LINC President and CEO Janet Miles-Bartee announced that Marlisa Collins has been named director of LINC’s Missouri Work Assistance Program, where she will build on 12 years of serving families as a LINC Caring Communities coordinator and supervisor.

Miles-Bartee also announced that Aaron Bond, a member of LINC’s MWA team for 14 years, has been named associate director of the program.

Collins, with a master’s degree in psychology specializing in child and family development, brings experience as an administrator, educator, community leader and as the mother of eight children that will make her a strong advocate and supporter for the families in the MWA program, Miles-Bartee said.

“Marlisa knows families,” Miles-Bartee said. “She understands their resilience and their strength. She will be a great team leader as LINC continues to help working families build meaningful, sustainable lives.”

LINC is the community agency that runs the MWA program for a five Missouri counties in and surrounding Kansas City. The Missouri Department of Social Services program helps parents who are receiving state aid become ready for a job, get real work experience, find employment, and keep a job.

In 2025, LINC’s MWA case managers helped 360 participants overcome barriers like transportation to attain jobs or get schooling to start new careers.

In her years with LINC’s Caring Communities, Collins led before- and after-school programs and advanced LINC’s mission of working with parents, civic leaders, businesses, churches and social services to help build strong neighborhoods together. The work has prepared her well, she said, to help parents in the MWA program build strong futures for their families.

“Our purpose is to help others,” Collins said. “I live on principles of faith, family, love and respect, and LINC has helped me live out those principles.”

Collins was born and raised in Kansas City. She and her husband, Zain Collins, have eight children and four grandchildren.

Bond began his career in work assistance after helping run a summer Freedom School site in Kansas City in 2009. His work at the school site, as project director and running parent workshops, led him to working with MWA at the Full Employment Council.

Bond joined LINC when the program transitioned to LINC in 2011 and has been serving working parents ever since, as a case manager and then as assistant program supervisor and program specialist.

Bond said he grew up in a family that had to rise from difficult circumstances and he brings that lived experience and understanding to his work with families.

“Just because this is where you start, it does not mean this is where you have to end,” he said.

Bond was born and raised in Kansas City. He and his wife, Sophia Bond, have a newborn daughter.