ASU alum honored for building Chandler’s workforce pipeline
Workforce Practitioner of the Year Chandler Escalante created the Chandler Career Center, connecting employers with students and job seekers across the city
Chandler Escalante (left) meeting with a community member during a Chandler Career Center event. Photo courtesy Chandler Escalante/city of Chandler
Chandler Escalante, an alum of Arizona State University’s Rob Walton College of Global Futures, was named the Workforce Practitioner of the Year at the Economic Development Distinguished by Excellence Awards annual spring conference organized by the Arizona Association for Economic Development.
AAED promotes responsible economic development through education, advocacy and collaboration. This award recognizes Escalante’s impact on the city of Chandler community workforce through the development of the Chandler Career Center.
When Escalante first joined the city of Chandler team, his current position as workforce development project manager for the Economic Development Division did not exist. Equipped with skills developed within the Rob Walton College of Global Futures and his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer, Escalante spearheaded the development of the city’s awarded workforce development program.
The platform, launched in April 2024, aims to connect both ends of Chandler’s talent supply chain through a virtual workforce development platform designed to connect Chandler-based employers with students and job seekers. The employers represented on the platform make up the targeted industry clusters of advanced manufacturing, aviation and aerospace, health care, IT and software development, and many more.
“Our goal is to better connect both ends of the local talent supply chain to ultimately get the right people hired into the right jobs at the right time,” Escalante said.
"(The platform) has also allowed our economic development team at the city of Chandler to maintain consistent and open communication with employers, better understand their hiring needs, and address talent bottlenecks by connecting businesses with local educational institutions.”
The Chandler Career Center currently hosts 140 Chandler companies utilizing the platform to connect with talent, 1,500 uniquely registered job seekers and over 1,900 job postings on behalf of employers.
Escalante’s pioneering of this rapidly growing workforce platform has also reduced the administrative burden of Chandler employers, notably small and midsized local businesses, by providing a personal service of posting positions on behalf of employers.
Escalante says his educational background prepared him with the skills needed to develop and execute a program like this that serves the public.
“Much of my undergraduate educational experience focused on developing a multicultural understanding of business and a desire to learn more about how different cultures and economies have evolved over the last several centuries and how they continue to shape today’s global economy,” he said.
After COVID-19 disrupted his service in the Peace Corps' Community Economic Development sector in Costa Rica, Escalante decided to pursue a Master of Science in global technology and development at ASU’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society to further expand his skillset.
“I wanted to better understand the relationship between technological advancement and economic development in different parts of the world, as well as the importance of access to technology, education, natural resources and opportunity,” Escalante explained.
In reflecting on his learnings from his graduate studies, Escalante highlighted the program’s focus on understanding that not every solution works for every situation or community stakeholder.
“A strong workforce and economic development practitioner communicates thoroughly with the community they serve to better understand specific needs and how to work with the resources available to support those needs,” said Escalante.
Escalante plans to further expand the Chandler Career Center by including more local employers and reaching a larger population of job seekers in the city.
“This recognition reflects the work our team has accomplished in creating a new program that provides meaningful benefits for both job seekers and employers,” said Escalante.
“It has truly been a team effort, with support from everyone within our Economic Development Division, to create a closed loop of workforce development in our community.”