LEWISTON — Kevin Healey, vice president of human resources at St. Mary’s Health System, has been appointed by Gov. Paul LePage to serve as vice chairman of a new and consolidated State Workforce Investment Board.

The Bangor Daily News reports that Healey has served on the board since its creation last December — around the time LePage set his sights on consolidating four regional workforce investment panels.

In October 2011, LePage released data on the regional panels, showing that only 20 percent of the $5.6 million received in federal money for the program had been spent on job training and support services.

Healey told the BDN that his goals for the new role are to “see those dollars used as efficiently as possible so more people have the skills they need to get a job.”

A new strategic plan for the board identifies closer collaboration with regional chambers of commerce as a priority for the workforce development that Healey told the BDN he thinks can be done in a “more targeted and more collaborative manner.”

Before his time at St. Mary’s, Healey served as human resources director for Unum in Portland and was executive director of the Unum Foundation.