Mala B. Thakur

Director, Workforce Development and Mobility


Mala Thakur is the Director of Workforce Development and Mobility at Results for America.

Mala brings over 20 years of experience working on the alignment and implementation of workforce and education policy, systems, and practice at the federal, state and local level. She specializes in comprehensive, multi-sector approaches to helping youth and adults prepare for careers at a family sustaining wage, and in identifying ways to scale approaches that work.

Mala has held numerous leadership roles. Most recently, she served as Senior Program Director at MDC, an organization working to advance economic mobility and equity across the American South. Mala served on the Executive Management team and directed economic mobility and talent development initiatives focused on workforce development, postsecondary attainment and human services.

Previously, she served as the founding Executive Director of the Children’s Opportunity Fund at the Greater Washington Community Foundation. Prior to that role, she was the Executive Director of the National Youth Employment Coalition in Washington, DC where she led efforts to inform federal policy and preserve funding for youth in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act of 2014 and related legislation. Mala has testified and conducted briefings on workforce development and education issues before members of Congress as well as federal, state, and local elected officials.

She also has served in several advisory roles, including the National Assessment of Career and Technical Education Independent Advisory Panel to Congress and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Forward Promise Initiative Advisory Board. Mala currently serves as Vice Chair on the Board of Directors of the National Human Services Assembly and a member of the National Executive Healthcare Advisory Board of the Ultimate Medical Academy.

She holds an M.A. in education from New York University and a B.A. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.