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Danielle Goonan

Director, Economic Policy Investments, U.S. Jobs and Economic Opportunity

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For nearly a decade, Danielle Goonan’s work has been guided by the core goal of increasing pathways to opportunity for all Americans, improving the systems that serve them, and getting resources to communities that need them most to ensure meaningful and lasting change. Currently, Danielle is a member of The Rockefeller Foundation’s U.S. Jobs and Economic Opportunity team, overseeing investments that spur inclusive economic development. Most recently, Danielle was responsible for a philanthropic grant portfolio at the Walmart Foundation that focused on issues of employment technology, place-based systems change and employer practice change and served as an internal advisor to Walmart U.S’s People team. Danielle was an appointee of the Obama Administration where she led strategic partnerships for the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education. In this role, she worked with stakeholders in the corporate, labor and philanthropic sectors on behalf of the US Department of Education. She was also led the Clinton Global Initiative’s domestic education and skills development team with responsibilities that included managing the CGI U.S. Youth Employment Action Network in partnership with the Office of Secretary Clinton’s JobOne program, overseeing the strategy of CGI America’s education and skills Working Groups, and leading the growth of the workforce development portfolio of Commitments to Action. She received h er MSc in IR from LSE and her undergraduate degree in American Studies summa cum laude from Dickinson College where she was a Posse Foundation Scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She was also a Fulbright Scholar to Italy. Danielle sits on the Humanity in Action Board of Directors and American Planning Board. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.