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Cynthia Murphy 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 at a time when the mills were closing and saw first-hand 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.

Education:

• University of Maine, B.A.
• Simmons College, M.S.
• Georgetown University, Nonprofit Management Certificate