Dr. Jackie Elliott, Ed.D. President/CEO, Central Arizona College (Pinal County’s Community College)

Members of SaddleBrooke’s SEIC education team recently met with Dr. Jackie Elliott, elected President/CEO of Central Arizona College last July. SEIC’s team members were impressed by Dr. Elliott’s high energy level and enthusiasm, as well as her innovative approach to problem solving and out-of-the-box thinking in relation to long-standing challenges in the community college world. Hired in large part for her finely tuned sense of business acumen, Dr. Elliott has hit the ground running in terms of reassessing all curricula in relation to its relevance in today’s economic climate, focusing like a laser on students’ academic needs as a first priority, creating new business partnerships, and reevaluating full-time/part-time faculty ratios in order to maximize expertise and potential.

The “Cheesecake Factory” vs. “Chipolte” Menus as a Model Dr. Elliott often uses the Cheesecake Factory menu as an example when she talks about her approach to curriculum redesign, advocating a move away from The Cheesecake Factory type overload of offerings that overwhelm students and do not do justice to a planned job/degree trajectory. Her preference – the “Chipolte” model – offers limited targeted choices for maximum results. Consistent with that approach, she is in the process of taking a hard look at all curriculum areas, gradually paring down offerings in order to zero in on what students need most to be successful in the workforce. Dr. Elliott is less concerned with the traditional and more old-fashioned approach of increasing enrollment numbers, in any and all courses, preferring to focus on raising the certificate completion rate significantly. She talked to us about the role of the College in workforce training, versus the equally important but different role of groups that offer community programs. The non-degree courses those groups run have their place; however, when they are included in the CAC menu, they are duplicative, and not the best value for the dollars expended. In Dr. Elliott’s view, years of college curriculum expansion have created a bloated,

expensive mini-university type environment, instead of a student-focused college. It also is not cost-effective to use college facilities and fulltime faculty to teach community education type subjects. It is the old “Cheesecake Factory” vs. “Chipolte” conundrum: CAC cannot be all things to all people. The College needs to focus on its mission, and then do what it does well. That translates to turning the non-degree classes that are not jobrelated over to community groups, where they belong, and then following through by bringing CAC’s certificate completion rate up dramatically. As part of the implementation strategy, Dr. Elliott is zeroing in on the types of certificates being offered, now and in the future, assessing each to determine whether they are fully transferable for university credit, if that is the student’s objective, and also whether the certificates are directly related to the needs of the business community. Dr. Elliott’s long-term goal is to build clusters of what she calls “stackable degrees”: in other words, students could earn a certificate in an area where there is a demonstrated need in the workforce, and then continue to earn additional advanced certificates in that same area, moving up the career ladder. Examples include health care, advanced technology, early childhood education, welding, precision agriculture, animal science/vet tech, etc. CAC as Part of the Larger World Dr. Elliott sees her role as a key player, team builder and advocate in the larger community as one of her prime and most important responsibilities. Early successes in this area include $250,000 of customized training contracted with/for Larry Raines, City Manager of Casa Grande, and a collaborative effort with Pima and Maricopa Community Colleges for an advanced technology center serving Lucid Motors, with coordinated/aligned curricula at all three Community College Districts across Pinal, Pima and Maricopa Counties. These examples are only the beginning. Dr. Elliott is out there, in the community, on a regular basis, asking business leaders “What do you need? How can we help? Where is the next opportunity?” She sees the business community’s cutting edge

as CAC’s new certificate program, and she sends all the right signals that CAC is willing and able to move quickly to make it happen. CAC’s Most Pressing Needs Now that the first nine months of her tenure have passed, we asked Dr. Elliott to look into her crystal ball and tell us what she saw as her most pressing needs. Her response was: 1. Reduce reliance on part-time faculty and use the savings to raise the salaries of the full-timers, commensurate with neighboring Pima and Maricopa faculty, helping CAC stay competitive. (Note: 90% of CAC’s courses are taught by 98 full-time faculty; 10% by 400 part-timers)

2. Develop new curricula consistent with current and future business needs. 3. Find the right academic mix for each campus. 4. Increase the certificate completion rate significantly, hopefully well into the seventies. SEIC members thanked Dr. Elliott for the generous gift of her time.

Respectfully submitted,

Betsy Levenson, for SEIC (SaddleBrooke External Affairs and Information Commission)