CJ Wurster
Dr. CJ Wurster is a first-generation college student who earned his Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Master's in Administration/Project Management through Northern Arizona University. His Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice was earned through Rochester Institute of Technology, where he was also captain of the men’s basketball team. He is a graduate of The Chair Academy and the AACC John E. Roueche Future Leaders Institute.
CJ has been with the Maricopa County Community College District since 2010, and he currently serves as the Interim President at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. Prior to his current role, he has served MCCCD in various leadership roles such as Vice President of Academic Affairs at Phoenix College; and Executive Director, Associate Dean, and Dean at GateWay Community College. CJ is also an active Adjunct Faculty at Phoenix College and GateWay Community College, and a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University.
CJ is originally from central New York, and has lived in the Phoenix area for over 20 years, and over 10 of those years have been spent living in Gilbert. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife Kara and daughters Grace and Reagan. He also enjoys participating in endurance sports, such as distance running and triathlons.
Episode Transcription
This episode is sponsored by Gilbert Independent, Your Valley. net, dedicated to serving readers with good community journalism. The Gilbert Independent is a nonpartisan newspaper, an online site that covers your town's institutions, development, and events. Describe and follow your Valley. net daily to stay up to date with the latest local news. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce and Modern Moments wedding and event venue and produced by Sleepy Time Studios. And today, we're gonna talk a little different, aren't we? You know, this guest is a breath of fresh air that we did not see coming, but we are so blessed to have in our community.
This special guest grew up in Central New York and is a first generation college graduate who has dedicated his career to student success and the transformative power of education. With over a decade of leadership within the Maricopa County Community College District, he now serves as the interim president at Chandler Gilbert Community College. Prior to his role, he was the vice president of academic affairs at Phoenix College and has held various leadership positions throughout the district. A former college basketball captain turned endurance athlete, he finds balance through training for triathlons and marathons.
He is a husband and a proud girl dad. He has called Gilbert home for over 10 years. Please welcome Dr. CJ Worster. Hey, welcome. Thank you, thank you. I appreciate that. She always makes incredible? Yeah, I do that? Yeah, thank you for that. I appreciate it. Yeah. Well, we'll see how that goes when we get into rapid fire. Here we go. Would you rather find your dream job or win the lottery? Dream. What is your guilty pleasure? Watching 90 Day Fiance with my wife. All right. Would you rather host a party for all your friends or enjoy a dinner for two?
A dinner for two. Have you ever moved across country? Yes. Would you ever appear on a reality show? No, I don't think unless it was I I couldn't do that this isn't being recorded, is it? No, I would say no, definitely, definitely not. Yeah, no one's listening. OK, what is your favorite? Dessert. I, I love me some crumble cookies. Those are the best. What song makes you smile? The song You Are by Lionel Richie. OK, good old Lionel Richie. Yes. Are you cautious or bold? I am cautious.
What is your favorite rainy day activity? Oh, I would say probably just binge watching something. OK. Good thing we don't have a lot of rain around here. Don't have to worry about binging happening around here. OK. Um, glass half full or half empty. Good job. That was great, right? At least 9 out of 10. I don't know if I get a full 10. Every day at APS we're here to help you save energy and money. APS solutions for Business can help you make energy efficiency upgrades more affordable. Find rebates at APS.
com/business rebates. Want to start your own podcast? Whether it's a business, personal, internal, or hobby podcast, Sleepy Time Studios can help you with everything you need to get your podcast recorded, edited, hosted, and shared with the world. Get started on the podcast of your dreams at Sleepytimestudios.com. Mention guiding growth and get 10% off any podcasting package at SleepytimeStudios.com. All right. So take us to growing up in Central New York, small town. What does this childhood look like for you? Yeah, you know, I feel, I, I, so I grew up in a small town called Lansing, New York, and it's right in central New York, right on the Finger Lakes, um, beautiful place, uh, especially in the fall.
Uh, that was probably my, my favorite time of year cause that was when the, you know, the leaves are changing, the seasons changing and all of that, uh, winters were brutal as you could imagine because winter seemed to go from like October until like June, so it, it, it, uh, it was pretty rough at times, but, um, but not, you know, it's a nice small town of about 10 to 12,203 people. Um, you know, I, my, my mom and dad were both, you know, kind of blue collar type, type workers, uh, work, worked very hard.
What was then the Bobcats, the Bobcats Bobcats. NFL? Oh, what did I follow? Well, you know, I was kind of all over the place. I didn't, I didn't like the Giants or the Jets, so that's usually the first go to. Um, I was, I followed the Bills a little bit. Eagles somehow I got on an Eagles bandwagon and now I'm off so. Um, with the Super Bowl, but yeah, I was more of a guy. Wait, you're a Chiefs fan? No, no, I'm on both of them. Well, this is gonna go real quick with the Chiefs fan, but that's OK for you.
Well he's not an Eagles fan. We could have had some good conversation here for a minute. You know, we should get back to the Bobcats. It's all right? OK. Yeah, so I had an opportunity to Uh, play, I played a lot of sports growing up, um, had, my parents were always at every single game and now being a parent myself, I don't know how they did that. Um, you know, they made the time to make sure they were there to, to support me and, and be there for me as I was, as I was growing up.
Um, I have an older sister who's 5 years older than me, and I remind her of that all the time that she's older than me. Uh, now her and her husband and family live out in Hawaii, so she reminds me of that all the time. So, um, but yeah, so great, great childhood. It was, uh, you know, a nice town to, to grow up in. After I graduated high school there, I went to college in Rochester, New York, so I went a little bit further west to a little bit larger of a of a city.
Uh, which was a nice, nice transition there. Played basketball in college, had a great college experience. Then after I graduated college, it was wait wait guard guard guard. I started out as a point guard and then we brought in a point guard that was better than me, so I moved over to shooting guard and uh had, had, you know, 4 years of tremendous experience there. I got to be a captain of the team. Um, it really taught me a lot about, you know, kind of those initial leadership traits and skills, I think that are still benefiting me to this day and just kind of rallying around a common cause, trying to do good things together and I am not surprised that you were captain just because I'm sure those leadership skills were evident in you from a very young age.
Do you remember who it was that maybe helped you first identify those opportunities? I, I had a very, very close connection with my high school soccer coach and my high school basketball coach, and those were two men that I really looked up to that kind of helped to shape me. And it, it was kind of one of those things where they probably saw more in me than, than I did in myself, um, but I think that that kind of drew out some of that potential. I've always been a competitive person.
I don't like coming in second. Um, I always want to win. I always want to do good things, but, um, but to then bring that into also being a leader, I think is a separate skill set that. You know, having good mentors along the way, certainly helped me a lot. Um, that phase, you're really measured by in this day and age, my kids tell me all the time, can you dunk or not? So that's the question, were you a dunker or just the guy? I firm. OK, you can't, it's Rochester, and I was like I don't.
I just um and I enjoyed that, you know, I had thoughts of You know, maybe law school, maybe going down a, you know, a law enforcement path or something along those lines, and, um, and then I took the LSATs and realized that law school might not be for me and one time, yeah, because it was just I was like, you know what, I just didn't feel the passion, you know what I mean like it wasn't, I thought it would have been a, a cool journey to go on, but it was like, am I really gonna feel fulfilled by this and it just didn't seem to that that would be something that connected with me, so.
Um, so yes, I didn't didn't go down, do you, are you or do you have a little harder? I'm, I'm like I'm able to. Um, is, is very fulfilling to me, and, um, and so I'm happy, happy with. I respect that there's a lot of truth to that. They always say that when things come easy and, and the grades, of course, reflect that, that's, that's the, that's the polling draw, right? That's why I was an art major, so yeah. But I'm glad you listen to your numbers.
That's good. Well, I don't worry, don't. You can see that. Oh my goodness. OK, so, um, after LSATs don't work out, what, where do we go? What do we do? Yeah, so, so that's an interesting question. So, um, as I was finishing up my, my, um, Excuse me, I had an opportunity to do a couple of different internships, but then I, I started working at a group home for youth, and it was youth who were aged 10 to 21 to 212, and, you know, and it was hard to like have the impact that you wanted to have, but I realized like during that time, I wanna be doing something where I'm helping people and where I'm contributing and, you know, where I'm where I'm making a difference and so, so I was doing that and then right as I graduated, my parents moved out to the Phoenix area and I was like, OK, I've got no real full-time job lined up and I could stay in cloudy Rochester as a newly college graduate or I could follow them out to Arizona and so I did, so I, I came out here to, to the Phoenix area, um, and was trying to kind of figure out, OK, now, now that I'm here in this new place, you know, this new beautiful place, but what am I, what am I gonna do?
Um, I actually, when I first got here for about the first a little over a year, I was, um, I was doing pool maintenance. I was cleaning pools. I was doing yard maintenance, I was doing, you know, kind of some really tough stuff, especially in the middle of the summer that was no, no joke, um, but I was doing that and then I got my first opportunity in education, which actually happened with, uh, I had an opportunity to work at the Phoenix Job Corps Center. Uh, which was a great opportunities working with youth aged 210 to 25 individuals who weren't in school and weren't in, um, and, and weren't employed either.
So I got to work with them as kind of a almost a counseling like a career counselor kind of adviser type capacity, uh, I was able to have a couple of different, um, you know, promotional opportunities there, um, and then, uh. I became, I also became the social development director, so kind of related to all the things that you would think of as like student life kind of activities. So what, how, OK, so you get into this. I can understand how you can get into it, but I mean, how do you learn these things cause that's far from criminal justice.
So is there somebody that's helping you that you're under the wing somehow that gets you into this stuff or what? Yeah, I definitely had good uh good mentorship as I was kind of learning. I, I think that there was also this, I had this just like This real keen interest and I wanna learn everything that I can to, right? Like I wasn't waiting for someone to say, hey, do you want to be involved in this new thing or this new committee or club or group? It was like I was taking the initiative to say I want to be involved, probably overly involved in everything that I could, and I think that allowed me an opportunity to kind of not just know my job but start to learn other people's jobs too that then made me a little bit more valuable as I. You know, continued to have opportunities to to move up.
Um, I could see it through different lenses and, and kind of relate to the things that people were dealing with. So as I became more of a leadership perspective, I was able to also kind of lead with a little bit of understanding as well, and I think that was very valuable. Was there a lot of like on the job training kind of situations for you where you kind of learn through, yeah, yeah, pass or fails. Yeah, I, I, I, I for sure and you know, I think one of the things that always kind of Um, humbled me and grounded me a bit was that some of the situations that I was helping some of our students navigate through, uh, were unlike anything I had ever personally experienced and You know, and it, it was, it, I, I, I never have taken that for granted in any of the work that I've, that I've done where, um, you know, coming from a position of, you know, being able to, to help, but also try to understand and give compassion even if I haven't walked in those same shoes, um, you know, just really understanding that everybody's going through something and.
You know, and so I kind of, I think I learned a great deal of, of, uh, compassion and how to lead from that kind of that starting place uh through that work. Even as you share your journey, it's obvious that you stumbled upon your passion. Um, where obviously you had some interest in working with youth back in New York and then that translates into an opportunity here. Where does that passion come from? Boy, I, you know, I think it's, it's just kind of a, a, um, sort of an internal feeling of, you know, it feels good to be able to try to help people, right?
And, and especially when it, when it comes to, um, you know, I didn't have the best academic record all the way through. I mean, there were times where it was like if I wasn't playing basketball, I probably wasn't gonna make it through college and so it's not like I was a, you know, academic all-star, but, but the power of education and knowing the power of like. You know, having that opportunity to like learn and grow and how can I then take that and boy, if I can make that a career, I mean, you know, it was like, man, there's nothing more rewarding than to be able to give people that, that guidance and support as as they go forward as well.
Well, I find it fascinating because even in your role today, it makes you uh have a little bit of better understanding of the challenges that students are facing, where they're coming from, and Um, just some empathy for the fact that not everybody is a true academic, but um there's still great opportunity through education. So I think it's scary for some people, right? Like it's like, well, isn't for me or higher education or education isn't my thing, um, but really it, it can be for everybody and that's, I think, you know, one of the key things is a as a leader too in that, you know, in higher education now is, you know, we have to take.
We have to understand that that we have to be ready for students as they come to us and ready to serve them and everyone's coming from a different place, different background, different experiences, different thoughts on education. We're told different things. I mean, some people are told you're gonna, you're going to college no matter what. Some are told you're never gonna make it, right? And so we have to be ready to serve, you know, every student that comes onto our campus and, and say, hey, this is a place where we're gonna make you feel loved, we're gonna make you feel cared for, and we're gonna do everything we can to give you the best experience.
There has to be the personal responsibility from the student as well then to take that and say, how can I make the most of this, um, but if we can get them as they come through our doors knowing that we're gonna wrap our arms around them and we're gonna make it a safe and a, a good place for them to be. Um, that's a huge step forward I think. Yeah. When you look back on your own journey as a first generation college graduate, did you realize the significance of that at the time or feel the pressure of it, or did it just evolve?
I think I think part of that is, you know, I had the support of my parents and you know that that was. Just, just huge and something that can't be overstated. My mom, uh, my mom worked at Cornell University, you know, was in a, in a support role and so even though I was first generation, I, I wasn't, I wasn't coming into it without knowledge and, um, you know, and so I didn't really feel maybe the, the pressure because I knew I had the support I guess, um, and.
Try as I might, I, you know, I, I oftentimes to, to, you know, make it really hard to, to get to the end, but, um, but no, I was able to, you know, with that, just kind of know that I, you know, I was confident that I'd be able to, to be OK. Yeah. What brought your parents to the Phoenix? They had always wanted to move out west. Um, they were kind of uh Phoenix or Vegas and kind of going back and forth and um the timing was just right.
I mean, like, like I said, I was playing sports year round. Um, my sister, you know, was, you know, it was always like just not a good time. They didn't want to interrupt our education. Um, the school system where we were at was, was really good. I mean great public schools where, uh, where I was from. So I think it was they kind of sacrificed maybe. You know, wanting to make this move, um, they wanted to make sure that we were in a good place and, uh, so it kind of delayed things a bit, but yeah, I think they, it's kind of they've they've made their dream of being out here and, and being retired out here, which I think is, is fabulous.
Yeah, that's great. So what's next? What happens next in your journey? Yeah, so after working for, uh, within the Job Corps for about a decade, uh, a, a position opened up at Gateway Community College, which is one of the Maricopa Community Colleges. And it was dealing with, uh, workforce education, occupational type training, so like workforce type type training, and it seemed to be a really good fit for things I had done and things I was interested in and, um, so I applied for it. I was fortunate that was back in 218.
I got hired on. Um, I quickly, kind of like I mentioned earlier, I, I quickly tried to just get involved in everything, and I was, you know, again I was probably like overly involved on things where people are like, why are you on this committee? You don't really, you know, nothing to do with your job, but I was just really trying to learn as much as I could, um, you know, continuing to work on my skills of working with students, starting to work with faculty, working with staff, building community partnerships, all of those different things and.
So I was, I was at Gateway for um for 274 years from 53 to 25, and I held different areas of responsibility, um, before, uh, before moving on to the next step after that. It seems that that would be the time in your life when you're growing, um, personally, right? And is this when you met your wife in this time frame? Yeah, so I met my wife in 224. 27, yeah, yeah, which was so lots of lots of pretty, pretty amazing things happening around then. During that time, is there anyone that comes to mind is really guiding you in your personal or professional growth?
Um, You know, I, I would say that at, at that point, um, you know, my, so my, my now wife and I, so my wife and I will celebrate our 13th anniversary actually next next month, and even from like the beginning when we first started getting together, like there was this sense of, um, just like belief in in me, um, I was partway to my master's when we met, um, and I was like, man, this is gonna be a lot to To finish and it was like it was just a constant support.
It was like, well, yeah, of course you're gonna finish it, you know, it was, yeah, exactly. I mean, so there was just like this, this, um, you know, just kind of support and belief that yeah, you're gonna get your master's and then I started talking about my doctorate and it was like, you know, she didn't even bat an eye. It was like, yeah, that's something you want to pursue, go for it and do it and you know, so I think that there that she really You know helped to shape me in a lot of my, um, you know, kind of my career growth, and my personal growth, and kind of just starting to have that belief from a career perspective that man, I could do some, some pretty cool things and have a really good impact, um, and also knowing that I've got, you know, my partner alongside of me that's, you know, right there for wherever, wherever this all goes, um, was, was incredibly powerful.
Yeah, OK, I'm curious about your love for endurance sports. Help me understand that. Where did that come from? Yeah, so, um, so it's funny because I, uh, the first, uh, I told my best friend who lives back and I ran a marathon. He's like, it's like you, you ran like you yeah, yeah, because I was it was it the roll it was back when it was PF Chang, yeah, I, what year was that? Man, that must have been 2 I. I ran the slow mountain. I was in the mile and he's 2.
No, I tripped that guy. I would have remembered him. Yeah, yeah, I, you know, so I, I had a couple of friends that, that did, you know, they, they had run the marathon the year before, and they're like, hey, we're gonna do it again. You want to do it? I'm like, no, not really, but I'll go along with you. It'd be cool to hang out, whatever. So that's great because at the end you get the beer and stuff at the end that's a good one, yeah, yeah, lots of good good finish line type type stuff and yeah, so I, I did that with, with them and then um I just kind of took off from there.
I mean, I, so I've done. I've done about 15 full marathons. I've done, you know, probably about that many half marathons. I've done a number of half Ironman, so I got into the los, uh, the half Ironman, yeah, yeah, a couple times here, and, uh, yeah, that swim in Tempe Tongue Lake is something that I, uh. It's always an interesting one, but it's a part of the race you got to do. OK, here's my question because I know one of your biggest fears. So if if that were shark infested water, or maybe not shark infested, but maybe there's a shark or two.
Would you do it? There are a lot of people around me, I, I guess that's right? So what is the inspiration for continuing um What are we calling it? Um, endurance sports activities. Uh, you know, for, for me, I think everybody's got their own thing, right? Like I, so I trained solely on my own, um, you know, I'm not in any like triathlon clubs or running clubs, anything like that. I really take it as like that is my time to be like better, a better me. And that's what I call it my me time, right?
Yeah. And just to get out and like, you know, clear my mind and you know, and not have, you know, the distractions and just, you know, that allows me to be a better, a better husband, a better dad, a better leader, a better, you know, anything that I'm doing. And so, and I've learned that about myself, right? Like if I go a few days without being as active, like I can feel it and So I think there's a sense of, you know, it helps me be the best I can to the people that I, you know, have the opportunity to be around, um, and I also like, I just like, I like seeing how much I can do, right?
Like how, how, how far can I push myself? Like what's, you know, for as long as I can, I wanna, I wanna continue to do this because I, I think it's, you know, it's not something, you know, I, I don't have a wall of trophies. I don't have my medals hanging up. I don't have, you know, it's not about that as much for me as it's like. You know, how can I continue to challenge myself and just continue to push myself. I do. I actually have my t-shirts into a blanket the competitive spirit, I think I've just um I've always you know, I just, I, I love to I love to try to be the best I can be.
I love to try to be the best team that I can be on. I just You know, and it, it's not about like sticking it to someone else as much as it's like, man, when you've got a high functioning team that is rolling along and doing great things, I mean, there is just nothing that that can compare to that. So I, I think I just, I'm kind of driven by that. It was basketball when he got moved out of the point guard position into the shooting wing.
That's what set him off and ever since he's got to show the world. That's right. He is the point guard they missed out on. Had that grudge going on with your training, are you, are you a Garmin, and that's, that's helpful too, right? That you suppose you track everything on that, right? That's motivating to see all those numbers that you can put on that and see, yeah, exactly, and just kind of see the progress and there when I first started to learn how to swim, you know, there was, there's obviously everybody's got their ways to tell you how you should be doing this, you should be doing that, but There was always, there was something I read once and I was like, just try to be a fraction of a second better than you were the day before and you know, and then I kind of always stuck with me where it's not, you know, sometimes we think, I'm gonna do this thing and I'm just gonna get better and better and better all the time and make these huge leaps and strides and, and sometimes, you know, sometimes it's just a little bit of an improvement whether it's in.
You know, athletics or whether it's at work or whatever, but just as long as you're keeping that momentum and that I call it the 1%. I mean, you really give me hope. I'm going to shoot for 2.5 mile. You can do it, I'm sure, yeah. I actually really envy leaders who carve that time out for themselves. I think, especially in a position like yours, it could be really easy to find excuses not to do it and the fact that you are very self-aware that that's the time you need.
I envy that. I think that's that is really important and I wish I was better at it. So, I'm sure it's a little bit like Starbucks and you're waiting for. Whatever it is, whatever it is, it is, you know, you're in that driver and you're just kind of sitting there chilling, listening to your yodeling and stuff. That's your time. That's me and you don't knit. I don't stitch and poke things or you might have that, you know. It's, it's about to shre didn't know what you're getting into.
I've got the image. Sarah at a local Gilbert knitting while you're waiting for you or that thing that's where you're like yeah that's what you have. I am so honored. I'm where you go. OK. OK. OK, so where were we? We were asking about mentors. That's what you're talking about. No, but I'm saying in, in his journey and we're going for a bit and I'll I'll tell something that kind of relates to mentors in my next my next move, so um. So I was at Gateway for 74 years and then I had an opportunity.
I went to our district office for a year and I worked on, so we were approved to start offering bachelor's degrees and then it was like, OK, now how do we actually offer bachelor's degrees and so I was, I would help to provide leadership to kind of figure all of those things out and I did that for a year and then, um, a vice president of academic affairs position opened up at Phoenix College. Uh, which is the oldest college in our system. It's over 100 years old, great history, great tradition, um, and, and I applied for that position as an interim vice president of academic affairs, and that is where I would say from a professional perspective I met, um, the most incredible mentor that I've had in in my life.
Uh, so Doctor Kimberly Britt, who's the president of Phoenix College, uh, so she hired me as essentially her replacement. So when she she was vice president, she became president, needed a vice president of academic affairs, and that was me, um, and she could have brought me in and second guessed things that I did and said I wouldn't have done it that way and this is how I did it from day one, not once did she do that. It was, it was almost like this sense of, you know, like this is your show, you run with it and she had this belief and it wasn't just in me.
Um, you know, but, but it was in others too. It was like this belief that you're almost like you're better than who you are and better than what you are and you're gonna do great things, um, and You know, so I, I had the opportunity to work with her for 2 years as her vice president and um and it was two of the most impactful years and things that I saw her do and things that I learned from her are things that I tried to build into the way that I lead now, and I think I always will, um, and you know she's lucky to have her as a friend and a mentor, but I can appreciate that because it also means she was confident in her decision and I think that's important too if you've, if you really have confidence in the decision you made, then you have to let go and let them do their thing.
And she certainly did. Um, you know, and, and it was interesting, you know, the, the two years I spent at Phoenix College, just, um, you know, a lot of love for so many people there and, and just the kind of the sense of, you know, just community and, and teamwork that we had was, was something very special. What do you think is the greatest lesson from that experience that you carry forward? Um, I, I think the trying to do what I can to help inspire other people to, to, you know, to think bigger and think better and think like, you know, that we're gonna be OK. Any anything we have to face, we're gonna be OK as long as we're doing it together and, um, and just kind of holding true to, um, who, who I am as a leader, but then also the college that I have the.
You know, great opportunity to lead, making sure we stay true to who we are too, not trying to be something else, some, you know, or try to just appease, you know, people or whatever, but just be true to who we are and let's do great things and, and I think one of the things that I Have, have always, uh, especially in higher ed like found to be the case for me at least is that I think, you know, to be a great leader you have to inspire others, but I also think you have to allow yourself to be inspired by others and you know, and, and there's so many great people that I've had the, the opportunity to work with at at Gateway Phoenix College and now with Chandler Gilbert Community College.
Um, they inspire me to, to want to do better for them and want to, you know, like, let's, let's just keep doing great things together is, is kind of how I try to every day. I also think that takes a, um, that takes humility, especially in a leadership position to put the title aside, and I know you shared that it really isn't about title for you, and I wonder where that comes from. Why is that so important to you? Uh, because I, I have seen, I've seen both sides of that.
I've seen leaders who want to have their thumb on everything, um, and we're gonna do it this way because, because I'm the boss kind of mentality, and I think that that's, you know, there's some situations you need that and if it's an emergency situation, you know, whatever the case may be, uh, perhaps that's the right approach to take, but. I think what I've also seen is the power of someone just being human, and I think as a leader, um, the more you can be, you can just be who you are.
I mean, nobody wants to see someone who's just bringing, you know, some fake persona every day or, you know, kind of, you know, just saying what you, what, what they think you wanna, you know, it just kind of like placating. I, I don't think that that is something to truly have the environment that's important to me and You know, and, and the culture that I think is important and especially in the, the work that we do in higher education. I mean, we're, we're trying to change people's lives and people come to us, not because they don't want to be successful, but they come to us because they want to be successful and you know, I think the more human side of um of, of, of everything we do, we can bring the human side, we can lead from a place of love, we can say.
You know, we're all, we've all got some really good strengths about us. Let's build on those and be great. Um, I think that's, it just goes a long way and, and I think people notice that, and they know the difference between a leader who's just saying, you know, I wanna be the boss versus I wanna lead alongside you, and I, I, I wanna see what we can accomplish together and that's, that's kind of how I've tried to lead. Yeah. How did you find yourself as the interim president at Chandler Gilbert?
Yeah, so it's actually a very interesting transition. So I've been there since July 1st, um, and, uh, so last summer there were a number of, uh, key leadership vacancies in our Maricopa district and our chancellor decided to, to make a very bold move and, and he was coming from a place of we've got these key vacancies at at at a number of colleges, so, uh, there was a Uh, uh, the, uh, Doctor Peterson from Chandler Gilbert had, had recently, uh, left to go to Salt Lake Community College.
The president of Paradise Valley Community College had left. Mesa Community College had left, so there were a few different, you know, a few different, uh, uh, openings that needed to be filled, and, and our chancellor made the decision that, you know, we've got some great internal talent. And he made a number of moves in our district to to fill those key leadership roles, um, and so one of those things was, was for me to be, uh, brought over to Chandler Gilbert Community College as the interim president.
So that was announced, um, I wanna say late May early June, and then my first day on the job was July 1st, and, uh, and, and here I am still. What, um, in those first few months, what are some lessons learned as you look back? Uh, I, I think the, the fir one of the biggest lessons was like I came into it with, with, and you mentioned the word, you know, humility before I came into it with a tremendous amount of humility because it was a different process, right?
And I actually, my first all college meeting, I told them, I said, I want to get the elephant in the room out of the way right now. I realized that you didn't pick me to be here. You didn't go through a normal, quote unquote normal process to, to select me. Um, but just know that I am here not with any agenda other than to help make this college move forward and help make us do really good things in the community. And, and I, I told them I'm gonna, I'm gonna get to know you, I'm gonna be available to you.
And so, I think that was a A helpful first step where it took away some of that. Who is this guy, right? I mean, I've been in the district for a while, so I, I was fortunate to have some good relationships and I didn't come into it as a new guy, so to speak, but I was new to a college at Chandler Gilbert that's got a lot of pride in what they do. And, and so I also made it a point to say, you know, we're gonna honor the history of this college.
We're gonna focus on where we are now and we're gonna move forward together. And so I think just kind of giving that. Coming into it with a little bit of grace and humility and, and saying like I'm not here, I'm not chasing, you know, a presidency position somewhere like I'm not out applying for everything. I'm not, you know, I was asked to come serve in this role, um, and, and I'm and I. I'm gonna do it to the best of my ability every single hour of every single day, and that's what I committed to and and I've been all in since day one.
I don't I don't know all the politics or the processes work with the schools that you're with, but is there a process for you to become the permanent president of that role, or is that even an option or how's that? Yeah, I think that's something that I know is working on right now or I'm I'm assuming I don't really to be honest with you, um, but I, I know that you know ourors working with our faculty and staff to To determine what they, you know, kind of which direction they want to go with things and, and the reason I say I haven't asked is because I, I mean, I, I feel like, you know, I'm, I'm trying to do the best that I can for the college right now and that's not gonna change, um, if they said, you know, here's the next steps in the process like who who I am is who I am, how I lead is how I lead.
Um, and so I'm, I'm interested in, in, um, continuing to move the college forward, and I'm going to stay there as long as they'll have me there, and try to impact the community. And I can say from my perspective as, um, you know, at the chamber and I saw you jump in with both feet, even with the interim title, you made relationships very quickly. You did a lot of exploratory conversations to understand what our business needs were, how to um support our K-12 community. I mean, you really Um, for lack of a better word, all kinds of blazing.
I mean, you really came in ready to serve, so I, I appreciate that. I, I think that, you know, I, and I've shared this with you and others that, you know, I've, so I've lived in Gilbert for 10 years and so now to have to be working and living in the same community and you know I my, you know, my 5 year old is, you know, she just started kindergarten and, and, you know, so it's like, I mean, there's like A different sense of, you know, from a leadership perspective and being in such a, a, a prominent and fortunate role that I'm in, you know, as leading Chandler Gilbert Community College, it's like, man, the impact that we're having on the community and then the personal investment of that makes you look at things differently and I mean, I, I've loved getting to know, you know, so many people in the community and, and start to hopefully, hopefully people will see that Chandler Gilbert showing up and, and we want to be involved with, you know, what's happening in the community from, you know, from my position all the way throughout the organization that's kind of what I've uh been been hopeful that we'll say.
Yeah, I am also very impressed in the progression of Maricopa Community Colleges over the years. I think that they've really worked hard to stay relevant and impact the communities that they serve. Um, what is something that you're really proud of from that perspective? You know, I, I think we, we do a lot of um. We do a lot of great things when it comes to meeting the, the workforce. We're the largest workforce provider in the state. I mean, we do, we do such an incredible job of trying to understand what business needs are and what industry needs are and then meeting them.
And I think that a lot of times we sometimes there there's a, there's a, you know, this idea that, well, that's only workforce training and it's only these, you know, occupational programs which we have tremendous programs, excuse me. But we also have, you know, all of our, all of our humanities, right? All of our what you would think of as kind of the liberal arts areas of our college all play a part in that too, because what we're doing is we're preparing whole individuals so we're teaching you the technical skills, but we're also teaching you how to communicate with others, how to show up on time, you know.
to have articulate and effective conversations and, you know, so it's, it's like we're, we're really giving people opportunity to just, you know, have such great, uh, ability to, to move up and continue on to that next thing and, and hopefully achieve their goals. The other thing that I'm, that I love about the community colleges is, um, So I'll share just a quick story. So we, we do on at Chandler Gilbert, we do teal Tuesday. So teal is our color, and so every Tuesday you'll see a lot of college pride with, you know, the, the, the teal color very prominently displayed and in the fall I had, I asked a couple of my team.
I said, hey, find a couple of students that are wearing teal, and I'll treat them to lunch, you know, in a couple of days. And so they did. So they found them and then. So then I, I find myself at lunch with two individuals. One was an 18 year old student who was gonna, you know, she was just starting with us. She was gonna continue on get her psychology degree. She was already had her plan mapped out. She's gonna go to ASU or possibly out of state, but she knew what her next steps were gonna be.
The other person that I was sitting at lunch with was a 74 year old student who was just taking art classes, and they take the art class every single semester because they love it, they love their faculty member, they love just having that kind of sense of community. They're not trying, she wasn't trying to get a degree. She wasn't trying to, you know, do anything with it other than she just loved it. So it's like I had these two different, totally different perspectives, um, but that's what we do in in our community college.
I mean, we want to meet people where they are and let's, let's get them what they, what they're looking to do. Yeah. Can you share, you seem very in tune with, um, the next generation of the workforce and I'm curious if your daughters appreciate that. When they have when they're speaking in their slang, I feel like you know what they're saying and you can translate, and I'm sure that they're very grateful. She's of course referring to your kindergarten here. Well, yeah, it's interesting. She's got her own slang, but, uh, I would say, you know, my, so my older daughter's 20 years old and Um, and she is in the equine program at Scottsdale Community College, and you know, and I've seen over, you know, I would say that, uh, you know, my, my advice would kind of be met with eye rolls, I think, you know, the last few years of high school as, as a lot of us have probably experienced, but, um, you know, but I would say that, you know, to see how she's, you know, in the last, you know, couple of years, how she's grown, how she's, you know, she kind of knows, you know, a little bit more where where she's headed, and she's.
Yeah, I mean, she's, she's working hard, she's going to school, she's doing all these things and she's, um, so it's pretty cool. So I'm, I'm, I feel like I still get some eye rolls when I have to ask her for help on like Instagram and stuff. I still can't figure out how to do certain things. So, so it's good to have her as a resource there and she laughs at that, but, uh, yeah, very proud of her and then, you know, and, and, and my younger one too.
It's amazing to see the. You know, that, that 5 year old attitude, boy that can be a ride some days, but she's a great kid. Well, this has been a great conversation. Thank you for sharing us your journey and all the really great adventures you've been on. Um, anxious to see what's next for you and and where that goes. We'll keep an eye on that for sure. Yeah, thank you for your service to the community. You delight to work with your team is fantastic as well, and we love having you here at Chandler Gilbert.
Thank you and I can't let this go without. Saying, yeah, so my Chandler Gilbert folks will know what that's all about. That's our tagline. So I had to end with that or else I'd probably be, and for the record, he's wearing a snazzy teal tie, so he's he's he's he should deserve a lunch, I guess, maybe. OK, good. Hey, if you enjoyed this, and I know you did, subscribe, join our tribe, you'll get these in your inbox so you can find out more great conversations we have just like today's.
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