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Jeanne Contardo, Ph.D., is a higher education and workforce strategy and partnership development expert who specializes in planning and facilitation, high-impact strategy development, and executive communications. Before founding Frontrunner Collaborations, LLC, most recently she was the founding Managing Director of the Capital CoLAB (housed within the Greater Washington Partnership), an action-oriented partnership of business and academic institutions collaborating to build, at scale, the digital technology ecosystem needed in the Capital Region, which includes Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Richmond.
Jeanne prides herself on results-oriented engagements that are customized to an organization’s goals and leadership teams. She has spent over 20 years in a variety of higher education and nonprofit leadership roles, including as the Vice President of Regional Operations for Excelsior College, where she managed the college’s effort to provide adults from underrepresented groups with the skills and credentials needed to earn a livable wage in the Washington, DC region. Dr. Contardo led the growth of Excelsior’s regional presence through innovative partnerships with both the Federal and local governments, the launch of a comprehensive branding initiative to serve working adults, and on-going collaboration with military and veteran offices and underserved adult students in the DMV. Prior to Excelsior, she spent nearly a decade at the Business-Higher Education Forum, overseeing the organization’s research agenda and its College Readiness, Access, and Success Initiative. While there, she collaborated with university presidents and Fortune 500 CEOs to build regional partnerships that would grow high-demand career pipelines and drive action around improving student interest and proficiency through regional engagements in areas such as Louisville, KY, Des Moines, OH, and College Park, MD.
While working on her doctorate, she was fortunate to also hold a research fellow position at the National Defense University, focusing in part on the changing workforce needs in the United States. Dr. Contardo also worked at the Institute for Higher Education Policy, where she collaborated on studies targeting underserved populations in higher education, including prisoners and foster youth and the University of Maryland, where she worked with a group of women engineers to address issues around STEM undergraduate education. Dr. Contardo has also taught courses on higher education finance, cross sector partnerships, and research theory at The George Washington University. She earned her PhD in education policy and leadership studies from the University of Maryland, College Park, and holds an MA in higher and postsecondary education from Teachers College at Columbia University.
Jeanne Contardo, Ph.D.
Jeanne Contardo, Ph.D., is a higher education and workforce strategy and partnership development expert who specializes in planning and facilitation, high-impact strategy development, and executive communications. Before founding Frontrunner Collaborations, LLC, most recently she was the founding Managing Director of the Capital CoLAB (housed within the Greater Washington Partnership), an action-oriented partnership of business and academic institutions collaborating to build, at scale, the digital technology ecosystem needed in the Capital Region, which includes Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Richmond.
Jeanne prides herself on results-oriented engagements that are customized to an organization’s goals and leadership teams. She has spent over 20 years in a variety of higher education and nonprofit leadership roles, including as the Vice President of Regional Operations for Excelsior College, where she managed the college’s effort to provide adults from underrepresented groups with the skills and credentials needed to earn a livable wage in the Washington, DC region. Dr. Contardo led the growth of Excelsior’s regional presence through innovative partnerships with both the Federal and local governments, the launch of a comprehensive branding initiative to serve working adults, and on-going collaboration with military and veteran offices and underserved adult students in the DMV. Prior to Excelsior, she spent nearly a decade at the Business-Higher Education Forum, overseeing the organization’s research agenda and its College Readiness, Access, and Success Initiative. While there, she collaborated with university presidents and Fortune 500 CEOs to build regional partnerships that would grow high-demand career pipelines and drive action around improving student interest and proficiency through regional engagements in areas such as Louisville, KY, Des Moines, OH, and College Park, MD.
While working on her doctorate, she was fortunate to also hold a research fellow position at the National Defense University, focusing in part on the changing workforce needs in the United States. Dr. Contardo also worked at the Institute for Higher Education Policy, where she collaborated on studies targeting underserved populations in higher education, including prisoners and foster youth and the University of Maryland, where she worked with a group of women engineers to address issues around STEM undergraduate education. Dr. Contardo has also taught courses on higher education finance, cross sector partnerships, and research theory at The George Washington University. She earned her PhD in education policy and leadership studies from the University of Maryland, College Park, and holds an MA in higher and postsecondary education from Teachers College at Columbia University.