As a 20-year-old workforce development organization with a renewed focus on building an equitable, inclusive economy as the U.S. recovers from COVID-19, Upwardly Global is pleased to announce a new member to its growing executive leadership team. Jennie Murray will join the organization on July 1 as Vice President of Programs.
In this role, Murray will support the organization in continuing to scale its nationally-recognized job coaching and skill-building programs. With offices in New York City, Washington, DC, Chicago and San Francisco, Upwardly Global currently serves 1,000 immigrant and refugee job seekers each year, supporting them in rebuilding professional careers in a variety of high-demand fields.
“The skills of all U.S. workers–including immigrants and refugees–are needed to build a resilient, innovative, adaptive workforce that can recover from COVID-19 and be even stronger than it was before,” said Murray. “I’m honored to be joining this trailblazing organization at such a critical time.”
New initiatives–including the recent launch of a digital platform offering digital learning for job seekers and job coaches, Jobversity, and a growing list of partnerships with Fortune 500 and start-up companies across the country–allow Upwardly Global to reach thousands of new job seekers, while simultaneously championing diversity, equity, and inclusion in Corporate America.
Murray brings years of experience to this role, having worked at the intersection of immigration services and the private sector, as well as in refugee resettlement and workforce development. Before joining Upwardly Global, she developed and led the New American Workforce at the National Immigration Forum, an umbrella of immigrant worker upskilling and support programs offered at over 500 companies, such as citizenship legal services and English-language training, English at Work. In addition, she formed and led the Corporate Roundtable for the New American Workforce. This collection of the nation’s largest corporations develops and implements best practices for immigrant integration at the worksite, and advances legislative advocacy initiatives to support new Americans.
Before joining the Forum in 2013, she served as the director of programs at Jubilee Jobs and outreach coordinator at Catholic Charities’ Washington, D.C., Refugee Center. Raised in Los Angeles and Nashville, Jennie graduated from Union University and earned her master’s from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. Currently, Jennie lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and their son.
Upwardly Global, founded in 2000, is the first and longest-serving organization focusing on integrating immigrant and refugee professionals into the U.S. workforce. Upwardly Global’s innovative skill-building and networking programs coach newcomers in rebuilding professional careers and U.S. employers in accessing their talents with inclusive hiring practices. To date, Upwardly Global has trained more than 16,000 people. Learn more at www.upwardlyglobal.org.