Author: Olivia Breedlove

As Economy Nears Pre-Pandemic Peak, State and Local Leaders Discuss Next Steps for the Texas Workforce

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Michael Wood, Director, Education & Workforce

While the COVID-19 pandemic is anything but over, its adverse impact on the Texas economy was relatively short-lived, said Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) Chairman Bryan Daniel during the Dallas Regional Chamber’s second annual State of the Workforce event.

The economic downturn spurred by the coronavirus lasted for just sixty days, Daniel said. Since hitting rock bottom in May 2020, the Texas economy has been on a steady path to recovery.

“It’s really not a recession, it’s a disaster,” Daniel said. “I can show you Hurricane Harvey numbers that will mimic the pandemic numbers a lot better than any kind of recessionary numbers that we saw in (the 2009 to 2011) timeframe.”

Now the Texas workforce has almost completely rebounded, too.

After recording historic employment figures in February 2020, the state saw sixty times the number of unemployment claims during that March and April than during the entirety of 2019. Fast forward to today, and Texas is just 125,000 workers (out of more than 13 million) shy of that all-time employment record. And the state has recorded economic growth in 16 of the last 17 months.

However, these figures don’t mean that the economy has returned to its pre-pandemic state. Rather, they underscore the need for continued innovation to keep the economy moving forward.

“This ‘new normal?’ There is nothing normal about (it),” Daniel said. “What we will have, though, are new terms, new tools, and new tactics.”

Daniel emphasized that these terms, tools, and tactics must meet the Texas economy where it currently is and needs to go, and not where it was prior to the pandemic. Example tactics include addressing Texas’ persistent middle-skills gap and ensuring upward career mobility for every worker in the state.

Additionally, the tools must match the tactics. State-sponsored virtual education programs for workers seeking a career change or short-term workforce training courses at local community colleges are two tools designed to meet the needs of the current economy.

Not every tactic will, nor should, be an immediate solution, Daniel said. Many, in fact, will require a long runway and greater coordination from the three state agencies that oversee the development of Texas’ talent pipeline: the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), and TWC.

“We have to translate all the way down through school,” said Daniel. “This is a next week project and this is a (next) 20 years project, all at the same time.”

In the Dallas Region, employers and education institutions have adopted new tools and tactics amid the pandemic to address pressing workforce needs – a topic discussed by an expert panel following Commissioner Daniel’s remarks.

For example, Dallas College, Dallas County’s community college system, has leveraged local labor market data and state and federal funding to develop credentialing programs and short-term workforce training pathways aligned with regional economic needs. These initiatives, which are available for traditional students as well as incumbent or displaced workers, are designed to quickly place individuals in high-demand career pathways.

“We have developed new pathways to employment for students, (such as) training programs in logistics and supply chain, cloud support administration, and telehealth,” said Pyeper Wilkins, Vice Chancellor of Workforce and Advancement for Dallas College. “We are using (stimulus) dollars to look forward and really dig into what the labor market says we need to be training people to do now.”

Employers, too, have invested in their talent, standing up their own educational opportunities for current staff to develop new skills or hone existing ones.

On-Target Supplies and Logistics, a Dallas-based logistics management firm, launched an online learning platform to provide workers training opportunities in technology, finance, and operations during the crisis.

“The days of just moving boxes are over,” said Tre’ Black, On-Target’s CEO. “We needed to make sure our workforce not only understood technology but had greater financial awareness and operational awareness so they could help bring better efficiencies to the supply chain. So we had to do a lot of training.”

Workforce development has only been one piece of the puzzle, however, for employers throughout the pandemic. Holding onto incumbent workers amid the so-called “Great Resignation” has been a central concern.

To this end, Bank of America made significant investments in employee benefits, in addition to an assurance that no employee would be laid off as a result of the coronavirus. Improvements included bolstered dependent care benefits, mental health supports, and a $21 minimum wage, along with a commitment to increasing that minimum to $25 by 2025.

“We don’t take (retention) for granted,” said Jennifer Chandler, Dallas Market President for Bank of America. “(Our investment in employee benefits) is a statement, saying that when you come to Bank of America, you have an opportunity for a career.”

The State of the Workforce was presented by BGSF and Texas Mutual Insurance. Amazon and Bank of America were Gold Sponsors, and Oncor was a Silver Sponsor

DRC Native American Heritage Month Resources

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Native American Heritage Month is celebrated every November to honor the many contributions Indigenous people have made to the United States.

As of 2020, there are 574 federally recognized Native American tribes across the country. Three federally recognized tribes live on reservations in Texas: the Alabama-Coushatta, Tigua, and Kickapoo. North Texas was the original home of many tribes, including the Caddo, Comanche, Kiowa, Tawakoni, and Wichita.

The 1841 Battle of Village Creek, on the border of present-day Fort Worth and Arlington, was one of the final acts of removal of Native Americans in North Texas. After Congress passed the Indian Relocation Act to encourage Native Americans to move into urban centers, including Dallas, in 1956, more than 10,000 people from 82 tribes moved to the area. By 1983, about 20,000 Native Americans – or half of Texas’ Native American population – were living in West Oak Cliff and East Dallas. Today, Native Americans make up roughly 2% of the total U.S. population, and around 4,000 live in Dallas.

National efforts to honor Native Americans began in 1914, when Red Fox Skiuhushu, of the Blackfeet tribe, traveled from state to state on horseback to advocate for a dedicated day of observance. He secured endorsements from 24 state governments, and New York was the first state to celebrate “American Indian Day” in May 1916, with many other states following suit.

By 1986, Congress had extended the holiday to a week. Then in 1990, President George H. W. Bush declared November to be Native American Heritage Month. The City of Dallas recognized Indigenous Peoples’ Day for the first time in 2019.

As we progress through the month of November, the Dallas Regional Chamber is proud to celebrate the Native American community in our region. Below are more resources to learn about observing Native American Heritage Month, especially in the workplace.

Read and Watch:

Events:

Ways to Engage:

North Texas Organizations Push for State Psychiatric Hospital for DFW

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Dave Moore, Staff Writer

More than 30 organizations from across North Texas are asking the Texas Legislature to allocate $238 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to construct an approximately 200-bed behavioral health facility to serve the Dallas-Fort Worth Region, which has no state psychiatric hospital of its own.

The facility, which would be operated by UT Southwestern Medical Center, would help reduce wait times for North Texans seeking urgent mental health care, according to Dr. Hicham Ibrahim, Associate Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Ambulatory Services at UT Southwestern.

Dr. Ibrahim was one of dozens who attended a virtual meeting organized and held by the Dallas Regional Chamber (DRC) regarding the hospital on Sept. 23.

“Our patients often have to wait long periods of time in emergency rooms or general hospitals before they can get admitted” to a psychiatric facility, Dr. Ibrahim told attendees. “More capacity is vital to meeting growing demand for services as the population expands and to reducing wait times. Without a significant investment in expanding the current hospital capacity, wait times will worsen,” he said.

The nearest state hospital to the DFW metro is Terrell State Hospital, which is almost 60 miles east of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

According to a review by the mental health advocacy group Treatment Advocacy Center, Dallas-Fort Worth currently has about five state hospital psychiatric inpatient beds per 100,000 residents, which is less than half the national average of 11.7 beds.

The center recommends that metro regions have 40-60 beds per 100,000 residents.

DRC Senior Vice President of Public Policy Matt Garcia told meeting attendees that proponents of the plan to fund the new state psychiatric hospital have until the end of the current special legislative session to advocate for construction funding. He noted that the Legislature previously voted during its regular session earlier this year to approve $44.8 million in state funding for the planning and land acquisition costs of a state psychiatric hospital in North Texas.

The coalition group is now hoping the Legislature will allot $238 million to complete construction funding for the project. Those funds are available as part of Texas’ $16 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funding, Garcia said.

The project will be competing against numerous others, he added. The Legislature will select the projects it will fund before the end of the special session on Oct. 20.

“We’ll be drafting a delegation-wide letter, seeking support” for the legislation, Garcia said. “The more support we get, the better. We believe we’re in good position to get full funding this session.”

The coalition has already sent a letter to state lawmakers on both the House Appropriations Committee and Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Jane Nelson (R- Flower Mound), chairwoman of the Senate Finance Committee, included the $238 million in funding in her bill on appropriating COVID-19 relief money, filed October 1 – an important first step for the coalition’s efforts. The bill will receive a hearing by the full Senate Finance Committee on October 4. Likewise, Rep. Greg Bonnen (R-Friendswood), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, also included the funding is his relief money bill, filed October 1.

Angelica Marin Hill, Vice President of Government Affairs & Policy at UT Southwestern, told attendees that planning has just begun for the facility and will include opportunities for community and stakeholder input. Preliminary plans call for the new facility to:

      • be an acute care, shorter-stay psychiatric hospital;
      • treat conditions that require hospitalization, such as schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorders, addiction, and dual-diagnoses, as well as patients who have co-existing medical and behavioral health conditions;
      • and work in conjunction with the 305-bed Terrell State Hospital, which would care for individuals on a longer-term basis.

Meeting attendees noted that the recent closures of several private mental health facilities – which often serve as backup for state hospitals – have increased the urgency for the construction of a new state psychiatric hospital for Dallas-Fort Worth.

From a national perspective, the number of mental health hospital beds has dropped precipitously since the 1950s, according to the Treatment Advocacy Center.

“From their historic peak in 1955, the number of state hospital beds in the United States had plummeted almost 97% by 2016,” according to the center.

Research from the center also shows that due to voids in mental health services and facilities, people with severe mental illnesses are landing in jails, prisons, and emergency rooms.

“There’s an increasing demand on police and sheriff’s deputies, who, for all intents and purposes, become frontline mental health workers,” according to the center’s report, “No Room at the Inn.”

To join the coalition supporting the funding of a state psychiatric hospital for Dallas-Fort Worth, contact Matt Garcia at mgarcia@dallaschamber.org.

Southwest Office Systems Shifts Sales Strategy, Incentives During Pandemic

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Gloria Salinas, Managing Director, Economic Development

When a pandemic takes away face-to-face interaction, selling a product or service requires a major shift in sales strategy.

For Southwest Office Solutions, a small business that sells and services multi-functional printing and document management office equipment, the shuttering of corporate offices meant dramatic revenue declines. But the company’s measured redirection is already showing signs of getting Southwest back on stable footing.

“In our 56-year history, and the many recessions we have been through, we have never experienced that sudden of a drop or dramatic drop in revenue,” said Vince Puente, President of Sales and Marketing for Southwest, at a July 15 U.S. Chamber of Commerce panel of small business owners. “So, it is a new world, and it has been an amazing change, but we are working our way through it.”

In April, Southwest lost 42% of revenue compared to the previous year, followed by a 37% loss in May. Puente shared strategies, tactics, and ideas for restarting and pivoting sales initiatives during the pandemic.

Southwest receives a fraction of a cent every time a document is printed in an office. When offices are closed, printing drastically declines, and servicing in-office printing equipment is not possible. Fifty percent of Southwest’s revenues are sales, and the other profitable 50% of the business comes from service revenues, including prints.

“What has been hit very hard, very dramatically, is our service revenue. Prints are dramatically down, therefore our revenues are dramatically down,” Puente said. “If clients are not in their offices, then they are not printing. They may be printing at home, but if those devices are not on their network, then we don’t have access to monitor them and bring the level of services that we do.”

Despite an economic shutdown that has kept many offices shuttered and employees working from home since March, Southwest kept its sales team employed by changing its entire B2B sales approach. The company got creative with contract terms and offered product flexibility to support its clients.

The sales team focused engagement with clients via phone, email, or written notes to let them know Southwest was still fully operational and ready to be helpful in the new virtual world of business. Monthly sales incentives stayed intact by creating new offers for the sales team to generate and close business.

“If [a sales rep] could find a net new client, we provided them with our special reduction in prices and incentivized the rep,” Puente said. “We created very unique leasing programs. It is a 0%, 36-month lease with the first payment delayed for 90 days. The combination of those things has not been done before.”

Southwest also provided free printers for home offices, and $50-$500 gift cards to local restaurants to thank clients for doing business them and invest into other small businesses in the local economy.

“With the multiple layers of incentives, there is no margin and most likely there is actually a loss in the transaction,” Puente said. “But our objective right now is not margin or profit, our primary objective is engaging our team and clients, which generates activity and is very important for us to stay alive.”

Southwest also redirected advertising dollars to its sales initiatives. It felt now was the time to invest in clients who were still operating as opposed to advertising.

“Our advertising has always been geared toward name recognition, local ownership, and superior service, but I can take that money and back up these sales, and that has an impact on our clients and teammates,” he said. “Ultimately, what it is about is the clients, the teammates, and driving activity. Keeping our team active, keeping jobs solid, and helping our clients out.”

The key to a small business sales strategy during the pandemic is understanding your company’s products and services, and how to apply them in the new business environment, he said. Starting with a C-level executive who can introduce a decision-maker to a product or services is still the best avenue for relationship building and selling.

Relationships are the heart of small businesses such as Southwest. The company boasts client relationships that are 25-30 years old, 56% of employees have been with the company for 10 or more years, and about one-third of employees for 15-20 years or longer, Puente said.

“Our sales and our company growth are built on relationships, and our goal was to have an exchange with [clients] about business, or their family and how they were doing,” he said. “We relate to them on a personal and business level.”

The ‘Secret Sauce’ in Teacher Success

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Three little words

Nearly half (44 percent) of all teachers quit their profession within the first five years of starting their job, according to a study by Richard Ingersoll and his team at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education.

That statistic is appalling for administrators, students and parents alike, who benefit as teaching effectiveness grows with each passing year.

Texas A&M University-Commerce (TAMU – Commerce) appears to have cracked the code on surviving the initial teaching hump, posting an 85 percent retention rate for teachers in their first five years.

“Texas A&M-Commerce still prides itself on a prolific production of high-quality teachers,” writes Mark J. Reid, Ph.D., associate dean at the College of Education and Human Services. “Over the last five years, the university has produced an average of over 450 new teachers each year.”

One key ingredient in the high-retention-rate secret sauce: in-class experience.

“New teachers hit the public schools ready for success because of a robust experience they obtain within a full year school internship and residency semesters,” Reid writes.

That and other preparation also contribute to a 97 percent passing rate for the initial statewide teacher certification examination, he writes.

Teachers carrying TAMU – Commerce degrees are making a strong impact on the region.

An analysis by the Center for Research, Evaluation & Advancement of Teacher Education found that TAMU – Commerce teachers were employed by 140 school districts and 45 charter schools within a 75-mile radius of the university.

“Notably, 85 percent of the teachers produced by A&M Commerce find initial employment within this zone,” Reid writes. “This trend has resulted in 26 districts that have a majority of their teachers who are graduates of the university including 173 teachers out of the 257 in Sulphur Springs ISD.”

This article is part of the 2020 Higher Education Review Magazine.

Data Drives Criminal Justice Reform

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A Q&A with Pamela R. Metzger of the SMU Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center

Tell us about the Deason Center.

The Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center at the SMU Dedman School of Law collects, analyzes and assesses data to drive smart, sane and sustainable justice policies. The center then uncovers, recounts and amplifies the individual stories that bring the data to life. Together, these stats and stories make a compelling case for compassionate criminal justice.

What was your background before becoming the center’s director?

As the center’s director, I am known primarily for my defense of more than 8,000 incarcerated defendants who were left without legal representation after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. The Deason Center’s research director, Dr. Andrew Davies, co-founded the Indigent Defense Research Association, the nation’s first research organization devoted to empirical study of public defense services.

What are some of the center’s projects?

Indigent Defense

The Deason Center has been retained to identify and promote data-driven best practices for the delivery of federal public defender services. This is believed to be the first research-driven effort to systematically identify which public defender practices improve case and client outcomes across multiple jurisdictions.

The Initial Appearance Project

Across the United States, newly arrested people languish behind bars for days, weeks — or even months — before they see a judge or an attorney. The Deason Center’s Initial Appearance Project documents these delays in initial appearance and assesses how they impact criminal defendants. The project includes a multistate survey of initial appearance laws. The project also supports legislation and litigation that advance the right to a prompt postarrest judicial appearance with the assistance of an attorney.

The Prosecutorial Charging Practices Project

Local prosecutors decide whether or not to charge a person with a crime and decide what charges to file. The Deason Center’s Prosecutorial Charging Practices Project explores how prosecutors engage with police, consider evidence, and assess the public’s interest in prosecution or dismissal. At the conclusion of the project, the research team will provide the participating office with key insights about its internal processes and recommendations about best practices.

Dallas County District Attorney Partnership

The Dallas County District Attorney, John Creuzot, is working with the Deason Center to explore whether or not new prosecution policies create a smarter, safer and more equitable criminal justice system. The first phase of the partnership will examine the impact of reformed misdemeanor prosecution policies, comparing data from the three years prior with data from Creuzot’s first two years in office (2019-2020). Future studies will include cost-benefit analyses, assessments of access to justice and research into the efficacy of diversion programs.

This article is part of the 2020 Higher Education Review Magazine.

With Help from Higher Ed, L3Harris is Sending Its Employees Back to School

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A Q&A with TAMU - Commerce Dean and Professor of Management, Shanan Gwaltney Gibson, Ph.D.

How did L3Harris connect with the College of Business (CoB) to create the program?

The program was conceptualized by L3Harris VP of Human Resources Tom Brown and a business area VP, Jack Cooke. Mr. Cooke was on the Business Executive Advisory Board of the CoB. Upon his retirement from L3Harris in 2009, he joined the full-time faculty of the CoB and initiated the cohort program with the assistance of Dean Dr. Hal Langford.

Is the cohort-based management degree available solely to L3Harris employees?

Yes, students are selected by L3Harris management for the cohort. L3Harris pays for all tuition, fees and materials required. Right now, the MS management class has about 115 students enrolled.

What sorts of theories, scenarios and lessons are in the curriculum?


The curriculum is essentially the same as the Master of Science Management degree for other graduate students of the college, with the addition of a graduate course in business law that has been taught by an L3Harris corporate lawyer. The electives are, in actuality, prescribed and include courses in human resource management, managing groups and teams, leadership theory and practice, and transforming organizations. The cohort approach allows the instruction to be tailored to L3Harris by teaching generalized theory and then mapping it to company practice. Cases, class projects and the participation of L3Harris executives and midlevel managers are included in the lectures.

Do these classes help student employees advance in the L3Harris organization? How?

Yes, the students have previously been identified by L3Harris management in their human resources review process as candidates for development and advancement. The degree is just one step in a program that includes in-house mentorship and instruction to prepare candidates to assume management positions within the corporation. A number of the graduates have been promoted to project and functional management positions within the company.

Is this scalable?

Yes, we are looking to expand this model and make it available to other organizations that see benefit in a program that includes a strategic partnership with an AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business)-accredited college of business.

This article is part of the 2020 Higher Education Review Magazine.

The Coalition on Y’all Street

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How partnership, not competition, is helping DFW’s financial and investment hub forge ahead

As the largest investment services firms began landing in DFW, competition on the self-proclaimed “Y’all Street” in Westlake, Texas, was inevitable. Financial and investment companies have historically fought for the same clients, real estate and talent.

Then change occurred in DFW.

Leaders from Fidelity, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, JPMorgan Chase, TIAA and the Dallas Regional Chamber (DRC) converged to create the North Texas Investment Services Coalition (NTXISC), proving that working together can be more fruitful than battling each other. The coalition consists of the organizations’ market leaders, meeting in person or via phone, every month to work on shared, coalition-established goals for DFW investment services firms.

One of the largest areas of collaboration stemmed from the need for new talent and education partners to build the talent of existing team members. With facilitation from the DRC, the NTXISC began to meet with Tarrant County College (TCC) to develop a completely new credential focused on in-demand/high-growth entry-level investment service jobs. TCC brought in staff with a business background, an expertise in teaching “soft skills” and other professional skills while building curriculum with the NTXISC companies, ensuring every student who completes the course will be eligible to work for the companies and take the entry-level licensing exam. In the program, students will be exposed to the NTXISC member companies through site visits, internships, mentoring and guest lecturers. As TCC is building the program — slated for a late-2020 launch — the investment services firms are working with internal HR and hiring managers to influence and understand the program to give applicants with the credential a leg-up in the hiring process. The NTXISC/TCC credential showcases the leadership of both the financial/investment services industry and the higher education system, specifically when meeting the needs of talent in the region.

This article is part of the 2020 Higher Education Review Magazine.

Texas Research Alliance

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Connecting Research & Innovation in Dallas-Fort Worth

Founded in 2014 by four Chambers in the DFW Region, the Texas Research Alliance (TRA) is a not-for-profit that builds industry, government and university research and innovation partnerships. There is no cost for TRA’s assistance to find the key regional partners to help meet your research and innovation challenges.

TRA projects have included recruiting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Federal Statistical Research Data Center to the DFW Region; partnering on the City of Dallas’ smart-city initiative; connecting companies with key researchers at area universities; and developing a long-term strategy to build DFW resources in defense, health care, education and information technology.

Industry Outreach

Objective: Meet industry research and innovation needs through partnerships with small to midsized businesses and universities.
Process: Work with each company, fully understand its research and innovation needs and convey them, in nonproprietary formats, to qualified growth/startup companies and university faculty.

Note: This can be done under nondisclosure agreements (NDA) with TRA or through TRA-facilitated interaction between the company and qualified small TRA companies and university faculty.

Project Development

Objective: Identify, qualify and engage regional resources that meet industry research and innovation needs.

Process: Identify and engage members of the growth/startup communities and universities with the staff/faculty, facilities and desire to meet the need of the regional industry partners. Bring the research and innovation providers together with the industry champions for assessment and engagement.

Consider a Capstone Partnership

The Region has a highly successful national model of best practices at UTD and UNT. This low-cost, defined company-university introduction provides IP protection, interdisciplinary student teams and high success rates. Contact the Texas Research Alliance for more information.

This article is part of the 2020 Higher Education Review Magazine.

Working Together to Unlock Potential

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How the DRC partners with higher education leaders.

It’s 7:30 a.m. on a cold fall morning. The university presidents and chancellors of the largest regional colleges and universities in Dallas-Fort Worth sit in a meeting room at the Dallas Regional Chamber (DRC). It’s one of the quarterly meetings of the University CEO Council, a council facilitated by the DRC that brings together regional higher education leaders to discuss pressing higher education issues in the region and ways to collaborate.

It’s no surprise that when the outgoing chairwoman, Dr. Carine Feyten, chancellor of Texas Woman’s University, arrives, she is greeted with handshakes, smiles and a familiar feeling. DFW higher education leaders not only work together, but they share a strong mutual interest in student success that bonds them beyond their institutions. It’s an energy that is clear in every Council meeting. While during today’s meeting the Council is discussing how to create a regional approach to ease students’ transfer of college credit between institutions, the Council is no stranger to taking on bigger projects. Each year, in partnership with the DRC, the Council collectively weighs in on state legislative issues, participates in a State of Higher Education event with more than 300 business leaders, and finds innovative ways the higher education community and industry can better work together. The inaugural DRC Higher Education Review was the brainchild of the University CEO (UCEO) Council, after DRC members noticed that the full story of higher education in the DFW Region wasn’t being told. “This is higher education in 2020. Working together with current and potential new partners, we are creating the workforce of tomorrow today. The future is now for DFW,” says incoming UCEO Council chair Lesa Roe, chancellor of the University of North Texas System.

The UCEO Council just scratches the surface of collaboration between institutions in DFW. Combined efforts by the region’s institutions of higher education is proof of the priority of partnership.

A Louder Voice at the CAPITOL

As each legislative session begins, the flurry of visitors flooding the capitol advocating for change, opportunity and new policies is unmistakable. DFW higher education institutions are no stranger to this biannual tradition, employing institutional government relations staff and advisors to work with state legislators on higher education funding, research and policy improvements. It became clear, through the UCEO Council, that while each institution’s voice was valued in the capitol, the voice of higher education in DFW would be stronger combined. Initially, the work began as simply drafting a list of priorities that regional higher education and business leaders agreed upon for each session and has grown into a working coalition advocating in Austin under one unified voice. This strategy has paid off for DFW. Their influence in Austin has grown. They have seen improved transfer and articulation policies, increased funding for research and funding for capital building projects on campuses.

Let’s Build This for Everyone

Students, parents and educators have always known the difficulties of students transferring between community colleges and four-year universities. “Trying to navigate what credits transfer, what applies to a degree program and who offers the best scholarships for transfer students is confusing and exhausting,” says DRC senior vice president, education & workforce, Drexell Owusu. “When education leaders can come together to make systems easier for students, businesses also win by getting their talent quicker and with less student debt.” The issue of transfer and articulation has taken on the best of collaboration in the region, including a formal consortia, legislative advocacy and advances in technology.

Created more than a decade ago, the North Texas Community College Consortium’s mission is to provide high-quality, low-cost, close-to-home professional development opportunities for its community college members. What started as a regional networking organization has grown into the creation of the North Texas Regional Transfer Collaborative. The collaborative brings together community colleges and public and private universities across the region to create common templates and guided pathways for students to use in the college advising process. The consortium was the first in the region with diverse institutions coming together and agreeing on pathways for students, making it easier for students to complete college and enter the workforce.

Best Practices, Best Outcomes

“Having time carved out of my month to hear from experts in my field and guest speakers who bring light to the realities of the labor market all while networking with my peers is truly invaluable to my work,” says Keri Burns, director of the University of Texas at Dallas University Career Center. “We understand that we are better together, and applying best practices from other institutions helps all students get a good job after graduation.” Burns is talking about her time with the Metroplex Area Consortium of Career Centers (MAC3), a group of 12 DFW Region community colleges and universities joining forces to enhance career services and job opportunities for students. Since its founding in 1994, MAC3 has held joint job fairs, hosted national conferences, connected with employers for site visits and analyzed labor-market information to better translate the talent connections between students and employers.

The Future of Together

The strength of the DFW Region lies in its diversity — economically, demographically and in higher education offerings. Over the past 10 years, leaders in the region have witnessed the fruits of their labor through collaboration and partnership. Now is the time to look to the future and build on best practices that create optimal outcomes for students, institutions and the workforce. Future projects include a downtown Dallas hub that will physically co-locate K-12, community colleges, four-year universities and businesses to build an innovation center focused on aligning workforce needs and student outcomes; a new blockchain technology that enables student credentials to be sent with a touch of a button; and creating lasting private-public partnerships (3Ps) with multiple institutional partners.

This article is part of the 2020 Higher Education Review Magazine.