{"id":363627,"date":"2017-03-21T02:30:07","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T06:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grist.org\/?post_type=grist-50-profiles&amp;p=363627"},"modified":"2017-03-21T02:30:07","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T06:30:07","slug":"erika-symmonds","status":"publish","type":"grist-50-profiles","link":"https:\/\/grist.org\/grist-50\/profile\/erika-symmonds\/","title":{"rendered":"The cleantech job boom left some communities behind. Erika Symmonds makes sure the solar economy benefits everyone."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"g50-profile__stats-block profile__stats-block--profile-363627 \">Director of Workforce Development, GRID Alternatives<br \/>\nWashington, D.C.<br \/>\nAge: 36<\/aside>\n<p>The solar industry is doing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.seia.org\/news\/us-solar-market-grows-95-2016-smashes-records\">better than ever<\/a>, creating well-paying jobs across the country &#8212; but those jobs aren\u2019t evenly distributed. Oakland-based nonprofit GRID alternatives offers job training for low-income communities and people of color to help make that cleantech boom more accessible.<\/p>\n<p>Erika Symmonds is at the helm of those job-training programs. She oversees existing projects and makes sure new ones reach a more diverse workforce. \u201cWho are the people in our community who can most benefit and are most interested in this opportunity,\u201d she asks, \u201cand how can we make that connection?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>[pullquote share=&#8221;true&#8221; hashtag=&#8221;Grist50&#8243;]\u201cWe need the engineers of the future, the renewable energy folks of the future.\u201d [\/pullquote]<\/p>\n<p>Raised by a single mom in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, Symmonds grew up focused on getting a good education. \u201cWhat I had was pretty unique: the option of leaving the neighborhood,\u201d she realized upon graduating from Wellesley. Plenty of people she knew back home didn&#8217;t have the same opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>Her work at GRID is already making a difference: More than three quarters of program participants are people of color.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This professional trains people for solar jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57007830,"featured_media":490304,"menu_order":8,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"coauthors":[10],"class_list":["post-363627","grist-50-profiles","type-grist-50-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","grist-50-energy","grist-50-13","grist-50-justice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The cleantech job boom left some communities behind. Erika Symmonds makes sure the solar economy benefits everyone. - Grist 50<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The cleantech job boom left some communities behind. 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