John Foster-Bey is currently the Senior Advisor for Research and Policy Development at the Corporation for National and Community Services in Washington, DC. Prior to coming to the Corporation John was a Senior Associate and Director of the Program for Regional Economic Opportunity at the Washington DC based Urban Institute's Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center. The Program focuses on research that examines the factors that improve low-skilled, low-income individuals and communities access to employment and economic opportunity within local regional economies. Since joining the Urban Institute, John has authored several studies on employment access and workforce training opportunities for low-skilled, low-income individuals. In addition, he has also completed studies on the role of targeting industries as a welfare-to-work strategy, spatial mismatch and access to employment for low-skilled workers, barriers to accessing living wage employment, and factors related to career mobility for low-wage workers.
Before coming to the Urban Institute, John spent 12 years in philanthropy, where he was responsible for leading grant-making programs in economic and workforce development, community development, and youth development. During his career in philanthropy John served as Vice President of Programs for the Northwest Area Foundation in St. Paul, MN; Associate Director of the MacArthur Foundation's Community Initiatives Program; and as a Program Officer in the Ford Foundation's Urban Poverty Program and Office of Program Related Investments. Prior to entering philanthropy, John spent 10 years working in the areas of corporate finance, local government and non-profit youth programs. John has an undergraduate degree in History, a graduate degree in public administration, and a MBA from the Yale School of Management.