Rebecca Kusner is Vice President of Workforce Solutions and Innovation at Thomas P. Miller and Associates, a consulting firm headquartered in Indianapolis and specializing in workforce development, evaluation, and economic development. Rebecca has 20-plus years of experience in workforce development where she has developed and led award-winning projects of national prominence involving community organizations, government, philanthropy and the business community. In 2017, Kusner launched her own firm and is continuing much of her firm’s work in her role at TPMA. The work includes advising an Annie E. Casey Foundation Generation Work site; convening the Ohio Workforce Coalition; developing competency-based career pathways for manufacturing companies; and growing 2Generation strategies through local partnerships. Prior to launching her firm, Kusner held leadership roles in the non-profit and consulting sectors. She led implementation of Northeast Ohio’s first skills-based hiring pilot and was the Northeast Ohio director of WorkAdvance, a national demonstration project shown to produce statistically significant impacts on employment and earnings. She has researched and written several workforce development reports, and managed philanthropically and publicly funded workforce programs for adults and youth. Kusner focuses on the intersection of programs and systems. She is an active member of the National Skills Coalition, where she serves on its Welfare-to-Career National Advisory Panel. In 2017 she joined the board of the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals as the Ohio representative and she serves on her local Youth Council. In 2018 she was named a Job Quality Fellow by the Aspen Institute’s Workforce Strategies Center and was invited to join Hope Street Group’s Skilling America Distinguished Fellows Network. Kusner has a master’s degree in Public Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Urban Economic Development from Cleveland State University, and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Politics and Government, and Sociology from Ohio Wesleyan University.