Ellen Cushing is the director of the Region 1 Comprehensive Center at AIR and has served for 13 years in the Comprehensive Center Network. Her extensive experience in this capacity-building network has led to long-standing partnerships with state leaders and has produced impactful projects focused on education and workforce alignment, educator effectiveness and talent management, and systems change. In addition to other duties, Ms. Cushing oversees the portfolio of intensive projects in Maine and New Hampshire.
Ms. Cushing has deep expertise in educational choice for pathways to postsecondary success, developing and implementing work-based learning policies and programs; aligning efforts across federal legislation, including the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Perkins V, and Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act (WIOA); supporting the design and implementation of career pathways programs; and building stakeholder capacity to implement sustainable technical assistance solutions.