Deborah Kobes

Senior Project Manager, Building Economic Opportunity

Contact Deborah Kobes

Deborah Kobes is a senior project manager with JFF’s Building Economic Opportunity Group. She helps manage JFF’s work in the green economy, which includes providing technical assistance and coaching to workforce partnerships that recruit, train, place, retain, and advance new and incumbent workers in key industry sectors. Her work focuses primarily on expanding access to and success in construction trades and manufacturing careers.

Before joining JFF, Ms. Kobes was projects director and the first employee of the Emerald Cities Collaborative, a partnership of diverse organizations united around the goal of greening cities in ways that further high-quality job creation, equity, and democracy. She has also held research positions or fellowships at MIT, the Brookings Institution, and the Urban Institute.

Ms. Kobes has a Ph.D. in urban political economy and governance from MIT and a Bachelor’s in civil engineering with architecture from Princeton University.