All In: Student Pathways Forward
This podcast focuses on elevating community college student voices to shape inclusive higher education and workforce development policies, practice and partnerships that create economic mobility.
All In: Student Pathways Forward
Klamath Community College (KCC) & Cascade Comprehensive Care (CCC); Emily Geise, KCC grad and CCC employee; Cascade Comprehensive Care CEO Tayo Akins & KCC president Dr. Roberto Gutierrez
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In the next episode of the All In: Student Pathways Forward podcast, host Marc Goldberg interviews Klamath Community College (KCC) graduate and current Cascade Comprehensive Care employee Emily Geise, Cascade Comprehensive Care CEO Tayo Akins and KCC president, Dr. Roberto Gutierrez.
As a worker and college graduate from the Health Information Management (HIM) program, Emily shares her definition of job quality and highlights how her current position and career at Cascade Comprehensive Care aligns, in contract to another job she held prior to returning to college. She also speaks to the power of college work-based learning (internship) opportunities for students, and other policy and program components that support college completion and connection to quality careers.
Cascade Comprehensive Care CEO Tayo Akins reflects on the interview with Emily and talks about the incredible asset that KCC is to Klamath Falls employers in supporting their workforce capacity, broader economic development and retaining local skilled talent in the region like Emily.
KCC president Dr. Roberto Gutierrez discusses the importance of strong employer partnerships like the one with Cascade Comprehensive Care and the critical role faculty and staff play in preparing and supporting students to achieve their academic and career goals. Dr. Gutierrez also shares his own personal community college story as the starting point for his own career as a college president.
The All In: Student Pathways Forward podcast is a part of Oregon’s participation in the National Skills Coalition SkillSPAN network.
Welcome to the All-In Student Pathways Board Podcast, in which we center Oregon Community College student and graduate voices to shape inclusive policy, practice, and partnership. This is the host, Mark Goldberg, and I'm excited to focus on the important topic of job quality for season two of the podcast. We'll hear from community college graduates across the state working for employers with a job. We'll also hear from executive features to be a college employer. This episode features interviews with Climate Community College graduate and now Cascade Comprehensive Care Employee, Emily Geese, a follow-up discussion with the CEO of Cascade Comprehensive Care, Tayo Aikens, and lastly a conversation with Clamath Community College President, Dr. Roberto Gutierrez. All centering on job quality, community college and employer partnerships, and student and worker voice. Thanks for listening in. I'd like to welcome my featured guest for this episode, Emily Gheezy, who is a graduate of Klamath Community College in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and now an employee at Cascade Comprehensive Care. Welcome, Emily, to the podcast.
SPEAKER_01Hi, Mark. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03So I wanted to start and ask you first if you could describe your experience as a student at Klamath Community College. And what was the biggest highlight of your experience there as a student?
SPEAKER_01So overall, going to KCC or Klamath Community College, it was a positive experience. I had great instructors. They're always willing to help and where needed and work with you. So their job is to make sure that you succeed. If you succeed, the program succeeds. So the biggest highlight of my experience was probably graduating at the top of my class.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01Especially since it was, oh geez, I think I had been out of high school something like 15, 16 years by the time I went through the program.
SPEAKER_03So that's incredible. Congratulations.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
SPEAKER_03So I would love to learn more about what you studied and also what you feel was most important in preparing you now for your career and the realities of the workplace.
SPEAKER_01So the program that I studied was health information management. So I have my associate's degree in that. The most important for preparing me for my career in realities would probably be the program head, but also my advisor was Jennifer Briscoe and our advanced coding teacher, Don Jones. Both of them did an amazing job of preparing us and letting us know how this career or this program would develop us for taking a job in the market. It is one program and one degree, but there's endless possibilities of where that degree can take you in what particular job field. Like I am doing at Cascade Comprehensive Care, where I work in risk adjustment. So between Jennifer and Dawn, I feel like they gave us the best opportunity to look and explore all of the options available within this program.
SPEAKER_03That's really great to hear the value and the emphasis that your faculty put on that preparation and how that's translated into the workplace. So since you mentioned your employer now, I'd love to shift and ask you to talk about your job at Cascade Comprehensive Care and learn how you found that job and a little bit more about what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01So how I found a job was one of the final classes that you take in the program is a cooperative work experience. So they actually in the program, they place you at different employers based upon what your interests are. So Jennifer being the advisor for the health information management program, she sits down with you and she tries to get a feel of like, are you more interested in coding or records management, or do you see yourself in a dental office and kind of pick your brain a little bit to determine what's going to be the best fit? And then they place you for anywhere from eight to 12 weeks in an employer and working for the employer and gives you a feel for once you graduate and being out in the actual workplace. So I was placed with Cascade Comprehensive Care and a friend of mine, Tammy, she came in as number two. We did more or less our internship over last summer, and we were actually both hired.
SPEAKER_03So that's really helpful to understand how you found that job. And it sounds like part of the program at KCC was some type of internship in a workplace setting. And I know that's a best practice for many career technical education programs, which many times, like in your case, leads to a permanent job. And I'm curious if you see the application of what you learned at Klamath Community College in your day-to-day work.
SPEAKER_01So a lot of what I do revolves around being mindful of HIPAA laws, privacy and security. So I do member outreach and schedule for annual wellness visits, Medicare wellness visits for our members. So when I'm calling, I have to be very mindful of HIPAA, make sure I'm talking to who I'm talking to, verify that it's them. And the purpose of this is to capture those HCC codes and that we are doing everything that we can to make sure that they're getting the healthcare that they need. Tying back to the program at KCC, I'm going through electronic health records and EHRs and EMRs, which are electronic medical records. So the HIM program at KCC, we did a lot of simulation in those programs. So being able to navigate those and understand what I'm looking at with the charts, processing patient information, doing some data mining, I pull reports where I'm looking for specific pieces of information. So there's a lot of that that was pulled in from my program at KCC, making sure that everything is correct in the medical record. So being able to see and identify those things and understand what they are.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's helpful to hear and back to KCC and the simulation that you had the chance with EHR and EMR and being able to use those skills for your current job. I wanted to ask what you like most about your job now, and then also how it compares to other jobs you've had before in terms of job quality.
SPEAKER_01As far as what I like the most, I actually really enjoy the people that I work with and for in terms of being quality. This is above and beyond the best job that I've ever had. Before this, I worked in a call center for about 12 years. And the call center violated a trade act. So that's why I made the decision to go ahead and go back to school and get my degree. Because initially the call center was supposed to be a job until I figured out what I wanted to do and go to school for. And then 12 years later, it was a job that paid the bills. But that's all it ever was. It was a job I didn't enjoy it. There was nothing really holding me there outside of it was employment.
SPEAKER_03What is it that your current job has that your past job at the call center may have lacked when you think about job quality?
SPEAKER_01They actually care about their employees. They understand sometimes life happens. I actually work on a hybrid schedule. So some days I work remote and I work from home. Some days I work in the office. And that's been great because it's allowed me the opportunity to continue working. I do have small kids. I have a one-year-old daughter, a three-year-old son, and a seven-year-old son. And kids are great, but they like to bring home various little things. For instance, in February, ended up we had COVID, and I was able to work from home and not miss out on work. So in a time where having employment is good, especially with our economy, I wasn't missing out on work. And the company as a whole, they're super understanding. If you have the capability of working remote, they allow you to work remote. As far as characteristics that make a quality job, these are some of the things that I thought of right off the bat. But I can tell you that Cascade Comprehensive Care, they check all the boxes. So characteristics of a quality job in my book, employees having a purpose, opportunity for growth, whether it's personal or professional, communication, giving recognition where recognition's due, competitive salary and benefits, flexibility, opportunities for advancement, being valued and respected, and transparency. I can tell you with my call center job, I can't think of one that actually comes off of that list for that particular job. But with Cascade, they're pretty much hitting all of the boxes in what I feel is a quality job.
SPEAKER_03That's fantastic to hear and really inspiring in the way that you as a relatively new employee see the company and how it does fulfill those numerous characteristics that you listed for a quality job in your mind. So the employees and purpose, the growth opportunity, good communications, recognition of employees, competitive wages and benefits, that employees feel valued and respected, and that there's transparency. And I think most importantly, because you gave that example, the flexibility to work remotely at times, building on that. I wanted to ask how Cascade Comprehensive Care has supported you most as an employee and worker.
SPEAKER_01They have been really great about providing tools and resources necessary for both my personal and professional growth. So about two months into my employment, my risk adjustment manager parted ways with the company. And at that point, the department was me, her, and then Michael above her. So now I was basically a department of one. And instead of shuffling me around and just throwing me under a different department or putting my department on hold or anything like that, Michael stepped in and he and I sat down together. And basically, we split those manager duties between the two of us. He took the stuff that I wasn't capable of doing. And then I took the stuff over that was within my wheelhouse and I was comfortable with. And he allowed me to take on the more responsibility and really let me grow and shine within the organization that I was able to take that on until we filled that manager spot. So it just felt good because at first, when that manager position was opened up, it was a little bit of, you know, I've been here two months. What's going to happen with my job? And a little bit scary. And then it was a great relief to find out that they liked me, they liked what I was doing, they loved what I was doing, and my job was absolutely secure. They allowed me to take a step up and take on more responsibilities. They were supporting me by showing me that they had faith in me, even though I'd only been there a very short amount of time.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. And what a great example. And what I heard you say too in that is they trusted you and supported you and recognized that you were brand new and needed reassurance that you were a valued employee and they wanted to give you growth opportunity. I've seen in other organizations where there's a choice made to promote with a transition, just have at it, now it's yours, without the guidance and support that may be needed when you're new. And so it sounds like it was a combination of both giving you new skills to develop and more responsibility, but in a very supportive environment where there was mentoring and also a lot of thought put into what would be beneficial to give you oversight and charge of and other things that someone else could pick up while supporting you with these new responsibilities. I really appreciate that example and that description, particularly when you were just a few months into your role.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Wanted to ask from your perspective, what company policies or practices have been most helpful, making it easier for employees like yourself who are also parents, and even thinking about your time when you were an intern, working there, building skills, but also going to school.
SPEAKER_01I would say the flexibility, capability of working remote as needed, and just uh their understanding as a company as a whole that we all have lives, especially those of us who do have kids. Sometimes kids are fun, they throw wrenches and things. For instance, my seven-year-old, he decided to jump out of a tree at his papa's house and he shattered his arm.
SPEAKER_03Oh no.
SPEAKER_01He couldn't just be a normal kid and break one of the two little bones in his forearm. He had to just mess it up.
SPEAKER_03He went for it.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So, you know, emergency surgeries later and all of his appointments and everything else. It was one of those things. I knew that if I needed to work from home, I had the ability to as I needed. And that's nice being a parent, is knowing that if I absolutely need it, it's okay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And that as you described, the leadership at Cascade Comprehensive Care is understanding and recognizing that, like you said, we all have lives. And especially as a parent, that there's things that are hard to anticipate and predict, and having some grace and compassion for that.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_03So the focus of this podcast is really on centering student and now graduates or workers' voices. And I wanted to ask how the company has been able to center worker voice seeking your input to shape company policies and practices. And if you have any specific examples you might be able to share.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So actually, as I mentioned before, I work 12 years in a call center. So one thing that I have in spades is customer service experience and working with customers, or in our case at Cascade, is our members over the phone. So I will call our members and schedule for our annual Medicare wellness visits. And when I first came on, I noticed that the scripting and the process for that was kind of out of date. The flow of it didn't really work for me. So I took my customer service experience from years past and I revamped the call flow and the policy and procedure for that and actually made it into a more dynamic, something that was more efficient and effective for meeting our member needs, but also our company needs. And then wrote a desktop process based on that. So that way, anybody else who happens to make these calls to our members, they have that process. So that was one thing that Michael relied on was my customer service experience. Since I was the one making these calls, doing the calls, he was completely okay with what I was doing and changing that process around.
SPEAKER_03It sounds like the leadership has been really open to suggestions, recommendations, and building on strengths that employees bring to the table, in your case, those customer service skills from your past experience at the call center. It's a great illustration of a way that Cascade Comprehensive Care is centered and valued employees' voices towards continuous improvement, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So wanted to ask you if you have any other ideas on how colleges or employers can listen to students and workers better to develop policies and programs that put them in the best position to thrive as a student or an employee and to improve job quality.
SPEAKER_01The biggest recommendation that I can say is to listen to your employees or your students, be willing to be flexible. But by doing these things, you're showing your employee that you value them or your student that you value them. And if an employee or a student feels valued, they value you as either an instructor or as an employer. And then a valued employee is a loyal employee. So that's the biggest thing. Listen, be understanding, allow for some flexibility as needed, and just show them that they are truly valued. Their voice matters, their opinion matters, they matter as a person. I've had my call center job where you're made to feel like you're warm body filling a seat. That's all they care about. When you do that to a person, they don't care. If they don't care, they're not going to work for you, they're not going to perform for you, they're not going to excel for you. If you show them that you care and you value them, then you're going to have that loyalty out of that person.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and that's huge. I think in this job market now where employers are struggling at times to find employees, and retention is a challenge for many employers now, too. And so to have loyal employees, as you described, who are invested in the work, who feel valued is powerful and speaks a lot to the culture of the company, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So I wanted to flip this and ask what advice you would give to other students at Klamath Community College and other community colleges to ensure they access resources and supports they need to complete their college credential and are then able to find and keep a quality job.
SPEAKER_01So advice to current or future students would be to find a schedule that works for you. For instance, when I first started, my son, who's now three, he was about nine months old. And I realized very quickly that I couldn't do my homework and actually give it my full attention when I was caring for my son. So my homework time became scheduled around his nap and bed times. And if you have questions, ask. Don't feel like you're the only one. Because if you're not following something, if you don't speak up, then they don't know. And you can't continue if you're still stuck three steps back. The teachers and the instructors, they actually want to help you, like we talked about at the beginning.
SPEAKER_03Appreciate your thoughts there for other students. And what I want to do now is ask you how your experience at Klamath Community College has been impactful in your life. And then also how your work experience at Cascade Comprehensive Care has helped you grow as a professional.
SPEAKER_01The program at KCC for the health information management, I mean, that's been helpful in preparing myself for having a career with the call center. That was a job. It was a dead end. I wasn't going to go anywhere off of it. As far as Cascade Comprehensive Care, they took me right out of college. I knew about three weeks into my internship that I was being hired. I had already gone through and interviewed for the position. I had a tentative start date. So they took someone straight out of college and decided I like this person. I think she can work for us. They gave me something to look forward to that I wasn't going to graduate and be one of those graduates that would just have to sit around the job market for six, eight months, a year or longer until I found a I was able to know right away that I had gained full employment straight school to employer. I can't stress enough how great of a place and how happy I am with my career at Cascade and that I was able to find them on just a placement.
SPEAKER_03That's awesome. I think where you started was that from your KCC educational experience now, you have a career, not just a job as you had before. And then the value of that internship opportunity with an employer that saw the potential and wanted to invest in you as a future employee and supporting your growth. And then also the importance and value of the faculty in the program to align students' interests with these internship work-based learning opportunities. And I would add to that the importance of those individuals building those relationships with employers like Cascade Comprehensive Care to then have multiple options for students to gain that work experience. And that can lead to full-time employment like you've found at a great employer with quality jobs.
SPEAKER_01If I remember right, my internship was their first time participating with Climouth Community College in this. So Tammy and I, we were kind of a trial run, but it's something where Michael and I have discussed it, and we're going to continue to program and see what kind of new talent we can bring into the company going forward.
SPEAKER_03Meaning that you're looking to maintain and maybe even expand that partnership between Cascade and Klamath Community College for other students who were building their skills for future employment opportunities.
SPEAKER_01Correct. It's something that benefited the company, it benefits the college.
SPEAKER_03And the student.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So like a win-win-win there. And glad that you're seeing from your own experience the opportunity now as an employee to maintain that relationship and continue to expand it back to the college in support of the organization that you work for. I just want to thank you, Emily, for taking the time to have this conversation. You've shared a lot about your KCC experience as well as many details and examples of your current work at Cascade Comprehensive Care. And it sounds like an incredible employer to work for and with in the ways you've described, in the growth opportunities, and the flexibility, in the support, and the transparency and the communication. And as you said, the company checks all the boxes in the ways that you describe a quality job. And just want to thank you again for sharing your story and also your recommendations and insights for college leaders, for employers, and for other students.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it and enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_03Thank you, Mark. It's good to be here. Yeah, I appreciate you taking the time to have this conversation following the interview I had with Emily Geezy, the employee at your organization. So as the chief executive officer, if you could share a little bit more about Cascade Comprehensive Care for listeners that aren't as familiar with the business.
SPEAKER_00Yes, so Cascade Comprehensive Care is a managed care organization that serves the Medicaid and Medicare population. Our mission is to build a healthy community for the population that we serve. We've been around since 1992. It's a provider-owned organization and a mission-driven organization. So there are a key part to our value proposition as we think about our values, stewardship, accountability, relationship, collaboration, and creativity.
SPEAKER_03Thank you for sharing those values in addition to an overview of the organization. Yeah. I didn't realize it was almost 30 years old in the community supporting community members. So that's great. And wanted to ask you how the organization has partnered with the community college, Klamath Community College, and what's been valuable about that collaboration with the organization.
SPEAKER_00So we've had multiple collaborations with uh organizations. And I think we're blessed, at least in Climate, we have KCC and we have OIT. But I'm gonna focus more on KCC. So KCC has a lot of assets, right? And one of those assets is the asset of the community to build workforce capacity. And as we started to think about how do we recruit, retain staff locally, and build an economic development for staff who want to stay in Klamath, it was difficult for us to recruit certain skill sets. So as I was talking to Dr. Robert Gutierrez, who's the president of KCC, regarding some of my challenges, one, he was an active listener and creative innovator in trying to help solve some of those solutions. And he put me in touch with Jennifer Briskoll, who was the program director for the HIM program. So as we set a brainstorming, one of the things that we wanted to do was one, find a win-win solution, one, a win for the community college, a win for the students, and also a win for the business organization, which was us. So we pilot a program where some of their HIM students will have an opportunity, for lack of a better word, I'll call it a co-op program, workforce experience where they're going through college. So that gives them an insight to a couple of things. One, it allows them to translate book knowledge into practical knowledge, right? And it allows us as the employer to look and access wonderful talent. We were blessed that we had the two talent that came under our umbrella as part of this pilot program. We wind up hiring both of them. So it's been a win for us in terms of how do we rethink workforce recruitment and capacity planning and using KCCS and assets in collaboration with innovative leaders like Dr. Robert Gutierrez and Jennifer Briscoe.
SPEAKER_03I appreciate that. And just a few things I want to touch on more, Tayo, that you talked about. One is just the connection to the executive leadership at the college, Dr. Gutierrez, and the access and the collaboration and communication with business leaders such as yourself, the creativity and problem solving. And then I think what's very powerful to me too is just that experience for students to gain so they don't have to wait two years to then go out and apply what they're learning. While they're in coursework, they're able to immediately take the skills they're learning and apply it in a real setting while the employer gets to quote unquote try out new employees and see if it's a good fit and mentor them with those skills. It's inspiring to hear how that has worked effectively for you so far with two new employees through that internship. Just staying with Emily, then, since I had the chance to speak with her, wanted to ask you if you had the chance to listen in to that interview, and if so, what your key takeaways were from Emily's comments.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I had the opportunity to listen to the interview. Emily could not have been a better ambassador for us as I listened to her comments and her testimonial. But also it's a collective effort of who we are as an organization and what we strive for. I love the idea and the appreciation where Emily said, Listen, I enjoy the people that we work with. That is what we're striving for. She loves her job. She loves the people that she's working with. She plays her crucial role, which I'll describe really shortly here. And obviously, the one key part that I took away from it, she adds value and makes a difference. The idea that she's moving away from a job to a career and she sees an opportunity for growth within the organization is priceless. So it makes the worth of the PyR project that we started to be worthwhile continuing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. The way she described the culture of the organization and very tangible examples of why she saw her work there as a quality job and a career. And I think something that stuck out for me was just the situation she described where there was a change in a manager and she was brand new, and just the thoughtfulness that you and your colleagues had and giving her a chance to take on more responsibility, but in a way that was supportive and not overwhelming. And so giving her that challenge, the stimulation, but not just throwing her out to the shark, so to speak, not the right expression, but you know, to do it in a way that was what can we do? What do you want to work on? And just the way she described that really demonstrated the deep appreciation for the leadership. And beyond that, how she described the flexibility as a parent, right? So as somebody who has kids, some of the health things that came up and the ability to work creatively with the organization and the sensitivity from the organization of individuals who have families.
SPEAKER_00You're absolutely right, Mark. And I think a lot of the testament goes towards the leaders, the only as good as your weakest link. And obviously, we have great leaders. And Emily's leader, who she referred to in the interview, is Michael Donowski, who's our chief operating officer and my colleague. And one of the things during that transition is how do we provide her more responsibility, but provide her more tools and resources to allow her to strive while also allowing her to grow as well. In terms of the workforce, obviously, we're in a competitive workforce. And as an employer, one of the things that we've drive ourselves is we're in a new normal. And that new normal allows us to reflect on what the workforce needs to look like and how do we need to be flexible around some of our employees that have different situations, childcare, senior care. Those are absolutely important. To the extent that we have empathy and understanding that situation, our staff and our colleagues can feel like this is the right place to work. And obviously, we're striving to be the workforce of choice. And the new normal has forced us to think differently and innovatively of how do we meet our workers where they are.
SPEAKER_03Well, and that's a great segue into what I wanted to ask you next. And that's how the organization supports quality jobs and what strategies have been most impactful at recruiting and retaining strong employees like Emily.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so one of the things that we realize recruiting, retaining, and motivating people to stay in climate may be a challenge. Some people love it and some people love it for a while and then they transition away. However, there are talent that are local that needs to be grown and harnessed with assets like KCC or OIT, for instance, where we can tap into and say, gosh, if we think about it differently, like find someone with Emily's talent who live here, who wants to be here, but are looking for the right set of opportunity that we need, and going to KCC to tap into that college and transferring that skill set into an employer structure like ours so that we can benefit from that and obviously deliver care to our member. That is exactly what we're looking for. So as we think about it, how do we create this win-win? That's number one. Number two, how do we have competitive wages? How do we recruit people with good benefits? How do we look at providing a better set of retirement structure, growth opportunity for staff coming in? And more importantly, as we say continuous improvement of education, we want to provide our staff with the right set of tools, right set of processes, and right set of resources so that they can thrive as well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there's a lot there. And I think as you started with the recruitment, what is powerful to me in that is the emphasis on recruiting locally and understanding how to do that for people who are in the community, who are interested in good jobs and working for good employers and who have an attachment to the place. Correct. I've seen so many organizations look outside of our region to recruit and bring people in, and they may stay, they may decide after a winter of rain that this is not for them. So I think just the emphasis on recruiting locally within the community is a great strategy. And then, as you talked about, the retention efforts of competitive wages and benefits, growth opportunities, and continuous improvement. And having worked with community colleges for many years, KCC clearly does that education and training for students like Emily that get a certificate or a degree and then enter the workforce. But many of the colleges also have departments that can do professional development and further education can be a resource. But I think all of those examples are great strategies and point to that broad definition of a quality job. Thank you for sharing all of that. And on a similar note, I just wanted to ask how the organization incorporates worker voice, the ideas of employees like Emily into your business planning and in any policy development.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so it's absolutely crucial because we set goals for the entire organization that we believe in bottom up and having the voice. And that is one way. The other is we have an activity and morale committee where a lot of our members we build a culture. What does the culture need to look like? Where do we want to be? What type of staff do we want to recruit? How do we reward and recognize people? And do we share common goals as we move along? The idea of everyone having a voice that becomes really important. And communication is absolutely crucial. So as a leader, I strive to have what we consider all staff meeting on a monthly basis. And that part of that is literally trying to communicate what is going on and obviously solicit feedback from my colleagues as well. There are opportunities where everyone within the organization can make suggestions. There's an open suggestion box that comes to me directly. There's always a suggestion. This idea of continuous reimprovement is great. And obviously, we try to check our titles at the door.
SPEAKER_03Thanks for sharing all of that. And I think another related question just wanted to ask, in addition to what you've just described, are there other ways that you've worked to build an inclusive organizational culture at Cascade Comprehensive Care where all employees are able to thrive? And are there any other strategies that you can point to that have been effective?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because we're mission-driven. One of the things that we strive to do on an annual basis is what we consider an employee feedback. So that gives us the macro view in terms of how the employee perceives certain things, you know, leadership, benefit, colleagues. And that gives us what I consider more like a 360 in terms of how we're performing and how can we improve.
SPEAKER_03Well, kudos to you for having that process and that openness. I just recognize there's vulnerability in that. And to gain those insights on how you're performing in a 360 manner and to continue to build that inclusive culture is dynamic.
SPEAKER_00And just to add to that, Mark, after we get the information, we believe in openness and transparency around the results, right? So we share the results with the team. We share what is working well and where we need to improve, right? And everybody sees it.
SPEAKER_03What you just talked about with that transparency, I mean, that in itself is a way to demonstrate to your organization and your employees that you take this seriously, that there's accountability too. And I'll just share an example from this podcast. When I had the chance to interview another student in the first season, and we were just talking about feedback loops with college leaders. This student said, if you ask for feedback and then you don't do anything with it, it's actually worse than not even asking. Right? Because then it's just going through the motions. And so you are sharing the results. There's transparency and there's accountability. So the employees see that when they share their input, it's being reviewed and it's being considered. Just want to come back with a question to the community college since they have been a partner and wanted to ask you if you have any thoughts on other ways that Klamath Community College and other colleges or universities, since you mentioned OIT, could be strong educational and workforce partners to organizations like Cascade Comprehensive Care to support hiring, training, and retention needs of small and mid-sized businesses across the state?
SPEAKER_00All the community colleges and obviously the universities play a unique role in a few things. One, it's an asset to look at capacity and workforce development. As we take a step back, the question becomes for industry leaders like myself to work with higher education leaders like Dr. Gutierrez, for instance, at KCC, to say these are the challenges that I'm facing as a leader in terms of recruiting. How do we create a program at KCC? And Dr. Gutierrez and his team have been amazing in trying to adapt and become innovative and creative and trying to find solutions. But two, if it's done well with that leader locally, they can retain those community members. And that creates economic growth for that particular community because now you've had someone within the community who's staying in that community. So I think they serve as a dual purpose.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's a fantastic perspective. And I think with that economic development, as you talked about, for that individual and for their family, it also provides economic mobility. Right. So to the larger community. But for that individual, you know, I think of Emily and how she described that past job. It was a job. It didn't have the same opportunity for skill building, for growth, for a better wage, an established schedule or benefits. I think that's at the individual and family level in addition to the broader community.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. And one more thing, Mark, on this particular question. It's also great to have someone like Emily with her skill set not leaving the community and having the ability to have her work in the community, right? Where she has family, where she's grown a lot of ties. So that is absolutely important as well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, just that sense of place and retaining strong, skilled workers in the community where they go to school. Correct. And where they have family. Thank you for that additional point, Tayo. And I just wanted to wrap up and ask if there's anything else you'd like to share for this podcast episode.
SPEAKER_00You know, higher ed serves as a complete powerful asset for any community to develop workforce to economic development. Three retaining quality students who ultimately become quality employees within a particular community and allow them to thrive and grow. So it's a win-win situation where you can solve complex problems within the community where all those three things can come together.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's a perfect way to wrap up. And I just want to thank you, Tayo, for spending the time talking about Cascade Comprehensive Care, listening into Emily's interview and sharing your thoughts there, and also just offering up more about the organization and the culture that you have built and the ways that you value your employees, that you create quality jobs, and that you are an anchor in the community, collaborate in different ways with higher education, with the community college to support, as you said, the workforce, the economic development, and then retaining individual skilled workers. Just honored to have you on the podcast. Appreciate you taking the time. And since this will be our first official episode, it's thrilling to be able to highlight Cascade Comprehensive Care and your partnership with Klamath Community College. Great. Thank you, Mark. Dr. Roberto Gutierrez, the president of Klamath Community College in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Welcome, Dr. Gutierrez to the podcast today.
SPEAKER_02Glad to be here, Mark. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03So it's a pleasure to have you on following uh graduate. Of yours, Emily Geezy, as well as a business leader, Tayo Akins from Cascade Comprehensive Care. And wanted to ask you as we start off if you could share a bit more about Klamath Community College for any listeners that are not familiar with the institution.
SPEAKER_02Sure. Mark, if it's okay, I'm going to start with the community college system. It's really based on our ideals as a nation. So that means open access. You know, you do need to work hard. These are rigorous programs, they're transferable and so on. KCC in particular, we're the youngest community college in Oregon in 1996. We're a rural college set in Southern Oregon. We serve one of the largest areas in Oregon since we're very rural, from Southern Oregon and parts of Jefferson all the way to Lake County in Klamath County. So pretty large as far as geographic. So that's KCC.
SPEAKER_03That's helpful. And I knew that KCC does cover a large geographic area. I didn't know that it was the youngest of the 17 community colleges. So interesting to learn that. It's a good segue to bring up Emily, who's a graduate of the Health Information Management Program at KCC. And I think you have the chance to listen into my discussion with her. Wanted to ask you your overall reactions from my conversation with Emily, who's currently working at Cascade Comprehensive Care and is a grad of KCC.
SPEAKER_02You bet I did have a chance to listen to it. Mark, this is just a confirmation of our vision of our students. We're about human potential. You know what you said that I used to have a job. Now I got a career. Now she has the compensation to raise a family. So it was really good to hear that, that she's well pleased with her career. She has input, went to the company, and it was really good to hear the confirmation, what we're about. We have a strong support mechanism to make you successful, to help you accomplish your goals. And Emily is part of that. It definitely made my day. I wanted to share that, especially with the faculty, because you know they're doing a lot of that work.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. I want to come back to some of your comments there. It was very clear from what I heard Emily describe the value she's seen of the education and training she received at Klamath Community College and the supports that were part of that. So she was very clear about how dynamic the faculty were in the HIM program in the classroom, but then also being able to set up work-based learning opportunities for students. And that's how she landed at her employer.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely, Mark, in the classroom. That's where lives get changed. And we're very purposeful that we hire faculty with a heart, with a heart for people, because at the center of what we do as people, it takes an extra effort to work with a student that hasn't been in a classroom for years. So I interview all finalists for faculty. This work is too important. So I interview all finalists, and I'm looking for that heart for the work that we do. A lot of my head's after the faculty.
SPEAKER_03I think just staying with that interview from Emily, is there anything you heard that highlighted work that KCC is doing really well to prepare and support students towards quality jobs?
SPEAKER_02Oh, yes. This is a joint effort between the employer and the college. So there's advisory boards, and these boards are made up of employers. So they help to shape the curriculum. And Jennifer has that. And you know, and students evaluate their experience with that employer that they're doing some purposeful work there, especially if they get paid internship, and employers evaluate the student. So it's really a joint effort between the college, KCC, the student, and the employer back and forth, how we're doing. So the next student can even have a better experience based on the input that we get from the employer and from the student.
SPEAKER_03Because you touched on advisory committees and the connection to employers. Just thinking of Emily and her classmates, both of their experiences at Cascade Comprehensive Care. That's one employer with two opportunities, but it takes a number of those employers to round out a whole class or cohort. And so it is dynamic work with those relationships that are built with employers. And I appreciate your comment on paid internships because we know the majority of our students face financial insecurities. And so when they have to wait two years or however long the program is to then find employment, that's challenging. It doesn't work for all of our students. So if a student is able to solidify a paid internship, they're building those practical skills, they're applying what they learn to the classroom, and they're getting an income for it. And I am also remembering my conversation with Maureen Conway from Aspen Institute and the invitation for colleges and workforce development agencies to influence job quality. And I think that's one clear way that we can do that is to offer up internships, but help employers understand why that paid internship makes a difference.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. When the employer says, I'm willing to have a paid internship, they get highest priority because based on what you just said, the number one factor in a student not succeeding in college is the finances. So sometimes they have part-time jobs to help them with that, but then that takes away from their studies. And sometimes they cut back on their studies. Well, then it takes longer. Research shows that if you have full-time students and focus on that, you're going to be successful. Well, sometimes our students cannot afford that. So the paid internship is so critical to that success.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, glad that you mentioned that. So I wanted to ask you a question about what role community colleges play in creating opportunity and advancing racial and economic equity in communities across the state. And how does that then tie in with job quality?
SPEAKER_02The data that I've seen is that community colleges, we have the most diverse student body population. It's because of our mission, which I talked about earlier, Mark. So, how do we do that? We have strong support mechanisms to help all students succeed. But also, students need to see faculty, staff like themselves. So we make a strong effort in that area, hire people here at the college that look like our community. And that's a high priority for us to make sure our employees, our faculty look like more diverse student-body population. But we also see sometimes needs in the community. And sometimes we see a population that's not being served. So let me just give you an example. We've seen the migrant population, the people that pick our fruits and so on, and we don't hear much about that population, but they're here and they're not being served. So we applied for a pretty large grant, HEP, a federal grant. We got it. We're helping them get their GD. We're helping them get into certificate programs. We interviewed a student not too long ago that is going to graduate this year with a diesel program. He happens to be Hispanic, and he was the top student in the diesel program. And now he has his pick of where to go to work. But that is just meeting the needs of our community, all our community, and then having the resources. In this case, we brought a grant to help that population. So, anyways, that's just one example. We have many others.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's a great example. And I think all of it ties back to the importance of skills, if it's for a diesel technician or for a health information management occupation. And ultimately, if that's the path to a quality job, because of the mission, as you described, of the community college system of open access, students are coming with a lot of life experience, skills, strengths, and also may need some supports. Yes. Those all make a difference in addition to grants like the HEP grant for resources to support specific student populations who may historically have been marginalized or because of occupational segregation. And then also, I think what you said too is to representation of faculty and staff reflective of the community at large and the student body and how important that is.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Again, success, helping their families because that's just a generational difference. Now those children are seeing their parents being successful. The same thing with Emily. You know, her kids seeing their mom study and be successful and how she loves what she does. Now those kids are saying, wow, mom did it. This has a long-term effect across generations, families.
SPEAKER_03For sure. Just staying on economic development, I wanted to ask you, Dr. Gutierrez, how the recent Future Ready Oregon 2022 bill that passed this past legislative session in Oregon and other policy and state workforce investments can also support better job quality for KCC students and for regional employers.
SPEAKER_02This is an investment of Oregon into its people. And this is so important. For example, there's a need for a new program. An employer is looking at our community, but we don't have a well-trained workforce in that area. This will help us to do that for new program development. But also, there's other things too involved with this. Credit for prior learning. There's a lot of work and evaluation that goes into this because of the base that's here. We have military personnel that want to come to college, but they have a lot of experiences in the military. And we need to evaluate that. This allows us to help them, to evaluate them, and they will get a jump start on their career, on their degree with credit for prior learning. That's one example. New support mechanisms for the students, especially mental health, what's going on right now after COVID, Mark. We can see right away there's mental health needs. So that will help us with that too. And there's other things too in this area, but strong investment from Oregon legislators towards Oregon and the citizens. We don't usually see this kind of investment. It's amazing. And I'm excited about what it's going to do for this part of Oregon, you know, and it's going to do for our students and new programs.
SPEAKER_03It's a huge investment, and appreciate your summary there. In particular, the resources for new program development, as you're hearing from employers, where there may be emerging occupations and skills, and where the college may normally have difficulty with tight budgets to invest in equipment, tools for a new program. It gives you that. The credit for prior learning is such a powerful strategy for adults who come to the college with a lot of life experience and previous training, say from the military or on the job. So to be able to figure out without compromising standards, that there could be ways to map and articulate their previous training certification to the courses and the different programs. It's a motivator, it accelerates the path to a college credential and then ultimately to a good job.
SPEAKER_02It's important for us to attract companies with strong middle class salaries. That's so key. Again, the quality of life in this part of Southern Oregon. And this allows us to do that. New program development. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And it demonstrates to those companies who are already there or are exploring the possibility of relocating to the region, that there is a community college that is a huge asset. I mean, the way that Tayo described it as a CEO of a company, of how valuable it is to have KCC in their backyard, and that the college is responsive to emerging needs in terms of technology and skills, and that in some cases it can seal the deal with an employer when they see the responsiveness of a college and the types of investments that a college can put forth to develop a trained workforce.
SPEAKER_02And we need to continue to make sure good quality companies like Tayos companies stay here. We attract them, but also the ones that are here stay here.
SPEAKER_03And understanding, too, that one element of job quality is upskilling opportunities for employees to continue to grow. Just like Emily had the challenge and stimulation of taking on more responsibility, advancement opportunities for folks. Sometimes employers don't realize that colleges have a whole arm that can do professional development and training. And so I think that's a whole nother level of supporting existing workers in addition to helping employers find talent of the future.
SPEAKER_02That's correct. And we were able to customize the needs of those employees. Here we call it continuing education, which is the non-credit arm of the college.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, glad that you mentioned that. I just wanted to wrap up and ask if there's anything else you'd like to share for this podcast episode.
SPEAKER_02Mark, this work is personal for me. So going back in my background, because it shapes my leadership at this institution. I'm the son of migrant farm workers. They came to this country for a better life. They came over, and I was born in Texas, and they followed the crops all the way to the state of Washington in Oregon. And in order to provide for the family, I had to drop out of school. So I didn't finish high school, which is unusual. So I went back to the community college to get my GD. And I was embraced by the faculty and staff at that institution. And they helped me to move on with the associate's degree. And you know, and I've gotten them other degrees since then, but they gave me a love for this work and how it shaped my life. And I share that with our students.
SPEAKER_03So thank you so much for sharing that, Dr. Gutierrez, with your own personal journey through the community college system. And I didn't realize that you started at a community college in the GED program. And I know from the past season of the podcast, we had a number of students at different colleges who had begun in the GED program and then were in a transfer track or CTE program and spoke so fondly of that entry point into the college and the support that they received. What an inspiration to your student body. And I appreciate you sharing it with me and on the podcast. And I just want to thank you for taking the time to have this conversation to talk about the college, speak about Emily and her journey into the workforce, talk about the broad topic of job quality and what that means to you, to the institution, to the employer partners, including that work with faculty in building those relationships, in investing in programs, and supporting community members and their families. I'm inspired by your own journey and also your passion for this work.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, Mark, for this opportunity and the work that you're doing.
SPEAKER_03Well, that'll do it for another great episode of the All In Student Pathways Forward Podcast. This is the host, Mark Goldberg, and just wanted to say thanks for listening in. We'll continue our tour of Oregon and be back in a few weeks featuring an episode with a different community college graduate and interviews with college and employer executive leaders. See you next time.