Areas of Expertise: Nonprofit strategy and management, People Leadership, Fundraising, Policy Advocacy Campaigns, Coalition-building, and Policy Research and Analysis. She is passionate about and practiced in promoting equity and inclusion through public policy change and organizational development.
Brooke DeRenzis is CEO of National Skills Coalition. With over 20 years of experience as a coalition-builder, advocate, and policy expert, she brings a deep, field-informed perspective to NSC’s vision of an America where every person is guaranteed valuable skills training, good jobs, and economic prosperity.
Throughout her career, Brooke has championed policies that expand economic opportunity and equity for working families, amplifying the voices of workers, students, and communities to drive policy innovation and lasting change. Her expertise spans the arenas of federal, state, and local workforce, postsecondary education, economic development, and safety net policy.
Brooke has been at National Skills Coalition since 2014 and has led transformative initiatives that have shaped the organization’s growth and impact. She launched SkillSPAN, the nation’s first network of state workforce coalitions, led high-impact policy campaigns and NSC’s first field-building academies, and guided the development of organization-wide equity initiatives. As National Skills Coalition’s former Chief Strategy Officer, she directed the organization’s policy and advocacy agenda, defined its strategic priorities, and forged key alliances to expand its influence and reach.
Before joining NSC in 2014, Brooke served as Project Director at the DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, where she led advocacy efforts on a broad range of public policy challenges affecting working people and families in the District of Columbia. She has also held research roles at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program.
Brooke holds a master’s in Public Policy from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s from Sarah Lawrence College. She is based in Washington, DC.
