Debbie Wasden

Debbie Wasden is the Senior Vice President at the Burning Glass Institute. Debbie partners with employers, non-profits, educators, and policymakers leveraging BGI’s unique data-driven insights and tools to develop and deploy solutions that build mobility, opportunity, and equity through skills.

Prior to joining the Burning Glass Institute, Debbie was a director with the Markle Foundation, focused on the implementation of the Rework America Alliance. In her role, Debbie led the Alliance’s employer, job insights, and national partnership workstreams.

Prior to the Markle Foundation, Debbie worked for Walmart.org as both a grant officer and strategist largely focused on employer practice change and skills interoperability. She served as an executive at the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) for 7 years, working with CEOs and university presidents to address the most pressing talent issues of our time. She led projects on behalf of federal agencies and numerous corporate and private philanthropies. Ms. Wasden began her career at the U.S. Department of Energy in the Office of Science, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists.

Debbie has written numerous thought leadership reports related to the workforce needs for the digital economy, with specific expertise in areas such as cybersecurity, data science and analytics, artificial intelligence, media and broadcast engineering, water science, cloud, and AR/VR. Her work has led to the development of over 50 new industry-recognized college credentials. Debbie co-led the Virginia Governor’s Smart and Connected Communities Working Group, is a Board Member of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Economic Prosperity (CICEP), and served as the Co-Chair for the Asia Pacific Economic Council’s Project DARE – Data Analytics Raising Employment.

Debbie holds a B.A. and M.A. from George Washington University, where she studied business, industrial organizational psychology, and international science and technology policy.