Staff 
Coretta Rivers
Workforce Development Coach
773-638-1806
Coretta Rivers, part of NLEN's workforce development team, currently functions as the Workforce Development Coach for the transitional jobs program through Behavioral Interventions. She offers counseling, case management, and job-readiness assistance to individuals who want to enter today’s daunting job market. At NLEN, Coretta has been able to engage her long-standing passion to work with ex-offenders and the barriers they face daily. While working at NLEN, Coretta continues to go beyond the call of duty in her level of service to the community, working part-time at a halfway home for troubled girls and volunteering at the Human Needs Center.
Coretta has previously volunteered for the Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) as a case manager for families involved with DCFS. It was there that Coretta got her first taste of direct service work, prompting her to decide to pursue a career path of social work. In 1993, Coretta was hired on as a foster care case worker for a DCFS private agency, and worked to reunite separated families and children. On a daily basis she dealt with the emotional impact of divided families, and found this work to be very fulfilling. Nevertheless, after fourteen years she decided that it was time to work with a different population. Because of her background in criminal justice, she decided to apply for the position as workforce development coach at NLEN.
An All-American college student, Coretta received a 4-year volleyball scholarship to attend Jackson State University. She completed a bachelors degree in criminal justice. She is currently completing her graduate studies, and is working to obtain her Master of Science in Nonprofit Management from Spertus.
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