Director of Economic and Workforce Impact

Dr. Alexandria Wright serves as Director for Economic & Workforce Impact. She specializes in strategic planning to build strong economies in rural America and Indian Country, bridging community assets with regional economic conditions to create and sustain resilient communities. With two decades of experience engaging with Tribal communities and leading economic and workforce development analysis, Dr. Wright takes a data-driven approach to supporting Tribal workforce planning and implementation through design of high-demand, learner-centered workforce training programs that are reflective of the unique nature of rural economies, skills-based learning, and human-centered design. Most recently, Dr. Wright served as Principal Investigator for the Good Jobs Northern Nevada initiative, conducting quarterly labor market analysis, facilitating industry sector partnership meetings, and leading Tribal engagement in various facets including but not limited to providing professional development for the Tribal and Regional Career Navigators, facilitating Tribal input sessions engaging 22 Native Nations for the development of the Northern Nevada American Indian Workforce Development Strategic Plan, and facilitating bi-monthly meetings of the Indian Workforce Development Council hosted by the Northern Nevada Workforce Development Board.

Dr. Wright has served as director for economic and workforce development at three, rural community college districts where she provided economic & labor analysis for academic program review, employers, and economic development partners; designed high-impact adult education programming using pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship models; and expanded entrepreneurial education and microloans through expanding the Small Business Development Centers in rural and Tribal communities. She also specializes in the design of key performance indicators across economic, social, and environmental dimensions that support resilient economies. Dr. Wright publishes in the field of ecological economics and regional sciences and currently serves as adjunct faculty in Economics at Cal Lutheran University and Applied Indigenous Studies at Northern Arizona University. She holds an extended BS in Economics, a MA in Political Economy and a Ph.D. from the School of Politics & International Affairs at Northern Arizona University.