| Hometown: | Walnut, CA |
| Current Location: | Portland, OR |
| Current Title: | Director, Innovation Programs at JFFLabs |
| Previous: | Engagement Manger at Guild Senior Strategy Consultant at Accenture Corps Member with Teach for America |
Snapshot
Snapshot
Hometown:
Current Location:
Current Title:
Previous Roles:
Walnut, CA
Portland, OR
Director of Innovation Programs at JFFLabs
Engagement Manager at Guild
Senior Strategy Consultant at Accenture
Corps Member with Teach for America
My Career Path
I began my career as a middle school teacher through Teach for America, fueled by a passion for improving educational outcomes. My time in the classroom sparked a desire to understand the broader impact of educational programs, leading me to don the hat of a researcher at SRI International and work with organizations nationwide to help quantify their impact. I knew that to truly drive systemic change, I needed to broaden my horizons and gain perspectives from realms beyond education, which is what led me to Fuqua.
Post-Fuqua, I ventured into the world of consulting at Accenture, immersing myself in the fast-paced Software & Platforms practice where I worked with tech companies on their growth strategy. However, the call to create social impact remained ever-present. This led me to Entangled, a social impact consulting firm and venture studio, and then Guild, where I could merge my business expertise with my passion for driving positive change. Today, I work at Jobs for the Future (JFF), where I focus on catalyzing systemic change to enable equitable economic advancement for all.
In my current role I spend my days….
In my current role, I spend my days testing and scaling new initiatives and solutions to drive equitable economic advancement for all people. This looks like anything from designing pilot opportunities to test new solutions in the field, standing up an internal Center for Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work to investigate how AI can accelerate economic advancement, to bringing entrepreneurs and corporate practitioners together to learn from each other and expand the impact of innovative solutions. I love getting to learn from innovators across the education to work ecosystem to achieve our shared goals.
An example of impact I am proud of
I am incredibly proud to have helped launch the JFF Ventures Corporate Innovation Council from idea through to execution. The Council brings mission-driven corporate practitioners to advise innovative entrepreneurs leading companies in the JFF Ventures portfolio in order to supercharge the impact of the companies’ solutions and, ultimately, increase the quality of jobs for low- and middle-wage earners. We now have 16 corporate leaders who sit in roles across the talent lifecycle, as well as corporate social responsibility, venture, and product innovation, representing companies in seven industries. We’ve developed and iterated upon high impact programming that has helped founders and our team get a line of sight into corporations’ challenges as well as practical advice to improve their solutions.
A topic that is important for the future of education and workforce
Technological advancements and how they impact how we think about what skills people need is at the center of conversations in the education and workforce ecosystem. The impact of AI is real, and we need to figure out how this changes the way we teach and acquire skills, what skills we teach and value, and how we support individuals in this transition (among many other questions). This will have cascading effects on the way that we operate in the future, so being mindful and thoughtful about it now is critical.
How my time at Fuqua influenced my impact journey
Fuqua has had a huge impact on my impact journey. Particularly, CASE and its offerings have helped me both during Fuqua and beyond. Firstly, as a CASE Scholar, the financial support to be able to afford business school in the first place was critically important for someone coming from the education sector. Secondly, my CASE Fellows group has been a source of support and commiseration as we all navigate not only our post-Fuqua professional lives but also our personal highlights through the years. Only just last month we had another Zoom to catch up. Lastly, the staff at CASE itself – Erin, in particular – have been so supportive in helping me think through my own impact journey.