Brendan Conlin

Brendan Conlin is Chief Program Officer (CPO) at Congreso. In this capacity, Mr. Conlin oversees the agency’s 3 programmatic divisions; Education and Workforce Services, Health Promotion and Wellness, Family and Housing Services, as well as the agency’s Data and Evaluation team. Since getting his start with Congreso in 2009 as an English as Second Language Instructor, Mr. Conlin has risen through the various programmatic levels of the organization, including serving as the Director of Adult Education and Vice President of Education and Workforce Services.

Mr. Conlin’s role as CPO is to drive Congreso’s strategic plan, titled Mission 2 Impact, to carry out Congreso’s mission to move clients towards economic self-sufficiency and wellbeing.  Specifically, his work focuses on developing the infrastructure and capacity for using social innovation techniques to enhance Congreso’s services by embedding Human-Centered Design and Lean Impact methods into the organization’s program design strategy. These methods help Congreso continuously analyze their 60+ programs for optimal effectiveness and client value, empowering teams to use rapid experimentation and innovation techniques to drive measurable impact for families.

In addition to serving as CPO at Congreso, he represents the organization and the needs of Congreso’s community across with city, overseeing its partnerships with Philadelphia Works, Inc., Philadelphia Youth Network, Lenfest Foundation, Eastern State Penitentiary, Penn State Abington, Harcum College, Temple University and other leading institutions throughout the region. He is most excited about how his work can influence systems affecting youth on the cusp of leaving school and gaining access to higher education and the workforce.

Most recently, Mr. Conlin was recognized by the Greater Social Innovations Journal as a top innovator in the Healthy Workforce category, for his work on creating a system for running Human-Centered-Design Labs across the organization.