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Today, we are in the midst of a youth career crisis. The youth unemployment rate in the U.S. is more than twice the overall national rate. And as the economy evolves to require a more skilled workforce, career and technical education systems need to do better to meet the needs of employers.

Right now, “only one in three Americans in their mid-twenties today has graduated from college, and only 10 percent have a degree from a two-year college or the right training or certificate to get a job requiring technical skills that pays above the living wage.”

To help prepare young people for the high-skill jobs needed to compete in the global economy, Head of Workforce Initiatives Chauncey Lennon says JPMorgan Chase has invested $75 million into a New Skills for Youth initiative.

MORE: New Skills for Youth: Investing $75M Today to Build Tomorrow’s Economy

As part of the initiative, JPMorgan Chase will award $20 million in grants to 10 U.S. states that are implementing long-term career readiness education programs that align with the needs of area employers.

On the day the announcement which states would receive funding was made, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon held a forum to discuss career education and economic opportunity featuring Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), co-Chair of the Senate CTE Caucus; Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), Founding Member of the Opportunity Coalition; House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA); Governor Mary Fallin (R-OK); Governor Gina Raimondo (D-RI); and Michael R. Bloomberg, Founder, Bloomberg LP & Bloomberg Philanthropies. Click here to watch.

Through a rigorous review process by an independent advisory committee, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Wisconsin had demonstrated the strongest plans to work across sectors to transform how they design and develop career preparedness education programs and provide young people with the skills they need to compete for high-skill, well-paying jobs.

Those states will each receive $2 million over three years to expand and improve career pathways for all high school students. The global financial services firm will document and study the level of success of each program so that educators, policymakers, training providers and employers around the world can identify and replicate the most promising approaches.

“The number of young people who graduate from high school without the necessary skills to compete is one of the greatest moral and economic inequities of our time,” said Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase. “These investments will help states build career education programs that align with the needs of growing industries and give young people a chance to succeed.”

Click here to see more on the initiative and its goals.

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.