Ever heard someone say, “The dream is free, but the hustle is sold separately?” That’s not a quote from a motivational poster — that’s the lived philosophy of Walter L. Simmons, the Secretary of the newly-created Maryland Department of Social and Economic Mobility (DOSM) — the first cabinet-level agency in America dedicated to social equity and economic mobility.Walter didn’t start in a boardroom. He started on a football field in rural South Carolina, chasing a scholarship and a dream of law enforcement. But somewhere between criminal justice classes and real-world reality, he had a realization that changed everything: by the time someone touches the criminal justice system, the trauma has already happened. So instead of responding to the problem, he decided to prevent it.That shift in mindset set Walter on a path that took him from managing economic mobility centers with the United Way, to the 2014 White House Summit for Working Families under President Obama, through Prince George’s County where he grew a workforce organization to a $30 million annual budget with 150 employees — and ultimately to the office he holds today, leading a system designed to give Maryland’s small, minority, women-owned, veteran-owned, and disadvantaged businesses access to over $100 billion in annual state commerce.In this episode, Walter sits down with host Lorraine Lane to unpack what economic mobility actually looks like in practice — from the difference between being eligible and being suitable for a contract, to the five-level ecosystem DOSM is building across all 24 Maryland jurisdictions.

He breaks down why public-private partnerships are the backbone of economic change, why workforce development isn’t about entitlement but about opportunity, and why R&D in this field stands for something entirely different than you’d expect.Key Takeaways from This Episode:• Why poverty and the criminal justice system are dangerously intertwined — and how workforce development breaks the cycle• The three stages of economic mobility: instability, stability, and prosperity — and where you are right now• What Maryland’s $100 billion procurement landscape means for minority and small businesses• The real difference between being eligible and being suitable for a contract• Why “life is written in pencil” — and how to keep erasing and rewriting your story• Walter’s mantra: “You can never be ready, but you can always be prepared”Subscribe, share, and drop a comment — because conversations like this one are exactly how we build a workforce that works for everyone. iBuild America Podcast — Building Workforce Success, One Podcast at a Time.