Yira Brimage

Brimage holds the top leadership position for the University’s Gilbert Campus and is a member of the University’s executive leadership team. She is responsible for leading the strategic growth and operations of the campus, including academic programming, market development, community relations, fundraising, enrollment growth, student services, student academic support, student engagement, and athletic program development and growth.

Most recently, Brimage has been the principal and owner of Brimage Consulting in Tucson, Ariz., which specializes in working with educational, health care and small businesses to prepare their workforces with competency-based skill development.

Brimage is not a stranger to higher education in Arizona. For nearly four years (August 2014 to June 2018) she served as vice president of student affairs and engagement at Pima Community College’s downtown campus in Tucson. She also served a variety of roles with Maricopa Community Colleges for 14 years, including vice president of student affairs at Phoenix College from 2010-14, and associate dean of enrollment services (2000-05), dean of student affairs (2005-09) and acting vice president of student affairs (2009-10) at Scottsdale Community College. Brimage began her career in higher education at Arizona State University, serving nine years in undergraduate admissions for various campuses, as well as in student affairs for the ASU East (now Polytechnic) Campus.

She has been active in the Tucson community, having served as a liaison with the Tucson Urban League and Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and as a board member with the University of Arizona Campus Christian Center, Wesley Fontera, Paiute Neighborhood Center Scottsdale, Chandler-Gilbert ARC, and most recently House of Refuge, Gilbert Talks, Phoenix East Valley Partnership and Educational Partnership.

Brimage is working to earn her Doctorate of Education degree in educational leadership from Northern Arizona University (expected to graduate in Spring 2024), following the completion and successful defense of her dissertation on “Latina Leadership in Community College.” She earned a Master of Education degree in educational leadership and policy studies from NAU and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and communications from ASU.

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Episode Transcription

Guiding Growth. Conversations with Community Leaders. In this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and modern moments, an event and meeting venue in the heart of Gilbert and at 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 our town's institutions, development and events.

Subscribe and follow Your valley. net Daily to stay up to date with latest local news. Another day. Another episode. Who do we have with us today? We have a very special individual with us today. This guest was born in Panama but grew up all over the world following her dad's career in the army. When he was stationed in Fort Huachuca. She made her way to Arizona State University. She found a passion for making a difference in the lives of others through education and has held positions at Arizona State University and Maricopa Community Colleges and now as the top leadership position for the Gilbert Campus of Park University, she is quick to honor the village of strong women leaders who have surrounded her throughout her journey, including her own daughter with this one.

What you see is what you get. Please welcome Ya Brimage. Welcome, welcome. Thank you. Glad to be here. We're excited to have you. So we're going to start with what we call rapid fire. Here we go fill in the blank. Happiness is all around you. I love that. What is your hidden talent? I think that my hidden talent would be empathy. Why is that hidden? Because I think outwardly, I don't come across as super cuddly or, you know, I'm not like a hugger, but I think I listen well, and so then I think that I have that empathy as well.

Ok, a concert you will never forget. Well, everyone's going to laugh. But my favorite group of all time is Earth Wind and Fire. And I've been to Earth Wind and Fire like a million times every time they're here, I'm here. It's kind of like a joke. But I went and saw Earth Wind Fire with Chicago and it was like the best concert ever because I didn't know that Philip Bailey wrote songs for Chicago and Chicago wrote songs for Earth Wind Fire. I did not know that. And it was like the best concert ever.

I've been to Earth Wind and fire. I can agree. All right. Have you ever lived abroad? I have, um, I was born in Panama to Panamanian parents. Um, my dad became an American citizen by enlisting in the US Army and going on three tours in Vietnam. Um, once he came back, we started traveling with him. I was raised in Department of Defense Bases in Germany. My siblings were born in Germany. We went back to Panama, we went back to Germany. So I have spent a great deal of time living abroad, but I think it's a different experience when you live abroad in American enclaves.

So you still, you're still American, but you get, you know, an hour of language of your host country and you get to live on the economy before you actually move on base. So it's kind of a different experience. And I think living abroad as a child is definitely different than living in abroad as an adult. But I think having had that experience early on kind of opens your eyes to different different things. Definitely. OK. This is a good one. What is something people get wrong about you?

Not much. It is what you see is what you get. I think I'm pretty much an open book. And as I said, in my statements earlier, I think the more season and older I get my filter is thinner and thinner. So oftentimes you hear it, you know, absolutely before you see it. So you know what you're getting with me. So, I think I'm pretty clear. People are pretty, if you know me, you know, me. Fantastic. All right. So what makes you hopeful? The next generation, the kids that we're raising.

I mean, we all, we all see and read a lot about, you know, how we're doomed with the millennials and, oh my God, the way we're raising them and even in our own homes, what we see with our Children different than the way we were raised. But I'm hopeful, I'm hopeful that um the next generation, they're going to save us. I really believe that I look at the world today and what we are doing as the adults, you know, those of us in our fifties, sixties and seventies and even eighties making decisions for the world and where we are.

And I think that the next generation and the one that follows I think is going to save us. So I am hopeful for that right there with you. Are you more of a thinker or a doer? I think I'm more of a doer. I think that there's an opportunity in every organization and every opportunity to have brains, hands and feet. I think I'm hands and feet. And again, stepping back, I think that I like to surround myself with people that are the brains too, the thinkers, you know, the strategist, but I like to get things done.

I have little patience for spending a lot of time thinking about it. Yes. I know that feeling. Ok. If someone were to play you in a movie, who would you want that to be? I've never thought about that. I'm glad I asked it. Then. I have no idea. Can we get back to that one? We can come back to it for sure. Ok. What is your favorite pastime or hobby? I like to veg, I like to become one with my bed. I think that in my day to day I spend so much time with other people in my face.

Constant interrupts that kind of thing when I think about, you know, kind of down time. I think about laying in bed reading. When I think about vacation. It's not like a vacation of doing and scheduling and that kind of thing. I would like to just lay on a beach and read and listen to music and go for walks and kind of be. So I think that that's awesome. All right. Final question. What is one thing you are grateful for? I am grateful for my family, not only my immediate family but my extended family, my siblings, my parents, um, you know, we are all getting older and I'm very fortunate to still have my folks and they in their eighties and they're pretty active and I'm very thankful for us still being a nuclear family this afternoon.

It's my brother's birthday yesterday and we're going to the botanical gardens and they're having a salsa bachata and reggae concert tonight. So all of the siblings are going with my parents and just kind of, we still do that even in spite of the distance and the time that's separated us. So I'm grateful for my family. I love that every day at A PS. We're here to help you save energy and money. A PS solutions for business can help you make energy efficient upgrades, more affordable, find rebates at a ps.

com/business, rebates. All right, let's jump into the beginning. Shall we? Let's open that book up and let's talk about how things started in your world and what life was like back home. And as a young one running around, well, I was raised, I was born in Panama and the first couple of years I was raised by my grandmother and I have an aunt that's 18 years older than I am. And so she was the only one at home. So I spent a lot of time with her and she's a reader so she liked to read.

So I think my earliest memories are like falling asleep next to her while she's reading. So, um I was really fortunate because again, 40 years later after I had my child, she came and stayed with me for a year. So kind of making that connection. But so we were basically in a rural village on the Atlantic side of the isthmus. I grew up with my grandmother in a, in a village where, um, we had electricity from 3 to 9 p.m. so that's when you watch TV. And you didn't open the fridge because ice was making, we would go to the fountain in the middle of town and pump water or we had a well in the back.

So if there wasn't water in the, well, you'd go up there. Um, once my dad came back from Vietnam, we moved to Germany and I was five. And so again, the memories that I have I think are mostly recollections of what we're told or pictures of that kind of thing. So my sister and I went into kindergarten at that point, we didn't speak English. So at that time, they didn't have, you know, immersion or ESL classes or anything like that. So Gloria picked up English much faster than I did and they put me in the class with the handicapped kids.

So we weren't getting English, we weren't getting um education more. It was more kind of just getting us through. And I don't, I think I was in there maybe three or four months before, you know, the whole assimilation of English. And then we were mainstreamed. So I remember being kind of othered very early on, not understanding and not understanding why I was with those kids and kind of wondering what was going on. But my sister and I are 13 months apart. So I think what she learned, I learned quickly after her.

So we lived overseas. Um and again, traveling, moving every 2.5 years, I think that um created a resiliency and an understanding of how to fit in making a way for yourself. Because everywhere we moved there were always the city, the town kids, kids that had been there since preschool and were still there, you know, with each other. And then there was always an influx of the army kids, you know, every 2.53 years. So you had to make a way for yourself and kind of figure out where you fit in.

And I think my way of doing that was, um, had a very strict dad. So we weren't allowed to do a lot. But if we were, if it was part of school, I have to go and work the door at the dance because I'm in Student Council, I have to go and stay and clean up because it's part of the club that I'm in. I'm going to be, you know, um, on the softball team because it's something that we do. So I think it was just kind of how to fit your way and make your way and belong was kind of forcing yourself to do that because, you know, you come into a new environment and these kids have been together forever and so there's clicks and that kind of thing.

So, um, I think I was going into ninth grade when we moved to Arizona. And my mom said to my dad at that point, I'm not moving anymore. I'm tired of traveling all over the world with calling four kids because usually it was her by herself. He would go first and then it was her and she didn't speak English. So Gloria and I just by force of default, we became the translators. We became the, we did you know everything because my mom didn't speak English. So she said at the point that we got to Fort Wii, I'm not moving anymore, build me a house.

And my parents still live in that house. And it's been 40 3, 44 years. They've, they've lived in the same house. So my dad continued his career in the army, but he didn't have, we didn't go with him. So he went to Korea and Honduras and places where we couldn't go and we stayed home and he went um so from the point of being in ninth grade on, I was in one place which was very foreign to us. But um again joining and belonging, I got really involved in different things and I became sophomore class president and then I became um student body, vice president and student body president.

And I think that that was through, I think just by being acknowledged by people that saw something in me that maybe had not been nurtured like leadership skills and that kind of thing So um being picked to go to any town and go to different camps and do different things and go to girl state and just having really good mentors early on in high school. Um And I think that that kind of laid the foundation, I think for the life choices that I've made the career choices that I've made moving forward.

I am actually so intrigued because you shared that your father became a US citizen by joining the army. What was, I mean, I can't imagine the decisions that he was making and how he came to that um opportunity, incentive. So his brother lived in Chicago and he moved to Chicago very early on and he went to Cook County Community College. And I think at that time it was the Vietnam War and that was, that was an end. So you went and you did your time, you applied, you did your papers and you became a US citizen.

So that's how that was his pathway to citizenship. And then of course he married my mom, she became a US citizen and we were also and my siblings that were, you know, if you're a child born of you as citizens abroad, you become a citizen. It's just incredible um decision to make at a time when he knew that he would have to go fight a war. And the decision for him, I think was interesting because it became his career. I mean, he was career army. He was, he served for more than 30 years in the army.

You know, I loved hearing about all these mentors you had on your path. Any of them stick out in your mind that you would highlight that you would be like, oh wow, this one particular mentor in that journey of your younger years really made an impact on you. I think as you're going through it, you don't recognize it, But like in retrospect, um I remember when I was like in sixth grade, I was picked to be like the teacher's aide, Miss Hannah. It was at Fort Gulick elementary school in Panama.

And for like, I don't know, one month out of the, I don't even know it was one month or two months. You got to sit next to her desk and be like her right hand man. And I think it was like the first time I was like, oh my God, I'm seen and she picked me because not everyone got picked. I think only four of us over the course of the year got picked. And um I just remember feeling like she thought I had something to offer or I was special or, you know, and mind you most of my growing up years because my sister and I were so close, I was always Gloria's sister.

So when Gloria went to UV, I was like, forget that I'm not going to UV. I'm going to a su I'm going to be as far away as possible. Right. But I think it was just like, being seen for who I was kind of thing and I remember that very clearly and definitely over the course of time, just teachers that, you know, um, identified you, like, you know. Um, I had a teacher, Miss Carrie, I think it was in ninth grade. Um, she's like, ok, I need you to join the debate club because I think you would be really good at this and I knew nothing about debate or anything like that.

Um You know, and she brought us up to Phoenix and we learned all the Beatles songs. She was like a really young teacher, you know, I'd never been exposed to that. So we listened to the Greatest Hits of The Beatles for 12 hours driving back and forth and remembering her, you know, um just, you know, the counselors in high school or people saying, hey, do you want to join this or do you want to be this or you're really good at this? Why don't you come and, you know, at lunch and meet with us and that kind of thing.

So very, a lot of different um people along the way and very many women. I remember also when I made the jump from the university to community college, all of my colleagues at a su because I worked at Polytechnic were very concerned that I was making a bad move and that I was going from a university to community college, which was a lesser institution in their eyes and that I wanted to make, they wanted to make sure I didn't burn bridges. And it was like the Provost and the dean.

So it was like these guys that I did sit at the table with, of course, I wasn't on equal footing with them, but they're like, you want to be careful with your career and that kind of thing. And so I was vacillating back and forth and I remember, um, Mary Beth Mason, I don't know if you know Mary Beth, she's faculty at Chandler Gilbert and Mary Hesse and Arnette Ward and Lois Bartholomew. They took me out to a Mexican restaurant here and I only knew Lois and Mary Beth and Maria and there were like three or four other women that I had never met that worked at Chandler Gilbert and said, you know what?

They sat down with me and talked to me about the pros and the cons of where I was, I was young. I was in, you know, I was probably in my late twenties or early thirties, the pros and the cons of coming to a community college or university, the types of students that I would serve at the, and to this day these women are very much in my life. And, you know, I talk to Maria all the time. I, you know, talk to any time I see them, it's like no time has passed.

You know, most of them are retired and have gone on their way. But, um, I think it's just kind of like that is you meet someone that sees something in you and spark something in them and then they introduce you to other people that along the way over the course of the last 25 years have been, um, um, instrumental in how I make decisions and I think why I make those decisions, but it also strikes me that there's some intrinsic motivation on your behalf too, that you even from a young age, actually pursue these opportunities almost as like a ticket to freedom or individuality, joining these clubs and having the opportunity to try to sort of immerse yourself in the experiences.

And then I feel like that almost carried on into your adulthood that you continue to sort of pursue what's next and what are those opportunities for me and push yourself a little bit? You know, I don't know if it was because at home, we didn't have a lot of money or again, like I said, those opportunities didn't come unless there was value added to them. So if this isn't a school related thing or you can't go or, you know, um why would you go to do that or, you know?

Um So OK, how can I get out of here if I'm going to apply to this? I'm going to go to this camp, I'm going to apply for this scholarship kind of thing so I could go and do things. And so I think that in the back of my mind was like, I'm not staying in this town and I'm not, you know, marrying an army guy and I'm going to do something to get out of. So I think in my mind that was as undeveloped as my frontal lobe was maybe that was, maybe that was my thought process is I can't pay for it.

So I got to figure out how to pay for it. I can't do this. So I got to figure out how to do that, you know what I mean? So I think, yeah, I think it's right there. It's incredible. Yeah. So I think part of it again, you don't know until, like I said, until you look back and then you just, you OK. So let's talk about career path a little bit. So you went to Arizona State University? What did you study? I got a degree in Spanish communications in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

OK. And how did that parlay you into what you're doing? So, when I was working as a work study student at a su I was a devil's advocate who are the tour guides on campus. And then I got a job working in undergraduate admissions and I worked with a guy named Ken um Ken Holland and he had been at a su for like a million years when he retired and Ken's job was to work with early outreach primarily in the school districts that were low income. And so he worked with Murphy school district and Isaac school district and the west side school districts that had low college going rates for students.

So he always used to bring middle schoolers and elementary school kids to campus and I would always think they're awfully young, but it kind of like set a pathway for them. And so I started working in undergraduate admissions, going out to high schools and middle schools with the recruiters and seeing what they were doing. And I got hooked because I saw, you know, um these kids starting from 4th and 5th grade coming every year, coming in middle school, starting to bring their moms signing up for the Hispanic Mother daughter program where the moms and the girls go to school, start college at the same time.

And I actually could see the building of possibilities with these kids over the course of the four or five years that I was at a su. So um when I graduated from a SU a position opened or they created a position and they asked me to apply for it and the position was to create an A su office in Tucson. So I was the first person that um became a recruiter for a SU in Tucson. I shared an office with the school of social work. A su had a school of social work at the U of A in the little old house.

And I shared an office with three professors and we had a secretary and they had graduate students coming in to do the um the social work degree. And I got a car and I had all of the schools in Southeastern Arizona and in Yuma and Bob O Gy on the reservation. So I went from Santa Cruz County from Nogales High School to Douglas to Bisbee. So I had all the schools and I kept that job for, I want to say about four years and got my master's started working on my master's at that point through nau because again, the opportunities that working in institutions of higher education afford you is tuition reimbursement.

You know, you, you bring in your grades, they pay you back for what you pay for your tuition. So tuition reimbursement. So being able to get through continue my education. So it was a really good exchange. So I did that for a SU for a while. And then I it was good because I was living closer to home, living in Tucson. I, you know, I was Roommating with my sister that lived and worked in Tucson. Then I moved back to the valley and I was still with a su and I started working with their um um undergraduate admissions and outreach programs.

So a su had purchased a suite of tools to help them with their enrollment. Um, the no Levitz enrollment package and what we did is I had 90 students that worked from Sunday night through Thursday night. Um, and we would come in from five o'clock on and we'd take over the whole suite of offices and undergraduate admissions and we would call prospective students. So we would move students from the point where they had expressed an entrance, an interest to actually move them through the application process to getting them admitted to actually having them come in.

Um and actually matriculating them to come to a su so we used to do Sun Devil Selects and we would go to Chicago and New Jersey and L A where we would have 183 students and their parents come in and we'd register them for classes and go through um offside orientation and it was a really fun job. And I also believe that staying in this occupation keeps you young because you're working with young people. So, you know, I know a lot more about the spice girls than I need to.

Not because I was the age during that time, but all of my students were, you know what I mean? And so I think that, so that was kind of the thing that's always attracted me to being in higher education is you're, you're doing something, you see your returns not immediately, but you see them within two or three years, you see that these kids are going to be successful. And then I think it just kind of keeps you young and keeps you with what's going on. So I did, um, I did that for a few years and then the opportunity arose to start the campus at a UC Poly.

And so I actually took the job and I think that moving to, um, I think moving at starting to move to the East Valley kind of inculcated me to the East Valley because I started working at a SU east and I was driving in from Tempe every day with the sun in my eyes and the sun in my eyes as I'm going home, you don't know what I'm talking about as you're growing up, Williams Field was just still the two lane at that point. Um And as, as a kid at a SU when I started a su in the early eighties, because my dad, you know, I had benefits, I would come to Williams to go to the doctor to, you know, to see the gynecologist to get my eyes checked.

And then I'd always go to the commissary in the PX. So I was there, you know, once every few months. So I was pretty familiar with Williams. So when I came out here and interviewed and they were like, yeah, we're changing this to a university campus. It was so hard to see. Now, mind you, it was probably 19, it was 1918, it was 1990 something. So, um one of the perks if you will of the job is they wanted us to live out there. So I lived out there with Chuck Bachus and some of the other deans and I learned so much in that job because again, they were remediating South Desert Village and we were going to use it for housing.

But oops, there was asbestos and lead because it used to be a shooting range. So it took three years for them to do that. I learned to write Igas because the church, we turned it into a head start. So we were looking at how could we maximize the space and work with our community partners. So I learned so much in that job living there and being there, it also moved me kind of into the East Valley. So I ended up buying my first house at Valves De Lakes during that time and, you know, kind of stayed with a SU and everything.

And then when the opportunity came to shift, you know, to the community colleges, I kind of felt like disloyal because I was leaving, you know, where I had been raised pretty much in education and professionally. I had been with a su quite some time, you know, and a SU had been very good to me. So what was it, what was it that made you take the leap? I think it was understanding, I think over the course of time that although a su was accessible, it was inaccessible to everybody, you know, the entrance requirements, the financial commitment, the uh the place where it was, you know, how you get there, that kind of thing that there were so many students that were not being served because they could not get to it with for whatever reasons, financial, you know, psychological, physical and that the community of college offered um, so much more access and mind you during the time that I was at a su I got a two, a 22000 my first semester at a su.

That's a whole another story. I was on academic probation, but I was partying my butt off and it was 22018 at that time, you know, um drinking age was 22018. So, you know, it was a crazy time and mind you, the upbringing that I had too was pretty strict. So I lost my mind for a little while. So I was on academic probation for a while at a su I ended up dropping out of a su for a while and going to Mesa Community College and Phoenix College at the time to get back into good academic standing to be able to come back.

So I didn't have like an easy path of graduating in four years. It took me about 230 years to graduate and I took time off and went home for a while too. So having had the exposure to community college and community college helped me right myself when I was kind of on the wrong path. Um I knew that it was another option of education that I needed to look into to see. So again, I was also working at a su poly and teaching a class at Chandler Gilbert.

So I would be like going from there and teaching there. And that's when I got to know um Arnette and Lois. But I was also, when I was at a sue, we were working with Chandler Gilbert to set up a new model of education where students could take their first two classes at Chandler Gilbert and take their um their major courses with us. So we were IGAS to figure out how to use financial aid. So even though you were going to a SCU you could still take a class at Chandler Gilbert and it could pay for your class and vice versa.

So we did a lot of things together. So I taught a class with Mary Beth and uh and Maria one semester too and got to know them really well and understand, understood their students differently. So I think that was my introduction to community colleges. So I left a su and went to work at Scottsdale Community College. But you stayed a Gilbert resident at that point. Yeah. At that point, I got married. So I was living in Vista Lakes for a while. And then I got married and then I lived in Western Skies.

We bought a house in Western Skies and then I had a baby at that point too. So I was traveling from Gilbert to Scottsdale Community College for 217 years. I did that because I went in as an associate dean and I left after 22.5 years. So you like to drive. I can tell you I got really good about going down Lindsay to Gilbert road, taking the Gilbert road across the reservation to the bee line and going through the res to get to the college. Let's continue there. So, Scottsville Community College was kind of your next for you for where you were going.

Um, talk about that bit. So I went into Scottsville Community College, I think as the associate dean of enrollment management. And I think for me, what's most notable there is I had only ever worked for men. Up until that point, every supervisor that I ever had was a man and a white man. So I went to work at Scottsville Community College and my boss was a woman and she had been in working at that community college for 103 years and she had only ever been the only woman working there.

And so it was interesting because she was in her sixties and she had worked there pretty much her whole career and she was incredible for me. What immediately stood out for you as being different in that experience. I mean, other than the obvious, like, what was it that you're like, this is a different environment, I think for me as a woman of color, I'm usually the only one at the table, usually the only person of color and obviously the only woman of color nine times out of 210.

So going in and being in an environment where I saw Dr Stahl as she was a white woman, it's being the only woman at this table with these guys. And these were men that had been there for a long time. So Dr J Butter had been there. He was in his seventies, you know, um she had worked with them for 275 years. So she knew them well and everything and to see her at the table as the only woman and not only holding her own, but being, you know, a master of her universe in her area of what she knew, it was interesting to see that and to learn from her.

So I learned a lot of really good things from her and I learned a lot of things not to do later on. She was a person that gave her job, gave herself completely to her job. And her husband had, was a vice president at another campus in academic affairs. So she gave, I used to joke about this is she only gave facetime to her people after six o'clock. So if you wanted to see your boss. You needed to be there between five and six o'clock with her to have those one on ones because we were busy during the day and that kind of thing.

Um I learned from her that you need to, I learned from that is that you need to schedule individual time with your people during the day. But, and that was fine with me when I was single and I didn't have a kid. But after I had a kid, I was like, I cannot hang out with you till 210. And more likely than not, we would go out to dinner on the way home because she lived in Tempe, I lived in Gilbert. So it was like, you know, it extended the day, but I learned so many things from her.

I learned how to be gracious in every interactions that you have with people, whether you're praising them in an evaluation or you're sliding a resignation letter across to them to letting them know that they're terminated. I mean, I learned so many, many different things from her. Um And one of the most important things that I learned from her was to be financially responsible. Um When I came over from a su I was bringing my, my T A craft and my state retirement and she and I didn't really have a 401 or anything like that.

She's like you need to do this. I'm like, I'm in my thirties. I don't have to do this. She's like, you need to go back and buy all of your time that you had at a su like as a student worker and start buying it back now. So that when you get to your retirement, you can retire early. So she made me go back and buy like 5.5 years as a student worker and I got like 2.5 years towards my retirement. You know, the 80 points that you have with the state system.

And I was like, that's so much money. Oh my God, it's like $278 a paycheck. And it's so much money. And at that point I was single and, you know, and I was making a lot more money in Maricopa than I was at a su. So I was like, I can't believe you're making me do this. So she's like, it's only for like three years and you're not going to feel it if you don't see it. And sure enough when I came to like, the end of time, when I realized that I could retire, I was 55 when I could retire from the state system.

You know, I mean, and a lot of that had to do with her saying you're a single woman, you need to start taking care of yourself. I'm like, well, it's like, what are you doing for retirement? I'm like, I don't know. I put money in Tars and I have tear craft. She's like, take tear craft and roll it over into this one and you need to do that. She set me up with a financial advisor and I think if she had not done that, I don't know where I would have started with that because again, I didn't grow up with that understanding of you need to plan and financially and do this or that, you know, kind of thing.

It's a good lesson because she cared and she took the time and it's probably time that she didn't actually have to do that for you. She did it over dinner at 753 over Thai we used to do Thai all the time. I hope, I think that's a good reminder as a leader in an organization that because it's not that you don't care. But do you take the time to let them know that you care? I do that now, all the time with my employees, especially the young women that are coming in.

Um, you know, did you sit down with hr did you go over your thing? Are you doing your max deductions? Are you doing this and that? And they're like, well, I'll wait and do it later. No, especially now with open enrollment and everything. I'm like, you need to get your stuff together and do this right now because no one's going to tell you to do it and then you're 12 years into the job. And you're like, if I leave this job, am I leaving my retirement? Do I have any benefits that can roll over?

And nobody tells you that you don't go to a class to learn that or anything. Somebody has to actually show you or tell you, you know, it's not something that you learn on your own kind of thing. So then I'm curious, um, after the community college system, is that your entrance into Park or what does that look like for you? So I spent some time at Scottsdale 10 years, as a matter of fact, at Scottsdale. And then I went to Phoenix College as a vice president for four years.

And then I was going through a divorce during that time and I thought I wanted to be closer to my parents and closer to my siblings in Tucson. So I shifted, like did a parallel shift and went to a vice presidency at Phoenix Community at Pima Community College in Tucson. And I spent four years there and as I was there, they went through some major upheaval turmoil, leadership accreditation issues and that kind of thing. So it was a good time to step away at that point and again, starting to look into everything.

Um You know, I went to the retirement person. She's like, you could have retired three years ago. And I was like, oh, and she's like, but you can do this or that. So during that time when I stepped away as I did the reorging in 2018, I started an LLC where I was doing consulting primarily for higher education education businesses. So doing all kinds of things from kind of hr de I to training and um, you know, all kinds of different things. And then I've had connections with friends that have had their own businesses.

So going in and I was hired at the Human Values Center as a faculty member to teach online some courses. So I was doing those things during the time. So, so from about 2000, middle of 2018, until the end of 2018, I was doing that and then an opportunity came up to work for the tribe through my business. So I did some work for the tribe in Tucson and did some, they were going through the process of creating a charter school. So they had some, they had lots of federal money to look at governance models in how charter schools are developed.

So I did that for a while and worked with them and then an opportunity came up to work with them on curriculum and development and I don't know anything about curriculum and development, but it's kind of like not what, you know, it's who, you know, so the person that they had hired as their hr person used to work with me at Pe Ma and um she's like, do you don't know anybody that can do this? I'm like, I don't know anybody that can do this. I didn't, you know, study curriculum and development.

She's like, well, they're hiring, you know, a firm out of Rhode Island and they need somebody that's worked with the folks here. So, do you want to be a project manager? So, I was like, yeah, and I did that and it was like, Chi Ching. So yeah, I did that for a while and um and then COVID hit and then I was like, ok, now I feel like I'm really retired and I just put on weight and just kind of got morose and I didn't know just like everybody else.

Like, what the heck am I doing? So then this opportunity at Park came up and again, I have never worked for private liberal arts institutions. And so I was like, I'm not sure that I can do this, but what they were looking is for an enrollment driver. So they were looking for building enrollment and the model that they have here is a model that I had never worked with. So it's been a learning experience by building enrollment on an athletic model and working at an institution where enrollment drives budget.

That's nothing I've ever worked with either because, you know, working for the man the state, you know what your budget is going to be for the next few years and you can look at it and say I don't have enough or I do, let me go write a grant, let me go figure out how to get more money. So it's been an interesting exercise for me. But, um, yeah, the first was my two year anniversary being at Park. So, um, it's been great. I've been, I've enjoyed it immensely working with students that, um, again, these students mi for me, more of, of the community college students than um um students that are more selective university.

Um because they want to continue, they want to continue their education and a lot of the drivers for them is their athletics. And I think the athletics is also what keeps them engaged and keeps them eligible and keeps their grades up. So it's kind of a different dance, but ultimately, it's towards the same goal. What do you think in the last two years have been some lessons learned? I think it's difficult being a satellite, a branch, a center. I think when you're beholden to the mothership, it's hard.

And I think I had that experience initially when we were out at polytechnic that we were so dependent on the wraparound services, the support services. So we didn't have our own admissions, we didn't have our own financial aid, we didn't have and that's how we are here at Park Two. Everything's remote and a lot of these students, I see. Um I think one of the challenges for me is, um, we have, I've worked for 30 plus years with traditional students. COVID has turned that on its head. So these are not traditional students.

Um, you know, we're three years out of COVID but these kids were, have been three years in COVID and they have a different experience and expectations. So we think, oh, you know, I think in the beginning as we want to continue to deliver remotely or give them the choice or hybrid or whatever these kids want the high touch, they want to be in a classroom, but then they're in the classroom, they've lost a lot of the skill set that they've needed to be successful in that environment.

So you think you can miss some classes, right? Or not show up or whatever. So I think you have, they're kind of relearning how to teach this cohort of students. So I think that that's been challenging. It's interesting you say that because even for my own kids, we are trying to strike a balance between um I need to, I need a me day, I need to stay home. I need to take a break. It's just very different from when I was growing up. Like you just, you went to school and unless you know, your fever was a certain temp, you still went to school.

And now my kids have a very different approach even in high school. Like I just, I really need to unwind today and just take some time to, like, it's a different world. Well, wait, try to be a supervisor or run an organization where you have people that have that mentality too. Everybody needs a mental health day. Like once every 17 days you need to take a day off to just chill. You know, because I think it's because they've been working behind on the screen and they've been able to chill and be chill the whole time.

It's a balance even that our businesses talk about right from an employer standpoint. It's such an interesting world we live in right now. And I think that I would, I thought to myself, well, it wasn't only, it was, you know, two years, 2.5 years. But I think it was such a big shock to the system the way we were doing business that your body, you're just acclimated. I remember in the beginning I hated Zoom. I couldn't figure it out. It was problematic for me. I would get all ready to go to work and sit in front of the computer.

You know, it took me a year to realize that I can do it without them seeing me. You know what I mean? I don't even have to shower, you know, I can just wear the tops and, I mean, it took a while but I was like getting up and getting dressed and don't make noise and don't come in here and, you know, I hadn't quite figured out that I could put it on mute and you do throw up the glamour shot and be on my way. You know what I mean?

But I think now if someone can't use Z, you're like, who the heck are you? And what's wrong with you? What do you mean? You don't know how to share a screen? Right. Yeah. So, I think that that's been challenging, working with our students and setting those expectations as well. And I think that working with parents that are super involved too because I think that parents have always been involved. Um But I don't know if there's a heightened sense of involvement with parents now, almost a sensitivity even I think to what we went through and that I don't know if they feel the need to be a bit more protective or help to navigate because you spent two years navigating for them.

So I have an 18 year old so I can speak to that as well. And I was talking to someone and he's like, you know, you're kind of a hammer and you've got to be careful and cognizant of the nails. I'm like, what do you mean? It's like you want to help and you want to do and some people don't deserve that. They need you to step back and just chill and not come on so strong. I'm like, well, that's just my default, right? If something needs to get done, I I don't do it.

How about you do it or you figure it out or you kind of, you know, that kind of thing. So I think it's kind of like even learning how to adjust to that environment too because I'm just like, let's do it. I don't have time. We've got to fix this, it's got to be done and some people just need a little bit of extra time. So I'm learning that as well. Well, you shared earlier that this next generation and the generation after are some generations that make you hopeful.

So I'm curious as you work with youth today, what are some of those characteristics or traits that you see that do make you hopeful? I think that even, and in spite of going through COVID and being singularly individual and, you know, standing alone, I think that I see a lot of caring and kindness with these kids, they want to do stuff to help. Um There's a higher, is there a higher level of compassion? There's a level of compassion that is very palatable and they talk about things that they see and how they want to make things better and you know, they can't believe this or that or they'll make some statement about something that's going on in the news or, or leadership or something.

So, um I don't know if the times have made them more vocal because they're better able to tell you what they think. You know, this is really, this is really messed up. I can't believe that this is where we're going or, you know, um, how they feel about voting or their, um, you know, if, you know, if they're, if they can make a change and that kind of thing. So I hear that and I see that with a lot of the students but I think there's a high level of awareness too.

I don't know that they're reading newspapers but they're certainly hearing the news and they're digesting what they're hearing and seeing, you know, there's certainly, um, influenced and influencing all at the same time. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, let's look ahead as you kind of wrap this down. What does the future look like for you? Where, where we are on the horizon for you next. So, I've been working on my doctorate for a long time and I thought about 10 years ago, I don't really need my doctorate because, um, I don't want to be a college president.

I'm good at this level where I can more influence change and be involved in the operations. But I'm finding that in this job, um, there's visioning necessary and strategy and strategic planning and all of those things. So I'm going to go back and finish my doctorate and should be done within the next year. And then I think the next step is we're always thinking, ok, I don't want to like work until I'm 75 and then drop dead, like 10 months later in the garden because I didn't give myself enough time to be retired.

So I'd like to retire in a way where I'm still retired. But, um, being purposeful. So I think that I could probably have an impact and make an effect in the classroom. So, working with graduate students, perhaps working on their advanced degrees, like working with them, teaching them, um, you know, being like a coordinator with those programs, I think that that might be something that I'm looking forward to perhaps doing in the future. But I think I still have a little bit of um Jetway here on this job for quite some time.

So um hopefully, I can see myself being here for the next three or five years moving Park to where it needs to be at the next level and then passing the baton. That's awesome. That's music to my ears. Glad to have you here in Gilbert and um leading the home there at Park University. Thank you for your engagement in the community. Thank you for your support of the business community too. That's a really important component of a strong overall community as business and education working together. Thank you for having me.

And I think that the collaboration is super important, not only for us and our growth, but also the example that we're setting for our students and the importance of, you know, being civic minded and giving back to their community. I think that's all part of the the equation. Thank you. Very interesting conversation today. Thank you for being here. And if you enjoy this, which I know you did, please subscribe to our tribe so you can get this in your inbox and get all our great conversations with many, many other people we talked to just like you today.

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