Heather McKay

Senior Vice President of Employer Engagement

Strada Education Foundation

Heather McKay is the senior vice president of employer engagement at Strada Education Foundation and executive director of the Strada Institute for the Future of Work. McKay brings nearly two decades of experience working at the intersection of research and practice, having most recently served as the inaugural executive director of the Virginia Office of Education Economics. In her role at the Virginia Office of Education Economics, a part of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), McKay led Virginia’s efforts to understand the pathways from education to work. Prior to VEDP, McKay was the founding director of the Education and Employment Research Center at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations (NJ), where she worked with nonprofits, educational institutions and systems, and government agencies to help them develop, implement, and examine the impact of new initiatives at the intersection of education and work.