Enlightened Leadership in Education

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There are some people that make their
work just another thing they have to do,

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and there are those that make their
work something that they want to do.

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Welcome to Working on Purpose with your
host Elise Cortes. In our program,

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we provide guidance and inspiration from those
people who have found deeper meaning and

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personal connection to their work life.
It's beyond nine to five, it's working

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on purpose. Now Here is your
host, Elise Cortes. Welcome back to

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the Working on a Purpose Show.
Thanks for tuning in again this week.

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I'm your host, Alise Cortes,
joining you live from Dallas, which is

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home base for me. If you've
been tuning in for a while, you

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know this program is designed to be
an inspirational thought leadership platform that advances the

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conversation on living with passion and inspiration
and working on purpose. And as I'm

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committed to helping create a world where
people actually want to go to work.

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The content choices are designed to help
equip leaders inside organizations to make work a

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fulfilling part of life so employees thrive, give their best ormance, and want

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to stay. I talk with my
guest to draw on their expertise. Since

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you're my own experienced consulting speaking developing
workforces across the globe each week in these

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conversations, I hope you walk away
with something you can immediately put to use.

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Much of the content we discuss on
this program is a reflection of the

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work I do. So as you
listen, if you catch a glimpse of

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anything I can do to help you
along your own journey, go to my

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website at a Lascortes dot com and
use the contact me feature to message me

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and let's open a conversation about what's
happening for you and how I might be

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able to help now at any rate. I'm glad we're connected. Thanks for

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listening with us today. Is doctor
Kerrie Israel, who served as the District

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President of Colin College in Dallas,
a multi campus operation serving more than fifty

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three thousand students annually, from nineteen
ninety nine to twenty fifteen. He currently

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serves as the executive Advisory board of
a Campus Works, Inc. And shares

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the Jewish Community Relations Council of Springfield
Central Illinois. Additionally, he is an

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advisory board member for Greenlight Credentials in
Dallas, Texas, and as a consulting

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practice as well. We'll be talking
about what I consider to be his enlightened

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leadership during those fifteen years, sixteen
years at Collin College College, and in

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hopes we can all glean a few
things for our own leadership. You joined

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us today from Springfield, Illinois,
doctor Israel. Welcome to Working on Purpose.

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Well, thank you for having me
on the show. I appreciate it

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very much. You're so welcome,
and I really really want to share with

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our listeners a few things I've learned
about you and that those sixteen years that

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you've spent at the college, I
think there's a lot we can glean from

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you and be inspired by. So
you started at the college in nineteen ninety

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nine, So help us understand when
you first joined. And I know this

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was a while back here, so
go back to your memory banks about some

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of the problems that you encountered when
you first arrived at calling college. What

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did you set out to immediately address? Well, it was really interesting in

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that the board of trustees, and
there were nine members, had a couple

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specific objectives or goals they wanted to
accomplish. They were a little bit nervous

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hiring someone from They said a Yankee. I thought that was kind of interesting.

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I did, but there haven't been
any recent enrollment growth, even though

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the population of the service area was
really growing and it has been really growing

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for the last fifteen years. The
other thing is they tried to pass a

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bond to do capital improvements and deferred
maintenance and they couldn't pass the bond,

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so those were in. The third
was in a nursing them program. At

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the time, it was only graduating
fifteen sixteen students. Well now the nursing

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program's graduating hundreds and hundreds of students. So those are the three things that

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the board was very interested in the
tackling almost immediately. I waited three or

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four months to understand the culture a
little bit. Great faculty, solid programs,

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but no national or exemplary programs.
And so we went to work quickly

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pass bond which we did, which
we passed, and to look at what

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I call and then we can get
into it the why rather than how,

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you know, why do we exist? A lot of companies, businesses talking

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about how they do things, but
I think it's important to answer how questions

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with why why are we doing what
we're doing well? And to that end,

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doctor Israel, if you would I
mean, it's you really you have

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really experienced something pretty phenomenal in being
able to lead Call and College the way

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that you did in that time period. So take us back then, what

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opportunities did you see in the comunity
that you knew Call and College could and

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shoot address or address differently that aspect
of the why what did you see?

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Well, there was a very outdated
mission and the mission subject we to offer

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occupational programs and transfer programs. Did
they say why we were doing that?

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And they did not have, which
I thought was interesting core values And what

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really makes me move forward is our
values. Our core values, what we

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hold dearly to succeed. So we
went about That's the first thing that I

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did before even fastening the box.
The first thing I did is I brought

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in six hundred people from the community, the faculty, the staff, the

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students and not for profits. Every
six hundred people were brought together to create

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a new mission and to create a
passion for core values. So it's the

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interesting that I found is that people, you know, the college brought in

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people, but nowhere did anyone bring
in six hundred people to talk, you

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know, and to give their ideas
and to respect their ideas, and so

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I think that was critically important,
and we ended up with a mission that

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talks about being student and community center, not just a college in the community,

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but a community college and to develop
skills, strength and character. Isn't

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it interesting why we're doing this,
Why are we having an education, is

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to strength and character, to challenge
your intellect, to make sure that we're

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focusing on the community as well as
the students. And then we did our

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core values and we said we had
a passion. We just didn't list.

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We had a passion for learning,
to serve and involved, for creativity and

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innovation, for dignity and respect,
for academic excellence, for integrity, a

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passion for all this, and it
resonated with the community and with the college.

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Hold on dot j Israel. I
want to go further into this,

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just for just a moment, because
this is so important. One of the

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reasons I wanted to have you on
the show is that I do. I

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do, and I'm not the only
one certainly who saw your leadership sixteen years

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as quite enlightened. So what I
think is very curious that I want to

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really focus on for our listeners is
that you brought together six hundred people.

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So one of the things that I'm
focused on for my business is providing visioneering,

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strategic offerings for a combined future for
all the stakeholders. So you brought

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in who were those six hundred people? Were they? Were they students?

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Were they community stuarts? Who were
who was in that crowd? Sure?

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Well they were the community leaders.
They were legislate towards they create unite these

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congress of people. They were people
who headed up the not for profits,

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whether it's Lynn from the Advocacy Center, it was the individuals that helped create

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created the college. We had a
committee of one hundred with them too.

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There are people that were involved in
our advisory committees at the college. Students

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absolutely were welcomed staff and usually at
colleges and universities, you know it's driven

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by the faculty. But you know, here we had staff people, We

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had custodians commenting on what this college
should be, as well as fantastic nationally

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renowned professors. So we were all
kind of equal in our room. But

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a lot of community mayors showed up. I mean, I was really pleasantly

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surprised of all the people that wanted
to participate, and it lasted the entire

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day, and then we came back
and had draft and we sent the drafts

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out of where we were going to
embrace this mission and to embrace new and

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the first time core values and today, which is interesting, core values are

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part of the entire fabric of the
institution. Effect. People on their business

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cards, their digital cards list the
core as did I on the back of

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our cards. So people you have
to keep them talking about it. A

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lot of people don't know about college's
mission. You know, Disney World,

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I think it's their mission is lists
have fun. You know, ours was

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trying to make it a really simple
student and Tom in the centered and to

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strengthen character. We want really engaged
individuals. And we started doing a lot

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of things to meet the why we
were doing things. So doctor Israel,

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really want to celebrate that. I
didn't know that you had done that in

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our previous conversations. I don't.
I didn't encounter you saying that. But

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that's exactly what I wanted to celebrate
in this conversation is that is enlightened in

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my view. In fact, I
had a conversation on air with doctor Raj

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Sosodia. He wrote the book called
Firms of endearment several years ago, where

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essentially he's saying exactly what you he's
advocating for exactly what you did. He's

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advocating for bringing together all the stakeholders
in a way that they are in an

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engaged conversation to learn how it is, what it is they want from that

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organization, so as to endear each
of those stakeholder communities to the organization.

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And together they're stronger, they're usually
much more profitable, they're much more impactful.

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And you did that there at Collin
College. I think that's amazing.

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Yeah, it was, you know, it was bumpy. I'm not going

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to I'm not gonna I'm not gonna
say at one time that faculty wanted the

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information will pick at me, which
which I thought that would be interesting because

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you know, we were changing what
what was happening at an institution and uh,

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but they embraced it. You know. I keep saying we because it

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was we. We all did it. It wasn't me, It was we.

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And I didn't have like some presidents
and colleges the university have their cabinet.

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I had our leadership team. Who
was on our leadership team? Well,

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it was the head of the campuses, the provost of the campuses.

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It was a head of HR,
but it was also it was also faculty.

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Faculty usually are not on a cabinet
of the college or university. But

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why I why I chose when I
retired from from the college, where I

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chose to affiliate And this is not
an advertisement. I chose to affiliate with

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Campus Works because their mission is to
collaborate with colleges and the universities to transform

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institutional environments so students, factor staff, and the board and the community thrive.

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Well, it's the same thing that
I was attempting to do, and

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so it made sense for me.
They weren't in the mission of makeup profit.

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Of course, they have to make
up profit. You have to meet

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and budget. See I talked about
and again some people that like my comments.

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I talked about the business of education, because it is the business.

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Though you got to make money to
pay the salaries. You got to pay

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the salaries, you gotta do deferred
maintenance. It is the business of education.

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Doesn't mean that we're not exemplary and
they were not fostering quality teaching,

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right, Yeah, I appreciate that
tremendously. And then On top of that,

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I want to build on something that
you shared with me in one of

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our calls. You have a really
distinctive view on life that, of course

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I celebrate and share. And you
told me that you believe we're all here

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as humans to contribute to humanity and
that it's important to treat everyone with dignity

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and respect. Say more about why
that is so important to you and how

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that really infused and embody the work
that you did or do. Okay,

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thank you for asking that. I'm
glad you know you're so famous. I'm

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glad I have a way outlooks.
No, I mean that I do a

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lot of homework on everyone. I'm
really impressed what you've accomplished. You know,

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I really believe we're on this earth. I believe this and even ask

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people that know me. We're here
to serve. We're here to repair the

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world. We're here to be time, to be a templer. We're here

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to help others succeed. That's why
we're here now. I could be a

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person picking up the garbage. Doesn't
mean that I don't that's all I do,

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because maybe I'm going over and helping
out the homeless and fading them we're

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here, and I believe that that's
what we should do be doing, helping

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others achieve for their dreams. We're
here to serve. I believe that.

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I always believe that religiously. I
believe it, and I think it's important.

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But we need to do we need
to in order to do this.

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We need to have a living.
You know, you've got to have a

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living. You've got you know.
I think money might not buy happiness,

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but it does buy freedom of choice. And I like competition, but people

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look at competition as butting heads.
If you look at the second definition in

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the Dictionary of Competition, it means
to strive together for and that's what we

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need. We need to be working
together. I want to get to my

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Mall theory at one point with you, and now it's not a good theory

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anymore. But you know, fifteen
years ago my Mall theory of how to

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work with the college really worked.
Because I think we're at that juncture now

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in our country, really divided and
split. We're at the juncture of really

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trying worldwide too, of really how
do we work better together and how do

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we succeed as in society, And
so I think we have to take different

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approaches and we have to be flexible. I agree, and with that,

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let's take our first break. I'm
your host, Alice Cortes. We've been

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a year with doctor Kerry Israel,
who served as the District President of Collin

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College in Dallas, a multi campus
operation serving more than fifty three thousand students

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annually from nineteen eighty ninety twenty fifteen. He currently serves as the executive Advisory

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Board of Campus Works, Inc.
And chairs the Jewish Community Relations Council of

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Springfield Central, Illinois. We've been
talking a bit about his early years there

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at the college. After the break, we're more about just what he did

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to transform it. Stay with us, We'll be right back. Elise Cortes

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is a speaker and engagement and development
catalyst. She designs and delivers professional development,

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leadership and engagement workshops and can bring
her expertise to your organization. She

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will help ignite meaningful development within your
workforce that will increase employee engagement, performance

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and retention. To learn more or
to invite Elise to speak to your organization,

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please visit her at www dot Elisecortes
dot com. She would welcome the

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opportunity to help get your employees working
on purpose. This is working on Purpose

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with Elise Cortes. To reach our
program today, send an email to a

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lease Alic at Elisecortes dot com.
Now back to working on purpose. Thanks

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for staying with us, and welcome
back to working on purpose if you're just

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joining us. My guest is doctor
Kerry Israel, who served as a District

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president of Collin College in Dallas,
a multi campus operation serving more than fifty

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three thousand students annually, from nineteen
ninety nine to twenty fifteen. He currently

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serves on the executive Advisory Board of
Campus Works, Inc. And chairs the

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Jewish Community Relations Council of Springfield Central, Illinois. Additionally, he is an

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advisory board member of green Light Credentials
in Dallas, Texas and as a consulting

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practice. He joins IT today from
Springfield, Illinois. I'm your host,

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Dalis Cortez. So for this next
part of our conversation, doctor Israel,

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I want to surface that for the
listeners who don't know, part of my

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background has been a meaning in work
and identity researcher. So meaning is a

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very critical part of the work that
I do today because it is a it's

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a chief motivator. So in your
background, I think it's very very interesting

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that you left a very lucrative career
in law to take the president role of

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the college because you wanted more meaning
in your work. So tell us what

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was missing and what were you looking
for in a way of meaning in your

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new career. Well, you know, again, you know, being a

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lawyer. I was a poor kid
raised in Detroit with I have a twin

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brother. We're opposites. He you
know, he's good looking, he's scanning,

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you know, wonder, he's quiet. We're really opposite as I have

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a size sixteen shoe, he has
a size twelve. Anyway, so I

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didn't think we were twins doing there. So the bottom line is, and

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it's important to me, is that
how I progressed in my life was teachers.

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My sixth and seventh grade teachers.
Math teachers really embraced me. My

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dad painted houses and so we didn't
have much money, and I liked the

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learning aspect, but it gave me
opportunity and going to college. I was

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the first one in our family.
With my twin brother, we went together

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to go to college. I couldn't
get up there. I didn't have a

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car. We didn't have any money. What did I do? I washed

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pots and pans at Michigan State University. I bused dishes at Alpha fy Sorority.

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I painted every dormitory room at Michigan
State University. Took two years with

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a guy named John to think if
I didn't work. If I didn't work,

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I couldn't have gone to college.
And I still had loans to repay.

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And thank goodness, I had the
ability to have loans. So education

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transformed me. So when I went
into a law pracket, I made money

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and I paid off my loans.
It was great, but it wasn't meaningful

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for me and people. When I
went and took my first job in higher

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education, people thought something was wrong
with me. My friends, what are

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you doing this? Why are you
giving up this? They just couldn't believe

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it. Why are you taking a
pake? Well, what's interesting of all

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my friends that I went from kindergarten
through law school with my best friends.

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Well, no one, you know, as of ten years ago, was

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practicing law anymore. You know,
So you know there's not you know,

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I'm not criticizing lawyers. I'm just
saying that for me, it gave me

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a great livelihood, but it wasn't
meaningful like being a part of transforming people's

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lives through education and giving people opportunity. You know, I got opportunity.

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People looked out for me and gave
me opportunity, and I'm grateful for that,

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and I think that's what I'm supposed
to do. Developed new programs that

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no one has ever developed, a
great opportunity. And how I got into

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higher education is I ran one of
the first paralegal programs in the United States.

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The concept didn't even exist, and
they were going to call it legal

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assistant, but I have a list, so I kept saying, I don't

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want to call it legal assistant.
Marvin Duckworth from the American Bar Association says,

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well, let's do paralegal. I
said, well, pair of means

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power to power legal. But that's
what we did. Well, now we

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have a whole new profession and I
was a part of that for the country.

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That was a part of creating the
first hazardous way through mediation program in

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the United States, the first alternative
teacher certification program at a community college in

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the United States. There's four hundred
now giving people opportunity where new and new

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jobs that they're existing and well,
I'd like to talk about that later too.

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Well, let's do this if we
can. This is great, Doctor

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Israeld, This is just great.
It's just you know, I always tell

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people when I'm working with them as
if they are my clients whoork here on

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the show. You have one precious
life. What are you going to do

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with it? Don't squander it?
And you are definitely doing something with that.

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And and to that, and I
want to share some of the things

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that you did at Collin College to
strengthen the staff. There were some things

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that you did that were very controversial
that you thought were very very important.

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Share with us a couple of things
that you did, Like I'm going to

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just start with the salary piece of
it. Well, well, I found

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it to be really interesting on a
salary, I asked when I started All

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college Day, people complained about that, but I brought everyone together twice a

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year and to talk about what the
college is doing, accountability, where we're

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going to get input and so forth. And some people didn't want to come

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to you know, we paid for
their lunches and everything. Some people didn't

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want to come to Awe College a
day. Some people didn't want to talk

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about things of this nature. So
at one of the All College Day meetings,

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I asked, I said, I
looked at payroll, and six of

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you are getting food stamps. And
I was just stunned that individuals working at

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a college or university or on food
stamps. So I said, I,

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we're going to not allow that.
We're going to give you enough money on

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an hourly rate or on your salary
so that you don't qualify for food stamps,

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which meant I had to raise everyone
else up, because if I raised

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the base, I had to keep
raising the middle and the top and so

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forth. And so that was difficult
because some people made the comments, well

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some of them shouldn't have so many
children, some of who didn't have any

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children, that you're still on food
stamps. So a lot of angst about

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that. The other thing is that
I raised the salary of the faculty.

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I mean, they're the primary individuals
doing this. And I had the Chronicle

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of Higher Education contact me and said, you're paying your fact faculty as much

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as Brown University, a faculty in
Rhode Island. And my response to the

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Chronicle of Higher Education, which probably
wasn't a good one for the Chronicle is

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so what because they thought, well, here, you know, here's this

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major university and you're just a community
college. What are you doing paying faculty

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the same compensation? And professors at
Brown, well, they had more,

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they had more challenges than Brown.
They took individuals that had that had they

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weren't homogeniously, some of them needed
remediation, some of them had GEDs.

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Some of them most of them were
part time, they weren't full time,

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a lot of single mothers. I
instituted them online. You know, this

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is before online even existed. Oh
my goodness, online education. I had

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a philosophy professor said you can't teach
my discipline on theline. And I said,

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well that's interesting. Harvard University is
teaching philosophy online. So there was

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you know, it's true. So
there was a lot of resistance to some

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of the things that I was doing. I froze tuition, which really scared

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a lot of individuals because it's this
one third of your resources. I froze

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tuition. Now, mind you,
this is you know, fifteen years now,

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it's twenty years ago. Now they're
talking about free college. And I'll

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talk about that later. I don't
want totally free college. But yes,

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it's too expensive now, but this
is twenty years ago. I'm freezing tuition

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because of the affordability issue. Now
there's a trillion dollars worth a debt for

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students across a more than a trillion
company. So I started looking at well

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and I froze, my goodness,
the tax rate, and so how can

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you do that? That's another source
of revenue for the college because I think

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it was important to build community connectivity
and important to have accessibility for students.

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And it made us work. It
made us work and show up and to

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develop schedules for the students. Right
everyone could learn online, nor did they

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want to. So I created weekend
college where you could actually get the degree

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on the weekend. And you know
now, I think about three four thousand

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people were in a week in college
because the single mother didn't have to pay

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for childcare. They it would be
the weekend. They would leave it with

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a love version with a neighbor and
they would come and they take it in.

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I always offered because I knew where
I was. I was in Texas.

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I always offered Sunday classes. After
church got out, I wasn't going

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to offer during the mornings, like
some people wanted to know. Let people

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go to church. That's important.
So the bottom line is we had different

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avenues or individuals to succeed that made
them more comfortable. Doctor Israel. So

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many things in there that I just
really want to applaud thank you for this.

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The example is just fantastic for our
listeners. First, I want to

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call out that you were truly a
leader. In other words, you were

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willing to do what you thought was
right for the community and the people you

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were serving at the expense of being
ridiculed by people who you know, were

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very very fast to tell you what
they didn't agree with. And that is

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true leadership. So I want to
call that out. And second, I

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also want to call out that and
an the reason I wanted to have you

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on the show is you talk about
things in the way that I speak today

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around conscious capitalism, being conscious of
what you're doing to create a better world,

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and that business. And you know, in your case, you were

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running a business in the form of
education right that you could make a difference

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in people's lives, the people that
worked at the college, that people that

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you taught through the college. You
were very ware that you could make a

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difference through this mechanism, and that
is another reason I wanted to showcase you

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on working on purpose. Well,
thank you very much for those nice comments.

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But by visiting with you and getting
to know you, I learned some

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things and I think that's very important. And look what happens, and look

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what you're doing. We have negative
workplace cultures. You know what causes a

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negative workplace culture? Well, there's
no defined purpose, there's a lack of

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opportunity, there's a lack of success. People like success. There's a lack

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of appreciation. There's a lack of
connection, no connectivity. I love what

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you're doing, the podcasts and so
forth. You give me great ideas on

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how to reach out to people.
But what resonates with me most is that

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you're listening to everyone's voice, their
ideas, their commitment. This is all

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critical for us to succeed. I'd
like to if I can talk about my

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mall theory, because go ahead.
I think you have to take things in

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time. You know, I was
way ahead of my time on the mall

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theory. Now malls are failing,
but I hope you have enough time to

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get into future because i'd like to
do a little bit of it. Well,

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I really looked at how very successful
malls were attracting shoppers in the community

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at large. They always hit the
malls always had four to five anchors,

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you know, you know famous stores, Maci's I don't want to you know,

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no orangstrooms whatever. So I wanted
to create five anchors to draw students

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and the communities to see our other
programs of fifty or sixty that people might

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not That's what the malls do.
They bring you in through the anchors.

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And now evenore we'll get to that
later. So but I'm doing this again

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sixteen years ago, seventeen years ago. So I created them five anchors,

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and the anchors I it was healthcare
and nursing and respiratory therapy. I wanted

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to be the best programs in the
United States, and the nursing program became

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one of the five out of eighteen
hundred in the United States. Technology.

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This is before technology was really and
we became a national Center for cybersecurity and

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convergence technology, customized training for business
and industry. We weren't even doing stuff

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with business and industry. I like
to say, biggie business, industry,

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government education. That's what we say
steam, What do I like about steam?

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Science? Technology, engineering? The
arts? People keep forgetting the arts

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and math. Yes, the arts
are so important. Yes they are thinking

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for doing and so forth, and
tuition and tax rate. Those were my

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anchors. That's what we would stand
for. And we went about through our

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core values and our passion to take
these anchors and make them exceptional, creative,

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innovative, treating everyone with dignity and
respect and so forth. So we

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didn't fight with the taxpayers all the
time. If I'm lowering your tax weight,

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how are you going to fight with
me? Right? And so,

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you know it was important, But
how did I accomplish this with less money

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coming in? Well? I consolidated
public relations, research, administration. You

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know, why would you have since
it was you know, you could computers,

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Why would I have to have every
campus a public relations person? You

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know, consolidate it, consolidate research. Oh, the amount of administrators,

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I couldn't believe it. I eliminated
baseball and softball and volleyball. I had

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the board got a little nervous.
We had like two hundred people at the

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board meet because I eliminated the baseball
team. The baseball team hadn't one hadn't

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won ever, They hadn't never had
a season in like fourteen years. Two

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people came out to watch baseball.
The rough Riders built a stadium in Frisco

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that our baseball team didn't want to
use. They wanted their own baseball field.

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And I eliminated, and oh you
know, there were articles in the

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Dallas Morning News. I was a
terrible first. We're eliminated. I kept

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basketball and tennis because we're nationally recognized, and just kept a couple of those

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activities. Right. They wanted me
to start football foot value shitting me at

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the University of Texas technical football so
so, but that didn't have anything to

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do with in our mind, service
and involvement for our community. No one

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was watching it, right, no
one was participating. And you know what,

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I am a capitalist. They weren't
winning. This is not horseshoes close

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as you know, good enough,
right, well, they didn't have a

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win. Will save But that's the
most people we ever had during my tenure

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in a board meeting, all right, right, I can imagine. And

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when the state of Texas and they
had a tough time and they did.

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People at other college and the universities
were eliminating programs like the arts. I

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was having the arts slurs and I
was elimiting the sports. That was controversial.

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I'm gonna telling you, especially in
the state of Texas, I can

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imagine absolutely hold your thought, doctors, will let's grab our last break really

409
00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:34.440
quick, hold on, I'm your
host. Really score Tesben on the ear

410
00:33:34.480 --> 00:33:37.279
of doctor Kerrie Israel, who served
from nineteen ninety nine to twenty fifteen as

411
00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:42.440
a District president of Collin College here
in Dallas. It's a multi campus operation

412
00:33:42.519 --> 00:33:45.599
serving more than fifty three thousand students
annually. He currently serves on the Executive

413
00:33:45.599 --> 00:33:50.880
Advisory Board of Campus Works, Inc. And chairs the Jewish Community Relations Council

414
00:33:50.960 --> 00:33:53.000
of Springfield Central Illinois. After the
break, we're going to hear a little

415
00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:55.599
bit more about the future of where
things are going for him in his life.

416
00:33:55.720 --> 00:34:09.719
Stay with us, We'll be right
back. Alise Cortes is a speaker

417
00:34:09.760 --> 00:34:15.320
and engagement and development catalyst. She
designs and delivers professional development, leadership and

418
00:34:15.480 --> 00:34:21.320
engagement workshops and can bring her expertise
to your organization. She will help ignite

419
00:34:21.360 --> 00:34:27.280
meaningful development within your workforce that will
increase employee engagement, performance and retention to

420
00:34:27.360 --> 00:34:30.280
learn more or to invite Elise to
speak to your organization, please visit her

421
00:34:30.320 --> 00:34:37.000
at www dot Elisecortes dot com.
She would welcome the opportunity to help get

422
00:34:37.039 --> 00:34:47.400
your employees working on purpose. This
is working on Purpose with Elise Cortes.

423
00:34:47.800 --> 00:34:53.960
To reach our program today, send
an email to a lease Alise at Alisecortes

424
00:34:54.000 --> 00:35:05.760
dot com. Now back to working
on purpose. Thanks foresting with us,

425
00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:07.679
and welcome back to working on purpose
if you're just tuning in. My guest

426
00:35:07.719 --> 00:35:12.760
is doctor Kerrie Israel, who served
from nineteen ninety nine to twenty fifteen as

427
00:35:12.760 --> 00:35:15.639
a District President of Collin College here
in Dallas. It's a multi campus operation

428
00:35:15.719 --> 00:35:20.760
serving more than fifty three thousand students
annually. He currently serves as the executive

429
00:35:20.760 --> 00:35:23.480
Advisory board of Campus Works, Inc. And shares the Jewish Community Relations Council

430
00:35:23.519 --> 00:35:28.320
of Springfield Central, Illinois. Additionally, he is an advisory board member for

431
00:35:28.360 --> 00:35:31.199
green Light Credentials here in Dallas and
as a consulting practice. He joins me

432
00:35:31.239 --> 00:35:36.239
today from Springfield, Illinois. I'm
your host, alis Fortes, so for

433
00:35:36.280 --> 00:35:37.480
our last bit of time here at
doctor as well. We don't have much

434
00:35:37.519 --> 00:35:39.800
time here, but I really do
want to focus a bit on some of

435
00:35:39.800 --> 00:35:44.360
the things that some of the initiatives
that you launched while you were at the

436
00:35:44.400 --> 00:35:47.880
college, and also your perspective,
as you hinted out before the future of

437
00:35:47.880 --> 00:35:52.400
what you're trying to accomplish. Before
I go on too that though, was

438
00:35:52.400 --> 00:35:55.599
there anything else you wanted to share
with us about what you were up to

439
00:35:55.599 --> 00:36:00.760
to change the mission of the college
from vocational programs to more students community center

440
00:36:00.840 --> 00:36:07.960
programs. We tried to pay attention
all of us who we were serving,

441
00:36:07.079 --> 00:36:14.119
So we created all veteran classes taught
by veterans because veterans coming, and thank

442
00:36:14.239 --> 00:36:17.880
God for our veterans. They were
coming and they didn't want to be with

443
00:36:19.079 --> 00:36:22.760
other people at the beginning, so
we created all veteran classes. I think

444
00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:30.639
it was and it's still recognized as
a great veteran friendly institution of highercation.

445
00:36:30.840 --> 00:36:34.400
That was very important. We were
going to lose our charter to Phi Data

446
00:36:34.440 --> 00:36:39.440
Kappa, which is the international honorary
society for students, the honor students at

447
00:36:39.440 --> 00:36:49.000
community colleges. We became a leader
nationwide and the students and we induct hundreds

448
00:36:49.000 --> 00:36:52.360
and hundreds of Phive Data Kappa.
It's the corollary to the University of the

449
00:36:52.360 --> 00:36:58.559
Phi Beta Kappa. We created said
Beta, which is the honorary society for

450
00:36:58.639 --> 00:37:07.079
psychology majors. We created the Dignity
Initiative at the college to treat mostly women

451
00:37:07.480 --> 00:37:12.360
better, to have dignity and respect. So we created the initiatives that we

452
00:37:12.440 --> 00:37:15.480
worked on. We did a homeless
initiative. We changed the name of the

453
00:37:15.519 --> 00:37:22.920
college from Collin County Community College District, which was known as Quad. See

454
00:37:22.039 --> 00:37:27.559
so on your T shirt, what
is quad seeming? So we changed it

455
00:37:27.639 --> 00:37:31.920
to Colin College, which had some
board numbers pretty excited at me. And

456
00:37:32.039 --> 00:37:37.920
they had a mascot was express or
what is express? Well, no one

457
00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:39.679
knew what it was, and it
certainly did have a logo. So we

458
00:37:39.760 --> 00:37:45.599
let the students pick a mascot and
they picked the cougars. Right. We

459
00:37:45.679 --> 00:37:49.280
lit the churches, now this,
you know, I got into trouble a

460
00:37:49.320 --> 00:37:52.199
little bit with this too. That's
okay. We let churches use our empty

461
00:37:52.199 --> 00:37:59.440
classroom spaces on Sunday while they were
searching or build a new facilities like been

462
00:37:59.480 --> 00:38:04.239
this great is just why not let
them use of the facilities that were dead?

463
00:38:04.480 --> 00:38:06.920
Right, All they had to do
was clean up their masks, right,

464
00:38:07.639 --> 00:38:12.079
We helped start the Collin County Business
Alliance with Sam ziv Yajnik, who's

465
00:38:12.119 --> 00:38:20.880
a CEO and a mastermind at the
Capitol One. We created all our campuses

466
00:38:20.920 --> 00:38:23.400
to be voting precincts. Hey,
if that makes sense that we did rock

467
00:38:23.480 --> 00:38:28.760
the vote. We wanted to engage
a factory staff and the students and board

468
00:38:28.800 --> 00:38:32.199
members, so we got actively involved
with Rotary Children's Advocate, et cetera.

469
00:38:32.280 --> 00:38:37.440
I could go on my concurrent joint
admissions and academies with the high schools,

470
00:38:37.760 --> 00:38:42.199
you know, So we did a
lot. So I'd like to talk a

471
00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:45.440
little bit about the future because you
know right now, you know we're talking

472
00:38:45.440 --> 00:38:50.320
on phone. You know where's talamedicine. You know, I can I can

473
00:38:51.320 --> 00:38:53.760
use my phone. I can get
my temperature, and I can call a

474
00:38:53.800 --> 00:39:00.000
doctor or and the doctor can she
can prescribe something over the phone, and

475
00:39:00.039 --> 00:39:05.159
we can do it at face time. You know, we take pictures by

476
00:39:05.199 --> 00:39:09.519
phones. So what did I start
doing. I started giving out laptops at

477
00:39:09.519 --> 00:39:15.519
the libraries to check out people couldn't
afford it. Laptops. Right, We

478
00:39:15.599 --> 00:39:21.079
don't wear watches unless they're connected to
the cloud, and we certainly are ordering

479
00:39:21.119 --> 00:39:25.079
through Amazon that's for sure. And
malls are in trouble, and we bank

480
00:39:25.159 --> 00:39:29.719
online, we order groceries, we
have self driving vehicles. I've seen them.

481
00:39:30.480 --> 00:39:34.119
Well, where I think things are
going and I think we have to

482
00:39:34.159 --> 00:39:36.599
do something at causing universities. I
remember, we should keep putting in to

483
00:39:36.599 --> 00:39:40.920
all these buildings. I think we
should build these huge community centers where learning

484
00:39:42.039 --> 00:39:46.519
takes place. Education with university,
we created the Higher Education Center. What

485
00:39:46.559 --> 00:39:52.400
are we doing creating a higher education
center in Collin County when we didn't offer

486
00:39:52.559 --> 00:39:57.119
baccalaureate degrees from now we do.
But but what are we doing that for?

487
00:39:57.280 --> 00:40:00.679
Because again, it's that compete you're
you know, you're striving together,

488
00:40:01.000 --> 00:40:06.280
you're sharing the operational costs. So
online learning is going to occur. We're

489
00:40:06.280 --> 00:40:09.920
going to see a lot of artificial
intelligence and data, which means that we're

490
00:40:09.960 --> 00:40:14.519
going to have to have more shared
decision making. We're going to use data

491
00:40:14.559 --> 00:40:20.320
and analytics to personalize learning environments for
students to succeed. You know, I

492
00:40:20.480 --> 00:40:23.039
just read a statistic that you know, it was in the seventies it was

493
00:40:23.119 --> 00:40:30.440
computer automation. Now it's cyber physical
and artificial intelligence. So by twenty thirty,

494
00:40:30.480 --> 00:40:36.039
this is I read seventy five to
three hundred and seventy five million workers

495
00:40:36.119 --> 00:40:40.239
this is globally, or three percent
to fourteen percent of the entire global workforce

496
00:40:40.480 --> 00:40:45.280
will need to embrace the new systems
to need to learn these business right,

497
00:40:45.760 --> 00:40:50.400
and so that's what we should be
doing. We should have virtual classrooms right

498
00:40:50.440 --> 00:40:53.280
now. We should create community centers
of learning. You know. We should

499
00:40:53.480 --> 00:40:58.039
work better with business. You know
they can give badges. Now, well

500
00:40:58.079 --> 00:41:04.079
we should take those badges and certificates
and bundle them together and issue a degree.

501
00:41:04.519 --> 00:41:07.599
That's what people want. So but
we've got to work better together,

502
00:41:07.920 --> 00:41:15.440
you know, micro credentials, factal
certificationion, doing more programming with K through

503
00:41:15.519 --> 00:41:19.480
twelve, business and government is a
must. Boot Camps. Why aren't we

504
00:41:19.559 --> 00:41:22.000
doing boot camps? You know again
on the weekend. That's why I create

505
00:41:22.079 --> 00:41:24.840
weekend House. On the weekend.
We got a lot of empty facilities that

506
00:41:24.880 --> 00:41:29.679
we're paying a lot of money to
keep open, right, so create some

507
00:41:29.760 --> 00:41:35.360
boot camps. We had individuals that
were homeschooled students. I land use all

508
00:41:35.400 --> 00:41:38.440
the science labs. I didn't charge
them they were homeschooled, but they were

509
00:41:38.480 --> 00:41:45.039
still taxpayers in our community. We
had three hundred and some homeschool, right,

510
00:41:45.360 --> 00:41:47.920
So I think we have to work
better together. I do. I

511
00:41:47.960 --> 00:41:51.960
do too, And I want to
also just call it something really, really

512
00:41:52.000 --> 00:41:54.960
obvious in which is going to make
any maybe a few of our listeners chuckle.

513
00:41:55.480 --> 00:42:00.320
It's just occurring to me so so
drastically in the conversation doctor Israel,

514
00:42:00.320 --> 00:42:06.000
and that is what's a leader.
Somebody who's out in front of the rest

515
00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:07.760
of the crowd. That's what you've
been doing. You've been out in front

516
00:42:07.840 --> 00:42:10.880
of the crowd, and it takes
some real courage to do that. And

517
00:42:10.920 --> 00:42:15.639
I really appreciate and applaud what you've
been doing to blaze this trail. And

518
00:42:15.719 --> 00:42:20.679
I hope that our listeners hearing this
are emboldened and with courage to do the

519
00:42:20.719 --> 00:42:25.320
same, because you really are a
beautiful beacon and a showcase of what does

520
00:42:25.400 --> 00:42:29.719
leadership look like when you actually get
out there and do it. So let

521
00:42:29.760 --> 00:42:34.440
me just make sure that I call
that out. And now you've been talking

522
00:42:34.480 --> 00:42:37.880
a bit about well, thank you, But I learned from leaders like you

523
00:42:37.960 --> 00:42:42.960
and others. I mean, I
do, and I think that's important,

524
00:42:43.360 --> 00:42:46.559
and it's important because leadership is lonely
too. It is low, yes,

525
00:42:46.559 --> 00:42:52.840
it is. I can't be friends
with three thousand colleagues. I don't call

526
00:42:52.920 --> 00:42:55.039
them employees. I can be friendly, but I can't be friends. So

527
00:42:55.440 --> 00:43:00.840
it's important to look at you know
what Father Clark told me, what's the

528
00:43:00.880 --> 00:43:06.800
president in Colorado greed? As he
said, Carrie, get your assussinance assussenance

529
00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:13.960
from outside and that means the community
and leaders like you. Well, I

530
00:43:13.960 --> 00:43:16.119
completely agree with that. That's one
of the reasons that I bring together leaders

531
00:43:16.199 --> 00:43:21.079
to nurture them because they do need
that. They need that sustenance and they

532
00:43:21.119 --> 00:43:23.719
can't get it from the people they
serve. Generally speaking, it's not necessarily

533
00:43:23.760 --> 00:43:29.760
appropriate or sufficient, and so I
very much appreciate that. And it's a

534
00:43:29.800 --> 00:43:32.159
privileged doctors will, as you know, to be able to serve leaders like

535
00:43:32.199 --> 00:43:37.360
that. So you know, I
count my lucky stars that that's the work

536
00:43:37.360 --> 00:43:42.880
that I get to do. So
you were talking before about some of the

537
00:43:42.920 --> 00:43:45.840
future ideas that you had, which
I thought were fantastic. I want to

538
00:43:45.880 --> 00:43:49.039
go back a little bit now if
we can, for our listeners, and

539
00:43:49.039 --> 00:43:51.800
I want you to share, if
you will, a few of the specific

540
00:43:51.920 --> 00:43:55.320
specific initiatives that you launched to bring
business, industry, government and education together,

541
00:43:55.400 --> 00:44:00.400
because that is magnificent. If they
can hear what you did and they

542
00:44:00.400 --> 00:44:04.079
did that they might have more access
to create something for the future for themselves.

543
00:44:04.079 --> 00:44:07.000
So one thing for sure I'd like
you to talk about is that you

544
00:44:07.039 --> 00:44:10.360
were the first education summit in North
Texas. Say more about that if you

545
00:44:10.400 --> 00:44:16.719
would. Yeah, I would kind
of surprise that Nolan did an education summit

546
00:44:16.800 --> 00:44:22.599
in North Texas. And so again
I worked with the san Ziviosnik on this

547
00:44:22.519 --> 00:44:30.039
in Minoj Cutty who is now Green
Creduntion that Minoj was over another company,

548
00:44:30.559 --> 00:44:38.119
and what we did we brought together
all the mostly business leaders and community leaders

549
00:44:38.119 --> 00:44:45.320
you are not a nonprofits to really
talk about what they needed from us and

550
00:44:45.400 --> 00:44:51.840
what they needed in our community to
make sure that their businesses were thriving.

551
00:44:52.519 --> 00:44:55.239
And we got a lot of ideas
and then the Business Alliance would formed that

552
00:44:55.360 --> 00:45:00.159
you know, thirty to fifty CEOs
and major companies in college. As you

553
00:45:00.199 --> 00:45:05.880
know, Collin County was just booming, the DFW was booming, and so

554
00:45:06.400 --> 00:45:14.320
that became very important to have this
continuous dialogue and discussion. You know,

555
00:45:14.360 --> 00:45:19.920
the board meetings at the college are
now and it happened before I left.

556
00:45:20.079 --> 00:45:24.039
We're all online. You could even
have to drive to the board meeting.

557
00:45:24.079 --> 00:45:29.360
You can just you could just watch
it on your phone. So we really

558
00:45:29.440 --> 00:45:32.840
wanted to make things accessible, but
we needed people's input. We need to

559
00:45:32.880 --> 00:45:37.599
ask them, what do you want
out of this college? You know,

560
00:45:37.800 --> 00:45:40.280
it's not what we want, it's
what you know. We're here to serve

561
00:45:40.760 --> 00:45:49.679
you. Remember, we're here to
be student and community centered centric. It's

562
00:45:49.760 --> 00:45:57.079
student and community that's what's really important. So we developed a lot of initiatives,

563
00:45:57.079 --> 00:46:00.800
like we had positive dialogue, which
I think is important. The idea

564
00:46:00.840 --> 00:46:02.039
that you've given me that I'm going
to share with a lot of you,

565
00:46:02.119 --> 00:46:07.239
and it's you, is that instead
of constantly having a small little meetings,

566
00:46:07.320 --> 00:46:13.199
hey, let's everyone as a CEOs
now podcast for seven minutes. Take some

567
00:46:13.320 --> 00:46:16.159
of your ideas and do it on
a weekly basis or on you know,

568
00:46:16.400 --> 00:46:22.280
a bi monthly basis to keep everyone
informed and are you meeting your strategic objective?

569
00:46:22.519 --> 00:46:28.199
What are your critical success factors?
What can we do to better serve

570
00:46:28.360 --> 00:46:34.000
you? Right? So we have
to use this new technology because very hard

571
00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:38.039
to get everyone's calendar together. Right. So, I think a culture that

572
00:46:38.519 --> 00:46:45.559
allows people to flourish is a culture
that will succeed and will transform, and

573
00:46:45.639 --> 00:46:51.239
so we had constant discussions going along
with you know, that's why I was

574
00:46:51.280 --> 00:46:54.320
working sixty to seventy hours a week, and so everyone said, oh,

575
00:46:54.599 --> 00:47:00.880
it's now time to retire. Retire, I mean working. I've been working

576
00:47:00.920 --> 00:47:04.960
since I was twelve years old,
you know. So that's that's why I

577
00:47:05.039 --> 00:47:12.119
affiliated with different organizations to really keep
moving forward on what we're supposed to be

578
00:47:12.199 --> 00:47:15.360
accomplishing. And I'm even think that, you know, being sixty something was

579
00:47:15.400 --> 00:47:19.320
so old, but I guess it
is. I don't know not to me

580
00:47:19.800 --> 00:47:23.280
the bike, I think you know, I'm riding a bike now and I

581
00:47:23.320 --> 00:47:27.920
have the last fight amount of motors. I go bike, you know,

582
00:47:28.039 --> 00:47:30.199
forty to fifty miles every other day, but today I can't. It's knowing

583
00:47:31.079 --> 00:47:35.360
I got to get back to Texas, no doubt. Well, we need

584
00:47:35.400 --> 00:47:37.679
you, doctor Israel, So don't
don't retire. We need you. I'm

585
00:47:37.960 --> 00:47:42.800
no were we We're at the very
end of the show here, doctor Israel.

586
00:47:42.840 --> 00:47:46.239
Can you just share with us just
final pearls of wisdom and say fifteen

587
00:47:46.280 --> 00:47:51.440
seconds, what would you like to
learn our listeners with I want everyone to

588
00:47:51.480 --> 00:47:57.519
be happy and healthy, and I
want everyone to serve others to make others

589
00:47:57.559 --> 00:48:01.760
succeed, and by serving others that
you will succeed. I completely agree with

590
00:48:01.760 --> 00:48:04.840
that. A beautiful way to finish, Doctor Israel, I, thank you

591
00:48:04.920 --> 00:48:07.079
so much for sharing your heart,
your wisdom, your soul with us today.

592
00:48:07.119 --> 00:48:12.000
It's just been a privilege. Thank
you. Thank you for inviting me.

593
00:48:12.039 --> 00:48:15.320
It's been my honor to be a
part of your program. Thank you

594
00:48:15.079 --> 00:48:19.119
listeners. If you want to learn
more about doctor Kerry Israel, connect with

595
00:48:19.159 --> 00:48:21.000
them, get in touch with them. The best way to do so is

596
00:48:21.079 --> 00:48:24.599
via his email. It's CARRIEA.
Israel at gmail dot com. Let me

597
00:48:24.639 --> 00:48:30.800
spell that for you. C A
R Y A I S R E l

598
00:48:30.920 --> 00:48:35.800
at gmail dot com. CARRIEA.
Israel at gmail dot com. We'll see

599
00:48:35.800 --> 00:48:37.840
you next week for another nourishing conversation. Remember that work is at least or

600
00:48:37.840 --> 00:48:45.880
third of our life, so let's
work on purpose. We hope you've enjoyed

601
00:48:45.880 --> 00:48:51.360
this week's program. Be sure to
tune in to Working on Purpose, featuring

602
00:48:51.400 --> 00:48:55.920
your host Alis Cortes, each week
on the Voice America Empowerment Channel. This

603
00:48:57.000 --> 00:49:00.000
week, find your life's purpose at
work