HARTZ Search is excited to announce the placement of Michelle Ufford as the Director, Workforce Strategy & Pipeline Development at Essentia Health in Duluth, Minnesota. Ms. Ufford will be partnering with Senior Leadership, Human Resources leaders, including Talent Acquisition, Organizational Learning & Development, and other system leaders to develop the workforce strategies that deliver Essentia Health’s strategy. She will be using workforce data and insights to build innovative solutions that differentiate Essentia Health as a Best Place to Work. Building relationships and incorporating community partners and government agencies to shape programming, policy, and practices to expand and develop Essentia Health talent pipelines.

Our sincere congratulations to Michelle Ufford and Essentia Health!

Michelle Ufford brings her talent and experience to Essentia Health from the Northeast Minnesota Office of Job Training (NEMOJT). Over her 20 years with NEMOJT, she oversaw all agency operations throughout the 7-county Arrowhead region of Northeast Minnesota. As Executive Director, she cultivated partnerships with like-minded organizations to enhance NEMOJT. Michelle and NEMOJT became an active partner with many businesses, government, community partners, and various industry and trade associations. Michelle lead the development and expansion of career exploration and career pathway programs, including the ‘Northeast Career EdVenture’ program that provides career exploration and work readiness resources to over 42 school districts; resulting in legislative funding to each workforce service area in Minnesota to implement the program. She also helped create partnerships between Rock Ridge Public Schools and the local business community. As a consultant to the district, Ms. Ufford created this unprecedented partnership between public education and the workforce system to align strategies and resources around career exploration for students.

HARTZ Search is a proud partner of Essentia Health! We look forward to following the continued success of both Michelle Ufford and Essentia Health!

Essentia Health is a network of hospitals, clinics, and related health care facilities serving patients in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. Essentia Health, which includes many Catholic facilities, is guided by the values of Quality, Hospitality, Respect, Joy, Justice, Stewardship, and Teamwork. The organization lives out its mission by having a patient-centered focus at 14 hospitals, 70 clinics, six long-term care facilities, three assisted living facilities, three independent living facilities, five ambulance services, and one research institute.