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In this episode of Work in Progress, we discuss the impact of closing the digital divide, how it can connect learners, workers, and jobseekers to new opportunities for economic mobility, and how it could can new jobs around the country.

Joining me in the conversation recorded at the Connected America conference in Dallas are Gary Bolton, president & CEO, Fiber Broadband Association; Eric Frederick, chief connectivity officer, State of Michigan; and Robin Olds, broadband program officer, Cisco.

Millions of Americans lack reliable or affordable broadband access, which puts them at a disadvantage for education, work, and health care. Closing the digital divide is critical to enable economic mobility and growth, especially in rural and underserved areas. Without reliable, affordable broadband access, many will continue to be left behind, according to my guests.

The federal government has allocated over $42 billion to help states build broadband infrastructure and create adoption/training programs. For example, Michigan is using these funds to connect unserved communities, while also focusing on digital inclusion by making broadband affordable and teaching people how to use it.

Expanding broadband will create economic opportunities, boost rural GDP, and enable access to remote work and telehealth. However, there is a shortage of trained fiber optic technicians needed to build the infrastructure. Companies like Cisco are helping to fill this workforce gap by providing training programs and working with communities and service providers to deploy broadband solutions.

Listen to the conversation here or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find our podcasts on the Work in Progress YouTube channel.

Episode 362: Closing the Digital Divide with Gary Bolton, Eric Frederick, and Robin Olds
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4
Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode here
Work in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here

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.