Episode 2: Rosalie Drago – A Force For the Workforce

The commish: Suffolk County Commissioner of Labor Rosalie Drago speaks -- on her unconventional climb, the pandemic and the future of the county's sizeable workforce.

Suffolk County Commissioner of Labor Rosalie Drago, the first woman to fill the office, is an influencer of young women everywhere – adding to her list of immense socioeconomic responsibilities.

Regular Innovate Long Island readers know this name – Rosalie Drago has long energized regional workforce and socioeconomic initiatives, previously as Long Island director of the nonprofit Workforce Development Institute and now as the Suffolk County commissioner of labor, licensing and consumer affairs.

As the head of a busy and influential 160-person Labor Department in the nation’s 26th-most-populated county, the rookie officeholder has faced many unique challenges – pandemic-related and otherwise – since her March 2020 swearing-in. As the first woman to fill the office, she senses an important opportunity to influence impressionable young women on Long Island and beyond.

In today’s conversation, Rosalie joins Spark host Gregory Zeller for a trip through time, from her days as a struggling college dropout to her arrival as Suffolk County’s brightest self-starter – plus the immense responsibility of ensuring every supermarket scale and gas pump in the county is up to snuff.