Richard Kazis

Senior Vice President

Contact Richard Kazis

Richard Kazis leads JFF’s policy and advocacy efforts. Since joining JFF in the early 1990s, his areas of focus have included: school-to-career models and policy; strategies for improving outcomes for low-income community college students; state policies to promote college and career readiness for struggling students; policies to promote low-wage worker advancement; and the emerging role of labor-market intermediaries in workforce development.

Mr. Kazis directs JFF’s contributions to Achieving the Dream, a national initiative to improve student success in community colleges, particularly for low-income students and students of color. JFF leads the initiative’s effort to help 15 states make policy changes that are more supportive of student success at two-year institutions. Mr. Kazis also coordinates JFF’s efforts to promote federal and state policies that can help identify and expand effective school models for struggling students, with a particular focus on approaches that blend secondary and postsecondary learning.

Mr. Kazis is a former teacher at an alternative high school for returning dropouts. He has also supervised a Neighborhood Youth Corps program, helped organize fast-food workers, managed a cooperative urban food production wholesaler, supported labor-environmental jobs coalitions, and studied informal, experiential learning in Israel. He serves on the boards of the Institute for College Access and Success and the Workforce Strategy Center. Mr. Kazis is a graduate of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jobs for the Future develops, implements, and promotes new education and workforce strategies that help communities, states, and the nation compete in a global economy. In 200 communities in 41 states, JFF improves the pathways leading from high school to college to family-sustaining careers.