Laura Faulkner

Director, Strategic Partnerships and Philanthropy

As the Director of Strategic Partnership and Philanthropy, Laura works to expand the Lab’s strategic partnership capacity, as well as sustain and grow the Lab’s project portfolio – with a particular focus on the Digital Transformation workstream. Laura also works closely with the Lab’s program leads to build out compelling concepts and strategies for new projects. Laura brings a unique set of experiences working at the intersection of education, workforce, data and technology. For 12+ years, Laura has worked on designing solutions aimed at making education and workforce systems more skills-centric, equitable, and data-driven.

Laura previously served as the Director of Talent Sector Strategy at Brighthive, a B-Corp that helps organizations share data to achieve common goals. Within this role, Laura led the company’s go-to-market strategy for the workforce and higher education sectors, drove business development, and led sector partnerships. Laura also led a range of complex client engagements for data collaboration projects within the workforce, post-secondary education, and skills domains. Previously as Partnership Solutions Lead at Credential Engine, Laura developed partnerships with industry associations, employers, and community-based organizations to improve data quality and promote credential transparency. Laura also served as a Community Engagement Manager at Opportunity@Work, where she promoted skills-based hiring strategies and designed playbooks and toolkits for communities to better support economic mobility for individuals with skills acquired through non-traditional paths.

HOMETOWN: Amherst, Massachusetts

EDUCATION: Clark University

BACHELOR’S: BA in Political Science

MASTER’S: Master of Public Administration (MPA)

FAVORITE QUOTE: “When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too”. – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

WHEN I’M NOT AT WORK I’M… enjoying Baltimore with my husband, daughter, and pit-mixed dog, experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen (Alison Roman FTW!), or listening to music and working on standing up a vinyl record shop, Charm City Groove, with my husband Andrew.