Linda Collins

As Executive Director of the Career Ladders Project, Linda sets the strategic direction and oversees all aspects of the organization and its initiatives. She serves as chief spokesperson and leads CLP’s state and national community college policy efforts.

Linda has extensive experience with educational and workforce development policy having worked closely with the CCC Board of Governors to develop the statewide Ladders of Opportunity policy initiative and the large-scale Career Advancement Academy (CAA) demonstration project designed to connect disconnected young adults to high wage career pathways.Linda is also the founding Executive Director of LearningWorks, a new center for linking knowledge, policy and practice in order to improve student achievement in the community colleges.

Linda is a founding Executive Committee member of the non-partisan California EDGE Coalition—including business, labor, community colleges, workforce boards and social justice organizations—focused on policy change and systems alignment to improve the state’s workforce development system.

Linda is frequently asked to consult on state and national policy efforts. She currently serves on the Steering Committee of the Bay Area Manufacturing Renaissance Council as well as the Leadership Team of the National Manufacturing Renaissance Council. She is a member of the CA team on the Alliance for Quality Career Pathways, a new national effort to create a framework for measuring success in adult career pathway initiatives. She serves on the Leadership Council of the CA Linked Learning Alliance and co-chairs the Policy Working Group on Employment and Wealth advising the CA Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color. She served as an expert advisor to the CA Department of Education’s Adult Education Strategic Planning Initiative and the CA Policy to Performance Initiative focused on improving transitions of adult learners to college and career.

Previously, Linda served two terms as President of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges and was founding director of the Inter-segmental Major Preparation Articulated Curriculum (IMPAC), a major initiative to improve articulation across the segments of higher education in California. Linda is a past chair of the national Committee on Community Colleges of the American Association of University Professors. She taught sociology and interdisciplinary studies at Los Medanos College for over 15 years.