Institute For The Future

Institute for the Future is delighted to share the news that our long-time Work + Learn Futures Lab sponsor, colleague, and futures-thinking partner Van Ton-Quinlivan, Executive Vice Chancellor, Workforce & Digital Futures for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office in Sacramento -- will be spending more time at IFTF as our new Executive in Residence.

Over the past few years, Van and others in the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office have been collaborating with IFTF to engage with futures thinking to better understand their institutional preparedness and forge a path for new future-facing offerings. Under her leadership in 2017, IFTF produced Charting New Paths to the Future in the California Community Colleges - a report examining the workforce preparedness turnaround initiative Doing What MATTERS for Jobs and the Economy. And over the course of 2018, IFTF has worked with Van, her team, and individuals from across the sectors and regions of the state to establish a set of design principles to be used as the California Community Colleges embark on a journey to create the 115th community college - a fully online community college designed specifically with stranded working learners in mind. The final results from this process will be published in the coming months.

“Our work with Van and the California Community Colleges has already found innovative ways to equip learners with the skills they’ll need in the new economy, and this new partnership will take that work forward toward more impact,” said Marina Gorbis, IFTF’s executive director. “We’re excited to have Van engage with our team to translate, activate and utilize IFTF’s tools and methods for thinking systematically about the future within California’s educational system.”

Starting today and for the next 3 months (through December 10) Van will be on a special 3-month assignment with IFTF, exploring our tools, methods and research around the future of work, learning, and social cohesion—and how they might be used further not only within the California Community College system, but in the wider public sector within California state.

We are thrilled to have this unprecedented opportunity to work so directly with a current leader in the public sector to explore and implement new pathways for the direct impact for our work.