Maria Flynn is president and CEO of Jobs for the Future, a national nonprofit that transforms U.S. education and workforce systems to drive economic success for people, businesses, and communities.
Flynn is a national authority on the future of work and job quality in the era of AI and automation in the labor market.
As CEO since 2016, Flynn has led JFF’s growth and evolution into a widely respected, nonpartisan organization that identifies, develops, and scales solutions to help learners, workers, and employers thrive. She launched JFFLabs to forge connections between traditional education and workforce systems and innovative companies designing technology-driven solutions. Under her leadership, JFF acquired an impact investing arm, JFFVentures.
Before joining JFF as a vice president in 2007, Flynn was a member of the Senior Executive Service in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. She oversaw the development of policies for training programs, supervised the agency’s research and evaluation strategy, and managed the development of its $12 billion budget.
Flynn is frequently invited to speak at national events, including the ASU+GSV Summit, the Milken Institute Global Conference, Fortune Brainstorm AI, the Reagan Institute Summit on Education, The Economist’s Innovation@Work US, and meetings hosted by Stanford, MIT, Harvard, and the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a board member of the SkillUp Coalition and the Postsecondary Commission, and she serves on Bank of America’s National Community Advisory Council. Respected for her policy insights and workforce development expertise, Flynn has testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on workforce system reform.
Flynn’s insights frequently appear in major media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Politico, Newsweek, Barron’s, Fortune, Marketplace, Bloomberg News, CBS, CNN, CNBC, and Fox. She was named to the Forbes 50 Over 50: Impact list in 2022, which features influential women in the business, legal, philanthropic, and nonprofit sectors.
