In this episode of the Work in Progress podcast, I'm joined by Brittany Greer, the executive director of Rosie Riveters, a nonprofit that is working to close the gender gap in the STEM workforce. There are an estimated 2.8 million unfilled STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) jobs in this country. Meanwhile, women make up just 28% of the STEM workforce. Since 2016, Brittany Greer has been working to change that. The nonprofit she founded aims to inspire girls aged 8 to 14 from diverse backgrounds to explore careers in the field through hands-on learning kits. "It's all of the mate ..read more

In this episode of the Work in Progress podcast, I’m joined by Sarah Keh, the vice president of corporate social responsibility at Prudential Financial to discuss the company’s $180 million committment to helping opportunity youth find a pathway to good jobs and wealth building. Keh sat down with me to discuss the philanthropy in June at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Opportunity youth are young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who currently are not in formal education or training and are unemployed. There are almost 6 million people who fall into that designation, a number that has grown since ..read more

In this episode of the Work in Progress podcast, I am joined by Vilas Dhar, president, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and a global expert on AI, equity, and how artificial intelligence is shaping our society. We sat down at the Aspen Ideas Festival in June to discuss whether AI is having a positive or negative impact on the workforce. Vilas Dhar calls the release of ChatGPT an important social moment, not a technological one. “AI didn’t start in November of 2022. Researchers, scholars, people like me, have been building AI products for decades,” says Dhar. “AI moved out of the background, out ..read more

In this episode of Work in Progress, I am joined by Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland. We sat down together at the Aspen Ideas Festival last week to talk about what his administration is doing to create economic mobility and opportunity for all its citizens. When it comes to putting people to work in Maryland, Gov. Wes Moore says he embraces the ethos he first learned when he joined the U.S. Army as a teenager: Leave No One Behind. “It’s a great lens on how we should view our work. It’s not just because it’s important psychologically, it’s important for mission accomplishment. It’s a core criteria fo ..read more

In this episode of Work in Progress, I am joined by John Mitchell, president & CEO, IPC International to discuss the increased demand for workers in the semiconductor manufacturing industry and how the group is developing the workforce of the present and the future. Semiconductors are the backbone of the digital economy, powering our cars, planes, medical tech, cybersecurity, our dishwashers and TVs, and they are at the heart of AI. Nearly everything we touch needs a chip, and commercial construction is surging in the U.S., driven in part by federal government investments designed to bring ..read more

In this episode of the Work in Progress podcast, a deeper dive into a new report on how the pandemic changed what lower-wage earners expect from a job, what they are doing to improve their economic mobility, and the impact it is having on the workforce today. One of the tasks of the U.S. Federal Reserve System is to take the pulse of economic conditions to better understand the economic health of the country. Capturing the full picture of today’s labor market means looking beyond the data and understanding the actual experiences of workers and job seekers. A new report from the Fed – Worker Vo ..read more

In this episode of the Work in Progress podcast, we're talking artificial intelligence and education with Rohit Sharma of ETS and John Fillmore of Chegg. For the past few months, we've been hearing that artificial intelligence and machine learning could transform nearly every job on the planet. With the introduction and popularity of ChatGPT, it feels like that transformation might be coming very quickly – some think it might be too quickly. Last month in San Diego, I attended the annual ASU+GSV Summit, a gathering of leaders sharing ideas on transforming society and business around learn ..read more

In this episode of the Work in Progress podcast, I'm joined by Zoe Peterson-Ward, the chief customer officer of Workhuman, and Beverly Jones, host of Jazzed About Work podcast and author of Find Your Happy at Work. How do people thrive in the workplace? Of course, a good-paying job and job security are import. Experts say employees also need meaningful work, a sense of purpose, and a sense of being valued and recognized by their employer and coworkers. And they need room for career and personal growth. The more that an employer can foster that kind of environment and the more a person can make ..read more

In this episode of Work in Progress, Moroni Benally of Aspire Ability and Amber Garrison Duncan of C-BEN join me to discuss the just-announced workforce initiative, the Navajo Nation Talent Marketplace, which will be the first-ever repository of all jobs available on the Navajo reservation and the skills needed to fill them. The Navajo Nation covers a lot of territory – nearly 27,000 square miles in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. There are 253,124 enrolled tribal members with 168,000 individuals (66%) living there on the land. Nearly 36% of Navajo&n ..read more

In this episode of Work in Progress, I am joined by Vilas Dhar, the president of The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, $1.5 billion philanthropy advancing AI and data solutions to create a thriving, equitable, and sustainable future for all. Advances in artificial intelligence are moving faster than our ability to comprehend their implications. Will these technologies enable inclusion and access to opportunity for workers and communities, or will they increase inequity? Dhar sat down with me to discuss these questions earlier this month at the Changemaker Forum, part of the Global Inclusive Grow ..read more