Josh Carpenter, Ph.D., serves as the Director of Innovation and Economic Opportunity for the City of Birmingham. As founding director of this new department, he is leading a team to execute a vision of making Birmingham a more inclusive economy and a model for resilience in a post-industrial city.
Previously, Josh served as the Director of External Affairs in the Office of the President at UAB where he spearheaded a partnership to secure $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to train disconnected youth for high-demand, high-wage IT jobs in Birmingham.
A Rhodes Scholar, Josh earned his master’s in social policy and doctorate in political economy at the University of Oxford. He has been member of the Aspen Institute’s Inclusive Innovation in American Cities Collaborative, and is currently in the Brookings Institution’s Practitioner’s Network for Economic Inclusion. Josh teaches in the UAB Collat School of Business.