Abigail Carlton joined The Rockefeller Foundation in 2009. As Managing Director, Ms. Carlton leads the Foundation’s US efforts to expand opportunity and create more inclusive markets in a changing global economy. This includes the Foundation’s US Youth Employment initiative, a multi-year effort focused on working with private sector employers to increase employment among young people with limited education and work experience. Since joining the Foundation, Ms. Carlton has designed and implemented a range of initiatives focused on job quality for low-wage US workers, employment opportunities in healthcare and the green economy, and long-term unemployment, among others.
Prior to joining the Rockefeller Foundation, Ms. Carlton’s work to expand economic opportunity for low-wage workers, families and communities spanned the private and non-profit sectors, government and academia. She has held research and program management positions with New York University’s Institute for Education and Social Policy, the US Department of Labor, Georgetown Public Policy Institute, the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, and the law firm Cravath, Swaine and Moore, LLP. Ms. Carlton is an active member and past chair of the board of Start Small Think Big, a nonprofit organization that promotes small business development in New York City’s most underserved communities.
Ms. Carlton received a bachelor’s degree from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University and a master’s degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University.
