8/1/2009 - 12:00 AM

Q&A with Janice Gilliam, president, Northeast State

Over the last decade, Northeast State Technical Community College has established a reputation in the Tri-Cities business community for going the extra mile to help business create jobs. Programs specifically designed to help individual employers have been put in place to address workforce development issues in the region. Under the administration of former president Dr. William Locke, Northeast State grew from the status of being just another community college to being an integral part of the community.
With Dr. Locke’s retirement last month, Northeast State entered a new era: the Gilliam administration. Dr. Janice Gilliam (pronounced Gill’-am) took office August 3. Gilliam was most recently vice president of Student Development Services for Haywood Community College in Clyde, N.C., where both she and the college were active in the local business community. She has 18 years experience in higher education and nine in administration. The Business Journal visited Dr. Gilliam in her office at HCC shortly after the Tennessee Board of Regents confirmed her appointment to Northeast State.

The Business Journal: From what we understand, you have interviewed elsewhere for similar positions. What was it about Northeast State that caught your attention?

Dr. Janice Gilliam: I have been in a few presidential searches and I always do some research on the school in the application process. I found that it was an extraordinary college. I called some people I know that had connections here and knew Dr. Locke. What I found was a college that is in great shape. Dr. Locke has set up a model to follow for community colleges. His leadership, and the leadership of other community leaders in initiatives such as Project Reinvest with Eastman Chemical Company, and the Kingsport Center for Higher Education with Mayor Phillips, really is a model for how to run a community college.

BJ: When we last spoke with Dr. Locke, he said he was proud of what he and the community had accomplished together, but that he was also hoping his successor would be someone who wants to find more new things to do, more new initiatives to grow the region and improve the workforce. That having been said, you’re bound to have a period of learning about whatever circumstances are peculiar to Northeast State. What is a practical expectation of the actions that you can take early in your tenure?

JG: Well, my first priority is to meet people. I’ve already started meeting with business leaders to learn more about their employees and I’ve also started meeting with city and county government leaders, elected officials, public administration officials with local schools – all the local colleges and universities in that area. But one thing that I’ve been thinking about for a long time as I start my presidency is to get people together that can identify needs.
Workforce development has two main functions. The first is to support existing business entities. On that front, I want to go to industry and develop a confidential database. It has to be confidential because corporations are very cautious about projecting their future and putting out their company plans. I want to develop a picture of what the needs are and look to see if we have the training opportunities available to meet those needs. The second prong is new industries and businesses and providing the education that would lure them to the area.
One broader vision is entrepreneurship. There’s a lot being done. There’s already a small business program in place. But even broader, I have been involved in an entrepreneurship initiative here at HCC for about the last 12 years. I was on the team that actually integrated entrepreneurship across the campus and that is just finding the resources that you need to implement programs and services to meet the needs of the students. That’s very broad, but having said that, we just recently developed the first entrepreneurial degree program in alliance with Western Carolina, so that’s a good model to follow. We want to provide specific training for those who want to open their own business.
As you probably have seen, the smaller business sector of the economy is growing as manufacturing leaves the United States, the foundation we must build on is entrepreneurship. There are all sizes of businesses and organizations that need all kinds of services, but skilled knowledge workers and the skilled, knowledge jobs are what we need to be focusing on. Those are skills that you can’t import.
For example, in the engineering field, two of my sons are in engineering. One got their training in the U.S. Navy. The other got their training here. They’re working in places where automation has, to a large degree, taken the place of lower end salaried employees. But these businesses require skilled workers to maintain the computers and all the structure that goes along with operating a plant that is automated. So those are the kinds of workers that you need.
The health industry is huge. You have to provide that service face-to-face. Very little can be done remotely. Now in the records piece of that, yes, technology can be outsourced and managed from afar. That’s just the nature of it. But there are still a lot of services and industries that require specialized training, and that’s certainly the Kingsport academic village will have a huge impact in that area for years to come in terms of the accessibility of education.
With the five counties, it’s very important that you have services that people can have access to, perhaps getting online or on weekends or evenings because a lot of our students are working. They’re employed and have families, so they need access – like myself, I received my cosmetology education right out of high school and then got married and started raising my family, but it was a job I could do part time while raising a family, which I did. But then when I sought to work full-time, I wanted to become a teacher. I had planned to be a math teacher in high school, but my parents were very conservative, much like in this region, we have many conservative parents. And given the environment of college campuses, sometimes it’s just better for students to stay locally and stay close to home. So I was able to work full-time, raise my children with my husband and help from my mother and be able to expand my education and become a teacher with a master’s degree and then a doctorate in leadership that allowed me to move into administration. Had it not been for accessible education, I would not be sitting here. I would not be president of Northeast State.
It’s all about making sure you’re creating a workforce that can benefit not only the industries, but also the communities. Then you have to let the students know where the opportunities are. That’s going to be one of the things I focus on. I want students in rural areas like Johnson County to know of the opportunities that exist.
Another key area that I would like to institute is the early college. I have seen the change that it can have in a student’s life. I’ve seen students come in with very low confidence, very low self-esteem and very little support at home from parents who love them, but don’t have education beyond high school if that much. Those students don’t have exposure to or knowledge of the opportunities that are out there. These students told us after the first year that it has changed their lives. These were students at high risk to drop out of high school. Now they plan to go to four- year universities and plan to become doctors and lawyers. Once they get a taste of the opportunities that exist, they aren’t looking back. Students who used to be quiet and bashful are now speaking to Rotary Club meetings, to county commissioners, and telling the stories of how this has turned around.

BJ: What do you know of the dual high school/college plan currently in existence at Northeast State?

JG: They do offer quite a bit of training already through their high school dual enrollment. So yes, they’re doing a great job there, but does every person in the county have the education they need? No. So there’s still potential. As good as Dr. Locke has set it up, there’s so much room for potential and for growth, not just for the younger population, but also the older population that are trying to find new careers as they get laid off or dislocated or they’re underemployed, but in finding jobs that are in need and that pay fairly good wages.

BJ: There is a part of the culture in this region that discourages ambition. It’s a challenge in workforce development and you’ve seen it in Western North Carolina as well. It takes some folks 40 years to break through that. What can the college do to help these people break out of those societal mores and begin achieving their potential?

JG: First you have to get them on campus, even if it’s just for one course. Then when they become successful, it gives confidence. My parents were wonderful, but they didn’t see the need for a four-year education. I wanted to be a teacher, but they wanted me to stay close to home and cosmetology was offered. But once I got a taste of what was out there, I immediately latched on to the opportunity to further my education. So cosmetology not only served as a career, but it was a path to move into education and teaching. It’s all about exposure and learning what opportunities exist. Once I started teaching it opened up a whole new world of what was out there and what my potential was. I chose to be actively involved because I love to learn and I love new challenges. I bought a salon and ran it in addition to going to school and raising a family. I was lucky to have good people to help me lead that. But it’s all about taking it one step at a time and finding each new opportunity. I wasn’t planning even ten years ago to be president of a college. I was planning to improve me as a person. I knew education was the answer.
Even in administration, I’ve taken on more responsibility than the typical VP of student affairs. I’ve supervised institutional effectiveness. I’ve led the college through accreditation, which is typically done on the academic side of the house. I’ve supervised public information. I’ve supervised the early college/high school programs. So over the years I’ve had a variety of experiences that have helped prepare me. Several years ago as I was working on my doctorate, I started thinking about this possibility.

BJ: When you take the presidency you will be in a position of servant leadership. Many people will make gentle requests of you. Some will make demands. You’ll have students who want one thing, faculty who want another, staff who want something else, the Tennessee Board of Regents wanting yet something else and the business community with its own wants and needs. You’ve got a lot of politics to play.

JG: I’m very excited about that piece. It’s a new challenge. I do enjoy meeting new people. I have been Rotary president and have been very active in United Way. I enjoy getting to know the community. I see it more as an opportunity than a challenge. I do have to learn the infrastructure and what works in that environment, but what better place to come into than what is going on in the Tri-Cities area. Dr. Locke has laid a great foundation for someone like me to come in and move it forward and add to it. That’s what I’m looking forward to.
Once I know the people I need to know, I’d like to get a program team together and match the industry training needs that exist with what we’ll do, and then see what new training opportunities exist to help lure new employers and new industries.
It will definitely take the cooperation of the faculty, because faculty drives the curriculum. I will definitely develop a team to explore questions like, ‘What are they offering in Germany that we could do here?’ and ‘What programs could we be doing and how could we expand, grow or improve our existing programs to better meet needs?’
For instance, it there a course in digital medical records management that we might offer? But I don’t want to go in and just say, ‘I want to start a program,’ because first you do have to have a clear need and the faculty have to drive that. You have to do justification feasibility studies and see what’s offered in the region. If there aren’t going to be jobs in the region in that industry, then you don’t want to train 100 people with no chance of those jobs coming in.

BJ: Economic developers have struggled for years with the chicken and egg problem that we need workers capable of doing certain things in order to bring jobs into the region, but if there are no existing jobs doing those things that we’re training workers to do, then we’re either training people who’ll leave the region or they’ll have a useless education experience.

JG: And I’ve been told that in certain counties, for instance, there may be folks who are resistant to education no matter what it looks like. To me it’s a matter of helping people realize the overall need for education first. I am one of those people. I grew up in a family just like many of the families in Appalachia who didn’t see the need for post-secondary education. So having come through that to this place, I have an even greater understanding of the need to go out and recruit those people into education. They have to see the potential before they’ll be willing to get the education to be a better part of the workforce. You just have to say to some people, ‘Did you know that you could do this?’

BJ: Are you hearing from business leaders yet as to what they need Northeast State to provide?

JG: I haven’t met with many of the key business leaders individually yet, but I have gotten input from that community. For instance, just in looking for a house I’ve been told we need more people who can read building specs and who can understand and deal with local code that’s so complicated. There may even be a need for a course to help realtors understand all the legal documents they have to deal with. I’ve also heard from builders that there’s a need for more qualified folks who have formal training in business construction.

BJ: Northeast State has more than just the Blountville main campus. You’re working with Milligan College at your Mountain City campus. Do you see Northeast State as a truly regional institution?

JG: More than that. With distance learning, the area we cover would be the United States of America and perhaps even beyond that. But we’re definitely more than just a college for the county we’re in. The college I’m coming from, Haywood Community College serves at least 60 counties. We use online programs that are accessible to parents who can’t leave home to pursue their education while the young children are still in the home, for instance. Now they have that online avenue into education. Again, it’s all about access.

BJ: So what will job one be for you when you arrive?

JG: What we talked about regarding putting together a think tank of people at the college and people in the community – indentifying people on the faculty side as well as staff who have the knowledge of program implementation – Identifying and engaging the people in the community who can tell us what they need. And of course we need to get the resources together to put these programs in place. Some of that has already been done, but there are more areas that need it.

BJ: What should the business community know about you before they meet you one-on-one?

JG: They should know that I realize that I don’t know everything, but that I am very excited about learning what I don’t know. They should know that I believe that it will take all of us working together – that I am open to new ideas – but that I believe in planning things out so that we don’t implement things that will fail. I am a detail-oriented person who is thorough, but that I also like to look at the big picture, step back occasionally and see where the gaps are, and then try to pull in experts to fill those gaps. I’m not one to railroad. In 28 years, I’ve gained a lot of experience, but I have also learned that you gain more when you earn people’s buy-in rather than just relying on your own experience and judgment. I welcome diverse opinions and criticism. I want everyone, from the students to the community to my own team leaders to have the opportunity to grow and become more successful. The college as a result will grow as well. There’s very little that can’t be done when you have that broad range of people focused on the goal.