By tearing the paper ceiling, companies create opportunity for STARs – people Skilled Through Alternative Routes – by eliminating the need for a college degree.
Allison Danielsen, executive director of BigFuture Careers and Partnerships at the College Board, says her organization is excited to be a part of the campaign from Opportunity@Work and the Ad Council. “I do think working with organizations who have connections to talent across their lifetimes is going to be helpful for employers to see where they could actually intervene and support and cultivate their future workforce.”
She says, “This campaign isn’t about making college degrees the enemy. It’s about making sure that there’s validity and quality information that is available from other credentials and skills, and that those are recognized for individuals.”
The organization recently launched its multiple pathways hub. Danielsen explains, “College is one option in the set of potential options for individuals. It’s not the only pathway that should lead you to economic opportunity.”
She says the organization is committed to making sure more students have access to opportunity. “The College Board is a more than a hundred-year-old mission-driven nonprofit education organization. Many people know us for our AP programs, our SAT and PSAT assessments. We reach more than seven million students a year and we have a new focus through our BigFuture division on helping every student take the right first step after high school, even if that’s not directly into a four-year program”
She explains the organization’s navigation resources help students understand the “alignment between the quantitative and literacy skills we measure [on the SAT and the PSAT] and what’s required to be successful in the workforce.”
Learn more about The Paper Ceiling.
Learn more about Opportunity@Work.
Learn more about the Ad Council.
Learn more about BigFuture Careers and Partnerships.
Learn more about the BigFuture Career Quiz.
Learn more about BigFuture’s Multiple Pathways hub.
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Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
