The Horizon Education Alliance board of directors announces that Brian Wiebe, the founding visionary of the organization, is retiring at the end of December. In his role as President/CEO, he has been instrumental in bringing together business leaders, community organizations, and public school districts to develop an innovative approach to talent development in Elkhart County, Ind.

HEA launched in 2012 and has supported educational, career and life advancement for thousands of children, youth, and adults. In this work, HEA has engaged hundreds of partner organizations in collaborative approaches to address critical community issues. Many of these initiatives have received state-wide and national recognition. Some examples include: 

• Providing evidence-based parenting support for more than 8,200 parents through the Triple P Positive Parenting Program.
• Engaging more than 5,000 adults to advance in their education and workforce skills through HEA Adult Pathways, an Indiana Adult Education Program of Excellence.
• Providing hands-on career exploration events for more than 25,000 7th and 8th graders.
• In a new initiative launched just this year, HEA career coaches have provided more than 2,000 career coaching activities to high school students in our county in just the first two months of initial programming.
• In 2019, HEA was the first entity in the state to launch modern youth apprenticeship opportunities for juniors and seniors in high school through its CareerWise Elkhart County initiative. This past year’s cohort was the largest yet – and also the largest countywide total in the state – with 55 high school youth from Elkhart County high schools hired by local employers as apprentices. 
• HEA has attracted numerous awards and more than $12 million in investment from government agencies, philanthropic entities, and advocacy organizations outside of Elkhart County, including the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, the U.S. Department of Labor, Lilly Endowment/Early Learning Indiana, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Lumina Foundation, New America, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
• In addition to the programmatic accomplishments, HEA has contributed to the capacity in Elkhart County to engage in systems-level approaches and has led several important research projects to better understand the community’s strengths and challenges.  

The HEA board has appointed Sarah Metzler, Vice President of Learning, as acting chief executive. She will assume this role effective Jan. 1, 2025. An Elkhart native and current Goshen resident, Metzler has been with HEA for the past six years, in addition to a year in 2014 spent as an educational consultant. Prior to her current role supporting education across the lifespan in Elkhart County, she worked in K-12 public education in Colorado and at Goshen Community Schools. She has taught English Language Arts and English as a New Language at both the middle and high school levels and worked as a Master Teacher leading professional development for teachers at middle and elementary levels. She holds a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction and has been a National Board Certified Teacher.

“Brian has brought incredible vision and leadership to HEA over our first 12 years,” Metzler said. “I am so encouraged by the strength of our impact and the continued commitment and passion of our staff. I am honored for the opportunity to now step into this role and lead HEA during this transition.”

Will Weed, HEA board chair, said, “Brian brought outstanding vision and energy to this one-of-a-kind leadership role. He is a key reason why I joined the HEA board roughly 8 years ago. He will be missed. With that said, this transition was discussed early and has been in the plan. This creates new opportunities and we will explore those thoughtfully and alongside our many partner organizations.”

Weed continued, “Our commitment to Elkhart County and our various stakeholders remains strong. There remains significant opportunity in Elkhart County to positively impact school systems, industry, and our most cherished resource – human capital – in a positive and meaningful way.”

“I am certainly proud of the impact that we have had over our first 12 years and excited to see HEA’s impact continue to expand and grow,” Wiebe said. “HEA grew out of a vision to improve educational, career and life outcomes for Elkhart County residents of all ages through increased innovation and collaboration, and I’m grateful to the board, acting leader Sarah Metzler, and all of our staff for carrying the work forward.” 

In his retirement, Wiebe will be launching an EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) coaching business working with nonprofit and for-profit leadership teams. He and his wife, Brenda, will continue living in Goshen.