Jessica King, center director for the Shriver Job Corps Center in Devens, is swapping roles with the director of the New Hampshire Job Corps Center. PHOTO COURTESY OF SHRIVER JOB CORPS CENTER
Jessica King, center director for the Shriver Job Corps Center in Devens, is swapping roles with Stephanie Ashworth, center director of the New Hampshire Job Corps Center in Manchester. The change will be effective Wednesday. King had been leading the Shriver center since December 2025, according to her LinkedIn profile. Ashworth became leader of the New Hampshire Center in 2024, having formerly led the Exeter Job Corps Center in Rhode Island.“While I am excited for this new opportunity, leaving Shriver is bittersweet,” King said in a Tuesday announcement. “I am grateful for the relationships built throughout my time here and proud of what we have accomplished together.”Both King and Ashworth led their Job Corps centers during a May 2025 attempt by the President Donald Trump Administration to shutter the Job Corps program. Done without the approval of Congress, the U.S. Department of Labor portrayed the shutdown as a temporary closure but did not provide details on how or when the centers could reopen. The shutdown attempt received pushback from local members of Congress and supporters of the program. Trump’s efforts have been so far thwarted by the courts, while Congress has continued to fund the program. The Shriver center put out a call for new applicants to the program in January, encouraging students ages 16-24 seeking technical skills to apply.The Shriver Job Corps Center in Devens has been operating since 1996. The center had a traditional graduation rate of 89.6% in 2023, the highest of any center in the country. PHOTO ERIC CASEYBoth the Devens and New Hampshire sites are operated by Adams & Associates Inc., a Nevada-based firm that manages Job Corps Centers across the country. Job Corps was launched in 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson to tackle high youth unemployment while creating workers for various trades.Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the real estate and banking & finance industries.
