Announcing the 2025 Workforce Leadership Academies

Dee Wallace

Senior Fellow

Maureen Conway

Vice President; Executive Director


The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program (EOP) is thrilled to announce the launch of six new Workforce Leadership Academies in 2025.

Three new communities join the Academy network from Albuquerque, New Mexico; Durham, North Carolina; and Fresno, California. In addition, three partners that hosted Academies in 2023 have launched additional Academies in Baltimore, Central Ohio, and Southern Arizona.

Like their predecessors, the 2025 Academies will bring together cohorts of leaders from across their local workforce ecosystems into a 10-month fellowship to deepen networks and strengthen systems leadership skills. Participating leaders work together to address local and regional systems-based challenges and advance skills-based talent strategies in their communities.

Through a rigorous application process, we selected local partners from across the country to lead Academies. These outstanding partners are notable for their capacity to convene a wide range of stakeholders in their regions and for their commitment to economic opportunity. Partners are responsible for all aspects of Academy delivery with support from EOP including a curriculum, coaching, and a challenge grant. To date, EOP has offered 22 Academies in 17 communities across North America, adding hundreds of alumni to our Economic Opportunity Fellows Network. Today’s addition brings the total to 28 Academies in 20 communities.


Click below to learn more about each Academy partner:


We are excited to partner with these remarkable organizations, and we look forward to supporting and learning from their work as they advance skills-based mobility, equity, and opportunity.

This initiative is made possible by the generous support of Walmart.

For more information about the Academies, contact Dee Wallace (Senior Fellow). 

About the Workforce Leadership Academies

The Aspen Institute’s Workforce Leadership Academies, part of the Economic Opportunities Program, bring together leaders across the many siloed fields of practice, organization types, and government policies that make up the field. The Academies strengthen Fellows’ capacity to develop and sustain effective workforce strategies, collaborate more deeply with employers, and expand the number and quality of leaders who advance opportunities for low-wage workers and job seekers as they meet employers’ talent development needs.

About the Economic Opportunities Program

The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.

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