Transcript- Episode 137: Unapologetic Leadership: Driving Positive Change Through Diversity in Higher Education with Dr. Keith Curry, President of Compton College & CEO of the Compton Community College District Episode 137

00:00:00 - Dr. Keith Curry

How do we, as institutions, connect workforce development across all academic areas to ensure that all students are getting opportunities for employment, Ensure all students are getting opportunities for internships and apprenticeships? And what does that look like? How do we connect with businesses within our community so our students are able to work at those businesses within our community that's related to their field? Where our students are not making minimum wage, we're looking at our students making wages where they can say, you know what? I'm good. This is good for me.

 

00:00:32 - Christina Barsi

The workforce landscape is rapidly changing, and educators and their institutions need to keep up. Preparing students before they enter the workforce to make our communities and businesses stronger is at the core of getting an education. But we need to understand how to change and adjust so that we can begin to project where things are headed before we even get there. So how do we begin to predict the future?

 

00:00:57 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Hi, I'm Salvatrice Cummo, Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development at Pasadena City College and host of this podcast.

 

00:01:06 - Christina Barsi

And I'm Christina Barsi, producer and co host of this podcast.

 

00:01:09 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

And we are starting the conversation about the future of work. We'll explore topics like how education can partner with industry, how to be more equitable, and how to attain one of our highest goals, more internships, and PCC students in the workforce. We at Pasadena City College want to lead the charge in closing the gap between what our students are learning and what the demands of the workforce will be once they enter. This is a conversation that impacts all of us. You, the employers, the policymakers, the educational institutions, and the community as a whole.

 

00:01:43 - Christina Barsi

We believe change happens when we work together. And it all starts with having a conversation. I hi, I'm Christina Barsi.

 

00:01:51 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

And I'm Salvatrice Cummo. And this is the future of work. Hi. Welcome back to the Future of Work podcast. I am your host, Dr. Salvatrice Cumo. Today, we're joined by a visionary leader in higher education whose work has redefined advocacy and support for underrepresented student populations. As president of Compton College and co-founder of Black Student Success Week, Dr. Keith Curry has driven systemic changes that benefit countless students. Dr. Curry has been at the forefront of educational reform, championing educational policies and initiatives that ensure all students, particularly those who are underrepresented, have equitable access to resources and opportunities. His contributions, including Spearheading Senate Bill 1348, which designates California Black serving institutions and establishing impactful programs like Black Student Success Week. Today, we'll explore his journey, the purpose behind his advocacy, and why this work is essential for the future of education and employment. Welcome, Dr. Curry. How are you? Welcome to the show.

 

00:03:04 - Dr. Keith Curry

Thank you for having me. I think the show should be changed. The title should be called the Unapologetic Future of work with Dr. Curry.

 

00:03:11 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

We should change the title up. That's right.

 

00:03:13 - Dr. Keith Curry

Just for this episode.

 

00:03:15 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Dr. Curry, I want to just get right into your advocacy works. I think that that's where a lot of your influence and your experience comes into play. And I kind of want to step back just a little bit. Go back to when you were 19 at UC Santa Cruz, where you began developing programs for underrepresented students. I wanted to kind of pause there for a moment and think about or have you talk through what your experiences were and kind of what led you here, what led you to this point of advocating for underrepresented students.

 

00:03:45 - Dr. Keith Curry

I say thank you for the opportunity to be here. And also for the first question for me, as I look back at When I was 19 years old at UC Santa Cruz, I think about my own experience dealing with housing, food insecurity, dealing with conversations or being involved in conversations regards to Black student enrollment. I think about being involved in conversations with individuals from other ethnic minority groups talking about their success or non-success at the University of California, Santa Cruz. And so as I reflect on my experience and those three examples I provided is I think about being a student and having to pay for housing and also to visit the cafeteria knowing that I didn't have enough money in my meal plan. I only had a certain number of meals, right? And so, I had to be very strategic about when I would eat at the cafeteria and when I would not eat at the cafeteria. Thinking about being in conversations in the Black Men's Alliance group, as you see Santa Cruz, talking about the decline in Black student enrollment, they continued in ongoing conversations, but there was really no action that played into that. And then think about my experience with other ethnic minority groups and look at the retention of individuals of color who stayed at UC Santa Cruz and then also who graduated from UC Santa Cruz. And so I look at those three areas and thinking about where I am now in my own professional career, where I'm very involved and engaged with Black students success and what we should be doing for Black students, really zoning in and really amplifying the work as leads to basic needs, and then also building bridges with other individuals who have similar interests as I do, but may not look like me and being open to having conversations with those individuals of how you can work together as a part of a partnership. So when I look at my experience at UC Santa Cruz as a 19-year-old, I look at advocacy as a way to. To really impact change. Change for me does not just happen with programs. It happens with changing policy but also advocating and telling your story about student success and about your own experience. And so I look at my experience at UC Santa Cruz has defined who I am as a leader because I was able at UC Santa Cruz to advocate for Black students and create a program called Destination Higher Education which. Which was for many African American students who graduated high school who showed an interest in going to UC Santa Cruz. And it was funded. That was my first grant that I wrote and that program still exists today. And then, I think about my experience work with other ethnic minority groups. We put a initiative on a ballot which was called Measure C to create a retention center at UC Santa Cruz. It lost. Right. But I learned a lot about elections. It's very important to read the fine print to understand what percentage you need to pass and election, but also knowing how to tell your story of why it's important to vote yes on something. And just give you a. Fast forward to this. In 2014 at Compton College, we had a ballot initiative for. It's called Measure C again for $100 million facilities bond for Compton College. That measure passed with 78.39%. But the measure C that I worked on in college did not pass because we did not understand the percentage. We thought if you get half, you get 51%, you win. But. But you actually needed two-thirds. So, we did not read the five print. But I learned a lot from that experience which has helped me in my professional career today, from working on basic needs, housing, food insecurity and my own experience dealing with that to my experience with Black students and really looking at how you increase the number of African American students at UC Santa Cruz to also working with, building coalition with other ethnic minority groups, with individuals who don't look like me, to be able to continue to push for initiative and programs to help students that are underserved.

 

00:07:34 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Thank you. And now fast forwarding to Senate Bill 1348. I'm privileged to be close to this work and close to your work specifically, but tell us a little bit about Senate Bill 1348 and the critical components of it when it comes to supporting the underserved student population.

 

00:07:53 - Dr. Keith Curry

I wrote an article in December of 2022 regards to Black serving and serviceness and we could serve Black students and look at it differently. I talk often about how do you transform institutions to serve Black students? And so when I Look at this bill and I talk about this bill. It's about how do you transform your whole entire organization around a movement to really service Black students. And not looking at it from a 30 or 60 student program or 90 students, really looking at how do you serve all your Black students on your campus, but engaging everyone into this process. And so when I look at Senate Bill 1348, which is authored by Stephen Bradford, who is our local senator for the area that service Compton Community College District, it really looks at, you know, one, getting buy-in from your constituent groups on your campus about what is your strategic plan to service Black students? What does that look like over a five-year period, how do you engage your academic senate in this conversation regards to what's going to happen inside the classroom, but then also looking at the support services for students, but also knowing that the support services is not about pointing someone to another area on campus. It's about we all take ownership regards to what programs and services are being provided on our campus and ensuring that those Black students are being able to participate in those programs and services, but really being at the forefront of it and looking at serviceness. With this bill include legislation. It creates a committee through Sacramento State where colleges that can apply to to be a Black serving institution, you have to have 10% of your student population as Black students or 1500 students. It applies not only to community colleges, but also California state universities, University of California campuses, and also private institutions as well. Included in that you have to do an application to the committee which talks about your data. You have to share data regards to student success on your campus and looking at students completion over 150% over or 300% completion, what the data looks like, but also saying where are you going to go in the next five years to improve that for your student population? Looking at what professional development you provide with existing resources that support all students, but also support Black students and Black student success. And then really talking about what are you going to do differently on your campus. But taking ownership, that is not just one person's job. This is collective of the entire institution to transform the work that you're doing to improve student success. And that's documented in your strategic plan which is a part of your application.

 

00:10:24 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

So speaking of the work of the collective and this is about institutional movement and it's. You're right, it doesn't lean on one person or one organization. What are you seeing as the ultimate goal? If you had just a magic wand, what would be the ultimate goal for Senate Bill 1348 as an accomplishment, the.

 

00:10:43 - Dr. Keith Curry

Ultimate goal is to see more colleges and universities who are Black serving institutions where Black students feel welcome and valued and have a sense of belonging at these institutions. Even they might have interest, who might not look like them, who work at the institutions, but they feel valued, appreciated and a sense of belonging. They feel that people want to see them complete their degree or certificate and get a job with livable wages. They're able to participate in programs and services, but also linking those programs and services to jobs and really focusing in on the job component as we move forward, but really feeling that a part of the campus community, but also feeling that they got someone that got their back. Right? When I was in college, what I think about a lot is there's a professor, her name was Ann Lane. She was my American Studies, that was my major. And she did not look like me, right? White woman, upper middle 60s, over, I don't know, she would never tell me her age. But she allowed me to be Keith Curry in her classes. We were able to talk about issues as race to race. And I could use hip-hop music and have conversations. She made me feel like it was okay to use hip-hop lyrics as titles for articles, right? But she made me where I wanted to go to her class. I wanted to be involved in everything that Anne Lane did. And I took every single one of her classes. She was my advisor for my thesis, but I took every one of her classes, right? But then, I also had a counselor. Her name was Rosie Cabrera. She was my EOP counselor at UC Santa Cruz. Did not look like me, but whenever I went to her office, I need help. She was there for me. When I got in trouble. I'm not going to talk about what happened when I got in trouble. When I got in trouble my senior year, she stepped up for me and my friends to make sure we got out of trouble, right? But she made sure when I went in that office that I felt that motherly love and I was taken care of. So when you think about Black serving institutions, I think about that experience that I had at Santa Cruz, where it was a part of everyone's job that connected with Keith Curry, too. To make sure that Keith Curry was able to be successful. They showed me love. They also showed me how to do it the right way. They showed me how to look at policy. They made sure that I read. They made sure I worked on my writing. They made sure whatever deficiency I had, they were able to tell me in a nice way that was a deficiency. But they also was able to tell Me, you need to work on this, right? So, with Black serving institutions, it's looking at how you transform your institution to support our students. But also we change in a way. We provide serviceness to these students, basically showing them that, you know what, we're here for you, we love you, we want you to be successful. So we'll create a system, right? We'll create a system. It's not just about a program. It's about a system that's going to work regardless of who's in these positions, that's going to support Black students and Black student success.

 

00:13:27 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

I love the way you said that we're supporting a system or creating a system to support our Black students and underrepresented students. And I feel like a lot of your initiatives leading up to Senate Bill 1348 really held space for that, a moment of learning and growth. And so I want to talk about the Black Student Success Week, that specific initiative, and how that space kind of provided that learning and growth for not only our students, but as educators and practitioners. What value do you believe that these more micro, smaller initiatives assist within leading towards, like, more impactful, systemic changes that you're creating right now?

 

00:14:08 - Dr. Keith Curry

That's a tough question, right? And I'd be a little vulnerable here regards to why this is a tough question. Because for me now, in my professional career, I've been in higher ed since, you know, I count my undergraduate years, right? I've been in higher ed for over 25 years.

 

00:14:24 - Dr. Keith Curry

And I'm always looking at ways to transform systems, really looking at policies, systems, and structures of how do you change that to support student success, but also knowing that there might be programs and initiatives that start the change before you're able to get to a policy initiative as well. And so when I look at the work that I've been doing with Black Student Success Week when Black Student Success Week was founded in 2020, it was supposed to be an advocacy day as it relates to Black students and walk in the halls in Sacramento.

 

00:14:57 - Dr. Keith Curry

And I remember having the conversation at the Los Angeles Hyatt Hotel with some African American groups about this proposed event. And there were some individuals in the room who had no idea who I was, never knew the work that I've done in the past. And I laid out how this thing was going to happen. And they were asking a lot of follow up questions.

 

00:15:16 - Dr. Keith Curry

And at that point I was like, hey, you might want to go read my resume. Like, I get things done, but I continue to ask those questions. And the reason why I bring this up Is because when we first started, we did not know what we were doing, right? We were just looking at how do we amplify the work that's being done for Black student success and build a coalition among several Black and African American groups throughout the California community college system to begin having these types of conversation. And then Covid hit and then the question was, what do we do? And I remember having a conversation with Dr.

 

00:15:48 - Dr. Keith Curry

Ed Bush, who was involved with the men, and I said, you know, maybe we just go on Zoom. We do a podcast type style. I don't think I use podcasts. Nobody was doing podcasts at a time like this. But I said, maybe do a zoom meeting and do a workshop every day. And then the Mondays would kick off and every day have a different workshop. And that's what we did.

 

00:16:08 - Dr. Keith Curry

So it started out as going to be a one day event just for advocacy. And then it became a teaching learning space for professional development for all types of educators, not just community college. K12, also higher ed folks. Just to talk about what we can do to support Black students and the next. No, we started doing a website, right? So then we had the website. Then we start doing gear and Black Student Success Week gear. Now we start to have regional leads who are working within each of the region and having campus contacts, right? So every year since 2020, we've been expanding on that movement.

 

00:16:42 - Dr. Keith Curry

And then we added an advocacy day where we met with our elected officials. And we've been doing that every year, come up with a policy agenda. Then that led to different initiatives we got involved in, but then also led to Senate Bill 1348 because it was a part of the Black student success movement about how we can continue to transform our institutions to support Black students.

 

00:17:04 - Dr. Keith Curry

And working with Black Student Success Week, that was our advocacy tool for Senate Bill 1348, where our people that have been involved in the movement since 2018, 2020, had an opportunity to do something that was transformative, right? They were able to be a part of creating a designation in California, but for Black serving institutions. But they were a part of it since 2020. So yeah, it started as a program, as a Nista through Black Student Success Week. But now our title for this next year is Rise Up, Level up the Rise of Black Serving institutions. Now we could talk about how Black serving institutions has rose up and how we can transform our institutions where we could be able to be Black serving. And even if you don't get that designation, you still could be able to be a Black serving institution by looking at how you service students on your campuses.

 

00:17:53 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

You touched upon Level up as the upcoming initiative that's in the pipeline for you, and it has been instrumental in addressing the challenges faced by marginalized learners. Can you spend a little bit of time about how you think this initiative is transferable to other educational settings that aim to support Black student success?

 

00:18:15 - Dr. Keith Curry

So I want to start it with just going back to the first question. In my experience at UC Santa Cruz, my first experience with working in Black students was the creation or the founding destination higher education for middle African American students. And then I transitioned to my work at Compton College as a president, where we create a position director of Black and Male of Color Success initiative, where we're actually focusing on how we work with Black students across all Guided Pathways divisions on our campus.

 

00:18:44 - Dr. Keith Curry

And we're the first ones to create a position of that kind in California Community Colleges. Those two initiatives from UC Santa Cruz experience to what I've done at Compton College led me to some work I have done with ACM strategists, Achieving a Dream, and also the Equity Avengers, which is our Level up, which is a national work, which is leveraging explicit value for every Black learner unapologetically. And what that means is we created an expert advisory committee that worked on looking at what was happening with Black students and the decline in enrollment of Black students since 2011. We saw a 600,000 decline in enrollment of Black students in higher education. And we started having a conversation with the expert advisory committee that it wasn't just about the enrollment. It was also about when the students arrived on our college campuses, how was those students treated and did those students actually complete their degree or certificate. So that led into a case-making document that we worked on. I actually chaired the expert advisory committee and then I chaired the national committee, which included a lot of different national leaders regards to how do we level up the work that we're doing.

 

00:19:56 - Dr. Keith Curry

And so we've been across the country having conversations. I was in New York with Suny and John Keene, and we had a conversation about Black learners. We were in Chicago and had a conversation about Black learners. We were in Detroit having a conversation about Black learners. And I bring this up because this is a model of the work that we're doing. It started for me in college and then also at Compton College, then you can add the Black Student Success Week to it.

 

00:20:19 - Dr. Keith Curry

And now it's a national movement as it relates to Black learners. And so Level up provides me with a national space to talk about Black learners and what we can do. And the next phase of this Work is working with achieving a dream to create a Black learner Alliance.

 

00:20:35 - Dr. Keith Curry

Really looking at a cohort of colleges and how they work with Black students. And this work is funded by the ECMC Foundation. And then also looking at how do you take the Black servant institution designation to other states and what that might look like in other states as a part of their own legislation. And so that's the next part of this work. But when I look at this work of level up, for me it's that they're all connected. And as a leader, it's important for me to connect to work. So everyone sees that, oh, it's not Keith Curry just doing this.

 

00:21:03 - Dr. Keith Curry

It's actually like Keith Curry is doing this work, which is looking at systems, policies, and structures to support Black learners. Black-serving institutions are one part of it. Black and male-of-color initiatives at your local campuses, like Compton College does, are another part of it. Black Student Success Week is another part of it. Looking at how you work with students who are admitted to four-year colleges who are Black students, similar to destination higher education at UC Santa Cruz, is another part of it.

 

00:21:28 - Dr. Keith Curry

But being able to connect that work, where people see that it's about transforming institutions over the long term. And I think the next piece of this work is really looking at how you connect individuals to jobs.

 

00:21:39 - Dr. Keith Curry

Right. When I think about the future of work and I think about the work that I've been doing regards to Black learners and also at Compton Colleges, how do we connect students to jobs with livable wages? What I struggle with is that we want to see students complete degrees and certificates at our institutions, how we connect them to get jobs where they're able to buy a home within their community, where they're able to stay in the community that they're from. Right. I'm lucky to be able to say that I'm born and raised in Compton. I lived a block away from this institution, but I'm able to work at the institution, that community that I'm from. Not to me people are able to say that, but I want to be able to say to our students from the college and also to Black learners that you can go back in the community that you're from to help other individuals to move on. So, my work for Black learners now is thinking about how do I connect them to jobs and job placement with livable wages where they could come back in the community and be able to buy a home but also be able to contribute in other ways.

 

00:22:33 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Right. And you're demonstrating that you started with your experience. What I Love about your story is that you started with an experience at UC Santa Cruz, and you've created steps, initiatives, and movement into this massive movement. I should say that is essential not only to, obviously, the success of our students, but to the success of our nation and taking it nationally. And I have to believe that it stems from a personal philosophy, which I've heard over and over again, and you actually mentioned it at the top of the hour: unapologetic leadership. And you've shared that consistently in your messaging and your narrative when it comes to anything that you do, whether at a local level or a national level. And I wanted to spend a moment and have our listener really understand what you mean by that philosophy of unapologetic leadership. And why should more leaders adopt that stance?

 

00:23:27 - Dr. Keith Curry

Let me say what I don't mean by I don't mean that I don't listen to individuals, right? Some people think when I say unapologetic, that he's going to do his own thing, right? And that's not what it means, or I don't listen to other individuals, is that I'm going to do what's right for students that we serve at this institution at Compton College, but also for students that I'm working with nationally and also within the state of California.

 

00:23:49 - Dr. Keith Curry

I'm going to do what's right for students. And I think it's important for me to continue to be unapologetic, because sometimes I think politics, I think personal relationships might interfere with decisions that are not right for students and student success or might not be good for their community. And so I try to maintain to be unapologetic. And I want to make sure I'm doing what's right for students, but I also want to make sure that I'm being intentional, right? I want to make sure I'm being intentional with the work.

 

00:24:14 - Dr. Keith Curry

I often say I'm not playing Candyland. I'm not playing checkers. I'm playing chess, right? So when I think about playing chess and think about the long term being unapologetic, it's that I'm playing a long game. And so as you describe my experience and the work that I've done is now I'm playing a long game, but I also see the connections to the work that I'm doing. And every move that I'm making within education is the end goal, which is to transform institutions to better serve our students. And for this conversation, Black students, right? But really looking at how do we transform our institutions to serve our student population, but knowing that Black Students, we have to do things a little bit differently and understand that we're playing a long game and being unapologetic about that and showing unapologetic leadership. I often have conversations with some of my colleagues about leadership, and they say, oh, Dr. Kerr, I don't know if I would do that.

 

00:25:06 - Dr. Keith Curry

And I say, why not? And it was like the political pieces of it, but I was like, but it's right for students, right? Yeah, it is. But the political might be not good for you. Politically, I say, at the end of the day, is what's right for students. And so I try to make sure that I hold that unapologetic leadership, but also I hold myself accountable for doing what's right for the student population that I currently serve, but also for the people that I serve as well. I think it's important as leaders, we have to be unapologetic, but we have to do the work too. And we also have to hold ourselves accountable.

 

00:25:35 - Dr. Keith Curry

Right? Accountability is hard in this space, but I have to hold myself accountable. So, every night when I go home and I think about this work, I think about, what else can I do differently? What can I do differently to make sure that we're serving our students? And what can be done differently? I think right now, when I think about unapologetic leadership and the future of work is how do we, as institutions, connect workforce development across all academic areas to ensure that all students are getting opportunities for employment, ensure all students are getting opportunities for internships and apprenticeships, and what does that look like? How do we connect with businesses within our community so our students are able to work at those businesses within our community that's related to their field? Where our students are not making minimum wage, we're looking at our students making wages where they can say, you know what? I'm good.

 

00:26:22 - Dr. Keith Curry

This is good for me. I'm not asking students to do an internship for free. What bothers me the most when I think about Black students and students of color, someone will come to me and say, Dr. Curry, we should do an internship program on or a work experience program. But students gotta work for free. And I'm saying, okay, you want them to work for free? Tell me how this works. That means they have to give up something to volunteer for you to work.

 

00:26:44 - Dr. Keith Curry

But that means that bill might not get paid. Let's be realistic with the student population that we serve, and let's try to find paid internships, apprenticeships for our students that are paid and paid employment. And really being unapologetic about that but also for me to be able to respond back to individuals and say, you know what? That doesn't work for us because our students need to get paid.

 

00:27:05 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Right.

 

00:27:06 - Dr. Keith Curry

Some people say that's offensive for me to say that to a partner that wants to work with us. And I don't think it's offensive. That's someone stepping up for our students who, I might say it in a way that you're not used to hearing, and it's not being sound political, but I'm saying it straightforward like, no, that does not work for us, and that does not work for our students. And I will explain to individuals why that does not work. So my goals with being unapologetic is being able to be an advocate for our students, also holding myself accountable, being intentional as they work, but knowing at the end of the day, it's not about me, it's about the student population that we serve.

 

00:27:41 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Right. I think you've answered my next question, which was as you're sharing your philosophy and thinking through kind of your journey, leaders who are listening in or aspiring leaders who are listening in, how do they overcome the hesitation of this unapologetic leadership philosophy? Because a lot of us are kind of in this space of hesitation. You mentioned politics, maybe even policy. What advice would you give for leaders to kind of overcome that?

 

00:28:12 - Dr. Keith Curry

I have a couple of things, right? That I put out there for how people can overcome this. One is you have to read and understand and know. Knowledge is key. I understand the process in Sacramento as it relates to legislation. I understand what trailer bill language means. I understand the process to get legislation pushed through. I understand the process to get trailer bill language approved through the assembly of the Senate and also signed by the governor as a part of the Budget Act.

 

00:28:36 - Dr. Keith Curry

I understand that process because I learned it right. I understand how to advocate and what does advocacy look like, what to the meetings look like as well. And so my thing is knowledge, right? Understanding Title Five, if you work in California community college, understanding the Ed Code, just in general for K12 higher education and also community college, but understanding what's in the Ed Code, understanding what the California Master Plan looks like for higher education. And even though it's outdated, but still read it and understand what it is, understanding what the governor is working on now as leads to career master plan for career technical education master plan that they're working on, understanding what that looks like, understanding what your strategic plan at your institution looks like. Knowledge is key. I often challenge people to understand those examples that I gave that you have to read and understand it and not have people regurgitate it to you. You have to know it. Knowledge is key. Understanding budgets and how budgets are developed. I spent a lot of my time just understanding budgets, not only for one year but also for five years.

 

00:29:37 - Dr. Keith Curry

And understanding where the money's coming from and how you plan for when the money goes away. But really understanding the job and the knowledge. Look, I've been in this job as a college president since 2011, as a Chief Executive Officer. Every day, I learn something different. I'm learning stuff every single day. But I stayed in this job for almost 14 years in the same position. So it's about knowledge, but it also is about the experience in the seat that you're currently in. It is not just about being in a college president is about every role that you have. Mastering that role. I mean, mastering it, like really understanding it and understanding the connections. And then when you get promoted or move into another position, those skills that you had in that first position would translate to where you're at now.

 

00:30:24 - Dr. Keith Curry

So when I have a conversation about workforce development, I'm thinking about my experience when I was in college, but also thinking about when I was a dean of student services. Right. And I oversaw financial aid. Right. But really understanding how this stuff works. So then when you get in these executive positions, my goal is to see people getting executive positions are able to stay in these positions.

 

00:30:43 - Dr. Keith Curry

And knowledge is important. Also, I think it's important to have your network of individuals who you can call for help. And some of those individuals that you can call might not look like you. As I go back to one of the earlier questions about Anne Lane and Rosie Cabrera, I've had other people who've been in leadership positions who are white males who have taught me a lot of this game, right? When I think about legislation and how that works, I think about Tom Henry, who was the founder of figma, the fiscal crisis management assistance team, who showed me how that works. I think about Dr. Tom Fallow, who's the president of El Camino College. I was able to learn from him how to calculate fts, but also how to budget and understand your budget and your enrollment dollars, but also how to manage a college. Right. And understanding there's different segments of the college to manage, but making sure that you have these.

 

00:31:30 - Dr. Keith Curry

Your network. People say a mentor. I don't think a mentor is the right word for me. I look at board of directors, right? You will have different people who are part of your board of directors who are going to give you different types of knowledge in these positions. And by doing that, that helps you be unapologetic, because not only do you have the knowledge, but you also have that support system of people that you can call to be able to support you in this work.

 

00:31:52 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Thank you. I took my own notes as you were talking about my own experience as a leader and where I would like to see myself in the next few years. We're kind of coming close to time, but I think it's really important at this stage of the conversation for you to really outline to educators, policymakers, and employers what is your call-to-action? What do you need them to do to amplify the work that you just shared and to raise awareness and importance around Black student success?

 

00:32:29 - Dr. Keith Curry

That's a tough question. Right? And the reason why I say that's a tough question is because for me, it's not just about Black student success. It's about how do we transform our organization to meet the needs of all of our students.

 

00:32:40 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Fair, right? Yeah.

 

00:32:41 - Dr. Keith Curry

And so for me right now, I would say over the last two years, I've been on a mission. Right. I think I've doubled down and tripled down the work. A lot of times people say, Dr. Curry, I don't understand how you're involved in so many different things and you're able to continue to keep up with the work that you're doing. And the reason why I say that, this last fall, I was involved in bipartisan, just about voter registration. How do we get more students to register to vote in this past November election? Bipartisan work. Right. I've been involved with Equity Avengers and doing podcasts and doing a weekly Equity Chat. I've been involved with Level Up regards to Black learners nationally.

 

00:33:21 - Dr. Keith Curry

I've been involved with Black Student Success Week. I've been involved with Real College California, who's been focused on basic needs. I've been doing that work since 2017. And I've also been involved with the work that I've been doing at Compton College. Not only did we pass a bond in 2014, we passed another bond this last two weeks ago for $200 million. That's $300 million over the last 10 years been approved by voters to support facilities being built at Compton College.

 

00:33:45 - Dr. Keith Curry

I've also been able to work on accreditation at Compton College. Compton College was the first community college whose credit checks were revoked. So I bring this up to say that I have tripled down the work that I've done, and I have not been looking at just my accomplishments over the last five years or last 10 years; I'm still starving for more, right? I've never been this hungry in my life, not for food. I'm on a diet. I've lost 60 pounds. I'm hungry for this work.

 

00:34:13 - Dr. Keith Curry

And I'm hungry to change not only Compton College to meet the needs of our students, but also I'm engaged with work in Los Angeles county as it relates to workforce development. I'm doubling down on everything that I do because I have that sense of urgency. And that sense of urgency has been built by me because I know that I'm able with the position, the positionality that I have now.

 

00:34:36 - Dr. Keith Curry

I'm in conversations that I wasn't involved in 25 years ago. And I'm able to do work that I wasn't even thinking about doing 25 years ago. And I don't want to lose this opportunity. And so I charge individuals to not stand on their laurels or their awards for the last year or the last two years or last 10 years, to continue to push and to strive for student success, to continue to be unapologetic about the work that we do in support of our students within our own institutions.

 

00:35:04 - Dr. Keith Curry

But then also, too, I charge everyone to do some self-reflection because, look, we are all going to make mistakes in this work, right? And no one talks about the mistakes. I made a ton of mistakes. People say, oh, Dr. Curry, you got all these awards. But they don't talk about the awards or the errors that I've made, right? And I'm okay saying, like, I have made some mistakes, and I will start a meeting and say, yeah, that was my decision 10 years ago. That was a bad decision. I should have did this thing differently, right? I think we have to humble ourselves to know that we're not perfect leaders, that we're going to make mistakes and acknowledge those mistakes and letting our constituents know that, that we made a mistake and then moving on from that, but doing some self reflection about times that we make mistakes, right? But really thinking about the self-reflection point.

 

00:35:46 - Dr. Keith Curry

And I think the last part about this is saying thank you to people, right? I think a lot of times from my own personal perspective, we don't say thank you enough to people that's involved in the work with you. And we don't recognize those individuals who help us do this work, right? I have a lot of support and people around me, not only at Compton College but also a part of Equity, vengeance, and Level Up, who are helping me every single day to be successful at what I do. And, every time I get a chance to tell everyone, I'm always saying thank you to them for what they do in support of student success because, without them, I would not be here. And I think it's important for us to say thank you as leaders because we can't do it. All right? Sometimes I say this to staff, is like, I show up to events to do a welcome.

 

00:36:30 - Dr. Keith Curry

But the staff spent three weeks doing our months planning for the event, and I show up to do welcome, and I'm on the mic and they're not. I all have to recognize the staff for what they do. And I say it. I say, you know what? I'm just here to do the welcome. But the people that's standing up now, they're the ones that's involved the work. They're the ones who should get the thank yous, right? As a president, I have to do welcomes, but these individuals are the ones who made sure this event that I'm here doing a welcome for, they made sure that it happens.

 

00:36:58 - Dr. Keith Curry

And, I think we have to be able to recognize that and say thank you in with this. Part of it for you is. I often think about a story that someone told me when I was in college, and I saw someone who worked at UC Santa Cruz; I saw him fall, and I saw the fall.

 

00:37:13 - Dr. Keith Curry

And, he was a director at the time. And I never forget. I was like, you know, what happened? And he said, "You know, I made some mistakes." And he said, "You know, the one thing that I would tell you, Keith, is that when you're on your way up, when you make that fall, on your way down from that position, remember how nice you were to those individuals."

 

00:37:33 - Dr. Keith Curry

"Because those individuals one day might be someone that you might have to call." And I share that because in this work and in these positions, oftentimes, you know, we don't say thank you and show our appreciators enough. To the people that support us, one day, those individuals might be your boss, right? Or one day that person might be someone they need to pull to be able to do something that support student success and so continue to be nice to people in this work and treat people like you want to be treated.

 

00:38:03 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Dr. Curry, you mentioned many different critical components of SB 1348. For policymakers looking to replicate that Bill, what advice would you give them?

 

00:38:12 - Dr. Keith Curry

I give them a couple things. One is to work with your different constituent groups and also your institutions, higher education institutions, to really look at what the data shows regards to the percentage and also the number of students that may qualify institution, you don't have to look at what we did in California as the only model or the only example. It might be different for different states as we move forward. That's one, two, I think really looking at serviceness, I'm a huge fan of Dr. Gina Garcia, professor at UC Berkeley. We did a lot of work behind the scenes on Senate Bill 1348 regards to serviceness, but really looking at how do we service our students and what does that look like within the different states. And so I'm excited about the work that we will be doing as relates to having conversations with other states about Senate Bill 1348 and what that might look like, but also just knowing that what we did in California might not be the same type of bill in other states, but being open to created a bill that is right for your state and not following California as the only model. I would like to add that, as I look at Senate Bill 1348 and what we're doing in California, we're working on a bill right now with assembly member Mike Gibson, which looks at a funding bill creating a grant program. So once institutions receive the designation through this bill that we're working on now, if it's signed by the governor or including a budget for 25, 26, will allow institutions apply for grants to implement some of their activities that's included in their strategic plan. And so I'm excited about this. This will be our first budget ask as relates to supporting Black-serving institutions. And it's similar to what's happened nationally. Right. So, Hispanic-serving institutions have grant opportunities. You have grant opportunities for Asia Pacific Islanders, but creating a grant opportunity supports Black-serving institutions. But really looking at the data to figure out what are some strategies for those grants. What I mean by that is really how can we zero in on some areas that could improve Black student success? It could be from basic needs, it could be looking at Black student transfer, it could be looking at workforce development and apprenticeships and internships. Right. That could be one potential component of the grant program as well. And so I'm really excited about this because this adds another layer to our advocacy, but also put money out there to support institutions that are doing this work.

 

00:40:26 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

I think it also kind of provides a level of mobilization for institutions that are, to your point, don't have necessarily the fundings to push forward additional work. But this really kind of not only holds them accountable, but also gives them a tool to mobilize a little quicker to support the momentum.

 

00:40:46 - Dr. Keith Curry

To add to what the statement you just made regards to budgets and I truly believe budgets are statements of values. Right? And it's okay to look at your budgets and say, you know what? This one program or service we're providing was not successful. And let's move those resources to another area that might potentially be successful for our students. I think it's important as we look at transforming institutions, knowing that there might not be new money, right? But still, Black serving institutions and the work that we do for all of our students still needs to be funded. So buzzes are your statements of values. So we have to look at, within our own organizations, what do we value and then how we budget for that. And I'm gonna give an example of this: I'm gonna let it go, is I look at Compton College and I look at our basic needs work. All of our students and our employees get one free meal per day at our EveryTable cafeteria. And then every Wednesday, students get $20 per week as a voucher to be able to purchase food at the farmer's market. And I bring this up because budgets are statements of values. And our institution, I'm going to make sure students are fed right. And what I seen by that is when I go in there during our cafeteria, during lunchtime, I see a lot of Black students who are there getting food. Right? And there's no stigma associated with that. There's no, all you gotta do is show your id, right? So then you're transforming your institution to meet the needs of students of basic needs. But then also, too, you're getting rid of that stigma that some of our students have, particularly students of color. Regards to, like, is it a handout? No. Everybody received this, including our dual enrollment students. But budgets are statements of values, right? So we as leaders have to be able to look at our budgets and be able to allocate resources to meet our values, which, from my perspective, is your mission statement of your institution. If you say we value our student learners and we value this, that, and the other, then your budget should reflect your values 100%.

 

00:42:35 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

I 100% agree. Dr. Curry, was there anything else that you wanted to share as far as, you know, your next big thing that you're working on? I mean, you mentioned the grant and helping institution kind of mobilize the work. But anything else that you kind of foresee in the future that you want to share at this time?

 

00:42:49 - Dr. Keith Curry

I got a lot of ideas. I would say the nursing piece and the healthcare and the shortage for healthcare workers in LA county is of interest to me. I'm really thinking about how do we do something different, but working collaboratively with our four year college partnership, csu, UC and privates. We do a lot of work in the Compton area. We have a Compton Community Health Partnership which I'm really excited about because we're really focused in on our community about health partnerships and what we can do not only for job for workers and employment, but there's also just about wage and awareness with our $200 million bond. It includes a new health center which will be a 247 urgent care facility on our campus. So it connects to the health care work that we want to do within our community. I'm scared about this because it's a freedom dream, but and I mean by freedom dream, this is idea that I had and now we have to deliver to work 24 7. But I'm excited about that. I'm also excited about just thinking through a little bit more about the future of work and what can we done in LA County regards to the future of jobs and how we can work with our 19 community colleges within the Los Angeles Regional Consortium to link our students to jobs and being focused on that. So I'm excited about just thinking about that, just trying to figure out what are some potential solutions. And then the final thing, what I'm really excited about is just the relationships that I've been able to create over the last year, right. I got dates in my life, right? So, like, since November 30th of 2023, I've been meeting so many different people regards to the work that I'm doing and just building relationships with individuals and also with colleges and universities to really support students. I just want to continue to build these relationships and maintain the relationships to do what's right for students within the state of California and also nationally. So I have a lot that's on my mind, a lot that I want to do. It's just nonstop thinking.

 

00:44:40 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

I love that. What a beautiful way to kind of sunset this conversation. And I do foresee more conversations as your work evolves. And so if you're up for it, happy to have you back on the show at a later time. I put you on the spot. Are you in?

 

00:44:55 - Dr. Keith Curry

I'm in. I want to come back and talk about jobs and you know, what can we do with Black learners? That's what's on my mind. Maybe the last six months is really delving in, doubling down some efforts regards to workforce development for all of our students and what that looks like and really looking at it from a institutional perspective as well. So I would love to come back home.

 

00:45:16 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

If our listener wanted to connect with you, Dr. Curry, what's the best way they can connect with you?

 

00:45:21 - Dr. Keith Curry

A couple ways. One is through email. My email address is [email protected]. You can also follow me on Twitter. I'm sorry, x Instagram LinkedIn. I'm there. It's under I am Keith Curry. @IamKeithCurry. Also, I have a website. It's iamkeithcurry.org you get my writing, you get, you know, when I'm in a newspaper, all that stuff is posted on my website. You can look on my website to get information on what I'm doing as well. I'm on LinkedIn a lot, too, producing articles and sharing information on LinkedIn. So just follow me. On all social media, @IamKeithCurry. And then also the website is iamkeithcurry.org and you can send me an email at [email protected].

 

00:46:01 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Thank you. We'll be sure to enter those into the show notes. And that's one of the wonderful things I've always appreciated about your leadership, is your access. You've always been very accessible to everyone. Your students, your community leaders, your community partners. And so we thank you. We certainly thank you for that. Thank you for being on the show. We genuinely appreciate it. We'll certainly have you back. And thanks again.

 

00:46:24 - Dr. Keith Curry

Thank you.

 

00:46:28 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Thank you for listening to the Future of Work podcast. Make sure you're subscribed on your favorite listening platform so you can easily get new episodes every Tuesday. You can reach out to us by clicking on the website link below in the show Notes to collaborate, partner or just chat about all things Future of Work. We'd love to connect with you. All of us here at the Future of Work and Pasadena City College wish you safety and wellness.