Skills Over Degrees: The STAR Revolution in Hiring

Recorded live at the 2025 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Carolyn Pierce, Partner at McKinsey & Company; Allison Danielsen, CEO at Tallo; Byron Auguste, CEO & Co-Founder at Opportunity@Work; Rob Magliaro, Head of Education & Workforce Partnerships at Google; and Abbey Carlton, VP of Social Impact and Sustainability at Indeed.

The session explored how leading employers are embracing skills-first hiring and what it takes to turn awareness into action at every level of an organization. The speakers, including STARs themselves—workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes—shared candid insights into the challenges, solutions, and opportunities of skills-first hiring for driving both business success and economic mobility. They discussed how millions of STARs already have the skills needed for roles offering significantly higher wages and how recognizing this talent can build inclusive pathways and empower a new generation of unconventional leaders.