A word from the Director
No�l Harmon, National Director of the Talent Dividend |
Monday, September 24, 2012
Greetings!
I can hardly believe that four months have gone by since I started in my role as National Director of the Talent Dividend at CEOs for Cities. In that time we've had a lot exciting momentum around the National Talent Dividend Network and Prize Competition!
In July, CEOs for Cities, in partnership with Issue Media Group and Civic Commons, launched the National Talent Dividend Network web magazine and engagement platform. We've featured five cities per month including Detroit, Cleveland, Houston, Milwaukee, and Memphis in July, and Baton Rouge, Dayton, El Paso, Tulsa, and Wichita in August. Looking ahead to October, we'll feature Chattanooga, Fargo, Nashville, and Tampa.
I'd like to thank Bill Moses and Caroline Altman Smith at Kresge for their interview in the launch issue in July, and SUNY Chancellor (and CEOs for Cities board chair) Nancy Zimpher for the interview she gave for the August issue! A big thank you goes out to Joe Cortright for giving an entire week of his time to participating in an on-going discussion focused on data and the Talent Dividend metrics on
The Civic Commons.
We will begin planning for our spring newsletters soon, if you have an idea for an article you'd like to see, or you'd like your city to be featured please let us know! You can contact me or Catherine Bittar, Communications Associate at CEOs for Cities at
[email protected].
It was a pleasure to talk and meet with so many of you this summer! It's been great to be able to connect via phone with almost everyone; and very special thanks to Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, St. Louis, and the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education who have all hosted me at some point this summer!
I've also had the opportunity to see many of you this summer at various events across the country including the National College Access Network "Power of Place" convening in June here in Washington, D.C.; the Institute for a Competitive Workforce "Leaders and Laggards: A State by State Report Card," also in D.C.; and the Lumina "Transforming Communities Through Higher Education" Convening in Indianapolis in July. What great opportunities to learn and share with one another!
Finally, the Talent Dividend was in the news this summer! We had five blogs/op-eds published in the Huffington Post. You can
read all of them here.
If you have an idea for a blog or would like to write with me, I'd love to do it, so please let me know!
Updates and Announcements
As we head into fall I'll be providing updates in each issue of the Talent Dividend Network web magazine. Updates for September 2012:
- I look forward to traveling to Greensboro, Detroit, St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Madison, Boston, Nashville, Indianapolis, Dayton, Wichita, and El Paso (and maybe more!) this fall! If you have an event coming up you'd like me to attend, please let me know as soon as possible.
- We will release updated enrollment and attainment reports for each of the 57 cities competing in the Talent Dividend Prize Competition early this fall.
- We are also pleased to provide each city with a demographic report with college attainment disaggregated by race and ethnicity, also this fall.
- We urge you to review your reports thoroughly and utilize the data to support the work you are doing. Please never hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns.
- We are busy working on other opportunities and resources for you in the coming months so stay tuned!
Warm regards,
Noël Harmon