Great Lakes Blue Engine

The Center for Social Solutions is excited to announce the Great Lake Blue Engine project has been funded by the University of Michigan Strategic Initiative Fund. The goal of this three-year initiative is to address two interconnected challenges facing the Great Lakes region water economy: aging/vulnerable water infrastructure and an impending labor shortage as the current workforce approaches retirement age.

This project has three key objectives:

To compile a comprehensive labor database that maps the evolving landscape of jobs and careers related to water jobs across the 8 states within the Great Lakes Region.
To identify social/economic barriers to water careers and understand perceptions among populations that are underrepresented in this line of work.
To produce a regional Great Lakes Water Workforce Playbook which will outline actionable recommendations for building a water workforce that is equipped to lead.

The Great Lakes Blue Engine serves as a practical, real-world application of the Center for Social Solutions' mission. It combines CSS's technical research in water systems and climate resilience with its empirical work on labor equity, using established community engagement methodologies to transform regional infrastructure vulnerabilities into a sustainable engine for economic mobility.

As the Great Lakes region of the United States navigates aging infrastructure, climate stressors, and population fluctuations, its water sector faces a dual challenge: the need to innovate new systems addressing these vulnerabilities, combined with a shortage of capacity and talent to manage the high-tech water systems of the future. The sector is anticipating a massive wave of retirements coupled with job growth that is outpacing other infrastructure-based industries, amounting to a projected 220,000 annual job openings1. Further, , research has shown that prospective workers have limited awareness of the field and face systemic barriers that obscure its career pathways. To address this challenge, we propose two pathways toward sustainable solutions: (1) institutional and geospatial mapping of regional job families, credentials, and pathways in the regional water sector; and (2) engagement via interviews, surveys, and focus groups, of water industry practitioners and decision-makers, job-seekers, and higher education students with the goal of matching opportunities with interest. We will achieve these objectives through community partnerships to co-design traditional and non-traditional pathways for recruitment, credentialing, and professional development. This foundational research will position the University of Michigan to scale purpose-driven and accessible education offerings to equip a workforce that leverages infrastructure future-proofing and rapid water technology innovation into a sustainable “Blue Engine” that drives economic mobility and environmental equity.

Meet the Team

Alford A. Young, Jr.

Alford A. Young, Jr. is Edgar G. Epps Collegiate Professor of Sociology, Afroamerican and African Studies, and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy (by courtesy) at the University of Michigan. His primary area of research focuses on low-income African American men, particularly how they construct understandings of various aspects of social reality. Young has also researched how African American scholars conceive of the social utility of race-focused scholarship, and how higher education faculty who are committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion take account of their teaching experiences. As Principal Investigator, Dr. Young will be responsible for leading Workstream II, including leading engagement efforts, leading qualitative data collection and analysis, and program evaluation. He will provide training in qualitative methods and interviewing for the postdoctoral fellow and oversee the assessment program entirely. He will oversee coding and analysis of the data, deliverables and reporting as outlined in Workstream III. Secondary Contact

Jessica Cruz

Jessica Cruz serves as the Research Projects Managing Director and supports all CSS streams of research, from grant proposal and development to publication and dissemination of research. This includes academic research publications for interdisciplinary audiences in sociology, history, race relations, education, and health as well as publications for practitioners in nonprofit community development work. Dr. Cruz’s expertise lies in education and university-community partnerships by focusing on developing a model for place-based, research-informed initiatives designed to increase access to higher education for historically underrepresented students. As Co-Principal Investigator, she will be responsible for facilitating and maintaining existing and new partnerships with UM departments and community organizations, including partners involved in engagement under Workstream II. Dr. Cruz will also lead the effort to co-design recommendations for innovative education models, includingcommunity partnerships, and credentialing pathways informed by both Workstreams I and II, and manage timeline and efforts of two working papers and final reports.

Caroline Egan

Caroline Egan is a Research Associate and focuses on projects related to the Future of Work. She has extensive experience developing survey questions, designing sample strategies, constructing survey weights, collecting data, and preparing data to share with community members, research partners, and other academics. Ms. Egan will co-lead Workstream I efforts with Ms. Julie Arbit. She will work to create a database of water job families, training and certification pathways, and labor market trends contextualized and updated for the Great Lakes region. Ms. Egan will support engagement efforts and qualitative data analysis led by the postdoctoral fellow and contribute to working papers and a final report.

Julie Arbit

Julie Arbit serves as a Research Area Specialist and works across all phases of community-centered, data-driven projects, including study design, geospatial analysis, qualitative methods, and translating findings for public audiences with maps, visualizations, and written products. Ms. Arbit’s research examines how flooding and climate resilience, stormwater infrastructure, and access to water resources are shaped by histories of disinvestment and racialized planning. Ms. Arbit will co-lead Workstream I efforts with Ms. Egan. Ms. Arbit will work to create a database of water job families, training and certification pathways, and labor market trends contextualized for the Great Lakes region. She will support engagement efforts led by the postdoctoral fellow and qualitative data analysis and co-supervise a graduate student with Ms. Khan to support project administration, perform literatur

Sara Khan

Sara Khan serves as Communications and Public Engagement Manager and leads the internal and external communications and media efforts for CSS. Ms. Khan will facilitate the production and dissemination of public-facing communications materials about the project and findings. These may include polished reports, one-pagers, partner-specific materials, social media engagement, short-form videos, podcast episodes, and more. Ms. Khan will also co-supervise the graduate student(s) with Ms. Arbit.

For general questions and inquiries related to Great Lakes Blue Engine, please contact Doreen Tinajero, Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives, at tinajero@umich.edu.

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