EGCC president attends D.C. forum

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Laura Meeks

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U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Avon)

Staff report

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Laura Meeks, president of Eastern Gateway Community College, participated with 50 other Ohio college presidents and regional business leaders in U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s fourth annual Ohio College and University Presidents’ Conference in Washington, D.C.

Brown, D-Ohio, hosted the forum — the first of its kind — to connect educators with business leaders to advance regional economic development. Brown said he is a champion of tailoring work-force development programs to meet the needs of regional, high-growth industries.

“The forum was an opportunity to bring all Ohio university and community college presidents to the same room and this presented a panoramic view of the state’s higher education system,” Meeks said.

“From my viewpoint, this was an outstanding opportunity to see the excellent leadership and great potential for higher education even in these strained economic times.

“The connection with business and industry was good,” she said. “The discussion centered on job creation as universities and community colleges work with the business sector for partnerships to grow the number of jobs.”

Meeks said one of the best presentations came from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is funding grants to enhance developmental education because it showed the importance of integrating technology with instruction.

“We are fortunate at Eastern Gateway to have a Gates grant to aid our work on developmental education curriculum,” she said.

Guest speakers included Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee; James Kvaal, deputy undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Education; and representatives from the Gates Foundation and NASA.

This year’s forum also connected Ohio college presidents with regional business leaders, including Alex Fischer, president and CEO, Columbus Partnership; Darrin Redus, chief economic inclusion officer, JumpStart; and Baiju Shah, president, CEO and founder, BioEnterprise.

Brown is the author of the bipartisan Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success (SECTORS) Act, legislation that would promote job creation by preparing workers with education and training tailored for jobs in regional high-growth industry sectors, such as biosciences, clean energy and advanced manufacturing.