“One of the things I’ve always done in my career is I’ve always volunteered for the hardest job.” Long before there was LinkedIn or Monster.com, when computers still filled up whole rooms and only displayed green text on black screens, Virginia Hamilton led a team that created the first statewide job matching system in the United States. She hasn’t stopped since, taking on roles in policy, program design, and even starting and running her own non-profit, all with an eye toward changing large-scale systems in new ways. Today, Virginia works at the US Department of Labor and is a seasoned innovator in government and the workforce development sector. One thing I love is how Virginia didn’t just fall into this role as an innovator. She’s put her hand up over and over again. [...] The US Department of Labor has run [HCD] challenge twice for more than 120+ teams across the nation. The lessons these teams have learned have been fundamentally game-changing – teams are re-energized, ...