Square Pizza Podcast #135 - Danielle Frazier, Special Assistant to the City Manager for Workforce Development - City of Charlotte
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The Square Pizza podcast focuses on the intersection of education, innovation, and diversity. We host and interview leaders doing incredible work around the country to ensure all students have access to an equitable education. The Square Pizza podcast is hosted by SchermCo, a social-impact implementation firm that offers strategic implementation and project management services to schools and education-focused organizations across the country.
On this episode of the Square Pizza Pod, Greg sits down with Danielle Frazier, Special Assistant to the City Manager for Workforce Development in the City of Charlotte and longtime girls flag football coach. They talk about what it really takes to build pathways to good jobs, why a one cent sales tax for transportation is actually a mobility and opportunity strategy, and how a career that started in one local organization has grown into national leadership.
From coaching high school flag football and renovating bathrooms with her dad to helping design Charlotte’s first Office of Workforce Development and chairing the United States Conference of Mayors Workforce Development Council, Danielle shares a grounded, hopeful view of what is possible when cities, schools, employers, and residents pull in the same direction.
In this episode, you will hear:
How growing up in a football family and coaching girls flag football shapes Danielle’s leadership with young people and teams
A clear, accessible definition of workforce development and how Charlotte’s new Office of Workforce Development and strategic plan are bringing that vision to life
What Charlotte’s historic transportation and mobility investment could mean for thousands of future jobs in construction, skilled trades, professional services, and small businesses
How the Education to Employment initiative with Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools is creating direct pathways from high school graduation into full-time roles with the City of Charlotte
Why employer engagement and emerging tools like artificial intelligence are becoming essential to a healthy, future-ready workforce ecosystem
If you care about economic mobility, public investment, or connecting young people and adults to meaningful work in growing cities, this is a conversation you will want to hear.
