Natalie McComb 0:06
The Catalyst, a CEP podcast on bold leadership in the Ocala Metro, hosted by the Ocala Metro Chamber and economic partnership, sponsored by Douglas law firm and recorded live at Wiley Productions podcast studios located in Ocala, Florida.
Welcome to the catalyst. I'm your host, Natalie McComb, Vice President for the Ocala Metro Chamber and economic partnership Foundation. And today, we have the privilege of welcoming Dr. Jim Henningsen, president of the college of Central Florida. Welcome to the show, Jim.
@Jim Henningsen 0:42
So good to be here. It's great to see you, Natalie.
Natalie McComb 0:44
Yes. Great to see you too. Jim, we appreciate you being on the show. And wow, 11 years at the helm of the College of Central Florida, as you kind of think back, certainly a lot to be proud of. But what are you most proud of?
@Jim Henningsen 0:58
Well, it's, it's a lot. We've done a lot in that time period. But most proud of I think you have to look at the team. The people that are there, it doesn't happen without a great team is you know, and we've just been really blessed with being able to find good talent. We had a lot of retirements during that timeframe. So that was my biggest thing that keeps me up at night is how to keep that positive culture, how to keep that focus on excellence. And I think I'm very proud of the team in terms of being able to continually be ranked nationally is one of the top colleges in the country, just even with all that turnover and keeping the culture positive. So that, that once you have that in place, then you can do all the other great stuff and workforce programs and all the other things. That seems easy then, but you got to have a great team.
Natalie McComb 1:38
CF has definitely become a leader in the state of Florida, for addressing local workforce needs. So what programs are you most excited to see grow over the next few years?
@Jim Henningsen 1:48
We have so many I mean, we've really done a transformation of the college in terms of modernizing our workforce programs and making sure that they're what the industry needs in our local community. So there's been a lot of transition from programs we've had, well, how can we get rid of that program? We've had it for 30 years, but nobody needed the the graduates. So we looked at what our industry and our business partners needed, what's needed to keep our growth going. Healthcare was one of the biggest ones. And healthcare is one area, that's not just nursing we knew we needed more nurses, everyone needs more nurses. But all the other allied health programs, we had to expand in those areas too and also expand our business programs. That's one of our biggest ones. The business areas like agribusiness, equine, we're still growing that. We are the only college in the state with an equine program, but we've been making sure we modernize that, particularly that new farm we have but when you look at the growth and the facilities, the classrooms, the labs spaces for Health Sciences, and the funding that we've gotten for that from the state we've been very fortunate. They really liked the way we do business at CF. And they've rewarded us with the funding for the buildings and the operating dollars to meet that industry need particularly in the health care area. That's wonderful.
Natalie McComb 2:57
According to the Florida Hospital Association, our state needs more than 60,000 nurses by 2035 to meet the state's projected healthcare needs. So what sets CF's nursing program apart from the rest, obviously, it's an area of huge growth and investment. But what makes CF a little different?
@Jim Henningsen 3:14
Well, right now this year, we're ranked number one in the state between any university or college in terms of the number one rated nursing program so that separates us a bit. Yes, it does. That was nice to get that accolade for our team. We got a great nursing Health Science program, and staff there. But, I think what you're looking at is we've gone from, when I got here, about 150 students total in the two year program, we didn't have a four year BSN in nursing, we have that now. We're just over 100 students in that one. And then our two year degree in nursing were up at 275 capacity now. With our new building that's going to start, we're gonna have a groundbreaking this September, we're looking at when finished being able to expand up to 335 total students in a program, which is a big program for our region or size college.
Natalie McComb 4:03
And how many RNs is that a year that will be a CF grads?
@Jim Henningsen 4:06
We're hoping for somewhere around 140 to 150 or so graduating. It could be a little bit more just depends on how long they take to get through it. We have a fast track program, we're the only ones with a 17 month program, to get you through in that time if you have the background and experience all ready to go, and the aptitude. But really exciting options. One of the things the legislature gave us big kudos on, they asked us to come up and present and I went up with our Dean in that area. Dean Stephanie Cortez was fabulous. But they want to know, what are you doing in nursing, you've got the number one rated program, you've had the largest donations of any college in the entire state for health for nursing in particular, what's in your secret sauce? Well, that's top secret. I can't tell you that. but it's quality people, quality program, and they want all these different pathways. We have a paramedic to RN bridge program too. So if you're a paramedic, you want to be a nurse. make some more money. We've got a program to help you get through that quicker. We got to LPN bridge, that's a Licensed Practical Nursing certificate students to get into an RN program too. So a lot of different pathways, a lot of creativity. We've been very blessed with a lot of support locally, including that huge $6.7 million gift from Citrus County that allowed us to be matched for $6.7 milion from the state to just buy all these new stimulators new equipment, and to make nursing education free. So if you're a Citrus County resident right now, you can take our nursing program going forward free, which is really cool. It's the number one program.
Natalie McComb 5:37
And even here in Marion County, it's very affordable in comparison to a lot of your competitors as well, which is, I think, a big hurdle for some who are thinking they may want to pursue that that RN, but they're worried about cost. And that's where CF has been a leader, certainly in keeping the cost down for the students.
@Jim Henningsen 5:51
Yeah, even our university system, which is very affordable. If you go through our nursing program, we're half the cost of the universities. And then we look at the privates, we're about 1/5 of the cost. Some of our local privates are five times our cost, because they gotta pay for all those costs where we're subsidized by the state. So we're extremely affordable, which is why we keep that ranking in the top 1% nationally.
Natalie McComb 6:15
The college recently, cut the ribbon on the newly renovated Health Sciences Building, which is really an amazing space that has been transformed from what it once was. Reinventing that space from what used to be a gym and to what is now a state of the art instruction facility, it was a decision that that was criticized by some in the community because it meant eliminating the three popular sports programs that utilize that facility. What was the tipping point for you as a leader that led you to kind of go all in on on this decision, knowing it was it was gonna be a tough one?
@Jim Henningsen 6:50
Well, it's meeting the needs of our community, and meeting the needs of industry. They needed more nurses, more health science programs. We have a hospital that's a level two trauma center. Now, we didn't have that 10 years ago. So the level of programming that we need to have to support the graduates and the skills of our graduates needed in those hospitals is different than it was 10 years ago. So we've had to expand and get into that. And that's one of the pieces, this was during the lean times. Not too long ago, we did have some lean years and declines in funding. We keep our tuition flat, we don't raise tuition rates, that's the vision of the state. So that makes less revenue available. So trying to find the revenue to expand when you don't have it. You got to come up with creative strategies and using good sound business principles. And that's what we did. We looked at prioritization of programs, our sports programs, even though we're doing really well, we'd like to put our excellence on anything that we do, if we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it well. iAnd we did. We won a National Basketball Championship. That's not easy to do. Always a quality team, but those students were mostly from out of state, and from international, so they didn't stay here. We'd invest all that money in them, and then they weren't here. So we needed to find a way to expand programs, free up recurring operating dollars, without any new money from the state. That was one way to do it. Those three teams were about $600,000 a year cost, recurring. Plus, it provided a facility for us that was in good shape to renovate at a lower cost. That's what the state loved. Once we told him that story. That's when they invested us and the whole plan for these health science buildings and the operating dollars. Jim, we love what you're doing at your college, we got to get this done at other colleges too. But that's just bringing a business mindset to running education. You just got to be willing to make some tough decisions. And it cascaded in some some big wins for the college in terms of being able to invest more in those programs, huge wins. We tried to raise money for athletics, we couldn't get donors. Donors around here are donating to the University of Florida and FSU, primarily. And that's where the big money is going. They're not really interested in us. But when we talk about nursing, we're in the millions of dollars in terms of raised locally for nursing programs. So they really backed it up, the community backed us up with money for us to expand those programs and the facilities. Built at half the cost of what a new facility would be, we saved the state money. And we get a quality facility that's ready to pump out some graduates if we can just find some of those faculty members.
Natalie McComb 9:11
But who doesn't like to save a little bit of money? So what what advice would you have for for other leaders who might be listening who are facing similar similar tough decisions?
@Jim Henningsen 9:21
Well, I think one thing you got to look at is creativity and innovation. You just can't, you can't rest on your laurels of history in terms of here's how we're funded. And we don't always get a little more money every year so we can invest in programs when we need to. That's not the case anymore. The state looks for what's the best return on their investment of the dollars they have. And if you've got a better return than another entity in the state, they're gonna put you higher up the priority ladder. Well, our governor has made it very clear and I love his focus. We're going to be the number one state for Workforce Education by 2030. So everything we do supports that. And that's why the legislature has really backed us up with different things. Funding and the support because we're willing to make those tough decisions. But yeah, for other leaders in education, you've got to be creative. You got to be innovative. It's a competitive market, you know that we're not a monopoly. I mean, yes, we're part of the state system. I don't have a direct competitor as one of my sister institutions. But we have plenty of competitors, online, local, for profits other private nonprofits. We just got to be the best number one, higher ed deliverer in the area. And that's what's been our goal.
Natalie McComb 10:28
You've had some other interesting challenges come about that CF has had to step up to in the community. So back in 2017, CF, the CF Foundation came to the rescue of the Appleton Museum of Art, when state funding was cut. Why do you think this was an important win for our local community?
@Jim Henningsen 10:48
Well, if you love the arts. We look at quality of life as being education, housing, jobs, but you also look at what what's the art and culture available in your region. And the Appleton is a museum that should have been in Chicago, New York City, Washington, DC, any major city, we have it right here in Marion County. It doesn't support just Marion County. We get people from Europe. We asked them how'd you find us? Oh, well, we were vacationing in Florida. We knew this museum was here. So we wanted to go see that. So that's been a hit, it's a big museum. It's 85,000 plus square feet. It's got you know, Rodin's thinking man, we have one of them. We're the only one in Florida that has one. So that's really, really helpful. And it's just something that needed to happen for our community. It took us two years to get the state funding back. But the community rallied behind it with our legislators to say, hey, this is really important. Without the state funding, we can not keep that open and running. It's just like the Harden Museum at University of Florida, and the Ringling Museum att FSU. Right up there with them. We're one of the top five museums in the state for quality. And we're rated, accredited by AAM Alliance, American Alliance of Museums, and they are same as the Smithsonian, which is really cool in terms of level of quality. So what you're seeing in there are top notch pieces. And it's just an amazing collection. We continue to get donations from other museum. We recently got a $6 million plus donation of another museum that couldn't afford to stay running. They donated their items to us free of charge, delivered them to us, and we're bringing in the ones that we want to keep in our collection. And we'll move on some of the other ones to help with the renovation and restoration of our existing pieces. So I suppose it's a huge gem for the community. And for those of you who are listening who have never been to the Appleton, I would definitely encourage you, we'll include a link on the on the episode page for you to be able to check that out. Because the exhibits change often. There's always something interesting. T
Natalie McComb 12:45
They have some wonderful children's programs as well, which is really a great way to be able to give back to the community and encourage children to be exploring arts as well.
@Jim Henningsen 12:55
I always tell people, when you go in there, your jaw will drop once you see it. The building by itself, it's all Italian marble that the original builder and the owner, imported from Italy. It's an amazing facility. Wonderful.
Natalie McComb 13:07
You were once quoted as calling CF, "The Partnership" in the ways in which the College has partnered with businesses in the community. So what advice do you have for other leaders who want to build successful partnerships that will help their organizations?
@Jim Henningsen 13:22
It will take two to tango, right? Yeah, you can't do it on your own. And one of the things about partnership is we'll partner with anybody and everybody. If it creates a win for our community, we have to do it together. Funding for the college, the majority of that almost all of it comes from the state outside of the students tuition. They love it when we have partners, it's not just support with dollars, which we also get support with programming. The co ops, internships, things of that nature. And those partnerships go a long way at realizing what our community can do. And I think one of the reasons why we're so well known, we've got phenomenal growth. And it's just been a great partnership with everybody between our business community, our public, our government relations, all of those folks coming together. Like the Appleton we just talked about, without our legislatures, our local leaders, the business committee all saying to the state and our local delegation that this is important to this community. And it's important to the state to continue to fund this. That wouldn't have happened if I worked by myself. It's harder to do but I'm always out there stumping for more partners, how we can leverage and create win wins. And ultimately the third win being for the whole community.
Natalie McComb 14:33
That's wonderful. And I know the CF and the Ocala Metro Chamber and economic partnership, we've partnered on a lot of different projects, as it relates to to workforce development and, and there's always new opportunities down the road as we look at what our community needs. So, what is one nonprofit organization that you'd like to highlight today? This is a question we ask all of our guests on The Catalyst. And I know you've been involved in many boards and many charities. But what's one you want to highlight for our listeners today?
@Jim Henningsen 15:02
In terms of nonprofits out there, there's so many great ones. I've been on so many different boards, but quickly mentioned two. One is the Marion County Humane Society. I love being on that board and seeing the animals that need homes. They need help, somebody to put a handout or a paw out to help them survive, and then find a loving forever home. We usually get rescues at our home. And it's just that it fills my cup, being able to help that organization and to be a part of the mission. The other is United Way. I've been on the United Way board since being here and that one I'm currently Chair, was Vice Chair of the annual campaign, but one of the things I like about the United Way board is when you look at it is we put that money back into this community.
Natalie McComb 15:49
Thanks, Jim. And we'll include links to both of those nonprofits on our episodes page as well so you can check them out for yourself. And now a word from our sponsor.
@Sponsor: Douglas Law Firm 15:58
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Natalie McComb 16:20
Now, here's the fun part of the interview that I always love. It's our lightning round questions. So you ready, Jim?
@Jim Henningsen 16:26
Is this a game show? And let's play the lightning round for 100 Lightning round questions.
Natalie McComb 16:31
What trait do you value most from members of your team? I know we talked about team earlier.
@Jim Henningsen 16:36
Well, teamwork is everything, but commitment to the mission. Everyone is on board, you got to be committed to our mission. If you're not, we may turn you into a customer. But we love having people who are committed.
Natalie McComb 16:48
And how would you describe yourself in one word?
@Jim Henningsen 16:51
It's hard to do it in one word. My wife's got a few of those. But I think driven to excellence. If I could put three words together, that's permissible? Yes, driven. I'm very driven just by nature, my personality, but you have to look at why I'm driven. Because I want to excel. And I want the organization to excel. So that's why driven to excellence is probably it for me.
Natalie McComb 17:11
Wonderful. First job. What was it? And what did you learn from that experience?
@Jim Henningsen 17:16
You know, it's interesting, I think a lot of kids had this as their first job, mowing lawns, doing yard work. And, you know, I was like 12 to 13 years old, and I just wanted to get it done. It's so hot out here. But mowing, one of the things I learned from that is because one of the persons that I mowed their lawn for was a university professor. And he was always big on teaching. And one of the things was how to do the job well. So don't just mow the lawn, and then ride around the riding mower and go back to the garage. You gotta ride the mower, do the weeding, you got to do the trimming, you got to make it look great. Leave it better than you found it. And I really learned to hone that skill and apply that to everything else you're doing later on. Do the job well, the first time.
Natalie McComb 17:59
Love that. The lessons you can learn from mowing lawns. And who is the leader that you admire?
@Jim Henningsen 18:06
Well, he's not around anymore, but I always go back to...everyone says well that's an easy one Jim everybody picks that one...but Abraham Lincoln. There's a great little leadership book. It's even got pictures, by Don Phillips, Lincoln on Leadership. One of the things I love about Lincoln is he was a servant leader. I kind of consider that my same calling card in terms leadership. I'm not Abraham Lincoln or anyone like that. But I love giving back and you know, I'm there to help others not about just me as the leader. And that's what the way Lincoln was.
Natalie McComb 18:34
Okay, Lincoln on leadership. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much, Jim, for for being on the catalyst today. We appreciate your time. And thank you again for joining us. My pleasure. And thanks for doing this this great, great, great show.
Thank you for joining us for another episode of the catalyst hosted by the Ocala Metro Chamber and economic partnership, sponsored by Douglas law firm and recorded live at Wiley productions podcast studios. New episodes, guests and perspectives on leadership premiere twice a month. Follow us on Apple, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you enjoy your podcasts. Have a suggestion for a future guests. Email us at the catalyst at OcalaCEP.com
Transcribed by https://otter.ai