Heather McKay

Biography

Heather McKay is the new senior vice president of employer engagement and executive director of the Strada Institute for the Future of Work. McKay brings nearly two decades of experience working at the intersection of research, practice, and policy, most recently serving as the inaugural executive director of the Virginia Office of Education Economics (VOEE). At VOEE, McKay developed the Virginia Skills Initiative, a new data set designed to help the state understand where Virginia graduates end up and what skills they possess. She also coordinates the state’s $1 billion Tech Talent Investment Program, a nationally recognized program that is building a pipeline of graduates skilled for the tech workforce. McKay and the VOEE team have also developed dashboards and data visualizations to make state and regional education and labor market data available to practitioners and policymakers for use in decision-making. Prior to VOEE, McKay was the founding director of the Education & Employment Research Center at Rutgers University’s School of Labor and Management Relations, where she worked with nonprofits, educational institutions and systems, and government agencies to help them develop, implement, and examine the impact of new initiatives at the intersection of education and work. McKay earned a Master of Science in Global Affairs and a Master of Arts in World History from Rutgers University, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Bryn Mawr College.

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