77: Nitzan Pelman on using social capital for growth

In this episode, Nitzan and Jeffrey discuss her upbringing in an orthodox Jewish community, her work at Teach for America, founding ReUp Education and eventually ClimbHire and how to use social capital for growth…

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xY1H839fhJI

Learn more:

Host: Jeffrey M. Zucker

Producer: Kait Grey

Editor: Nick Case

Recording date: 9/6/23

https://climbhire.co/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/climb-hire/

https://twitter.com/climbhireco

https://www.facebook.com/ClimbHireCo/

https://www.instagram.com/climbhire/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMOjisOt_BLhuXeSj564pdQ

Bio:

Nitzan is a social entrepreneur at heart and cares deeply about finding solutions for breaking the cycle of poverty through education and workforce development. Nitzan launched Climb Hire, a new upskilling organization, that helps overlooked and hidden talent prepare for "new collar" jobs related to Salesforce. A key ingredient in Climb Hire's program is building and leveraging social capital. Climb Hire is based on Nitzan's research and findings from her Entrepreneur in Residence role on LinkedIn's Social Impact team. Nitzan is also an Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow.

Prior to Climb Hire, Nitzan founded ReUp Education in 2015 and served as its founding CEO for 3 years. ReUp partners with universities to re-enroll students who have dropped out of college. ReUp has brought back nearly 10,000 students to college since its inception.

In 2007, Nitzan founded the New York region of Citizen Schools and served as its first Executive Director for six years. Over Nitzan's tenure, students in the program graduated from high school at a 20% higher rate than their peers. In that period, Nitzan raised nearly 15 million dollars for the organization, managed an annual budget of 5 million, grew the organization to 100 staff members, and served thousands of students.

Nitzan was an Assistant Director at the Department of Education in New York City. She also served as the first Development Director at Teach for America New York. Nitzan holds a Masters in Public Administration from New York University and a BA from Stern College for Women.

Nitzan was highlighted as a leader with The Limited's "What Leading Looks Like"​ campaign and was profiled on their website. Nitzan has also advised and supported various education technology companies and non-profit organizations including Akilah Institute for Women and Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE), KIPP, and New Leaders for New Schools.

0:00 - Intro

7:41 - Education and Early Career

12:44 - Citizen Schools

19:52 - ReUp Education

27:15 - LinkedIn

30:02 - Aspen Institute

32:25 - Climb Hire

49:10 - How to Grow Diverse Workforces

55:07 - When Work Affected Change

58:40 - Mentor

1:01:50 - Ask Jeff a Question

1:03:15 - Most Grateful for

1:06:38 - Snap Your Fingers

1:10:37 - How to Support