Ensuring that underserved communities thrive within an evolving workforce
To honor our 40 years, we're celebrating our most valuable resource - our alumni - through 40 profiles highlighting their leadership. Alumna Arlene Gordon-Bray completed her fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University in 2008.
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Arlane Gordon-Bray embodies the values of innovation, leadership and empowerment.
Arlane received her B.A from Virginia Tech in International Studies with a concentration on World Politics and Policy. While there she served as the undergraduate student representative on the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors and helped incoming students feel welcome and valued. She also served as a resident advisor where she helped to enhance the student experience.
She began her career as a Risk Advisor for Aerosafe Risk Management. Here she supported businesses and organizations in the air medical and defense industry, one of which was the US Air Force.
She proceeded to receive her M.S in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University. While at Heinz, Arlane was selected as a summer fellow with the East African Community and she interned with the Government of South Australia in the Department of Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy where she created a database and graphic to support the development of local small businesses.While she was at Heinz she worked as the Senior Research Associate for the Center for International Relations and Politics in the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University.
Following graduation from Heinz, Arlane was the founding Executive Director of the Institute for Strategic Analysis at Carnegie Mellon University. She served in this capacity for 4 years. In 2018, she made the transition to contracting, returning to Aerosafe Risk Management as the Director of Special Projects and then BITCON Burke as a Project Manager, she continued to offer her leadership to projects of impact.
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“We’re at a point where we need to see real systemic change. We have failures as an international community in terms of communication and in terms of being courageous enough to call each other out for the changes we need to make,”
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The project to which she is currently devoted however is “Shaping the Future of Work”. It seeks to identify solutions to challenges around the future of work and create change by encouraging data-based conversations. This is an initiative of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers which is a network of young people who are creating change with dialogue and action.
Arlane was one of 50 Global shapers who attended the 2020 World Economic Forum Annual held in Davos, Switzerland. They not only brought their insight to the Forum but had an opportunity to create genuine impact. Here Arlane had conversations with global leaders on behalf of the future of work.
Currently, Arlane Gordon-Bray is the IZONE Community Engagement Partner for Edgecombe County Public Schools. The Innovation Zone (IZONE) is redesigning the educational experience for K-12 students with empowering strategies that involve project-based and data-driven instruction with a human-centered design. It is both culturally-responsive and equity focused.
She continues to focus her efforts on cultivating community and career as the Co-Founder of Catalyst Co-Lab whose mission it is to “Cultivate community led economic growth and career resilience.” Here she draws on her decades of experience collaborating around proven processes. She is a board member for the Franklinton Center at Bricks and FIRST Robotics North Carolina.
Arlane Gordon-Bray is actively engaged in bringing forward a better future for all. Her leadership and skillset is empowering all young people to access resources and opportunities. By recognizing that tools to succeed are not equally accessible and working to change that, she is not only building on human potential but leveraging the power of diversity to create a more sustainable future.
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Thank you Arlane for creating strategies that manage opportunity in equitable ways. Your willingness and capacity to address the challenges experienced in underserved communities is making a difference to so many. By encouraging diverse perspectives and talent to enter the workforce you are truly a catalyst for innovation and resiliency in communities and beyond!
Read more Changemaker profiles here!
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