Taylor works at the intersection of economics & inclusion

Written by JM. Robbins

In July, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published that for the first time in more than three decades, St. Louis ranked in the top 10 American metropolitan areas for job growth. 

While that feat is no one’s alone to claim, the Cortex Innovation Community, a nonprofit dedicated to elevating the St. Louis economy, certainly played a role in raising the region’s rank. 

As part of the St. Louis Fellows Program, Harlem Taylor ‘27 and Daniel Niu ’26 worked at Cortex this summer, supporting the organization’s mission to “accelerate inclusive economic growth in St. Louis.”  

Cortex carries out that mission through several key channels: They encourage established companies to build headquarters or satellite locations in St. Louis, they host job and skill training for St. Louisans, and they advocate for companies to hire skilled individuals without four-year college degrees. 

Taylor said the guiding questions of Cortex are, “How can we bring employers into the St. Louis region? How can we train St. Louis residents so that employers want to hire them, and so they’ll bring valuable skills to the employers?” 

Cortex’s offerings include “Venture-Ready Missouri,” a course to support Missouri-based entrepreneurs looking to secure venture funding; co-working spaces that entrepreneurs and teams can lease in the Cortex District; and training programs for St. Louisians that work to align workforce readiness with the job market. 

This summer, Taylor focused on developing Cortex’s employee skill-building curriculum. Along with developing training for Cortex’s monthly staff training sessions, he also worked on a data compilation project to track the demographics of participants in Cortex’s training programs. 

He said that his work with Cortex made him more interested in joining the nonprofit world at some point in his career.  

That shared mission is centered on fostering equitable economic development in the region. 

“We’re making sure that the people in the community have a say in what we’re doing at Cortex,” Taylor said. “And [we’re] making sure that when we’re bringing people up, we’re bringing everyone up.”  

Taylor’s supervisor, Cortex Strategic Initiatives Manager Rachel Deffenbaugh, spoke to how St. Louis’ history has made it necessary to contend with economic development through this lens of equity. 

“We’ve continued to be a very segregated city, despite the fact that what created that segregation doesn’t necessarily, in a literal sense, exist anymore,” Deffenbaugh said, pointing to redlining and school segregation as two formerly legal means of segregation in St. Louis.  

“In my opinion, that racial segregation is a huge underlying problem that continues to [impact] our other issues of employment rates, and businesses leaving the region, and the downtown kind of disintegrating,” she said. 

She said that Cortex’s systems-level work feels rewarding, even though she has more distance from the people she is supporting than she would have in direct service work. 

“I’m excited by…the bigger picture of seeing the entirety of the St. Louis region improving in an equitable way over time,” she said. 

One moment stood out to Taylor that highlighted the connection between his work and the people Cortex supports. 

The organization hosted a “bring your kid to work day” during the summer, and employees’ kids were playing with bubbles in a field outside the office. Taylor said that some children passing by started joining the Cortex kids, and one of their mothers told Taylor how much she appreciated Cortex hosting this activity. 

“It’s just great to have that small conversation with someone who’s from the community that we’re working so hard to make a change in,” he said. 

Regardless of how one experiences Cortex’s systems-level work, the employees share in a vision for a more dynamic and equitable St. Louis. 

Deffenbaugh said that to build a stronger future, people must refuse to view St. Louis as a city past its heyday.  

“If there’s no hope, if there’s no future, then what’s the point of even being here,” she said. “I’m not in any way trying to ignore our history; our history drives what we do on a daily basis. But that doesn’t mean St. Louis doesn’t have any redeeming qualities.” 

She noted that the recent influx of federal money through the American Rescue Plan Act funding is one means by which St. Louisians can work on building up the city. 

“We’re turning a corner, and it’s not impossible,” she said. “The follies of our past define our current situation, but we still have agency to make change, and I feel like that’s what we’re doing.”