Areas of Expertise: Workforce policy development and implementation. Aging and long-term care. Racial equity. Future of work.
Robert Espinoza is the incoming Chief Executive Officer (January 1, 2024) of National Skills Coalition, which fights for a national commitment to inclusive, high-quality skills training so that more people have access to a better life, and more local businesses see sustained growth. Since 2000, through expert analysis and technical assistance, broad-based organizing, targeted advocacy, and cutting-edge communications, NSC has changed hundreds of state and federal skills policies that have transformed the lives of workers across the country and grown local businesses and economies.
Robert is a nationally recognized expert and frequent speaker on workforce, aging, long-term care, and equity issues. He has appeared in multiple media outlets, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNN, Forbes, and The Washington Post, and his writing has been published in The Huffington Post, The Hill, and POLITICO, among others. In 2021, he testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor on the need to improve funding nationwide for workforce interventions in direct care.
Prior to the Coalition, Robert was Executive Vice President of Policy at PHI, the nation’s leading organization on the direct care workforce, where he oversaw its national advocacy and public education division on the direct care workforce. In this role, he also contributed vision and leadership to PHI’s organizational strategy, marketing and business development, and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Robert also spent 10 years in the LGBTQ+ rights movement, focusing on aging, economic security, and racial equity.
Robert also serves as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and on the board of directors for the National Academy of Social Insurance, the FrameWorks Institute, and the American Society on Aging, where he serves as Chair Elect. In 2010, he co-founded the Diverse Elders Coalition, a historic, federal coalition focused on improving aging supports for communities of color and LGBTQ+ communities.
Robert received his MPA from New York University, and his BA in English and BS in Journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he graduated summa cum laude. He is a 2014 graduate of the Rockwood Leadership Institute, and lives in Jersey City, New Jersey with his husband, Michael, and their two dogs, Murphy and Gracie.
