Over many decades, our economy has experienced tremendous growth, yet not everyone has benefitted from these gains. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and accelerated systemic inequities in our labor market, in which workers’ wages have stagnated, their ability to advance has stalled, and their household economic security has eroded. We know we can’t rebuild ladders of opportunity without all the key stakeholders at the table: employers, worker advocates, practitioners, policymakers, philanthropy, and the research community. WorkRise convenes these often siloed groups to generate evidence-based solutions to drive policy and practice toward durable and meaningful change. As executive director, I am excited about leading my team to catalyze a diverse network to deliver WorkRise’s mission: to rebuild a more equitable and resilient labor market that expands opportunity and economic mobility for all workers.
Todd Greene is an Institute fellow and the executive director of WorkRise, a research-to-action network on jobs, workers, and mobility hosted by the Urban Institute. Before joining Urban, Greene was executive director of the Atlanta University Center Consortium (AUCC), the world’s oldest and largest consortium of historically Black colleges and universities. There, he led a team that enhanced students’ academic opportunities, forged interdisciplinary research, and catalyzed a broad economic development agenda. Under Greene’s leadership, AUCC collaborated with and supported thought leadership and strategic innovation among each member institution and across the consortium.
For more than 10 years, Greene served as a vice president in the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s research division. He led the economic and community development department and initiatives to promote inclusive economic growth related to community and economic development finance, small businesses’ access to credit, affordable housing, and human capital and workforce development. Greene founded and led the Federal Reserve System’s Human Capital/Workforce Development Working Group and oversaw creation of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity.
Greene has published numerous articles and coedited Transforming U.S. Workforce Development Policies for the 21st Century (2015) and Investing in America’s Workforce: Improving Outcomes for Workers and Employers (2018). He is the chairman of the International Economic Development Council’s board of directors and chairs the national advisory board of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He also serves on the boards of the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce and Invest Atlanta.
Greene earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and master’s degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and Georgia State University. He has completed executive education programs at Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Universidad ESAN in Lima, Peru.
