Local Leaders Advancing Workforce Development

Dee Wallace

Senior Fellow

Maureen Conway

Vice President; Executive Director

While federal and state governments make many of the policies that shape workforce services, the local level is where the rubber hits the road.

This is where practitioners — including community-based organizations, city and county offices, community colleges, and industry associations, to name but a few — must break down the infamous workforce silos and weave the components into coherent systems that balance the needs of both workers and businesses. But local workforce leaders have few opportunities to step back from the demands of day-to-day operations to think together about their collective efforts and about how to foster collaboration and integration toward the development of a healthy workforce ecosystem. This kind of leadership is increasingly vital in today’s rapidly changing economic and technological landscape, where thoughtful, coordinated action is essential for inclusive and resilient workforce systems that support community members to gain the skills they need to thrive.

Workforce Leadership Academies are designed to meet this need. They bring together leaders from across local workforce ecosystems into a 10-month Fellowship to build networks, strengthen systems leadership skills, apply race equity and systems change frameworks to work, and deepen understanding and implementation of workforce and skills first strategies and approaches. The Academies provide a forum for local leaders to work collaboratively to identify — and create shared solutions to — local and regional systems-based challenges and drive uptake of skills first practices. Participants are recognized as Fellows of the Academy and join the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunity Fellows Network.  

Through a competitive process, Aspen Economic Opportunities Program (EOP) selected local convening partners to deliver all aspects of a Workforce Leadership Academy curriculum of workshops, labs, and retreats. These partners now add their new Academies to 22 previous Academies in 17 communities.

Today, we are pleased to announce the 106 Fellows selected in the six Academies, and we look forward to learning from them and sharing their insights in the coming months. Learn about them below:

• Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Greater Triangle, North Carolina
• Fresno, California
• Delaware, Knox, and Licking Counties, Ohio
• Southern Arizona
• Baltimore, Maryland

For more information about the Academies, please reach out to Dee Wallace.