Leadership

Learn about ETP’s leadership team, bios and more information is available below.

Reg Javier

Executive Director

Peter Cooper

Assistant Executive Director

Cooper was appointed by Governor Brown in 2012 and reappointed by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2020. He has over 30 years of experience working on labor, workforce and environmental policy at the international, national, state, and local levels. Cooper was senior workforce program manager and legislative advocate at the California Labor Federation from 2000 to 2012. He was research coordinator at the Service Employees International Union Local 250 from 1997 to 2000 and a corporate researcher at AFL-CIO from 1992 to 1997. Cooper earned a Master of Arts degree in international economic affairs from Sacramento State University, holds two Bachelor of Arts degrees from CSU, Chico, and studied at Eberhard-Karls Universitaet, Tuebingen, Germany.

Erich Shiners

Assistant Director/Chief Counsel

Erich Shiners was appointed by Governor Newsom to as Assistant Director and Chief Counsel of the Employment Training Panel. He previously served as a Board member on the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) and was in that position for five years. Prior to his service with PERB, Erich represented and advised public agency employers in labor and employment matters as Senior Counsel at Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, and before that a partner at Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai. Erich is a member of the Executive Committee of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the California Lawyers Association, and a co-editor-in-chief of its publication, California Public Sector Labor Relations. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from California State University, Sacramento and a Juris Doctor degree from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.

Tara Armstrong

Deputy Director of Technical Branch/CIO

Tara Armstrong has been working at the Employment Training Panel, supporting its mission, since 2007 and is the ETP, Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Deputy Director of the Technical Operation Branch. Click here to read the full bio.