Brent Orrell is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, specializing in job training and workforce development with a special focus on disconnected and disadvantaged populations, including youth, people with criminal records, ex-military, and individuals with physical or mental limitations. Recently, he has focused on the workforce opportunities and challenges resulting from generative AI and automation, as well as strategies for improving economic mobility in rural, redeveloping, and non-metropolitan areas.

Since 2021, Mr. Orrell has led the Workforce Futures Initiative, a research collaboration of AEI, the Brookings Institution, and the Harvard Kennedy School Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy. The initiative has provided a forum for researchers and practitioners to discuss and evaluate evidence and develop innovative workforce policy on issues related to the performance of the federal-state Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), community colleges, sector-based job training, and strategies for improving the quality, relevance, and reliability of labor market information.

Before joining AEI, Mr. Orrell worked in the executive and legislative branches of the US government for 22 years. President George W. Bush nominated him to lead the Employment and Training Administration of the US Department of Labor, and he served as deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Administration for Children and Families.