Community and industry partnerships are key to long-term career success, says Kashif Henderson, executive director, Neighborhood Learning Alliance in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His organization is part of that community collaboration, providing K-12 students with enrichment services and career opportunities.
He says, “We really focus on how do we support family, students, and communities alongside schools to provide students the best chances possible to reach their dreams.”
Henderson joined WorkingNation’s editor-in-chief Ramona Schindelheim for WorkingNation Overheard at College Board Forum 2024 in Austin, Texas.
He says, “When we think about our industry partners, it’s really essential to think about the health of the region. We’re going to go say, ‘Here is our talent and how do we keep the talent that we have right here – be able to stay here in the city and meet the needs of the industry while meeting their needs and dreams.”
Henderson highlights one of the organization’s partners, “We partner with Partner4Work in the Pittsburgh region. They’re our workforce development board for Allegheny and Pittsburgh. We are one of their larger providers for learn-and-earn summer programs.”
The young people spend half of their day focused on academic skills and during the second half of the day, they are afforded internship experiences.
Henderson explains that trust is a factor in the organization’s outreach, “When we really think about our recruitment model, it’s families and students recruiting other peers in their communities to participate in the program.
“It’s school counselors and teachers who are recommending students. We have the support of district leaders who will help market the program. And then on top of that with the industry partners and the university partners who are on board alongside of us, to just make sure that we can provide as many opportunities as possible to our youth.”
Learn more about Neighborhood Learning Alliance.
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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.
