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.