Opportunity Nation
Michelle K. Massie
The Forum for Youth Investment (FYI) recently named Michelle K. Massie as director of Opportunity Nation and Strategic Initiatives. Opportunity Nation is a national campaign coalition housed within FYI and comprised of more than 350 organizations working towards the common goal of expanding economic mobility and the closing of America’s stark opportunity gap.
Massie arrives at FYI from A+ Schools, a Pittsburgh-based education organizing, research and advocacy nonprofit for which she was director of research and communications for nearly two years. Prior to that, she worked as a managing consultant for the Manhattan Strategy Group and served as the project manager on a $3 million U.S. Department of Education contract concerning the development of career pathway systems. Fittingly for her new directorship of Opportunity Nation, Massie also has experience with national coalitions. She worked for about two years as a policy analyst for the Workforce Data Quality Campaign, an initiative of the National Skills Coalition. Additionally, Massie has worked in the public sector, having served two one-year stints as a workforce analyst for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
A graduate of Rutgers University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science, Massie began freelance writing and editing right after graduation and continued while completing her graduate education at the University of Pittsburgh. After earning a master of public administration degree in 2003, she continued her freelance writing and editing as a supplement to her traditional career. After her education, she worked as a program monitor at the Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board in Pittsburgh and as a senior policy analyst on job training initiatives at DTI Associates. It was after this that she served her first stint at the DOL. Throughout these years, she wrote and edited for numerous publications, many of them Pittsburgh-based and focused on black issues. Some of these include: Pitt Magazine, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Black Enterprise, Pittsburgh City Paper, Black AIDS Institute and American Urban Radio Networks.
“My professional path has been one of advocacy, activism, research, and action to change policies and practices to engage and empower vulnerable communities and disconnected individuals. I look forward to joining the team and having the opportunity to improve outcomes and affect change on a national level,” said Massie in an Opportunity Nation press release about her appointment. Michelle K. Massie officially begins work for Opportunity Nation and the Forum for Youth Investment on Sep. 19, 2018.
