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 Cortez. 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 Cortez. Welcome back to

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the Working on Purpose Show. Thanks
for tuning in again this week. I'm

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your host, Elise Cortez, turning
you live from Dallas, which is home

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based for me. If you've been
tuning in for a while, you know

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

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on living with passion and inspiration and
working on purpose and as I'm committed to

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

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choices are designed to help equip leaders
inside organizations to make work of fulfilling part

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of life so employees thrive, give
their best, and want to stay.

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I talk with my guest to draw
on their expertise since you're on my own

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experience consulting speaking developing workforces across the
globe each week in these conversations, I

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hope you walk away with something you
can immediately put to use. Much of

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the content we discussed on this program
is a reflection of the work I do.

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So as you listen, if you
catch a glimpse of anything I can

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do to help you along your own
journey, go to my website at Las

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Cortez dot com and use the contact
me feature to message me and let's open

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a conversation about what's happening for you
and how I might be able to help

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now at any rate. I'm glad
we're connected. Thanks for listening with us

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today. Is doctor Kerry Israel,
who served as the District President of Colin

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

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annually from nineteen ninety nine to two
fifteen. He currently serves as the executive

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Advisory board of a Campus Works,
Inc. And shares the Jewish Community Relations

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Council of Springfield Central Illinois. Additionally, he is an advisory board member for

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green Light Credentials in Dallas, Texas
and as a consulting practice as well.

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We'll be talking about what I consider
to be his enlightened leadership during those fifteen

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years, sixteen years at Collin College
College, and it hopes we can all

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glean a few things from for our
own leadership. He joined us a day

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from Springfield, Illinois, Doctor Israel, Welcome to Working on Purpose. Well,

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thank you for having me on the
show. I appreciate it very much.

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You're so welcome. I really really
want to share with our listeners a

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few things I've learned about you,
and that's those sixteen years that you spent

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at the college. I think there's
a lot we can glean from you and

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

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So help us understand when you first
joined. Now, I know this was

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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 Colin 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 are nine members, had a couple

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of specific objectives are goals they wanted
to accomplish. They were a little bit

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

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

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

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

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a 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 they had a nursing program at

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

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the nursing programs graduating hundreds and hundreds
of students. So those are the three

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things that that the board was very
interested to be tackling almost immediately. I

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waited three or four months to understand
the culture a little bit. Great faculty,

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solid programs, but no national or
exemplary programs. And so we went

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to work quickly pass bond which we
did, which we passed, and to

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look at what I call and we
can get into it the why rather than

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how, you know, why do
we exist in a lot of companies,

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

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how questions with why why are we
doing what we're doing well? And to

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that end, doctor Israel if you
would. I mean, it's you really

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you have really experienced something pretty phenomenal
in being able to lead Colin College the

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

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what opportunities did you see in the
unity that you knew call In College could

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

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see? Well, there was a
very outdated mission and the mission said we

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would offer occupational programs and transfer programs. Did it say why we were doing

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that? And they did not have, which I thought was interesting core values.

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

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what we hold barely to succeed.
So we went about That's the first thing

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that I did before even passing the
box. The first thing I did is

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

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the students, and not for profits. Every six hundred people were brought

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together to create a new mission and
to create a passion for core values.

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So it's interesting that I found is
that people, you know, they did

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the college brought in people, but
nowhere did anyone bring in a six hundred

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people to talk, you know,
and to give their ideas and to respect

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their ideas, and so I think
that was critically important, and we ended

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up with a mission that talks about
being student and community centered, not just

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a college in the community, but
a community college and to develop skills strengthened

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character. Isn't it interesting why we're
doing this, why are we having an

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education, is to strengthened character,
to challenge your intellect, to make sure

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that we're focusing on the community as
well as the students. And then we

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did our core values and we said
we had a passion. We just did

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a list care We had a passion
for learning, for serve and involved,

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for creativity and innovation, for dignity
and respect, for academic excellence, for

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integrity, a passion for all this, and it resonated with the community and

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with the college. Hold on,
du Jez, well, I want to

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go further into this just for just
a moment, because this is so important.

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One of the reasons I wanted to
have you on the show is that

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I do. I do, and
I'm not the only ones certainly who saw

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your leadership sixteen years is quite enlightened. So what I think is very curious

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that I want to really focus on
for our listeners. Is that you brought

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together six hundred people. So one
of the things that I'm focused on for

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my business is providing visioneering, strategic
offerings for a combined future for all the

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stakeholders. So you brought in who
were those six hundred people? Were they?

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Were they students? Were they community
stewards? Who was who was in

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that crowd? Well, they were
the community leaders, they were legislate towards.

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There they united these kind groups of
people. They were people who headed

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up to not for profits, whether
it's Lynn from the Advocacy Center, it

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was the individuals that helped create created
the college. We had a committee of

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one hundred with them too. There
are people that were involved on our advisory

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committees at the college. Students actually
were welcome staff and usually at colleges and

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universities, you know it's driven by
the faculty, but you know, here

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we had staff people, We had
custodians commenting on what this college should be,

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as well as fantastic nationally renowned professors. So we were all kind of

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equal in our room. But a
lot of community mayors showed up. I

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mean I was, I was really
pleasantly surprised of all the people that wanted

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to participate, and it lasted the
entire day, and then we came back

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and had drafted, and we sent
the drafts out of where we were going

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to embrace this mission and to embrace
new and the first time core values and

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today, which is interesting, core
values are part of the entire fabric of

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the institution. Effect. People on
their business cards, their digital cards list

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the core as did I on the
back of our cards. So people you

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have to keep them talking about it. A lot of people don't know about

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college's mission. You know, Disney
World, I think it says their mission

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is lists have fun. You know. Ours was trying to make it a

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really simple student and to meet the
centered and to strengthen character. We want

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really engaged individuals, and we started
doing a lot of things to meet the

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why we were doing things. So
talks really want to celebrate that. I

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didn't know that you had done that
in our previous conversations. I don't I

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didn't encounter you saying that. But
that's exactly what I wanted to celebrate in

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this conversation, is that is enlightened
in my view. In fact, I

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had a conversation on air with doctor
Roge ccodia. He wrote a book called

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Firms of Endearment several years ago where
essentially he's saying exactly what you He's advocating

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for, exactly what you did.
He's advocating for bringing together all the stakeholders

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in a way that they are in
an engaged conversation to learn how it is,

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what it is they want from that
organization, so as to endear each

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of those stakeholder communities to the organization, and together they're stronger, They're usually

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much more profitable, they're much more
impactful. And you did that there at

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Colin College. I think that's amazing. Yeah, it was, you know,

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it was bumpy. I'm not going
into that. I'm gonna I'm not

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gonna see that one time that faculty
wanted the informational picket, which which I

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thought that would interesting because you know, we were changing what was happening at

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an institution, and but they embraced
it. You know, I keep saying

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

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It was weak. And I didn't
have like some presidents and colleges the universe,

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they have their cabinet. I had
our leadership team who was on our

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leadership team. Well, it was
the head of the campuses, the provost

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of the campuses. It was ahead
of HR, but it was also it

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was also faculty. Fact, we
usually are not on a cabinet of the

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college or university. But why I
why I chose when I retired from from

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the college, where I chose to
affiliate, And it's not an advertisement.

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I chose to affiliate with Campus Works
because their mission is to collaborate with colleges

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and the universities to transform institutional environments
so students, factor staff, and the

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board and the community scribe. Well, it's the same thing that I was

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attempting to do, and so it
made sense for me. They weren't in

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the mission to make up profits.
Of course, they have to make up

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profits. You have to meet and
budgets. See I talked about and again

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some people don't like my comments.
I talked about the business of education because

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it is the business. Though you
gotta make money to pay the salaries.

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You gotta pay the salaries, you
gotta do deferred maintenance. It is the

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business of education. Doesn't mean that
we're not exemplary and they were not fostering

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quality of teaching, right, Yeah, I appreciate that tremendously. And then

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on top of that, I want
to build on something that you shared with

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me in one of our calls.
You have a really distinctive view on life

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that of course I celebrate and share. And you told me that you believe

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we're all here as humans to contribute
to humanity and that it's important to treat

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everyone with dignity and respect. Say
more about why that is so important to

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

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Okay, thank you for asking that. I'm glass. You know you're

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so famous. I'm glad I have
a good way Outlook No, I mean

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that I do a lot of homework
and everyone. I'm really impressed what you've

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accomplished. You know, I really
believe we're on this earth. I believe

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this and even ask people that know
me. We're here to serve. We're

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here to repair the world. We're
here to be time, to be an

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exemplar. We're here to help others
succeed. That's why we're here. Now.

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I could be a person picking up
the garbage. Doesn't mean that I

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don't that's all I do. Because
maybe I'm going over and helping out the

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homeless and fading them. We're here
and I believe that that's what we should

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do be doing, helping others achieve
their dreams. We're here to serve.

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I believe that. I always believe
that religiously. I believe it, and

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I think it's important. But we
need to do we need to in order

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

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got to have a living. You've
got you know. I think money might

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not buy happiness, but it does
buy freedom of choice. And I like

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competition, but people look at competition
as budding heads. If you look at

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the second definition in the Dictionary of
Competition, it means to strive together for

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and that's what we need. We
need to be working together. I want

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to get to my Mall theory at
one point with you, and now it's

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not a good theory anymore. But
you know, fifteen years ago my Mall

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theory of how to work with the
college really worked because I think we're at

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that juncture now in our country,
you know, really divided and split.

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We're at the juncture of really Troy
worldwide too. But really, how do

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we work better together and how do
we succeed as in society, and so

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I think we have to take different
approaches and we have to be flexible.

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Yeah, I agree, and with
that, let's take our first break.

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I'm your host, Alice Cortez.
We've been the year with doctor Kerry Israel,

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who served as a District president of
Colin College in Dallas and multi campus

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operations, serving more than fifty three
thousand students annually from nineteen eighty fifteen.

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He currently serves as the executive Advisory
Board of Campus Works, Inc. And

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shares of Jewish Community Relations Council of
Springfield Central, Illinois. We've been talking

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a bit about his early years there
at the college after the break, Well,

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here more about just what he did
to transform it. Stay with us,

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We'll be right back. Elise Cortez
is a speaker and engagement and development

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catalyst. She designs and delivers professional
development, leadership and engagement workshops and can

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bring her expertise to your organization.
She will help ignite meaningful development within your

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workforce that will increase employee engagement,
performance and retention. To learn more or

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to invite Elise to speak to your
organization, please visit her at www dot

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Elise Cortez dot com. She would
welcome the opportunity to help get your employees

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working on purpose. This is working
on Purpose with Elise Cortez. To reach

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our program today, send an email
to Elise ali Se at Elise Cortez dot

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com. Now back to working on
purpose. Thanks for staying with us,

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and welcome back to working on purpose
if you're just joining us. My guest

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is doctor Kerry Israel, who served
as a District president of Collin College in

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Dallas, a multi campus operations serving
more than fifty three thousand students annually from

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nine to ninety nine to two fifteen. He currently serves on 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. Additionally,
he is an advisory board member of green

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Light Credentials in Dallas, Texas and
as a consulting practice. He joins It

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today from Springfield, Illinois. I'm
your host, Alice Cortez. So for

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this next part of our conversation,
doctor Israel, I want to surface that

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for the listeners who don't know,
part of my background has been a meaning

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in work and identity researcher. So
meaning is a very critical part of the

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work that I do today because it
is a it's a chief motivator. So

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in your background, I think it's
very very interesting that you left a very

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lucrative career in law to take the
president role at the college because you wanted

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more meaning in your work. So
tell us what was missing and what were

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you looking for in a way of
meaning in your new career. Well,

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you know again, you know,
being a lawyer. I was a poor

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kid raised in Detroit with I have
a twin brother. We're opposites he you

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know, he's good looking, he's
scanning, he don't wonder guy, he's

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quiet. We're really opposite, a
noisy. I have a size sixteen shoe,

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he has a size twelve anyway,
so I didn't think we were twins

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in one there. So the bottom
line is, and it's important to me,

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is that how how I progressed in
my life was teachers. My six

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and seventh grade teachers, math teachers
really embraced me. My dad painted houses

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and so we didn't have much money, and I like the learning aspect,

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but it gave me opportunity in going
to college. I was the first one

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in our family with my twin brother. We went together to go to college.

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I couldn't get up there. I
didn't have a car, we didn't

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have any money. What did I
do? I washed pots and pans at

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Michigan State University. I bust dishes
at Alpha Fie Sorority. I painted every

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dormitory room at Michigan State University.
Took two years with a guy named John

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to think if I didn't work.
If I didn't work, I couldn't have

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gone to college. And I still
had loans to repay. And thank goodness,

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I had the ability to have loans. So education transformed me. So

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when I went into law practice,
I made money and I paid off my

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loans. It was great, but
it wasn't meaningful for me and people.

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When I went and took my first
job in higher education, people thought something

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was wrong with me. My friends, what are you doing this? Why

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

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taking a pay? Well? What's
interesting of all my friends that I went

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from kindergarten through law school with my
best friends, Well, no one,

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you know, as of ten years
ago, he's practicing law anymore, you

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know, So you know there's not
you know, I'm not criticizing lawyers.

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I'm just saying that for me,
it gave me a great livelihood, but

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it wasn't meaningful like being a part
of transforming people's lives through education and giving

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people opportunity. You know, I
got opportunity. People looked out for me

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and gave me opportunity, and I'm
grateful for that. And I think that's

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what I'm supposed to do, develop
new programs that no one has ever developed

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to create opportunity. And how I
got into higher education is I ran one

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of the first paralegal programs in the
United States. The concept didn't even exist,

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and they were going to call it
legal assistant, but I have a

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list, so I kept saying,
I don't want to call it legal assistant.

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Marvin's Duckworth from the American Virus Association
says, well, let's do para

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llegal. I said, well,
para means part legal. So that's what

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we did. Well, now we
have a whole new profession and I was

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a part of that for the country. That was a part of creating the

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first Hazardous Ways for Mediation program in
the United States, the first alternative teacher

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certification program at a community college in
the United States, there's four hundred now

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giving people opportunities where new and new
jobs that they're existing. Well, i'd

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like to talk about that later too. Well, let's do this if we

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can. This is great, Doctor
Israel, this is just great. It's

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just you know, I always tell
people when I'm working with them as if

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they're my clients. We're here on
the show. You have one precious life.

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What are you going to do with
it? Don't squander it? And

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you are definitely doing something with that. And and to that, and I

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want to share what some of the
things that you did at Collin College to

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strengthen the stuff. There were some
things that you did that were very controversial

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that you thought were very very important. Share with us a couple of things

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that you did, Like I'm going
to just start with the salary piece of

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it. Well, well, I
found it to be really interesting on salary.

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I asked when I started all college
day only, and people complained about

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that, but I brought everyone together
twice a year and to talk about what

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the college is doing, accountability,
where we're going to get input and sold

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forth. And some people didn't want
to come, and I you know,

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we paid for their lunches and everything. Some people didn't want to come to

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All College a Day. Some people
didn't want to talk about things of this

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nature. So at one of the
All College Day meetings, I asked,

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I said, I looked at payroll, and six of you are getting food

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stamps. And I was just stunned
that individuals working at a college or university

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or on food stamps. So I
said, I we're going to not allow

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that. We're going to give you
enough money on an hourly rate or on

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your salary so that you don't qualify
for food stamps. Which month I had

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to raise everyone else up because if
I raised the base, I had to

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keep raising the middle and the top
and so forth. And so that was

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difficult because some people made the comments, well some of them shouldn't have so

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many children, someone who didn't have
any children, that you're still on food

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stamps. So a lot of a
lot of angst about that. The other

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thing is that I raised the salary
of the faculty. I mean, they're

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the primary individuals doing this. And
I had the Chronicle of Higher Education contact

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me and said, you're paying your
fa faculty as much as Brown University.

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A faculty in Rhode Island and my
response to the Chronicle of Higher Education,

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which probably wasn't a good one for
the chronicles. So what because they thought,

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well, here, you know,
here's this major university and you're just

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a community college. What are you
doing paying faculty at the same compensation?

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And professors at Brown, well,
they had more, they had more challenges

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than Brown. They took individuals that
had that had they weren't homogeniously. Some

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of them needed remediation, some of
them had gets, some of them most

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of them were part time, they
weren't full time, a lot of single

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mothers. I instituted online. You
know, this is before online even existed.

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Oh my goodness, online education.
I had a philosophy A professor said,

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you can't teach my discipline on the
line, and I said, well

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that's interesting, Harvard University of teaching
philosophy online. So there was you know,

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it's through. So there was a
lot of resistance to some of the

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things that I was doing. I
froze tuition, which really scared a lot

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of individually because it's just one sort
of your resources. I froze tuition.

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Now, mind, this is you
know fifteen years now, it's twenty years

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ago. Now, they're talking about
free college, and I'll talk about that

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later. I don't want totally free
college. But yes, it's too expensive

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now. But but this is,
this is twenty years ago. I'm freezing

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

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for students across more than a trillion
comedy. 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

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think 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

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to develop schedules for the students.
Right everyone can learn online, nor did

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they want to. So I created
week in college where you could actually get

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the degree on the weekend. And
you know now, and I think about

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three and four thousand people were in
a week in college because the single mother

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didn't have to pay for childcare.
It would be a weekend. They would

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leave it with a love of version
with a neighbor and they would come and

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they take it in. I always
offered because I knew where I was.

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I was in Texas. I always
offered Sunday classes after church got out.

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I wasn't going to offer it during
the mornings like some people wanted to know.

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Let people go to church. It's
important. So the bottom line is

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we had different avenues for individuals to
succeed that made them more comfortable. Doctor

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Israel, so many things in there
that I just really want to applaud thank

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you for this. The example is
just fantastic for our listeners. First,

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I want to I want to call
out that you were truly a leader.

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In other words, you were willing
to do what you thought was right for

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the community and the people you were
serving at the expense of being ridiculed by

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people who you know, were very
very fast to tell you what they didn't

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agree with. And that is true
leadership. So I want to call that

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out. And second, I also
want to call out that another reason I

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wanted to have you on the show
is you talk about things in the way

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that I speak today around conscious capitalism, being conscious of what you're doing to

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create a better world, and that
business and you know, in your case,

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

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make a difference in people's lives,
the people that worked at the college,

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at people that you you taught through
the college. You were very aware that

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you could make a difference through this
mechanism, and that is another reason I

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wanted to showcase you on working on
purpose. Well, thank you very much

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for those nice comments. But by
visiting with you and getting to know you,

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I learned some things and I think
that's very important. And look what

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happens, and look look what you're
doing. We have negative workplace cultures.

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You know what causes a negative workplace
culture? Well, there's no defined purpose.

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

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success. There's a lack of appreciation. There's a lack of connection, no

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connectivity. I love what you're doing, the podcasts and so forth. You've

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given me great ideas on how to
reach out to people. But what resonates

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with me most is that you're listening
to everyone's voice, their ideas, their

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commitment. This is all critical for
us to succeed. I'd like to if

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I can talk about my mall theory, because I think you have to take

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things in time. You know,
I was way ahead of my time on

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the mall theory. Now malls are
failing, but I hope we have enough

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time to get into future because I'd
like to do a little bit of it.

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Well, I really looked at how
very successful malls were attracting shoppers in

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

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anchors, you know, you know, famous stores, Macy's. I don't

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want to you know, no range, drums, whatever. So I wanted

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to create five anchors to draw students
and the communities to see our other programs

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a fifty or sixty that people might
not that's what the malls do. They

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bring you in through the anchors.
And I need more. We'll get to

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that later. So but I'm doing
this again sixteen years ago, seventeen years

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ago. So I created the five
anchors, and the anchors I it was

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healthcare and nursing and respiratory therapy.
I wanted to be the best programs in

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the United States, and the nursing
program became one of the five out of

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eighteen hundred in the United States.
Technology. This is before technology was really

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and we became a national Center for
cybersecurity and convergence technology, customized training for

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business and industry. We weren't even
doing stuff with business and industry. I

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like to say, biggie business,
industry, government and education. That's what

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we're sort of steam. What do
I like about steam? Science? Technology,

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engineering? The arts? People keep
forgetting the arts and math. The

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arts are so important for thinking,
for doing and so forth. And tuition

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and tax rate. Those were my
anchors. That's what we would stay in

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for. And we went about through
our core values and our passion to take

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these anchors and make them exceptional,
creative, innovative, treating everyone with dignity

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and respect and so forth. So
we didn't fight with the taxpayers all the

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time. If I'm lowering your tax
rate, how are you going to fight

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with me? Right? And so
you know it was important, But how

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did I accomplish this with less money
coming in? Well? I consolidated public

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relations research administration. You know,
why would you have since it was you

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know, you could computers. Why
would I have to have every campus of

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public relations person? You know could
insolidated consolidate research. Oh, the amount

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of administrators, I couldn't believe it. I eliminated baseball and softball and volleyball.

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I had the board got real nervous. We had like two hundred people

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at the board met because I eliminated
the baseball team. The baseball team hadn't

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won, hadn't one ever, they
hadn't never had with this season in like

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fourteen years, two people came out
to watch baseball. The rough Riders built

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a stadium in Frisco that our baseball
team didn't want to use. They wanted

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their own baseball field. And I
eliminated. And oh you know, there

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were articles in the Dallas Morning News. I was a terrible person. Were

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eliminated. I kept basketball and tennis
because we're nationally recognized, and just kept

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a couple of those activities. Right. They wanted me to start football foot

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Vallue seating me with the University of
Texas and techna Haangridge football. So so,

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but that didn't have anything to do
with in our mind for service and

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involvement for our community. No one
was watching it, right, No one

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was participant. And you know what, I am a capitalist. They weren't

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winning. This is not horseshoes close
as you know, good enough, well,

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they they didn't know they didn't have
a win. We'll see it.

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But that's so most people we ever
had during my tenure in a board meeting.

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All right, all right, I
can imagine and when the state of

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Texas and they had a tough time, and they did. People at other

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college universities were eliminating in a twelrograms
like the arts. I was having the

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arts flours and I was eliminating the
sports. That controversial. I'm telling I

409
00:33:24.400 --> 00:33:29.359
can especially in the state of Texas. I can imagine. Yeah, mold

410
00:33:29.400 --> 00:33:31.160
your thought, doctors, Let's grab
our last break really quick. Hold on,

411
00:33:31.680 --> 00:33:35.839
I'm your host. Alis Cortez were
on their doctor Kerry Israel, who

412
00:33:35.920 --> 00:33:38.880
served from nineteen ninety nine twenty fifteen
as the District president of Cohen College here

413
00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:44.240
in Dallas. It's a multi campus
operation serving more than fifty three thousand students

414
00:33:44.279 --> 00:33:47.279
annually. He currently serves on the
Executive Advisory Board of Campus Works, Inc.

415
00:33:47.720 --> 00:33:52.039
And chairs the Jewish Community Relations Council
of Springfield Central Illinois. After the

416
00:33:52.079 --> 00:33:54.400
break, we're gonna hear a little
bit more about their future of where things

417
00:33:54.400 --> 00:33:57.720
are going for him in his life. Stay with us, We'll be right

418
00:33:57.759 --> 00:34:13.679
back. Elise Cortez is a speaker
and engagement and development catalyst. She designs

419
00:34:13.679 --> 00:34:19.159
and delivers professional development, leadership and
engagement workshops and can bring her expertise to

420
00:34:19.199 --> 00:34:23.199
your organization. She will help ignite
meaningful development within your workforce that will increase

421
00:34:23.280 --> 00:34:29.000
employee engagement, performance and retention.
To learn more or to invite Elise to

422
00:34:29.039 --> 00:34:34.679
speak to your organization, please visit
her at www dot Elise Cortez dot com.

423
00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:38.239
She would welcome the opportunity to help
get your employees working on purpose.

424
00:34:45.280 --> 00:34:50.280
This is working on Purpose with Elise
Cortez. To reach our program today,

425
00:34:50.559 --> 00:34:57.400
send an email to Elise ali Se
at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back

426
00:34:57.440 --> 00:35:06.360
to working on purpose. Thanks for
staying with us, and welcome back to

427
00:35:06.400 --> 00:35:08.360
working on purpose. If you're just
tuning in. My guest is doctor Kerry

428
00:35:08.440 --> 00:35:13.480
Israel, who served from nineteen ninety
nine to twenty fifteen as a District President

429
00:35:13.480 --> 00:35:16.280
of Collin College here in Dallas.
It's a multi campus operations serving more than

430
00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:21.440
fifty three thousand students annually. He
currently serves as the executive Advisory Board of

431
00:35:21.480 --> 00:35:24.400
Campus Works, Inc. And shares
the Jewish Community Relations Council of Springfield Central

432
00:35:24.440 --> 00:35:29.719
Illinois. Additionally, he is an
advisory board member for Greenlight Credentials here in

433
00:35:29.800 --> 00:35:32.719
Dallas, and as a consulting practice
he joins me today from Springfield, Illinois.

434
00:35:32.840 --> 00:35:37.119
I'm your host, Alice Cortez,
so for our last bit of time

435
00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:38.079
here at doctor as well. We
don't have much time here, but I

436
00:35:38.079 --> 00:35:40.599
really do want to focus a bit
on some of the things that some of

437
00:35:40.639 --> 00:35:45.480
the initiatives that you launched while you're
at the college, and also your perspective

438
00:35:45.480 --> 00:35:52.239
as you handed at before the future
of what you're trying to accomplish. Before

439
00:35:52.239 --> 00:35:53.360
I go on to that, though, was there anything else you wanted to

440
00:35:53.360 --> 00:35:58.000
share with us about what you're up
to to change the mission of the college

441
00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:02.800
from vocational programs to more student tunity
center programs. Yeah. We tried to

442
00:36:02.800 --> 00:36:09.159
pay attention all of us who we
were serving. So we created all veteran

443
00:36:09.480 --> 00:36:15.320
classes taught by veterans because veterans coming, and thank God for our veterans,

444
00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:20.639
they were coming and they didn't want
to be with other people at the beginning,

445
00:36:20.760 --> 00:36:23.880
So we created all veteran classes.
I think it was and it still

446
00:36:24.440 --> 00:36:30.800
recognized as a great veteran friendly institution
of hired ocation. That was very important.

447
00:36:31.079 --> 00:36:35.119
We were going to lose our charter
to five Data Kappa, which is

448
00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:42.320
the international Honorary Society for students,
the honor students that community colleges. We

449
00:36:42.440 --> 00:36:49.840
became a leader nationwide and the students
and we induct hundreds and hundreds and five

450
00:36:49.960 --> 00:36:53.320
Beta Kappa. It's the corollary to
the university, the Phi Beta Kappa.

451
00:36:53.840 --> 00:37:00.320
We created side Beata, which is
the honorary society for psychology majors. We

452
00:37:00.400 --> 00:37:07.440
created the Dignity Initiative at the college
to treat mostly women better. They have

453
00:37:07.599 --> 00:37:13.440
dignity and respect. So we created
initiatives that we worked on. We did

454
00:37:13.480 --> 00:37:19.599
a homeless initiative. We changed the
name of the college from Colin County Community

455
00:37:19.760 --> 00:37:23.039
College District, which was known as
Quad CE. So on your T shirt,

456
00:37:23.320 --> 00:37:29.039
what does quad seeming? So we
changed it to Colin College, which

457
00:37:30.079 --> 00:37:35.119
had some board numbers pretty excited at
me. And they had a mascot was

458
00:37:35.280 --> 00:37:37.679
expressed or what is expressed? Well, no one knew what it was,

459
00:37:37.760 --> 00:37:42.519
and it certainly did have a logo. So we let the students pick a

460
00:37:42.599 --> 00:37:46.280
mascot and they picked the cougars.
Right. We lit the churches. Now

461
00:37:46.320 --> 00:37:50.280
this, you know, I got
into trouble a little bit with this too.

462
00:37:50.320 --> 00:37:54.559
That's okay. We let churches use
our empty classroom spaces on Sunday while

463
00:37:54.639 --> 00:38:00.159
they were searching or build a new
facility. Think it is great, It's

464
00:38:00.239 --> 00:38:05.000
just why not let them use of
the facilities that we're dead right. All

465
00:38:05.039 --> 00:38:07.320
they had to do was clean up
their mass, right. We helped start

466
00:38:07.440 --> 00:38:13.639
the Colin County Business Alliance with son
geev Yagna, who's a CEO and a

467
00:38:13.760 --> 00:38:21.079
mastermind, and at the Capitol One, we created all our campuses to be

468
00:38:21.280 --> 00:38:23.880
voting presums. Hey if that makes
sense, So we did rock the vote.

469
00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:29.119
We wanted to engage the factory staff
and the students and board members,

470
00:38:29.519 --> 00:38:32.840
so we got actively involved Rotary Children's
Advocates Center. I can go on and

471
00:38:34.519 --> 00:38:38.480
concurrent joint admissions and academies with the
high schools. You know. So we

472
00:38:38.599 --> 00:38:43.519
did a lot. So I'd like
to talk a little bit about the future

473
00:38:43.840 --> 00:38:46.320
because you know, right now,
you know we're talking our phone. You

474
00:38:46.360 --> 00:38:52.039
know where's telemedicine. You know,
I can I can use my phone.

475
00:38:52.239 --> 00:38:55.960
I can get my temperature, and
I can call a doctor or and the

476
00:38:57.000 --> 00:39:00.599
doctor can she can prescribe something over
the phone. We can do it as

477
00:39:00.639 --> 00:39:07.599
sacetime. You know, we take
pictures by phones. So what did I

478
00:39:07.599 --> 00:39:10.840
start doing? I started giving out
laptops at the libraries to check out,

479
00:39:12.559 --> 00:39:15.000
right, because people couldn't afford it. Laptops, right, We don't wear

480
00:39:15.039 --> 00:39:21.840
watches unless they're connected to the cloud. And we certainly are ordering through Amazon,

481
00:39:21.920 --> 00:39:25.519
that's for sure. And malls are
in trouble, and we bank online,

482
00:39:25.519 --> 00:39:30.360
we order groceres. We have self
driving vehicles. I've seen them.

483
00:39:30.440 --> 00:39:34.199
Well, where I think things are
going and I think we have to do

484
00:39:34.280 --> 00:39:36.719
something that causes universities. I remember, we should keep putting it to all

485
00:39:36.760 --> 00:39:42.320
these buildings. I think we should
build these huge community centers where learning takes

486
00:39:42.360 --> 00:39:46.760
play education with university. We created
a higher education center. What are we

487
00:39:46.760 --> 00:39:52.559
doing creating a higher education center in
Collin County when we didn't offer baccalaureate degrees

488
00:39:52.599 --> 00:39:57.599
from now we do. But but
what were we doing that for? Because

489
00:39:57.760 --> 00:40:01.599
again, it's that compete your you
know, you're striving together, you're sharing

490
00:40:01.679 --> 00:40:06.440
the operational costs. So online learning
is going to occur. We're going to

491
00:40:06.480 --> 00:40:10.119
see a lot of artificial intelligence and
data, which means that we're going to

492
00:40:10.199 --> 00:40:15.320
have to have more shared decision making. We're going to use data and analytics

493
00:40:15.320 --> 00:40:20.760
to personalize learning environments for students to
succeed. You know, I just read

494
00:40:20.760 --> 00:40:24.159
a statistic that you know, it
was in the seventies it was computer automation.

495
00:40:24.280 --> 00:40:30.559
Now it's cyber physical and artificial intelligence. So by twenty thirty, this

496
00:40:30.639 --> 00:40:36.159
is I read seventy five to three
hundred and seventy five million workers. This

497
00:40:36.320 --> 00:40:40.199
is globally, or three percent to
fourteen percent of the entire global workforce.

498
00:40:40.440 --> 00:40:45.519
We'll need to embrace the new systems. They need to learn these systems,

499
00:40:45.599 --> 00:40:49.320
and so that's what we should be
doing. We should we should have virtual

500
00:40:49.360 --> 00:40:53.719
classrooms right now. We should create
community centers of learning. We should work

501
00:40:53.800 --> 00:40:58.119
better with business. You know they
can give badges. Now, well we

502
00:40:58.159 --> 00:41:04.039
should take those badges and certificates and
bundle them together and if you would degree

503
00:41:04.320 --> 00:41:07.599
if that's what people want. So, but we've got to work better together.

504
00:41:07.880 --> 00:41:15.440
You know micro Coodential's fact NOL certification
and doing more programming with K through

505
00:41:15.480 --> 00:41:19.679
twelve Business and government is a must. Boot camps. Why aren't we doing

506
00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:22.960
boot camps? You know, again
on the weekend. That's why I create

507
00:41:22.039 --> 00:41:24.800
Weekend House. On the weekend.
We've got a lot of empty facilities that

508
00:41:24.840 --> 00:41:29.639
we're paying a lot of money to
keep open, right, so create some

509
00:41:29.719 --> 00:41:35.159
boot camps. We had individuals that
were home schooled students. I loved us

510
00:41:35.199 --> 00:41:38.199
all the science labs. I didn't
charge them they were home school but they

511
00:41:38.239 --> 00:41:43.519
were still taxpayers. In our community. We have three hundred and some home

512
00:41:43.639 --> 00:41:46.719
school right, So I think we
have to work better together, Y do.

513
00:41:47.760 --> 00:41:51.639
I do too. And I want
to also just call it something really

514
00:41:51.719 --> 00:41:54.880
really obvious, which is going to
make maybe a few of our listeners chuckle.

515
00:41:55.440 --> 00:42:00.239
It's just occurring to me so so
drastically in the conversation doctor Israel.

516
00:42:00.280 --> 00:42:05.920
And that is what's a leader.
Somebody who's out in front of the rest

517
00:42:05.960 --> 00:42:07.719
of the crowd. That's what you've
been doing. You've been out in front

518
00:42:07.800 --> 00:42:10.800
of the crowd, and it takes
some real courage to do that. And

519
00:42:10.880 --> 00:42:15.599
I really appreciate an applaud what you've
been doing to blaze this trail. And

520
00:42:15.679 --> 00:42:20.599
I hope that our listeners hearing this
are emboldened and with courage to do the

521
00:42:20.679 --> 00:42:24.320
same, because you you really are
a beautiful beacon and a showcase. And

522
00:42:24.400 --> 00:42:28.679
what does leadership look like when you
actually get out there and do it.

523
00:42:28.840 --> 00:42:32.480
So let me let me just make
sure that I call that out. And

524
00:42:32.639 --> 00:42:37.320
now you've been talking a bit about
well, thank you, But I learned

525
00:42:37.800 --> 00:42:40.880
from leaders like you and others.
I mean, I do, and I

526
00:42:40.960 --> 00:42:45.920
think that's important. And it's important
because leadership is lonely too. It is

527
00:42:46.039 --> 00:42:52.440
long, yes, it is.
I can't be friends with three thousand colleagues.

528
00:42:52.480 --> 00:42:54.360
I don't call them employees. I
can be friendly, but I can't

529
00:42:54.360 --> 00:42:59.840
be friends. So it's important to
look at you know what father Clark told

530
00:43:00.039 --> 00:43:02.800
me he was the president of in
Colorado Breed As he said, Carrie,

531
00:43:02.840 --> 00:43:10.719
get your assustainments, assustenments from outside, and that means the community of leaders

532
00:43:10.800 --> 00:43:15.119
like you. Well, I completely
agree with that. That's one of the

533
00:43:15.199 --> 00:43:19.679
reasons that I bring together leaders to
nurture them because they do need that.

534
00:43:19.760 --> 00:43:22.519
They need that sustenance and they can't
get it from the people they serve.

535
00:43:22.639 --> 00:43:28.599
Generally speaking, it's not necessarily appropriate
or sufficient, and so I very much

536
00:43:28.639 --> 00:43:30.719
appreciate that. And it's a privilege
doctors will, as you know, to

537
00:43:30.800 --> 00:43:36.800
be able to serve leaders like that. So you know, I count my

538
00:43:36.920 --> 00:43:40.159
lucky stars that that's the work that
I get to do. So you were

539
00:43:40.239 --> 00:43:44.480
talking before about some of the future
ideas that you had, which I thought

540
00:43:44.519 --> 00:43:47.039
were fantastic. I want to go
back a little bit now if we can

541
00:43:47.159 --> 00:43:51.239
for our listeners and want you to
share, if you will, a few

542
00:43:51.280 --> 00:43:54.400
of the specific initiatives that you launched
to bring business, industry, government and

543
00:43:54.559 --> 00:43:59.599
education together, because that is magnificent. If they can hear what you did

544
00:43:59.719 --> 00:44:02.039
and told they did that they might
have more access to create something for the

545
00:44:02.119 --> 00:44:06.400
future for themselves. So one thing
for sure I'd like you to talk about

546
00:44:06.480 --> 00:44:09.920
is that you were the first education
summit in North Texas. Say more about

547
00:44:09.920 --> 00:44:15.320
that if you would. Yeah,
I was kind of surprised that Nolan did

548
00:44:15.400 --> 00:44:21.320
an education summit in North Texas.
And so again I worked with the san

549
00:44:21.440 --> 00:44:28.840
geviasnik on this and Minoj Cutty who
is now Green Production, but Minoj was

550
00:44:28.920 --> 00:44:35.840
over another company. And what we
did we brought together all the mostly business

551
00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:44.320
leaders and community leaders not a non
profits to really talk about what they needed

552
00:44:45.239 --> 00:44:50.400
from us and what they needed in
our community to make sure that their businesses

553
00:44:50.840 --> 00:44:54.320
were thriving. And we got a
lot of ideas and then the Business Alliance

554
00:44:54.400 --> 00:44:59.920
would form that you know thirty to
fifty CEOs and major companies in college.

555
00:45:00.639 --> 00:45:04.599
As you know, Callen Conny was
just booming. The df W was booming,

556
00:45:05.159 --> 00:45:13.840
and so that became very important to
have this continuous dialogue and discussion.

557
00:45:14.119 --> 00:45:19.320
You know, the board meetings at
the college are now and have been before

558
00:45:19.360 --> 00:45:23.199
I left. We're all online.
You could you can have to drive to

559
00:45:23.320 --> 00:45:27.840
the board meeting. You can just
you could just watch it on your phone,

560
00:45:27.920 --> 00:45:30.519
you know. So we really wanted
to make things accessible, but we

561
00:45:30.679 --> 00:45:35.800
needed people's input. We need to
ask them what you want out of this

562
00:45:36.039 --> 00:45:39.039
college. You know, it's not
what we want, it's what you know.

563
00:45:39.079 --> 00:45:45.519
We're here to serve you. Remember, we're here to be students and

564
00:45:45.800 --> 00:45:53.360
community centered centric. It's student and
community that's what's really important. So so

565
00:45:53.519 --> 00:45:58.880
we developed a lot of initiatives,
like we had coustant dialogue, which I

566
00:45:59.239 --> 00:46:01.480
think is important. The idea that
you've given me that I'm going to share

567
00:46:01.519 --> 00:46:06.519
with a lot of you, and
it's you, is that instead of constantly

568
00:46:06.840 --> 00:46:09.800
having a small little meetings, hey, let's have everyone as a CEOs now

569
00:46:10.079 --> 00:46:15.119
podcast for seven minutes. Take some
of your ideas and do it on a

570
00:46:15.239 --> 00:46:21.239
weekly basis or on a bi monthly
basis to keep everyone informed and are you

571
00:46:21.360 --> 00:46:25.920
meeting your strategic objectives? What are
your critical success factors? What can we

572
00:46:27.039 --> 00:46:30.480
do to better serve you. Right, So we have to use this new

573
00:46:30.559 --> 00:46:37.840
technology because it's very hard to get
everyone's challenger together. Right. So I

574
00:46:37.000 --> 00:46:43.400
think a culture that allows people to
flourish as a culture that will succeed and

575
00:46:44.119 --> 00:46:50.519
will transform. And so we had
constant discussions going on, you know.

576
00:46:50.599 --> 00:46:53.760
That's why he was working sixty to
seventy hours a week, and so everyone

577
00:46:53.920 --> 00:46:59.119
said, oh, it's now time
to retire, retire, and I'm working.

578
00:47:00.199 --> 00:47:02.199
I've been working since I was twelve
years old, you know. So

579
00:47:02.840 --> 00:47:10.159
that's that's why I affiliated with different
organizations to really keep moving forward on what

580
00:47:10.320 --> 00:47:14.159
we're supposed to be accomplishing. And
I didn't think that, you know,

581
00:47:14.239 --> 00:47:16.079
being sixty something was so old.
But I guess to do I don't know

582
00:47:17.800 --> 00:47:22.320
not to me at least, I
think, you know, I'm riding a

583
00:47:22.360 --> 00:47:27.360
bike now and I happened last night. Is amount of motors I go bike,

584
00:47:27.679 --> 00:47:30.239
you know, forty and fifty miles
every other day, but today I

585
00:47:30.360 --> 00:47:34.880
can it's snowing. I gotta get
back to Texas, no doubt. Well,

586
00:47:34.920 --> 00:47:37.840
we need you, doctor Israel,
So don't don't retire. We need

587
00:47:37.880 --> 00:47:42.400
you. We're we're we're at the
very end of the show here, Doctor

588
00:47:42.519 --> 00:47:45.639
Israel, can you just share with
us just final pearls of wisdom and say

589
00:47:45.760 --> 00:47:50.840
fifteen seconds, what would you like
to leave our listeners with. I want

590
00:47:50.880 --> 00:47:55.320
everyone to be happy and healthy,
and I want everyone to serve others,

591
00:47:55.599 --> 00:48:00.719
to make others succeed, and by
serving others, you will succeed. I

592
00:48:00.880 --> 00:48:04.519
completely agree with that. A beautiful
way to finish, doctor Israel, I,

593
00:48:04.599 --> 00:48:07.360
thank you so much for sharing your
heart, your wisdom, your soul

594
00:48:07.440 --> 00:48:10.159
with us today. It's just been
a privilege. Thank you. Thank you

595
00:48:10.239 --> 00:48:14.280
for inviting me. It's been my
honor to be a part of your program.

596
00:48:14.960 --> 00:48:17.199
Thank you, listeners. If you
want to learn more about doctor Kerry

597
00:48:17.239 --> 00:48:20.360
Israel, connect with him, get
in touch with him. The best way

598
00:48:20.400 --> 00:48:24.000
to do so is via his email. It's carry a Israel at gmail dot

599
00:48:24.079 --> 00:48:29.760
com. Let me spell that for
you. See A R Y A I

600
00:48:30.280 --> 00:48:34.559
S R A el at gmail dot
com. Carry a Israel at gmail dot

601
00:48:34.599 --> 00:48:37.239
com. We'll see you next week
for another nourishing conversation. Remember that work

602
00:48:37.360 --> 00:48:39.639
is at least a third of our
lives, so let's work on purpose.

603
00:48:45.760 --> 00:48:49.800
We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune in to Working

604
00:48:49.880 --> 00:48:54.079
on Purpose, featuring your host Alice
Cortez, each week on the Voice America

605
00:48:54.119 --> 00:48:59.800
Empowerment Channel. This week, find
your life's purpose at work.