Ebonee Horn
Ebonee Horn is a workforce and education strategist, scholar-practitioner, and higher education leader with more than a decade of experience designing and scaling education-to-employment initiatives. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Education in Higher Education Leadership at Maryville University of Saint Louis and brings a strong foundation in career and technical education, workforce systems, and student success. Her professional journey began with a brief experience in law school before transitioning into higher education in 2016, where she discovered her passion for workforce development and advocacy beyond the courtroom. As a first-generation college graduate, her work is deeply personal and rooted in expanding access and opportunity for underrepresented learners.
Throughout her career, Ebonee has led and supported statewide and multi-institutional initiatives across higher education, state agencies, and mission-driven organizations. She has held leadership roles with the State of Alabama and Miles College, where she managed federally funded programs, built employer and campus partnerships, and increased student participation in internships and postsecondary pathways. As Partnerships Manager at National Apprentice Based University, she collaborates with K–12 districts to expand sustainable teacher pipelines through innovative, job-embedded degree models. Known for her operational rigor and systems thinking, she excels at translating strategy into execution—clarifying scope, aligning stakeholders, tracking outcomes, and ensuring initiatives are both human-centered and structurally sound.
In addition to her institutional leadership, Ebonee is the founder of The Ebonee Edge™, a consulting and transformational coaching brand serving HBCUs, government agencies, and mission-driven organizations. Her consulting work focuses on equitable workforce and economic development strategy, employer engagement, and student-centered pathway design, while her coaching practice supports women navigating leadership strain and organizational misalignment. Active in community service and educational advocacy, she volunteers her time to causes centered on education, workforce development, and community improvement. Whether in the classroom, boardroom, or community, Ebonee is driven by a commitment to clarity, shared accountability, and sustainable impact.
• Social and Behavioral Research - Basic/Refresher
• 15 Secrets Successful People Know about Time Management (getAbstract Summary)
• Building Better Routines (2020)
• Train the Trainer
• 2-Day Instructional Design Workshop
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace Certificate
• Maryville University of Saint Louis - EdD
• American Association of University Women
• Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated
• Big Brother Big Sister
• Christian Education
What do you attribute your success to?
I would attribute my success to my community and a personal belief in perseverance, knowing that what I do not only represents me or my parents, but it represents where I'm from - a small town in Alabama. I often meet people who may have never heard of Gadsden before, so I always think that when I'm working and having these conversations with people, I tell them I'm from Gadsden, Alabama. If they've never heard of that place, I can be the representative to say that if they meet someone else from there, they'll remember Ebony from Gadsden and hopefully have had a positive interaction with me.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received came from my first boss at Job Corps, who taught me to leave people, places, and things better than you found them. This principle has guided all of my work in higher education and workforce development. Working with that program, which serves underrepresented young people between the ages of 16 and 24, I spent a great deal of time with students in my earlier roles. I had the opportunity to get to know them and learn about their backgrounds as they navigated the program, and that advice from my first boss about leaving things better than I found them became foundational to how I approach my work with every person I encounter.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
First of all, think about what drives you and how what drives you and what you're interested in can be a positive reinforcement to those around you. Whether you're working in education or in a creative field, think about how what you do can make your space a better place. Even if it seems like something that everyone else is not doing, if you definitely see the positives in it and how you can help someone, continue to pursue it with your full heart. And if you have to take a break from pursuing that, or you have to maybe do something that is more lucrative but not as much of a passion - something more traditional - still work on your passion. Still hold on to that, because what's in your heart is definitely important, and how you start is not always how you finish.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenges in my field right now are political influences and navigating topics that might be polarizing. I think we need to focus on how to make certain topics not so controversial and focus on the heart of assisting people. A lot of funding for higher education and workforce development can be tied to polarizing topics such as DEI, whether that is for gender, race, or other factors. I think the ultimate way to navigate that is finding common ground and understanding what is really the root of the issue - what are you actually trying to do with the program? If it's tied to specific funding, we need to ask what is this actually trying to do and how will it help the community. That way, people can maybe think about putting their differences aside. Another pressing issue is technology, particularly for higher education - how is higher education going to navigate AI? This means equipping students to use AI in their fields and academics in an ethical way, and also figuring out how the field of education is going to catch up and stay on target with these trending changes.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me are honoring others, and particularly what I like to live by in all the work that I do is, whether it is a person, place, or thing, my goal is to leave it better than I found it. When I started out working in the higher education and workforce development space with a program called Job Corps, which serves underrepresented young people between the ages of 16 and 24, I spent a great deal of time with the students I worked with in my earlier roles. I had the opportunity to get to know them and learn about their backgrounds as they navigated the program. That was one of the main things I learned from my first boss in that organization - to leave people better than you found them.