WIP SXSW EDU Invisible Barrier (3)

Tearing through the invisible barrier to economic mobility

A conversation with Patti Constantakis of Walmart.org, Bridgette Gray of Opportunity@Work, and Kenny Nguyen of ThreeSixtyEight
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In this episode of the Work in Progress podcast from SXSW EDU in Austin, I am joined by Patti Constantakis of Walmart.org, Bridgette Gray of Opportunity@Work, and Kenny Nguyen of ThreeSixtyEight in a discussion about how to create better access to good jobs for people without a bachelor’s degree.

A four-year college degree can be a ticket to a good job and a great career, but it’s not for everyone. In fact, it’s not for most workers.

More than half of U.S. workers do not have a four-year bachelor’s degree. They’re what’s called STARs –Skilled Through Alternative Routes, and they get their start through community college, work experience, military service and credentialing.

But too many employers still use a bachelor’s degree as a barrier to entry, depriving many STARs from higher-paying jobs and career growth and depriving the companies of top talent.

Last week I attended the SXSW EDU conference where I moderated a panel on The Invisible Barrier to Economic Mobility. The conversation focused on how STARs can Tear the Paper Ceiling created by employers who value a degree over skills when it comes to hiring and promotion.

Joining me on stage in Austin were Patti Constantakis from Walmart.org, Bridgette Gray from Opportunity @Work, and Kenny Nguyen of ThreeSixtyEight.

You can listen to our conversation here, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode 264: Patti Constantakis from Walmart.org, Bridgette Gray from Opportunity @Work, and Kenny Nguyen of ThreeSixtyEight
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Executive Producers: Joan Lynch and Melissa Panzer
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4.0
Download the transcript for this podcast here.
You can check out all the other podcasts at this link: Work in Progress podcasts

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.