Justin Burch

Justin Archer Burch is the national director of workforce development at Rural LISC. Through Local Initiative Support Corporation, Justin serves rural partners across 49 states and Puerto, helping them identify challenges and opportunities, and delivering the most appropriate support to meet local needs around economic challenges. In 2019, Justin started Rural Works – a new workforce development initiative that leverages the momentum of rural communities to reimagine and redevelop the workforce systems that impact their communities. Rural Works ensures stronger connections between training providers and industry; strengthens pathways that lead to industry-recognized credentials and livable wage employment for rural workers; and highlights the innovation of rural markets to problem solve and foster a 21st century economy.

Justin previously served as Director of Programs at Delta Regional Authority under the Obama Administration and served as the director of the Delta Workforce Funding Collaborative at Foundation for the Mid South. Justin has been named a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Fellow, earned the National Fund for Workforce Solutions Investor Committee Award for Systems Change, and has backboned and championed several initiatives in the South where he lives with his wife, Cameryn Miller, and daughter, Catherine Lawrence.