She’s Helping to Integrate Skilled Immigrants into the Workforce

As president and CEO of Upwardly Global, Nikki Cicerani ’96 is closing the talent gap by removing barriers for educated and work authorized immigrants to find professional jobs.

Many legal, well-educated, highly-skilled immigrants work as cabdrivers, housecleaners, and nannies, or are unemployed because they don’t understand American job search conventions or cultural norms and lack professional connections in their new country.

“Their network is all back home — their family members, professors and former employers,” says Cicerani.

For skilled immigrants and refugees, UpGlo offers a “starter network,” introducing them to employers and providing training. UpGlo clients learn to craft American-style resumes, navigate job interviews and speak the applied English that employers use to evaluate candidates. In turn, UpGlo’s employer partners access a new source of skilled applicants.

The gaps are significant, with ManpowerGroup’s 2016 Talent Shortage survey reporting that 45 percent of U.S. companies — up from 32 percent in 2015 — struggle to fill skilled jobs in such fields as health care, engineering, computing, sales, nursing, finance, and accounting.

“It’s estimated that there are 1.8 million legal immigrants in the U.S. with bachelor’s degrees or above from their home countries who are unemployed or underemployed, and a significant portion of these are work authorized English speakers,” says Cicerani. “Why wouldn’t you look everywhere to fill these gaps? That’s what we encourage our partners to do.”

Cicerani joined UpGlo in 2007 as managing director of its New York City office. Two years later she was named president and CEO. She traces her interest back to her undergraduate studies in policy analysis and management, where she learned to critically study social programs, scrutinize data, design and implement solutions, and measure results.

UpGlo has trained more than 11,000 skilled immigrants and helped more than 4,000 return to work in their careers. And like many of her clients, Cicerani’s career path began with “one meaningful interview.” For Cicerani, that opportunity came during her senior year, when a new Human Ecology professor named Alan Mathios, now dean of the college, encouraged her to apply to Ernst & Young. That interview launched her career, which aligns her interest in social change with her experience in financial services, business development and entrepreneurial nonprofits.

“The common thread is a love of building things,” says Cicerani.