Christopher Anderson has been named the new Senior Manager of Professional Development in the Office of Member and Chapter Development at SkillsUSA, the leading workforce development organization for students. Anderson previously served as Chief Operating Officer with SkillsUSA Illinois. Prior to his COO role, he also held the roles of Associate Executive Director and Director, Offices of Education and Conference Management.

In this national role with SkillsUSA, Anderson will lead the development and delivery of professional learning experiences for educators across the country, with a focus on supporting advisors, improving instruction, and aligning with SkillsUSA’s mission, according to the organization. He brings more than 15 years of experience with SkillsUSA, where in a state capacity he oversaw membership and workforce program expansion, statewide educator training, led major events like the state championships, and supported thousands of students and teachers.

Anderson recently participated in the 60th Annual SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference (NLSC) held June 24-28 in Atlanta, Ga. The event, dubbed as the nation’s largest showcase of skilled trades, gathered more than 18,000 students, teachers, education leaders, and representatives from 850 national corporations, trade associations, businesses and labor unions.

With nonprofit and corporate leadership experience in workforce development, corporate engagement, and educational/training programming gained in those positions, Anderson has demonstrated success in securing and managing multimillion-dollar grant funding, executing high-impact apprenticeship initiatives, and is skilled in leading high-performing teams and implementing industry- aligned career development programs, Anderson leverages data-driven strategies to drive organizational growth and sustainability.

SkillsUSA serves more than 442,000 students and instructors in middle schools, high schools and college/postsecondary institutions in every state and three U.S. territories. SkillsUSA has served more than 15 million annual members since its founding in 1965. SkillsUSA programming covers 130 trade, technical and skilled service occupations, and the organization is recognized by the U.S. departments of Education and Labor as integral to career and technical education and a successful model of employer-driven youth development training.

Anderson participated in a workforce focused session at the 2025 Associated Equipment Dealers (AED) Summit in Orlando, Fl., which focused on ways agriculture equipment dealerships and OEMs can leverage the resources of SkillsUSA and its statewide organizations during “Developing a Sustainable Pipeline through Apprenticeships,” which included Eric Hill, CEO of the Youth Workforce Development Foundation.

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