Description

Improving job quality doesn’t just benefit workers; it can also strengthen small businesses themselves and the broader communities they serve. Yet, many small business owners lack the resources and knowledge needed to improve the quality of their jobs. Trusted partners, like community development financial institutions (CDFIs), can make a meaningful difference.

Through its Shared Success demonstration, the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program has had the opportunity to learn about the range of strategies CDFI business advisors have employed to encourage job quality among their small business clients. EOP’s job quality advising guide, “Building Shared Success: A Guide to Small Business Job Quality Advising for CDFIs,” was developed in collaboration with business advisors based on this experience. Centered on business value, this guide provides tools, resources, and success stories that can help organizations working with small businesses coach clients on potential job quality improvements that can also enhance business resilience.

This webinar, which EOP hosted on June 26, 2025, features highlights from the guide, as well as insights from CDFI leaders about their approaches to building job quality advising into their work. It features opening remarks from the Aspen Institute’s Maureen Conway and Bryn Morgan, followed by a panel discussion with Amanda Blondeau (Northern Initiatives), Cynthia Murphy (Coastal Enterprises, Inc.), and Delphine Ntegeye (African Development Center).

For highlights from this discussion, subscribe to EOP’s YouTube channel. Or subscribe to our podcast to listen on the go.

Resources

Blogs, Articles, Tools, and Publications

• Morgan, Bryn, et al. “Building Shared Success: A Guide to Small Business Job Quality Advising for CDFIs.” The Aspen Institute. November 15, 2024. 
• “Amanda Blondeau, Job Quality Fellow.” The Aspen Institute. May 21, 2019.
• “Good Job Inventory: Understand and Measure the Quality of Jobs You Offer.” Northern Initiatives and the Aspen Institute. June 2025.
• “New Hire Checklist: Supporting your Employees from the Start” Northern Initiatives and the Aspen Institute. June 2025.
• “Cost of Turnover Tool.” Coastal Enterprises, Inc.

Podcasts

• Elevating Job Quality — Job Quality and Cultural Context
• Elevating Job Quality — How To Talk About Job Quality with Small Businesses  

Websites and Additional Resources

• African Development Center — Homepage
• Coastal Enterprises, Inc. — Homepage
• Northern Initiatives — Homepage
• Shared Success: Advancing Small Business Job Quality and Equity
• Resource Library | Initiate
• June Job Quality Advising Guide Webinar Slides — Google Slides
• Building Shared Success: A Guide to Small Business Job Quality Advising for CDFIs — Feedback Form

Speakers

Opening Remarks

Maureen Conway

Vice President, The Aspen Institute; Executive Director, Economic Opportunities Program

Maureen Conway serves as vice president at the Aspen Institute and executive director of the Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program (EOP). EOP works to expand individuals’ opportunities to connect to quality work, start businesses, and build economic stability that provides the freedom to pursue opportunity. Maureen founded EOP’s Workforce Strategies Initiative and has headed up workforce research at the Aspen Institute since 1999. Maureen also curates a public discussion series at the Aspen Institute, Opportunity in America, which brings together voices from business, labor, policy, human services, media, academia, and others to discuss the challenges experienced by many in today’s labor markets and new ideas for addressing these challenges. In addition, Maureen oversees EOP’s leadership development programs, which connect innovators, both within communities and from across the country, to peers working to help low- and moderate-income Americans access opportunity.

Panelists

Amanda Blondeau

Chief Strategy Officer, Northern Initiatives

Amanda serves as chief strategy officer for Northern Initiatives, a community development financial institution (CDFI) providing loans and business services to Michigan entrepreneurs. With over 20 years in the CDFI industry, she contributes to strategic planning and organizational effectiveness initiatives that support innovation and growth. During her time as director of business services, Amanda helped develop Initiate, Northern Initiatives’ online business education portal that aims to provide support to borrowers. This platform has been adopted by other CDFIs and entrepreneurial support organizations. Amanda has progressed through multiple roles at Northern Initiatives and has completed the Aspen Institute’s Job Quality Fellowship (2018-19) and Emerging Leaders of Microbusiness programs. She currently serves on the Board of the CDFI Coalition and as a policy committee member for the Michigan CDFI Coalition.

Cynthia Murphy

Senior Program Director, Workforce, Coastal Enterprises, Inc.

Cynthia is the senior director, Workforce Solutions at Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI), a Maine-based community development financial institution with a mission to build just, vibrant and climate-resilient futures for people and communities in Maine and rural regions by integrating finance, business expertise and policy solutions in ways that make the economy work more equitably.

Cynthia leads CEI’s Good Jobs work, expanding opportunities for marginalized job seekers and helping employers create a people strategy that delivers competitive advantage. Working individually with business leaders, Cynthia crafts a multi-year workforce roadmap that is mutually beneficial: good for the business and their workers.

Cynthia also leads CEI’s child care sector work, including policy advocacy and our signature program – the Child Care Business Lab, a cohort-based program that helps people start child care businesses by integrating small business start-up education with guidance on how to deliver high-quality child care programming and coaching through the licensing process.

Prior to joining CEI, Cynthia led commercial operations for subsidiaries of Thomson Reuters, a global information business. She had the great fortune to co-lead a joint venture start-up in London, then work on a turnaround team for a North Carolina-based business that had been in decline for a decade, and then grow a Detroit-based business faster than the market rate.

Cynthia grew up in Lewiston, Maine, at a time when the mills were closing and saw firsthand how important it is to harness the collective strength of a community to enable people to reach their full potential and to stimulate the local economy.

Delphine Ntegeye

Loan Officer/Business Advisor, African Development Center

Delphine Ntegeye is a Business Loan Officer and Advisor at the African Development Center (ADC), a nonprofit dedicated to addressing disparities faced by African immigrants. In her role, she provides access to capital, technical assistance, and financial guidance to underserved entrepreneurs across Minnesota. Her work has given her deep insight into the economic, educational, and social barriers impacting African immigrants and other underrepresented communities. Delphine is committed to advancing equitable opportunities by supporting small businesses and improving job quality through community-driven solutions.

Moderator

Bryn Morgan

Senior Research Associate, Economic Opportunities Program

Bryn Morgan is a senior research associate at the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. Bryn is passionate about how research can be leveraged to address inequality and advance economic equity efforts. Before joining the Institute, she completed a Master of Science in Gender, Development, and Globalization at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research interests centered around investigating intended and unintended consequences of policies, from a feminist economist perspective. She particularly focused on how neoliberal conditions have intersected with gendered violence, precarity, and political extremism. During her studies, Bryn also worked for a nonprofit aimed at addressing domestic violence, and she aided in research efforts for a volunteer project on violence against women abroad. Prior to graduate school, Bryn worked in the sociology department of Colorado College, contributing to research on racial bias in local family court cases and developing a youth community organizing program. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Colorado College. Bryn enjoys cooking plant-based food, weightlifting, playing board games, and doing crossword puzzles.

Learn More

About Shared Success

Good jobs and strong businesses are vital to the well-being of communities across the country. Yet millions of workers struggle with poor-quality jobs, and small business owners often struggle to find and retain the employees they need. Shared Success, a project of the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program (EOP), shows how building better jobs can uplift both sides at the same time. Supported by a $12 million investment from the Gates Foundation, EOP partnered with 11 community lenders to integrate job quality programming into their small business support services, supporting the needs of employees while helping small businesses succeed.