Andrea Ferstan
Vice President of Innovation, Policy, and Research
Andrea is a recognized leader in education and workforce development and is known for leading regional and statewide program and policy initiatives, driving process improvement, and developing cross-sector partnerships. She has served as a national spokesperson and thought partner.
As the Vice President of Innovation, Policy, and Research, Andrea leads the Center’s Inclusive Future of Work Agenda. This includes regional coalition-building to drive a shared agenda focused on dismantling racism within current workforce and economic engines and building new economic engines within communities of color. Andrea also serves as a lead systems change strategist, coalition and network builder and facilitator of strategic partnerships and policy efforts.
Prior to this position, she served as the executive director of the Greater Metropolitan Workforce Council (GMWC), a leadership entity for regional workforce development strategy in the seven-county Minneapolis-Saint Paul region. During this time, she helped lead GMWC in setting regional workforce equity goals and facilitated a cross-sector team of leaders in developing a policy agenda aimed at advancing these goals. In this role, she also helped advance system reform efforts to advance racial equity in postsecondary attainment and helped launch and advance employer-led sector efforts.
Prior to this, she worked as the vice president of Talent and Workforce for TwinWest Chamber of Commerce, where she oversaw the design, execution and evaluation of a regional partnership with five school districts aimed at scaling career connected experiences for students and educators, elimination of education disparities, and access to sustaining careers. She also worked as the director of Education and Jobs at Greater Twin Cities United Way, where she managed $19M in investments annually to support work across the cradle to career continuum. During this time, she also spearheaded Career Academies, a $13M statewide 9-14+ grade career pathway initiative aimed sat significantly improving high school graduation rates and postsecondary enrollment and completion amongst underrepresented communities. While at United Way, she also lead a collaborative policy effort that resulted in $2.5M in Adult Career Pathway funding and an Outcomes Dashboard for workforce development.
Andrea has a Master of Social Work degree in policy, planning and administration from Western Michigan University and is mother to two children, Max (19) and Ivy (16).