Board of Trustees
Earl Buford
Title
President, CAEL
Education
- BA History, University of Wisconsin
About Earl Buford
Earl Buford is president of CAEL, where he oversees the national nonprofit organization’s work to improve education-to-career pathways for adult learners. He leads CAEL’s mission of providing solutions to promote sustainable and equitable economic growth in collaboration with workforce and economic developers, post-secondary educators, employers, industry groups, foundations, and other mission-aligned groups.
Previously, Buford was CEO of Partner4Work in Pittsburgh, where he revitalized the public workforce system, and Employ Milwaukee, where he gained national recognition for a sector-based approach to workforce development. He helped found Midwest Urban Strategies, a consortium of urban workforce boards cultivating talent development in partnership with major cities and the U.S. Department of Labor. Buford also served as a leader of WRTP/BIG-STEP, one of the nation’s first workforce intermediaries. A board member for several organizations, he has advised on national and regional workforce strategies, including serving on then Vice President Joe Biden’s Task Force on Effective Workforce Strategies while serving on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s Task Force on Minority Unemployment.
With extensive experience in designing workforce training aligned with labor market needs and federal workforce policy, Buford has led initiatives that link economic and workforce development across communities.
