Elaine Silverstone, GOED's director of workforce development, joins Diversify Nevada to discuss how the agency is helping empower the future of the state's workforce.
Speaker 1 0:00
Welcome. You're listening to Diversify Nevada, a podcast produced by the Governor's Office of Economic Development. Diversify Nevada provides insightful discussions and expert analysis on the driving forces behind our state's economic, workforce and community development. I'm Tom Burns, the executive director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development.
Speaker 2 0:20
Today's guest is Elaine Silverstone, director of workforce development here at GOED. In her role, Elaine manages the Workforce Innovations for a New Nevada fund, commonly known as WINN. It was established to provide programs of workforce recruitment, assessment or training to the benefit of new and expanding companies in Nevada.
Elaine has dedicated her career to taking thoughtful and analytical approaches to problem solving. Her areas of expertise include education, implementation and policy, workforce development and economic initiatives. She's worked at both private and public companies with some of the largest states, cities and local agencies. Elaine is also a lifelong learner. After moving to Las Vegas from New York. She enrolled in a PhD program in public affairs at UNLV School of Public Policy and Leadership. During this time, she worked at Brookings Mountain West, an outpost of the Brookings Institution.
As you can probably tell, Elaine is passionate about workforce development and self improvement. We're very excited to explore all that and more in today's episode. Elaine Silverstone, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 1:22
Hi, Evan. It's terrific to be with you. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 1:27
Tell us a little bit about what brought you out here to Vegas, all the way from New York.
Speaker 3 1:33
Well, I love this opening question, because it really speaks to my adventurous spirit, and that is exactly what brought me from one of America's greatest cities, New York, to another great city here in Las Vegas.
My husband and I were making plans for our future, and had settled into a small apartment enjoying our wonderful careers. I had been experiencing a successful run as a senior leader in ed tech, my career had begun as a classroom teacher, and with a short departure in web hosting and technology implementations, I had combined those two career lanes into one right around the time that Ed Tech was really booming.
I couldn't have planned for it or imagined it better, but my passion for education and my unique skill set in technology and project planning set me up for great success in the space. And while this was happening and we were merging our homes, we thought to ourselves, you know, we really don't need to live in a small apartment, and it might be fun to seek out a new opportunity somewhere else, as we'd accomplished so much in the city to date, admittedly, I thought we'd be moving to South Florida, as my family's there, and I have a really robust community from having gone to college there. But my husband's an entertainment executive, and so when we opened our networks for next gigs, he was quickly courted for a wonderful opportunity here in Vegas. And there will always be New Yorkers at heart the Wild West call and we were ready to check it out.
Speaker 2 3:06
Very nice. How long have you been in Vegas so far?
Speaker 3 3:09
It has been 10 years. I can't believe it, and two years here at GOED.
Speaker 2 3:14
That's amazing. Where in New York exactly are you from? You from the city or upstate? Born in Brooklyn. Oh, nice. Very nice. So I know workforce development is one of the main pillars here of our strategy at GOED. How do you envision fitting into the overall picture of what we do here, and how does it relate to economic development?
Speaker 3 3:38
I love leading in workforce development. It really suits as a very natural evolution of my career pathway, my previous career pathway in creating access to educational outcomes for all, and now I'm in a position to extend that pathway planning from education to workforce. A strong workforce is the foundation of a strong economy, and workforce development creates a pipeline of talent that powers business success, attracts investment and ensures communities can compete in a global economy. And so for that, workforce development is an integral part of economic development, as it builds a skilled labor pool that attracts and supports businesses, leading to regional prosperity. And so by aligning training programs with industry needs, workforce development ensures workers can fill quality jobs and economic development can foster business growth.
Speaker 2 4:41
So one of the tools we have here at GOED is the Workforce Innovations for a New Nevada Fund, which you oversee. Why do we have this? Give us a little bit of the backstory about how this came to be and kind of what role it plays in the overall strategy that you're involved in.
Speaker 3 4:59
So being here for just two years, I take great liberties to tell a bigger part of the backstory. But I think, as many can imagine, Las Vegas and the state of Nevada would be very well known for its greatest economic sector, that being hospitality, gaming, tourism and, of course, outdoor recreation, right? Yeah, and so as the story goes, many would have been calling for economic diversification for many years before either you or I came to the Wild West, US east coasters. US east coasters, the accent will reveal us. I hope, anyway, you can imagine, back during a financial crisis or during a global pandemic, calls for economic diversification would come up again, and leaders in our state had really been heeding that call at the birth of GOED, circa 2011 so really great work had been in place for attracting new businesses to our state, and a few years later, the state really put money where their mouth is. That is, support for economic and workforce development by developing the Workforce Innovations for a New Nevada Fund, which is defined by legislative statute, and it's a program that supports training programs in targeted, high growth industries that will help the businesses we seek to attract and help to support in terms of expanding here in this state, find skilled employees and create high wage jobs, and so it was established for exactly that reason.
Speaker 2 6:47
Let's drill down a little bit more into the types of industries. So I know you work with NSHE, the Nevada System of Higher Education, and you have a lot of partners there. Give us an idea of some of those partners and how you work with them, but maybe more specifically, like the types of industries that the WINN fund is designed to support. And I'm really curious also to hear some examples of, like, some of these companies, or, you know, jobs that people get thanks to this program.
Speaker 3 7:18
That's a three part question, and I'll do my best to give you a multi part answer. It begins when I was a PhD student and spending time with partners at Brookings Mountain West I had the privilege of sitting in the room as many of the leaders in our workforce and economic development ecosystem were there as well before I imagined being here with them, and they were partnered with a third party research entity, who was invited to analyze the state infrastructure and help us to identify those assets for which we were already rich, so that we would have quite a strategic approach in our economic diversification efforts.
And so in their analysis, they helped to write what was then the comprehensive economic development strategy, also known as our state plan. And those key target sectors were identified, and there are five plus plus. Here's what I mean by five plus plus.
The five include information technology and jobs you might imagine associated with that, like broadband, data hubs and cybersecurity, for example. Next is transportation and logistics, and those jobs would include in areas like warehousing and wholesaling and trucking and of course, rail, air and multimodal hubs. A third sector for which we're already rich in the state includes natural resources and technology like agriculture and mining and all of the great work we do in the state around the lithium loop and the critical minerals for which we're again rich, rich in assets here in Nevada. A fourth sector includes advanced manufacturing, and so that one might speak for itself too, e-mobility, clean technologies, and the fifth sector, I really like talking about this one as much as the others, is an expanded view of that sector for which we're already well known -- hospitality, tourism and gaming, but it allows us to focus on again, obvious extensions of that sector, which include outdoor recreation, sports and film.
Now we also have the ability to invest in two additional areas that we talk about as community development. So while we're diversifying our economy, we also have to be sure to attend. And to community development efforts in areas like health care and water sustainability, I think it would be important to add here too that as we partner with regional development authorities around the state, they have the opportunity to focus on sectors that are unique to their regions. And so we hear about biotech, for example, included in economic diversification areas.
I think the second part of your question, and you can come at me with prompts to remind was about partners, yeah, and I'm really proud to be a partner in what I see as a very robust workforce ecosystem, I get to work very closely. You already alluded to the Nevada System of Higher Education. In our state, we have two R1 institutions, two research institutions, that being University of Nevada, Las Vegas, UNLV and University of Nevada, Reno, UNR. Additionally, there's four community colleges around the state which include Truckee Meadows Community College, Great Basin College, Western Nevada College and the College of Southern Nevada, as well as Nevada State College, which is a four year institution here in Southern Nevada.
And I would be remiss if I didn't also talk about our partners at Desert Research Institute, which is exactly that -- a research institution. So there's, there's so much more to the part to the ecosystem that is those we work with at NSHE. She so my closest partner at NSHE, she might be the Assistant Vice Chancellor of workforce development and community colleges, Dr Natalie Brown, and she and I really are able to lift and complement each other's work in building workforce programs that meet the needs of the businesses with which we seek to attract by building and investing in strategic workforce programs at some of the NSHE institutions. But there's also, of course, the Nevada Department of Education K 12, which speaks to my heart as a lifelong educator, a K 12 educator myself. Oh, really, I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, working very closely with DETR, the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, and perhaps in this conversation, I'll have an opportunity to expand on ways we do that. Then two are the governor's workforce development boards. And here in Nevada, we have two workforce connections in the south and Nevadaworks in the north. And I really love being a part of the industry sector partnership meetings, if you will, that that they lead. I would like to close in speaking about the workforce system by mentioning OWINN, the Office of Workforce Innovation, who is considered the convener of a workforce vision in our state. And I really love working with my partner there, Michelle Sneed, who's the executive director.
Speaker 2 12:57
In short, there are a ton of partners, and you guys are working together and sync to affect your vision and make that happen, which is really awesome. How do you go about measuring the success of programs? I mean, I'm sure it's really complicated, but how do you look at something and determine whether it's succeeding? And how do you go about thinking about that?
Speaker 3 13:20
Terrific, and I'm remembering the third part of your question, which might have been some examples. So maybe I'll lead with an example to help talk about how we might solve so the previous fiscal term, which would have just concluded, June 30, 2025, and now we're beginning, we're kicking off a new term. Had 18 WINN-funded programs. We had $10 million to invest and help support business development and economic diversification efforts in the state last term. And we built 18 programs across all four community colleges and so as their advocate at the state, as their advocate here at GOED, I make it a point to meet very regularly as a project manager and as a liaison with my partners at each of the institutions to speak through each of the programs and how they're advancing. And so that's one way off the bat that we aim to measure the success of the programs, which are measured by number of students, number of people who go through workforce training, programs for which we help to build for business diversification efforts and also to the number of jobs and the number of jobs placed and with an emphasis on high wage jobs in these key sectors. And so one way we measure success is to be in touch regularly. Communication is really key so that we can analyze progress and mitigate any obstacles early on.
Speaker 2 14:55
Yeah, I was going to ask about that. So if something is maybe not performing the way you would like it, how do you go about diagnosing the problem? And then what is, what is a fix? I don't know. Is there an example, not to put you on the spot, but if something is not maybe performing as well as you would like, how do you go about diagnosing that? And what are the next steps?
Speaker 3 15:16
Well, happily, there's so many more successes than challenges we've experienced, and I'm proud to report that all of our current those 18 programs had all met their metrics for success and surpassed them in many cases. So for example, I'll start with one here at the College of Southern Nevada, where there were many programs in which when invested across various sectors, including advanced manufacturing, healthcare, transportation and logistics and it and so if a program might have had a challenge, meeting of like an administrative obstacle is really all I can think of, because, as I mentioned, there's so many more successes. Here's a great success example from this current term. A WINN award earlier this summer was given to the College of Southern Nevada to support the West Side Education and Training Center, which is designed for entry level workforce training in advanced manufacturing to help bring constituents from that neighborhood, perhaps otherwise considered an underserved neighborhood, great opportunities for success into career pathways and high wage jobs. Awesome. Yeah, it's really exciting, and I look forward to continued celebrations of the success as we mitigate any challenges along the way in setting it up of that program, because the aim is to replicate it across the Las Vegas Valley. So that building has had its ribbon cutting as celebrated by the city of Las Vegas, a valued partner in our workforce efforts, and now they're ordering all of the specific equipment for which employers in the region say they will value workforce practice, workforce training on their very equipment. And in January of 2026 we will get to celebrate a second ribbon cutting at the Westside Education and Training Center as it kicks off the spring 2026, semester. And so I invite all our listeners to come on down, stay tuned, and to come down and celebrate that wonderful milestone.
Speaker 2 17:35
That is fantastic. So you kind of answered my next question there. But I mean, I was curious, you know, you do a lot of good work, and you work with a lot of people, is there a moment of maybe some other examples you can think of where you thought to yourself, wow, you know, this program is really having an impact. It's really changing people's lives. And wonder if there are any other examples that stick out to you?
Speaker 3 17:58
Well, there's many. And before the 18 programs we supported this last term, the history of win can speak to at least 40 programs all across the state. And so let me offer an example in Northern Nevada that would support employers who have brought their high wage jobs to the state, like Tesla and Panasonic energy of North America, and so the advanced manufacturing training center, as supported through Truckee Meadows Community College, aka the Panasonic Center, also is a wonderful example of WINN partnership with other resources in the ecosystem that helped invest in workforce training in that program so that there would be a ready, highly skilled pipeline for these businesses and others like them when we build a workforce program with thanks to WINN funds.
For example, though, there are employers that will write letters of support acknowledging the jobs they have in the sector, the benefit is always far and wide to other businesses in the region that are building alongside and will have utility, will have opportunities for the workforce we're building for our friends and neighbors. Awesome. So that's one example. Is the Panasonic Center and the manufacturing development program that both Western Nevada College and Truckee Meadows Community College helps to build to support advanced manufacturing in the north in Southern Nevada. Another example that's current is with a company, Haas Automation. Haas Automation would have been introduced to GOED through business development efforts, attracting them to the state and bringing their 1000 plus jobs from California. HAAS is building headquarters in Henderson, Nevada, here in Southern Nevada. They'll be here in just about 15 months time, and at that time, we'll have need for 1000 jobs or more, and ongoing, as will to other advanced manufacturing and automation companies in the area. And so we continue to support by building that workforce pipeline with the investment of WINN dollars for places like College of Southern Nevada's Debra March Center for Excellence in Henderson and elsewhere across Clark County.
Speaker 2 20:28
You've been in your position for about two years now. Over that time, how have workforce strategies and priorities changed, and what does that tell us about where we're at right now in the workforce development landscape and where we might be headed.
Speaker 3 20:45
Great question. I would say that over the last two years, workforce strategies have evolved from a reactive post pandemic focus on Talent Recruitment and Retention to a more proactive and holistic approach. So key shifts might include prioritizing employee experience and skills based hiring. There might be a focus on embracing technology like AI, perhaps obviously, and responding to demands for flexibility and well being so for sure, skills based hiring is taking center stage right now. The traditional emphasis on degrees and credentials has decreased, though still very important, and employers are now increasingly focused on a candidate's specific skills and competencies, allowing for access to a much broader and more diverse talent pool.
Speaker 2 21:42
I wish we had this when I was in college. I studied classical languages, and then I studied journalism at the graduate degree. And while super interesting, and I find it, you know, useful, I almost wonder, were these programs around when I was a student?
Speaker 3 21:58
I mean sure, well, we'll have to go back through a time capsule, perhaps I can show you.
Speaker 2 22:03
So last question, what gets you excited about workforce development? What really inspires you to get out of bed every day, come to work and do what you do?
Speaker 3 22:13
I'm passionate about economic development because I believe it's one of the most powerful tools for creating lasting change in communities. And so when it's done well, it can reduce poverty, it can improve access to education and health care. We see it support small businesses and create more equitable opportunities for everyone, which is something I've devoted my entire career to. And so I'm particularly interested in how strategic investment, infrastructure, planning and policies can transform local economies and uplift underserved populations, much like one of the earlier examples we spoke about economic development, is not just about numbers and outcomes, right? It's about people and potential, and that human impact, excuse me, that human impact is what motivates me most.
Speaker 2 23:20
Great answer. Elaine Silverstone, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3 23:24
Thanks Evan for facilitating such a cool conversation. I enjoyed it too.
Speaker 4 23:31
And that's all for this episode of Diversify Nevada. This podcast was created by the Governor's Office of Economic Development, with the help of our sound editor Michelle Rebaleati. If you'd like to learn more about our agency, you can visit our website at www.goed.nv.gov. And if you'd like to share feedback about the show or suggest a topic you'd like us to cover, send us an email to goed@goed.nv.gov.