The Forum for Youth Investment Names Michelle K. Massie Director of Opportunity Nation and Strategic Initiatives
THE FORUM FOR YOUTH INVESTMENT NAMES MICHELLE K. MASSIE DIRECTOR OF OPPORTUNITY NATION AND STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Stacy Heit
email: stacy@opportunitynation.org
Phone: 703.209.4710
WASHINGTON, DC, September 13, 2018 – The Forum for Youth Investment (“The Forum”) today announced that Michelle K. Massie has been named Director of Opportunity Nation and Strategic Initiatives. In this new role, Massie will lead the Forum’s efforts to better utilize data about economic mobility and opportunity in America to secure bipartisan support for policies that improve racial, social, and economicequity. She will be responsible for advancing the Forum’s Opportunity Nation initiatives, including the signature annual Opportunity Index, along with other related Forum activities.
Massie comes to the Forum from A+ Schools, an education advocacy organization based in Pittsburgh, where she managed the organization’s marketing and communications program. Prior to her work with A+ Schools, she was a policy analyst with the Workforce Data Quality Campaign and a workforce analyst at the Department of Labor. With experience in program development, policy, research and organizational management, Massie’s work has also touched on areas that include the intersection of public/private sector innovation, career pathways system development, youth pipeline creation and strategic communications.
“After successfully transitioning Opportunity Nation to the Forum, our most important decision was finding the right person to lead its activities. Michelle’s experience using data to drive policy changes to ensure everyone has opportunities to succeed made her an obvious choice for this position. We look forward to her joining the team” said Thaddeus Ferber, executive vice president of the Forum. “My professional path has been one of advocacy, activism, research, and action to change policies and practices to engage and empower vulnerable communities and disconnected individuals. I look forward to joining the team and having the opportunity to improve outcomes and affect change on a national level,” said Massie. Massie’s work with the Forum will begin on September 19.
About the Forum for Youth Investment:
Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the Forum for Youth Investment is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan “action tank” committed to changing the odds that all children and youth are ready for college, work and life. It provides ideas, services and professional networks that leaders need in order to make more intentional decisions that are good for young people. The Forum helps leaders increase their capacity to more effectively make the case for and manage the collaborative efforts that are needed to change the odds for youth; improve the alignment and appropriateness of child and youth policy agendas and investments; and strengthen programs’ and practitioners’ capacity to create environments in which youth thrive, across all the systems and settings where young people spend time.
About Opportunity Nation:
Housed within the Forum for Youth Investment since 2018, Opportunity Nation, which was founded in 2011, is a bipartisan, national campaign comprised of more than 350 cross-sector organizations working together to expand economic mobility and close the opportunity gap in America. Opportunity Nation envisions the United States as a nation where everyone – regardless of where they were born – has equal access to opportunity, economic mobility, and success at all stages of life.
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