Barbara Dyer

Barbara Dyer is a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Executive Director of the Good Companies, Good Jobs Initiative at MIT Sloan School.

Dyer focuses her attention at the intersection of people, profit, and technology. As Executive Director of the Good Companies, Good Jobs Initiative within Sloan’s Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER), Dyer is working to facilitate the cross-fertilization of ideas about making work work for everyone in the 21st century.

She has been instrumental in designing and teaching two  MBA courses: People and Profits - Shaping Work of the Future; and Bridging the American Divides - Work, Community and Culture (aka USA Lab).

Her recent articles and publications include:

“How Biden Can Heal America’s Divisions at Work.” Kochan, Thomas, and Dyer, Barbara, The Hill, November 25, 2020.

“A Case Study of Integrating Technology and Work Systems at Kaiser Permanente’s Health Hubs.” Arora, Anubhav, Dyer, Barbara, and Kochan, Thomas. MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future working paper, November 4, 2020.

“Six Labor Policies We Need Now.” Kelly, Erin L., Castilla, Emilio J., Kochan, Thomas A., Dyer, Barbara, Osterman, Paul, and Wilmers, Nathan, Boston Review, September 4, 2020.

“What We Owe Essential Workers.” Kochan, Thomas, and Dyer, Barbara, The Hill, May 1, 2020.

“Giving a Voice—and Support—to American Workers.”  Dyer, Barbara, and Kochan, Thomas, Aspen Institute blog, April 15, 2020.

Dyer, Barbara, Foreword to Creating Good Jobs: An Industry-Based Strategy. Osterman, Paul (Ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2020.

 “Why Your Hard Work Isn’t Paying Off the Way It Used To.” Kochan, Thomas and Dyer, Barbara. Boston Globe Magazine, June 18, 2019.

“Worker Voice in America’s Working Future.” Dyer, Barbara, Good Companies, Good Jobs Initiative at MIT Sloan digest, 2019.

“A Dance With Technology: Automation and Tomorrow’s Jobs.” Dyer, Barbara, Good Companies, Good Jobs Initiative at MIT Sloan digest, 2018.

Prior to joining the MIT faculty, Dyer was president and CEO of The Hitachi Foundation. Under her leadership, the Foundation was an influential force in bringing focus to the role of business in society. She was instrumental in shaping major national collaborative philanthropic initiatives that received high honors proffered by the Council on Foundations, including the Critical Impact and the Distinguished Grantmaker awards.

Dyer’s extensive career in public policy included serving as special assistant to the Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior; director of policy studies with the Council of Governors’ Policy Advisors; an affiliate of the National Governors’ Association; deputy executive director of the Western Regional Office of the Council of State Governments; and founding director of the National Academy of Public Administration’s Alliance for Redesigning Government. Earlier in her career she served as executive director of a community nonprofit organization in Alameda County, California, and helped to launch an experimental school within a public high school as a teacher in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Dyer has been a trustee of Clark University and was a member the American University School of Public Affairs Dean’s Advisory Council. She also cofounded and was the first chair of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions.

She is a graduate of Clark University and the John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government.