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Molly Dow

Senior Program Manager

phone 617.728.4446

Dow, Molly_Photo.jpg

Molly Dow is a senior program manager at JFF. Based in the Oakland office, she works with the inclusive regional economic development team to design place-based strategies to transform workforce, education, and employment systems and produce more equitable outcomes for Californians.

Her skills and areas of expertise include:

Urban and social policy
Research and human-centered design
Nonprofit strategy and communications
Community and economic development
Cross-sector collaboration

Molly has worked in the nonprofit and public spheres for more than seven years, supporting causes ranging from education and the arts to migration and community development. She came to JFF after her graduate studies, where she collaborated on projects such as building an updatable, advocacy-focused database of state and county immigration legislation for the New York Immigration Coalition; conducting research around healthy housing, water recycling, urban infrastructure, and corruption; and co-hosting an international symposium on representation in migration policy and practice.

Earlier in her career, Molly worked in and around the San Francisco Bay Area, where she grew up. She got her professional start in community services and farmworker support on California’s rural central coast and has since worked on K-12 education initiatives with Education Pioneers and Scholar Co., as well as artist empowerment programs in Oakland, and internationally in Haiti and Kenya, with PeaceTones.

Molly has been a fellow at the New York City Council Progressive Caucus and at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Escuela de Arte Útil. She is also a member of SPUR, the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association.

Equitable economic growth requires inclusion at every step of the way, from how we design our education and training systems to how we use collaborative strategies and coordinated investments for regional economic development. JFF presents a vision for growing our economy differently, prioritizing asset-based, cross-sector approaches to build community resilience.

Cluster-based economic development can be an effective strategy for regions to generate economic growth that benefits all residents, provided that equity and inclusion are at the center of the approach. JFF explores an emerging case study in the Inland Empire region of California, examining what it takes in practice to implement a cluster strategy towards the triple bottom line goals of job quality, environmental sustainability, and inclusive growth.

The Framework is designed to support workforce boards in building regional data capacity to identify, coordinate, and track the impact of regional activities. In addition, the Framework outlines how workforce boards can strategically align to statewide goals focused on increasing equitable upward mobility. Demonstrating equitable economic growth requires the identification of key terms including equity, inclusion, and job quality, as well as associated metrics and a data infrastructure plan to ensure sustainability across mutually reinforcing investments. The California Framework for Regional Plan Implementation breaks down key decisions and provides conversation guides, a menu of metrics, and case studies to support workforce boards and their state leaders in implementing inclusive economic advancement for all Californians.

California has a history of investing in regional strategies to support the educational attainment and economic growth of its many regional economies. These include the Strong Workforce Program, California Career Pathways Trust, to name a few, and now new programs like the Community Economic Resilience Fund. In this brief, we share recommendations to state leaders for what is needed to ensure these significant regional investments can build a foundation for shared prosperity as well as close economic and educational equity gaps.

Driving Economic Advancement in the Green Economy

JFF and Turning Basin Labs are engaged in a multiphase initiative to identify and invest in high road employment models in California. This update documents the results of Phase 1 of this project, which include the worker-led development of a new framework for assessing job quality and an interactive tool that employers can use to design rewarding and fulfilling jobs that reflect worker experiences and perspectives.

Cross-sector partnerships require a foundation of trust in order to withstand external shocks and achieve impact. This publication describes how the Central Ohio Partnership for College and Career Readiness Expansion evolved over a five-year grant period to create stronger collaboration across all partners and how the purpose of the work became even clearer in a time of national crisis.