Summary: Our guest, Lucia Cape, was the first person to be named Vice President for Workforce at the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County, Alabama, in October 2006. She was charged with establishing the Chamber's Workforce Division in response to the workforce challenges brought on by the region's amazing economic growth, including the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Act that has brought thousands of jobs to Redstone Arsenal, a government facility, in Huntsville. Prior to joining the Chamber staff, Lucia was a contractor to the Marshall Space Flight Center's Academic Affairs Office from 2002-2006 where she worked in informal education, including business/industry partnerships. This is when we first met Lucia and began the working relationship which we continue today. We believe you will find her interview to be of particular interest in the current economic times because she is working in a part of the country where the employment base has grown by 13.5% since 2000, accounting for 33% of all net employment in the state of Alabama. Also, Huntsville's workforce growth accounted for an astonishing 66% of the entire state's total increase in available workforce, as reported in the 2008 Huntsville Madison County Economic Growth Report. From the outsider economic developer's view, it's a dream situation. Few other places can match Huntsville's economic performance. In this interview we talk about Lucia's work and continued growth as a professional - from contractor to the role of Vice President at the Chamber. We get to touch on some of the challenges she has faced, and then discuss the personal side of her work, such as how, as a working mom, she continues to apply at home what she learned from reading our book, "The System: Igniting the Soul of Commerce", and in other parts of her community life. Join us for an insider's view of a workforce development professional. - Elane V. Scott www.Birth2Work.org
