Category: Talent

Brian and Katherine Robinson began their move from Atlanta with this question: “Where do we not want to live?”

The couple, who’d spent 12 years overseas before moving back to the U.S., had found “Atlanta had gotten so big and had changed so much,” Brian said. “We thought about living overseas, but with COVID and the uncertainty, the U.S. is probably best for us. So we first blacked out all the areas we didn’t want to live.”

That left a large open space in the middle of the country, from Idaho to South Dakota. The Robinsons began their research from there.

“Sioux Falls has a lot of good information about it online, there’s a lot of good vibe online about Sioux Falls, so we did a drive,” Brian said. “We came to Sioux Falls in August of last year and then went to Wyoming and Colorado to do a comparison.”

The more they thought about it, the move became clear.

“Sioux Falls is great because it’s big enough but not too big,” he said. “It’s a regional hub, so it has a lot of things a larger city would normally have but a city of 200,000 wouldn’t have. It has changing diversity, it’s growing, the economy is good, and people you talk to are really excited to be in Sioux Falls, so there’s a community aspect.”

They liked that it wasn’t a part of the country where they’d spent much time, “so for us it was another adventure,” Katherine said. “It came down to the in-person visits. We spent time downtown. It’s a very vibrant, exciting, warm, welcoming place, and I think that really did it for us. Being downtown, sitting at the Carpenter Bar, having a drink outside, it just felt really nice and hit a chord.”

The Robinsons are able to do their work from largely anywhere. Katherine has spent a career in public health and works for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Brian’s retired from a diplomatic career in 2019 that took him to multiple continents. He now does health coaching and runs an online business sourcing and selling vintage clothing and decor.

“COVID allowed us a good solid number of months to soul search and figure out what’s important,” Katherine said. “We’re both in our early 50s, and as we enter this new phase, what is important and what do we really want? We don’t want the hustle and bustle of a big city and traffic. It was really about community and getting back to just living and being happy.”

They moved to Sioux Falls in January.

“We grew up in the South and did all our service overseas in the tropics or subtropics, so we never lived anywhere cold,” he said. “I don’t prefer the heat anyway, so to come here and have it chilly and cold, I kind of like it. It makes you think about weather in a different way. We check the weather every day and never did before, and it puts you more in touch with the natural environment because it has a larger impact on you day to day.”

They found a home in the McKennan Park neighborhood, which appealed to Brian’s affinity for historic preservation, and enjoy walking their neighborhood, visiting the park and frequenting nearby downtown restaurants.

“We arrived during the Downtown Burger Battle, and we’re health coaches, so it’s probably not wise to have a burger every day, but we did have a chance to try a few of them,” Katherine said. “I realize it was a light winter, but we were prepared. If you’ve got the right equipment and clothing and attitude, you can live anywhere.”

Brian has joined the Founders Club of Startup Sioux Falls to connect with other entrepreneurs, and they’re both finding it easy to travel for work.

“The airport is great,” he said. “It’s a fantasy to leave your house and be at the gate in 20 minutes.”

The Robinsons are a perfect example of the many demographics of people being drawn to Sioux Falls, said Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development at the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

“We are just thrilled to have them here and that they’re already becoming connected to the community,” she said. “We are seeing more remote workers at all career stages realize how convenient and enjoyable it is to work from their new home in Sioux Falls.”

For the Robinsons, Sioux Falls has provided a warm welcome and multiple reasons to look forward to their future here.

“People are super friendly and very welcoming, and the amount of arts in the city is really refreshing and nice,” Katherine said. “I love the sculptures and the murals, the Washington Pavilion always has a million things going on, and I love that there’s a lot of outreach to the community and the youth.”

They also enjoy discovering “all the shops and small businesses being opened by recent immigrants,” Brian added. “That’s really exciting. When you think about it, few people in South Dakota have been here that long, so many of us are coming from the same background and moving in.”

Are you looking to make a move to Sioux Falls? Visit siouxfalls.com to learn more about the community, or email deniseg@siouxfalls.com to get connected to career opportunities.

In September 2021, the South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) awarded the Sioux Falls Development Foundation a $50,000 grant for workforce recruitment marketing.

The grant comes on the heels of the SFDF’s first workforce marketing campaign, WORK Sioux Falls. Using insights from that campaign, this campaign will be purely digital and video ads. The ads will be targeted geographically to Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and California to labor forces in healthcare, cyber/tech, and building and skilled trades.

The goal of the marketing campaign is to inform out-of-state job seekers that South Dakota businesses are hiring with competitive pay and great benefits. The SFDF has been working with a South Dakota advertising agency to develop a media strategy, along with digital and video ads to showcase Sioux Falls as a great place to live and have a career. Below is a sampling of the ads that started running April 10, and will be running through the rest of the year.

In addition to the static display and banner ads above, a video ad was also created and will run in the same target markets. You can view it below:

“It’s no secret that workforce is one of the biggest challenges for businesses right now,” said Bob Mundt, President and CEO of the Sioux Falls Development Foundation. “As the leading organization dedicated to improving the economy of Sioux Falls, we’ve been proud to offer innovative workforce programs, but this grant funding gives us the opportunity to do even more, and that’s something we’re really excited about.”

This program was made possible by funding from Forward Sioux Falls, and we look forward to sharing the success after the campaign is complete.

Joel Kaskinen claims a “wanderlust spirit” – and with good reason.

The Michigan native’s early career ideas spanned from elementary education to speech, language and hearing and finally to public relations and communications before a passion for higher education became his direction.

“I was an RA and orientation leader during my time at school and decided I can do communications working anything and I’m going to put that skill to use in higher education,” he said.

“I just wanted to move out of Michigan and go somewhere I’d never been and do something totally different.”

He applied to graduate schools nationwide, from New Mexico to Boston, until USD contacted him from a job application portal where he’d submitted an application.

“They had some graduate assistant positions they were looking to fill and saw my profile and reached out,” he said. “I flew to Vermillion to check things out. It was a small town, not really what I was looking for, but I had great faith in the people who had reached out to me, and I loved the campus and the students and said I’m going to try it. Why not?”

That was in 2016. To be honest, he didn’t love everything about the experience. But he found what became the most important thing.

“The thing I loved about USD and Vermillion is it brought me my closest friends,” Kaskinen said. “My closest friends are here. Everyone I hold nearest and dearest I met at USD.”

And that’s why, after leaving South Dakota for nearly four years working in higher education in Colorado, the 28-year-old came back.

“I was going through some mental health stuff,” he shared. “And I wanted to be with people who are going to uplift me and fulfill me. So I came to Sioux Falls.”

In Colorado, he’d experienced tragedy three times – losing three students he worked with to suicide in a year.

“It really kind of broke me in terms of my morale and my spirit,” he said. “I didn’t feel like the community I was living in supported mental health. I didn’t feel like I had the resources I needed. I wanted to support the students, and that weighed heavily on me. I faced my own suicidal ideation and self-harm, and it led me to leave.”

Since coming to Sioux Falls early last year, “it’s been incredible,” Kaskinen said. “It’s really easy to make connections here, and I already feel like I’m integrated into the community and into this city.”

He also has found a job that is bringing him both fulfillment and healing.

Kaskinen is the community engagement coordinator for Lost & Found, a nonprofit whose mission is suicide prevention in young adults.

“I love my job because it’s really impactful and purposeful,” he said. “It’s something I hold near and dear. I turned my pain into my passion. We have lot of work to do and growth to make happen, but I do think we have opportunity for growth and movement.”

Just as important, he now feels part of a community that care about mental health, he said.

“I was living a shell of the person I am,” he said.

“I was isolated in my apartment and lost that luster for community, and being here in Sioux Falls – totally uprooting myself and distancing myself – has helped me be able to share my story. Being around a community that supports mental health fosters and perpetuates this vulnerability that allows me to feel comfortable sharing, and honestly it’s helped heal me and realize my work is important and impactful.”

Additionally, he now sits on multiple task forces and coalitions in the city and is helping with communications and social media for a new professional women’s soccer team coming to town.

“I feel like I can always find a friend,” he added. “Whether it’s in line for a beer at Fernson or walking through the Pavilion, it’s easy to find a friend. And honestly, it’s the thing I was most nervous about. I had my close circle but knew I couldn’t always hang out with them. But I’ve gone to events, networking, the Young Professionals Network, and I’ve made good friends.”

His experience is one that others can replicate in Sioux Falls, said Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

“Community, career and cause is the mantra for this generation, and Sioux Falls delivers it,” she said. “We couldn’t be happier that Joel is healthier and happier in Sioux Falls. He’s absolutely right that the support system exists here for your career development, your personal growth and your social life. We can’t wait to see how he continues to help build our community.”

While at USD, Kaskinen would spend the occasional weekend in Sioux Falls but said he has been happily surprised by all he has discovered since moving here.

“This is the biggest city I’ve lived in, and there’s an abundance of opportunities, whether it’s a show at the Pavilion or State Theatre or Orpheum, last summer I started going to free concerts at the Levitt, I’m a huge runner so the trail system is awesome, and the River Greenway is something I love to do,” he said. “And I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of new food and drink and my new fun cultural options. I love that too.”

Are you looking to make a move to Sioux Falls? Email deniseg@siouxfalls.com or visit siouxfalls.com to get connected to opportunities in your field.