As President and CEO of Jobs for the Future, Maria Flynn leads JFF’s overall growth strategy, including funding diversification, strategic planning, partnership building, system deployment, change management, and talent development. She is responsible for all of JFF’s programs and operations in a highly collaborative environment across its education and workforce development sectors. Ms. Flynn is a member of JFF’s Board of Directors. Previously, as Jobs for the Future’s Senior Vice President, Ms. Flynn led JFF's Building Economic Opportunity Group, working to help entry-level workers advance to family-supporting careers while enabling employers to build and sustain a productive workforce. Ms. Flynn is a leading national expert on issues such as career pathways, employer engagement, sector strategies, and place-based initiatives. Ms. Flynn has 25 years of experience in the workforce development and education fields. Prior to joining JFF in 2007, she was a member of the federal government’s Senior Executive Service and served as the administrator of the Office of Policy Development and Research in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. Within the Employment and Training Administration, Ms. Flynn previously led the Division of One-Stop Operations, where she developed the policy and technical assistance framework necessary to enable states and local communities to establish comprehensive one-stop delivery systems designed to provide quality services to jobseekers, workers, and employers. She also served as the team leader of the interagency group charged with implementing the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. In the 1990s, she played key leadership roles in the National School-to-Work initiative and in the launch of the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills initiative. Ms. Flynn earned her bachelor of arts in international relations and economics at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and a master’s in government administration at the University of Pennsylvania.