Robert Espinoza, Executive Vice President of Policy at PHI: The Direct Care Crisis Hits Home

Every day, nearly five million direct care workers support older adults and people with disabilities across the United States, and the critical need for this workforce is only increasing as the proportion of people over sixty-five continues to grow dramatically. Given an existing shortage of workers and a high turnover rate in the profession due to low pay, lack of training and poor management, the chances of meeting that need are low. Add in the unaffordability of these services and the difficulty many loved ones have navigating the system and it is a deeply troubling picture, according to our WorkforceRx guest Robert Espinoza, executive vice president for policy at PHI. “All of these barriers compound and create a system where it’s going quickly, I think, from crisis to catastrophe,” he tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. But while the problems are many, so are the potential solutions. Espinoza sees particular promise in several state and local initiatives including wage pass-through laws to boost worker pay, stronger training requirements and tapping into the undocumented immigrant population, which he sees as a major part of the answer. Be sure to listen to the end to learn about an innovative training program in San Francisco on which Futuro Health and PHI are collaborating, and Espinoza’s ideas for leveraging the relationship between family caregivers and direct care workers.

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Mark Argosh, Social Venture Partners Connecticut: What Connecticut Does Right on Job Training

Even if all of the unemployed people in Connecticut took one of the 109,000 open positions in the state, there would still be thousands of jobs left unfilled. What that says to Mark Argosh, chair of the Governor’s Workforce Council, is the state needs to get more people off the sidelines. “We have to be able to increase the labor force participation rate in Connecticut, and what that means is especially focus on underserved populations that face significant barriers,” he tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. That recognition has prompted investment in services such as childcare, transportation and supportive housing. But that’s just one element of a multi-pronged approach that includes building partnerships within industry sectors, consolidating training programs in higher ed and providing a central point of contact in state government on workforce issues. The state is also supporting one of the largest government-funded job training programs in the country and it recently won the largest award in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Good Jobs Challenge. “I think what this represents is an endorsement of the strategies and approach that we’re taking to transform workforce development.” Tune in to this episode of WorkforceRx for a deep dive into best practices in workforce development at the state level, and learn how the non-profit Argosh leads, Social Venture Partners Connecticut, employs a “venture philanthropy” model to close opportunity gaps in the state.

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Jon Marcus, Higher Education Editor for The Hechinger Report: The Trust Factor in Higher Ed

There’s mounting skepticism about the value of higher education among prospective students and their parents, causing alarm among policymakers on the implications of this trend for the quality of the future U.S. workforce and economy. A continuing sharp decline in college enrollments is perhaps the key proof point, but there are many other symptoms and causes which Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan explores on this episode of WorkforceRx with Jon Marcus, higher education editor for The Hechinger Report. “I’d like to think that, now that enrollment drops have caused an existential crisis, we’ll see colleges and universities finally taking steps they should have many years ago to stop hiring, stop building, stop spending, start innovating, and start using technology to work smarter,” says Marcus. There are some innovations he thinks are worth noting, rising in part from a new imperative to collaborate. They include dual admissions programs at 2-year and 4-year institutions and course sharing, which Marcus asserts could be a game changer especially for smaller schools. Don’t miss this deeply-informed scan of how higher ed is responding to a daunting list of challenges including dropout rates, student debt and demographic headwinds, and be sure to stay tuned to learn how a tiny change at one Florida university made a big improvement in retention.

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Dr. Marjorie Hass, President of the Council of Independent Colleges: Innovation Buoys Higher Ed in Challenging Times

As a new school year gets underway at colleges and universities around the country, it’s a good time to take stock of where higher education finds itself after several very challenging years brought on by a massive public health crisis and unprecedented economic turbulence. On this episode of WorkforceRx, Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan turns to veteran higher ed leader Dr. Marjorie Hass, President of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), for insight. Hass counts an unusually high number of new presidents this year at CIC member institutions who will find themselves facing greater scrutiny from stakeholders as they navigate complex issues. “You have a lot of different constituencies who are able to be in touch with you and with each other almost 24-7. There is a lot of pressure to make decisions quickly and to make decisions in a transparent way.” Hass says these new leaders would also be wise to embrace continuous innovation in degree offerings, revenue streams and student recruitment, which she believes was a hallmark of colleges and universities who managed best during the pandemic. You won’t want to miss this wide-ranging look at the innovations and trends emerging in this uniquely challenging time for higher ed.

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Dr. Tom Mitchell, Carnegie Mellon University: The Impact of AI on the Future Workforce

When it comes to the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce, there is still a major split between those who worry about “robots” replacing workers, and those who think employees will benefit from AI if it is harnessed the right way. On this episode of WorkforceRx, Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan asks one of the world’s leading experts in the field, Dr. Tom Mitchell of Carnegie Mellon University, to weigh in on the debate. “The big determinant of how the future of work is going to play out is how we develop these technologies, and how we choose to adopt them. Do we adopt computers as assistants that allow people to do their job better, or do we use them to automate the task? The future is really ours to define.” Mitchell is currently updating a 2017 U.S. National Academy study on AI and the workforce at the request of Congress, and provides us with a peek into what has changed in the intervening years with regard to remote work, online learning, self-driving cars and the speed with which the field of AI itself is changing. Don’t miss this penetrating look at one of the most disruptive technologies of our time.

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Dr. Nader Nadershahi, Chair of the American Dental Education Association: Benefits of Integrating Oral and Medical Care

There’s growing interest in the integration of oral healthcare with medical care, and there’s good reason: about 30 million Americans who visit their dentist annually do not have similar contact with a primary care provider. Our guest on this episode of WorkforceRx, Dr. Nader Nadershahi, says this presents a tremendous opportunity for an additional way to identify problems such as diabetes and heart disease in patients. “The mouth is the window to the rest of your body,” he tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. “The more we bring providers together and put the patient at the center of the conversation to get them the care and the access they need, it’s going to help not only improve healthcare outcomes, but lower our costs of healthcare delivery.” This collaboration will require shifts in how oral healthcare providers are educated, and Nadershahi will have a significant influence on that as Chair of the Board of the American Dental Education Association and Dean of The University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry. Tune into to find out more about the emerging possibilities of interprofessional practice, the workforce challenges in the field of dentistry, and the future of oral healthcare education.

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Jane Oates, President of WorkingNation: Eliminating “Buts” In The Hiring Process

What would veteran workforce training leader Jane Oates do to improve the hiring system if she had a magic wand? “I would take away all of the buts, as in ‘I would hire you, but you don’t have experience, but you have a disability, but you’re too old.’” It will not only help achieve equal access to employment, she tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, but right now employers could really use a bigger talent pool. “We cannot be the country we are meant to be with a 61% labor market participation rate.” After many years in government service, capped with being Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training in the Obama administration, she’s currently leading WorkingNation, a non-profit focused on educating the public and policymakers about achievable solutions to prepare workers for the future. Among its current initiatives are boosting the employment prospects of veterans, the disabled and single mothers. Partnerships are key to this work, and she and Van will be appearing on a panel together on August 22, 2022 at ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership conference in Nashville to underscore the role associations can play in bringing employers and workforce development stakeholders together. This episode of WorkforceRx is full of interesting ideas and angles to consider for those concerned about closing the troubling gap between job openings and available workers.

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Dr. Kamiar Alaei, Chair of Health Science at California State University Long Beach: Lessons From a Global Health Hero

From building a model HIV/AIDS program in Iran to creating a long-distance program to train doctors in war-torn Syria, Dr. Kamiar Alaei has overcome daunting obstacles to make a broad impact on global health. On this inspiring episode of WorkforceRx he shares lessons learned both in the trenches of public health and the corridors of Harvard, Oxford and other top universities with Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. Chief among them is the importance of collaboration, which he says requires knowing your audience and being willing to do a ‘dance with partners.’ “I call it a river strategy. In nature, there is no river that goes straight. So, we try to be flexible, while being consistent. In this way, we were able to engage a lot of those who were initially against our initiatives.” The approach allowed him to navigate sensitive religious and cultural barriers in the Middle East, but it also applies to building partnerships in the current federally-funded effort he is leading in California to reshape education for the public health IT workforce, one of only ten such programs in the nation. In fact, one of his partners in that innovative consortium is Futuro Health. Don’t miss this wisdom drop on effective strategies for strengthening public health and the education programs that sustain it from the founding director of the Global Institute for Health and Human Rights, and an internationally celebrated health hero.

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Johnathan Holifield, Senior Vice President at Bitwise Industries: Opening Economic Opportunities To The Underestimated

Johnathan Holifield spent many years deeply involved in neighborhood and community development work without really moving the needle until he discovered the game-changing nature of the innovation economy. “The stuff we were doing was good work, but we were focused on largely inelastic career opportunities versus what you find in the tech sector and innovation economy, which are elastic opportunities that really give you social and economic mobility.” As senior vice president of New Economies at Bitwise Industries, he’s now in a position to help what he calls disconnected populations gain access to the best options for economic advancement, and do so on an increasingly national scale. Bitwise, which started in Fresno, California in 2013, helps marginalized communities obtain the skills and resources necessary to access opportunities in the tech industry. Apprenticeships are key to its model and Bitwise is now the largest tech apprenticeship provider in the United States. Check out this illuminating episode of WorkforceRx as Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan explores how Bitwise is bringing its successful formula of workforce development, technology consulting and creating great community spaces to seven states and counting.

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Jacqueline Burandt, President of Award-Winning Results: Rethinking Employee Development

Obstacles – from language proficiency to digital literacy to family care – make it difficult for adults to get on, and stay on, an education path towards a career they desire. Our guest on this episode of WorkforceRx, Jacque Burandt, spent decades at University Health System in San Antonio, Texas, breaking down those barriers and is here to share her recipe for creating and sustaining successful upskilling and reskilling programs. As she tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, first and foremost is partnering with community organizations. Very few people have the budget to invest in lots of expensive training so employers should seek out groups that can help them out, says Burandt, who is now president of Award-Winning Results, a firm that focuses on transforming organizations through people development and gaining recognition for employees. A key benefit to these collaborations is that the community partner can often help with the “wraparound” services that make it easier for employees to attend classes. Tune in for many more tips and strategies in this wisdom drop from Jacque about getting the buy-in of supervisors, investing in awareness of the offerings, and the importance of celebrating successes so that building your own internal talent pipeline is no longer just a pipe dream.

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