Current Position and Past Experience
Appointed State Initiative Director at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce in 2014, Neil Ridley leads the Center’s efforts to help state integrate education and workforce data systems for policy, program planning and development, and evaluation and improved feedback between labor markets and education. Prior to joining the Center, Ridley was Interim Co-Director and Senior Policy Analyst, Postsecondary Education and Workforce for the Center for Law and Social Policy. In this position, Ridley’s areas of focus included responding to unemployment during the Great Recession, creating workforce development policy at the federal and state levels, and increasing access to postsecondary education and training for low-income individuals. While at CLASP, he helped to develop the performance metrics and data requirements for the Alliance for Quality Career Pathways. From 2004 to 2007, Ridley was a Managing Director at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. There, he helped to lead the Work Trends public opinion series and oversaw many technical assistance and research projects for state and local governments, non-profit agencies, and foundations.

Education, Honors and Achievements
Neil Ridley earned a Master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor’s degree from Occidental College.

Connect
You can connect with Ridley on LinkedIn.