Oct 27, 2021
Join host Karin Norington-Reaves, CEO of the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership, for part one of a two-part conversation about all things manufacturing as we celebrate Manufacturing Month. Joining her are experts in the field, each with their own unique journey in the industry: a community organizer and former Peace Corp member who is now the CEO of a manufacturing innovation center; a CEO who was formerly involved with the criminal justice system and experienced homelessness who finds daily peace of mind in his high-tech manufacturing work; a daughter of immigrants who left a job at a prestigious law firm to follow in her father’s footsteps when the business needed to create a much-needed talent pipeline; and the new president of a manufacturing association who stumbled into the trade after leaving his home of Dublin, Ireland to join an apprenticeship program in the U.S. There is talk of earning 6-figure wages in work that some still associate with “grit and grime,” and exploration of a career ladder that offers equity in the workplace doesn’t necessarily require a 4-year degree.