The Future of Work: Defining ‘Resilience’

On Thursday, September 3rd, the Pasadena City College Economic and Workforce Division (PCC EWD) held the second of its three Future of Work webinars (FOW) for 2026. As with its first 2026 FOW event, the theme of this discussion centered on resilience, notably that which is needed by the Los Angeles County community to recover from the deadly 2025 Eaton and Altadena wildfires. And also like its first conversation, this discussion was surprising: it revealed not just the great work being done across the region to rebuild those burned neighborhoods, but also a myriad of unanticipated barriers and blocks that have slowed progress and continue to hinder healing some 17 months after the flames were finally extinguished. Perhaps the most ‘resilient’ elements involved in this recovery process are the men and women who are tasked with moving it forward.

The Panelists

Hosted by Dr. Salvatrice Cummo, VP, PCC EWD Division, the panel participants were gathered from both public and private arenas:

The Public Servant:

Carolina Romo, Director, Construction & Asset Management Division, Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA)

Since 1982, this independent agency has focused on housing and community development within both incorporated and unincorporated areas of LA County. Ms. Romo oversees all construction and real estate development activities for the agency, bringing more than 25 years of experience to the job.

The Private Contractors:

Erica Alexis, Founder & CEO – Bridgeline Development and Construction

Under Alexis’s leadership, Bridgeline has grown from a general contracting entity to a full-service real estate developer with over $30M in completed design/build projects under its belt. Within the Eaton/Altadena rebuild region, Bridgeline is straddling both residential and commercial recovery construction projects.

Rodrigo Gonzalez, CEO & Managing Partner – DEODATE

This unique enterprise provides a decidedly focused service to the rebuild area. DEODATE is an international real estate advisory firm that offers strategy and execution guidance throughout the full real estate development life cycle. With Gonzalez as its lead, DEODATE tracks valuations, oversees capital activities, and helps its clients navigate complex real estate decisions.

Ben Garcia, Executive Director – LA/OC Apprenticeship Readiness Fund

At work in both Los Angeles and Orange Counties, this agency helps learners build construction careers through union-based training and mentorships. Mr. Garcia brings more than 20 years of construction industry experience to his role, including contracting, developing, and consulting expertise.

The Series Objective

Aligning PCC technical and academic programs with emerging and in-demand occupations is the focus of PCC’s 2026 FOW series, especially as those activities are influenced by demands emerging from the recovery process. Significant workforce and labor shortages existed before the fires, and PCC was already developing programs to address those gaps. Information coming out of the recovery effort is now informing those program development processes, and much of what the FOW panelists are sharing is helping PCC fine-tune its program development activities. And it is this process – the sharing, learning, and collaboration process across all affected elements of the recovery effort – that makes the FOW series so important now and into the future.

Facing the Known

In both discussions, panelists shared the barriers they’ve faced, all of which present significant challenges to the recovery effort’s progress. Some are obvious:

• an insufficient quantity of materials – too many projects; not enough suppliers.
• time delays waiting for materials, trades, and assessors to arrive on site – see above.
• confusing communications across worksites and trade sectors that make forward movement even more difficult to achieve.

None of these are surprising, and they all escalate the stress level in an already highly stressed situation.

Navigating the Unknown

What’s most surprising, however, are the barriers no one anticipated. In both conversations, panelists revealed obstacles they’d not encountered before in their development careers:

• The sheer number of people and entities involved adds a complexity that’s hard to overcome. The damaged communities encompass thousands of acres, dozens of systems, and hundreds of thousands of people. Each one of those elements has a vested interest in the process and outcome of the recovery. Managing that many voices can be (and often is) overwhelming.
• The novelty of the task also brings challenges. For many typical rebuilding projects, there’s an established protocol of steps and successes that works to keep all involved on the ‘same page.’ Within the Altadena/Eaton sector, however, there is no such defined ‘list of things.’ Each individual project – a home, a business, or a public space, for example – requires almost a wholly new set of parameters with which to triage the damages and parse out a responsive recovery strategy. Panelists shared how difficult it was to plan out new water collection and delivery systems, for example, when there are  four different water utility companies involved.
• Determining ‘where to start’ must also be identified on a project-by-project basis. Both communities lost significant portions of their infrastructure: streets melted in the heat; utility assets were consumed by flames; even sewers and drains were destroyed. But those losses did not occur in a uniform manner, nor were they as severe in some areas as they were in others. In some cases, while one building was competely destroyed, its immediate neighbor was able to withstand the onslaught. Each site, therefore, must be evaluated on its own as a stand-alone project before any remediation can begin.
• Determining ‘who’s in charge’ is also a daily question for many of those at work in these neighborhoods. In some cases, those whom contractors presume to be ‘homeowners,’ and who would therefore ostensibly have the power to make decisions, simply are not. Many homes, for example, are legacy assets, now lived in by the children and grandchildren of their original owner. Reconstruction projects have been delayed when the title of the house hasn’t been changed to reflect that change of generational ownership. That legality needs addressing before more significant activities can begin.

Each of the first two FOW conversations added context and depth to our understanding of what happened during the fires, and what needs to happen in the future if the LA Basin is to fully recover from the disaster.

In the next edition of the Pulse, the panelists will describe the many overarching elements that are emerging as directives from a community-wide perspective. They’re also sharing their suggestions about how the LA community as a whole will benefit if the recovery process embraces all the opportunities these fires have exposed. In the long run, all the FOW participants – educators, academics, contractors, etc. – are hopeful that the recovery following the 2025 Altadena and Eaton fires will lay the foundation for a much safer and economically stable future for all residents of the LA Basin.