interviews.
Mrs. Didic graduated from Borisa Kovacevic in Brcko, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Claude Everhart
Mr. Everhart, president of Everhart Enterprises, is a former Chief of Staff and Executive Deputy Mayor for the City and County of San Francisco, and he has extensive experience in developing Minority Business Enterprise programs. Mr. Everhart served as the Mayor’s principal advisor on Minority Business Enterprise programs. Currently, his firm assists development and construction companies with public and government relations issues. Recently, he has been involved in the development of strategies to comply with local and disadvantaged business/employment goals on public and private projects.
Mr. Everhart holds a Master of Arts degree in Community Development and Community Service from Lone Mountain College, San Francisco.
Elza Minor
With more than 30 years of experience in human resource development, Mr. Minor has served in decision-making positions ranging from director of personnel with an international airline to executive director for an employment and training agency. Mr. Minor has specialized expertise in the overall planning and administrating of employment programs including recruitment and selection, staff orientation, EEO administration and union contract negotiations.
Mr. Minor holds a Master of Arts degree in Urban Administration from Occidental College.
Mark Corbett Wilson
Mr. Wilson brings decades of computing and project management skills, together with his experience using the latest information and communication technologies, to lead DSI’s transformation using digital tools to increase organizational capability and performance.
Mr. Wilson spent 20 years as a craftsman making electro-optical devices, working for Silicon Valley companies operating without any managers and sharing profits long before today’s tech giants made flat organizations popular.
Inspired by President Obama’s first address to Congress, Mr. Wilson returned to college to update his skills. In addition to his studies, he helped organize a four college Student Council, served as the first Peralta Student Council Communication Officer, and represented students on both the Education and Technology Shared Governance Committees, including the multi-year PeopleSoft Financial Aid Solutions Project Steering Committee. He is currently demonstrating how working adults can direct and document their learning, both formal and informal, as the first person approved to complete a Bachelor’s degree using a portfolio on his own website, for assessment by Metropolitan State University.
Mr. Wilson is an independent researcher and consultant in the field of Digital Humanities, working with thought leaders, educators, and institutions worldwide. Focused on building learning organizations that utilize digital social networks, Mr. Wilson is also the Learning Experience Designer and Education Technologist for the Western Institute for Social Research in Berkeley, California. Mr. Wilson earned Associate of Arts degrees in both Sociology and Liberal Arts from Berkeley City College.
Kitty Creech
Since 2003, Ms. Creech has gained extensive experience in the area of labor compliance. Ms. Creech has also participated in the negotiation and served as lead administrator for Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) that have covered a total of more than one billion dollars in construction value.
As a labor compliance officer and program manager for several of DSI’s clients, Ms. Creech has assured that prevailing wages were paid, and clients were compliant with their labor compliance programs. Ms. Creech currently serves on the management teams of several major projects covered by PLAs and labor compliance programs.
Ms. Creech holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Wichita State University.
Eddie “Ed” Dillard
In both the public and private sectors, Mr. Dillard has extensive experience in minority business development and labor relations, working with both public agencies and major contracting and engineering companies.
After completing his undergraduate studies, Ed began his professional working career as an analyst for the City of Oakland's Office of Economic Development, where he helped small and minority businesses obtain financing to help develop and grow their businesses.
As part of his responsibilities for the city, Ed wrote and then managed HUD's 25 million fixed asset loan program for 15 years. Ed also monitored contracts with the Black Chamber of Commerce, the Oakland Business Development Corporation and the Small Business Accounting Assistance program.
After leaving the City of Oakland, Ed worked for the State Department of Transportation, where he served as a Transportation Planner representing Santa Clara County.
After leaving government service, Ed established the Oakland Black Board of Trade and Commerce and served as its President and CEO for 15 years. During that time, the Board of Trade and Commerce assisted Black contractors in obtaining construction contracts totaling over 100 million dollars and provided extensive technical assistance to black owned and operated businesses.
During the same period, Ed also worked as a private grant writer and consultant to numerous non-profit organizations and private sector major prime construction firms, including but not limited to, Shimmick Construction, Kiewit, Stacey & Witbeck, MCM Construction, RGW Construction, and KPRS.
Ed served as a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) Small Business Advisory Committee for 8 years. During that time, he helped to increase the level of minority participation in BART contracts from 2 percent to 12 percent. Ed was the lead consultant in writing and negotiating the first Project Labor Agreement for BART, which covered the Oakland Airport Connector Project and was then adopted on all construction projects over 5 million.
Mr. Dillard holds a BA degree in economics from University of California at Berkeley.
Ardis Graham
Mr. Graham is an accomplished prevailing wage and labor relations professional with experience on nearly $7 billion in construction programs, including heavy civil (such as utilities, transit, tunnels) and vertical construction (residential and office). Mr. Graham has experience administering large scale Project Labor Agreements, including the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s $4.7 billion Water System Improvement Program Project Labor Agreement (WSIPLA) and the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) Major Projects Project Stabilization Agreement covering more than $2 billion in projects. Mr. Graham has extensive experience auditing certified payroll records for DBRA and CALC compliance resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in back wages and penalties recovered.
Mr. Graham holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley.
Andrea Lowe
Ms. Lowe, the president of Lowe Consulting Group (LCG), has more than 15 years of progressive experience in community affairs, youth development, program management and employee development and training. Ms. Lowe also possesses expertise in contract compliance, development and implementation of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) and Labor Compliance programs, along with the design and delivery of technical assistance and professional development courses. She has direct experience working with public agencies, owners, prime and subcontractors in implementing workforce and business utilization programs. LCG is currently serving as the PLA administrator for the AC Transit BRT project, Brooklyn Basin and co-lead for the Alameda County Project Stability/Community Benefits Agreement.
Alfred W. Williams
Alfred (Al) W. Williams is founder and president of Alfred Williams Consultancy, LLC (AWC), a San Francisco-based, results-driven public affairs and community relations consulting firm. AWC specializes in developing and implementing responsive Community Outreach, Community Benefits and Workforce Development programs that contribute to its client success. Al’s unique combination of public affairs, development and workforce development expertise, has enabled him to partner in the successful development of several residential, commercial and mixed-use projects.
Mr. Williams holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology from Florida A&M University. He completed the Management development Program for Entrepreneurs at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.