AAPA’s Port Professional Manager Capstone Highlights Interlocal Agreements in Building Maritime Workforce Initiatives
As ports seek innovative approaches to workforce development, interlocal agreements (ILAs) are proving to be a powerful tool. This edition highlights Port Professional Manager (PPM) Alisa Praskovich’s capstone, which examines how the Port of Tacoma and Tacoma School District partnered to create a 20-acre Maritime Business and Education Campus through ILAs.
Praskovich, Chief of Strategic Projects and Commission Relations at the Port of Tacoma, has a 28-year career spanning the U.S. Coast Guard, Crowley Maritime, and now port leadership. Her background includes serving as Vice President of Corporate Sustainability at Crowley Maritime, where she developed the company’s first emissions inventory and net zero strategy, and as an Ocean Policy Adviser to the White House.
Her capstone details how ILAs provided the framework for planning and delivering the Port Maritime Center, which will house both the Port’s new headquarters and “Maritime 253,” Pierce County’s first maritime skills center. She compares the effort to workforce development initiatives at the ports of Seattle and Houston, and underscores the role of progressive design-build (PDB) in ensuring cost certainty and timely completion.
Praskovich further emphasizes the importance of progressive design-build (PDB) project delivery, which was used to ensure cost certainty and timely completion of the Tacoma project. Her findings underscore the potential of ILAs as a model for other ports seeking to advance workforce initiatives and complex capital projects. By showcasing a step-by-step roadmap and sharing templates and lessons learned, Praskovich’s capstone provides a practical resource for port professionals navigating inter-agency collaboration.
Port professionals interested in learning more about AAPA’s professional development programs can contact Shannon McLeod at smcleod@aapa-ports.org.