Ruth Finkelstein

Your financial health can put your physical health at risk

In this interview for our An Equitable Recovery series with CWI Labs: Healthy aging expert Ruth Finkelstein
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Nonprofit CWI Labs, whose mission is to help underserved communities overcome workforce entry barriers, has partnered with WorkingNation to address the issue in a series of interviews for our An Equitable Recovery series.

We have invited experts in workforce development, labor economics, aging, racial equity and policy to discuss the challenges before our Nation. And, most importantly, to introduce thought-provoking solutions.

In this third of four interviews, Ruth Finkelstein, the executive director of the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging, sits down with Ramona Schindelheim, the editor-in-chief for WorkingNation, to talk about the obstacles facing older job seekers, particularly those from underserved communities.

Our nation’s labor force is increasingly dependent on older workers who will soon represent the largest single segment—25%—of our labor force. After the last recession, older job seekers only had a 40% chance of finding a job within 18 months.

Ruth and Ramona discuss how COVID-19 fears and misinformation complicate efforts to include older workers in our recovery, and what employers and policy makers can do to overcome these challenges.

They also turned their focus to the troubling issue of low-income workers facing a greater risk of contracting COVID-19 for numerous reasons, from their need to work in public-facing jobs and the greater incidence of underlying health conditions.

In Case You Missed the Other Videos in the Series:

In this second interview in the series, Julia Pollak, labor economist for ZipRecruiter, sits down with series host Ramona Schindelheim, editor-in-chief of WorkingNation, to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on small business owners, particularly those of color.

Among the insights: minority owners are less likely to ask for, and receive, financial assistance, leaving them at risk of losing their businesses. Julia and Ramona also look at the overall impact of the pandemic on the economy and the workforce, and at what it takes to heal the damage.

In the first interview in our series, Malcom Glenn, the 2020 CWI Labs Senior Fellow and the director of public affairs at Better.com, joins Ramona to discuss the challenges facing Black job seekers and how employers and policy makers can address those challenges in the short-term and the long-term.

You can read more about the series here: CWI Labs: An Equitable Recovery

Download the transcripts:
CWI Labs: An Equitable Recovery, An interview with Ruth Finkelstein
CWI Labs: An Equitable Recovery, An Interview with Julia Pollak
CWI Labs: An Equitable Recovery, An Interview with Malcom Glenn

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

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.