September 2025 Member Spotlight
Katelyn Harris-Lange
In-Demand Career & Apprenticeship Strategist, Maricopa County Workforce Development Board
Where are you originally from and what brought you to Arizona?
I’m originally from Racine, Wisconsin – a smaller city, about 80,000 people, on Lake Michigan. My dad retired out here and after a few years of working in inpatient mental health after college, I decided to make the move to Arizona.
How did you come to work in the economic development profession?
After my stint in healthcare, I started taking classes for my Masters of Public Administration, which led me to an internship with a social impact nonprofit in Oakland. There I started working with Salesforce and CRM systems. Following my internship, I moved back to Phoenix and the Greater Phoenix Chamber was hiring an Economic Development Coordinator tasked with managing their CRM system for the BRE program.
What drew you to the opportunity with the Maricopa County Workforce Development Board and how long have you been in your current role?
I’ve been in this role for two years now. I thought it was a great opportunity to leverage my recruiting background to make an impact for local jobseekers. Maricopa County has a long history of funding apprenticeship programs through our Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act dollars, but historically they were all in construction. With the pandemic, the board wanted to expand into other occupations and industries, especially healthcare. We grew our apprenticeship partners from eight to 17, and I’ve taken on some other fun projects, like managing social media for ARIZONA@WORK Maricopa County, and helping develop our most recent local plan.
What committees are you involved in?
I’m a member of the Valley of the Sun United Way’s Workforce Coalition, the Mental Health, Wellness, and Public Safety Taskforce for the City of Phoenix, and I’m Vice Chair of AAED’s Workforce Committee. I had the opportunity to attend the AAED leadership retreat in Flagstaff and I enjoyed strategizing with the committee leaders and board members about what’s ahead for AAED.
Any projects that you’re particularly proud of?
I would love to highlight the Arizona Workforce Data & Labor Market Tools | AAED we just launched. I’m going through my AZED Pro right now and in the Orange Course we learned from three different speakers that shared several different tools. We took their presentations, added some more things, and created this living webpage, so economic developers and workforce development professionals can easily access these resources.
What comes to mind when you think about Arizona?
The first thing that came to my mind was copper, because personally, my husband and I are renovating an old property in Globe and I’ve been getting to know the community there. Arizona has evolved so much beyond the five C’s, but it’s nice that the roots, the five C’s, are still very relevant.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I’m involved in the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership and their Flinn-Brown Network. I’ve got a three-year-old and a four-year-old, so those are definitely busy ages right now. I’m also involved in a Women’s Giving Circle through the Arizona Community Foundation and a Bike Coalition with Urban Phoenix Project. I would say something I do to unwind is taking our inflatable kayaks out on the Verde River and Tempe Town Lake.
Anything else you can share?
I recently won a Network Builder Award through the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership for making connections, contributing, and adding value to the Flinn-Brown network, which is very humbling.
