Todd Sanders:
00:00
Welcome to the podcast. I'm Todd Sanders, and we are honored
today to be with the Chief Innovation Officer of the Greater
Phoenix Chamber/Foundation, Jennifer Mellor. Jen, welcome to
the podcast. What a pleasure.
Jennifer Mellor:
00:13
Thanks for having me.
Todd Sanders:
00:15
So we're going to start with maybe a question to get people to
know you a little bit better. Obviously, they can read about your
bio and all the great things you're do
ing. Tell us something
about yourself that's, perhaps, not on your bio.
Jennifer Mellor:
00:26
Yes. Well, one of the things that is not in my bio is that I am
actually the daughter of a serial entrepreneur, so I grew up in a
household where we were expected to work on a variety of
things. I probably had 10 different jo
bs before I had my first
official job.
Todd Sanders:
00:45
So it'
s in your blood?
Jennifer Mellor:
00:47
Yes.
Todd Sanders:
00:47
So natural you'd be part of the Greater Phoenix Chamber. So tel
l
us a little bit about your background and how you got to the
Chamber.
Jennifer Mellor:
00:55
Yeah. So I actually grew up in Topeka, Kansas, and I ended up
coming out to Arizona State University, that's what brought me
to Arizona. I did a short little stint in California, and then I met
my love and he brought me back h
ere to Arizona.
Todd Sanders:
01:13
We're glad about that.
Jenni
fer Mellor:
01:14
Rightfully so. And then I have an Accounting d
egree from the
Arizona State University and also my MBA from University of
Phoenix. I became an accountant at the Chamber, it was my
starting point. And shortly after getting my CPA license, you
shifted me into a different role at the Chamber, and that was
the beginning of my journey.
Todd Sanders:
01:40
Yeah. Well, i
t really has been quite a journey. I think we came to
the Chamber around the same time. Obviously, you had a
number of roles and now recovering accountant. Tell us about
your current role at the Chamber.
Jennifer Mellor:
01:53
Yes. So currently I oversee both economic development on th
e
Chamber side as well as the foundation which is heavily focused
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on education and workforce, and I'm really proud of all of the
different programs that we've built under the foundation
umbrella, specifically ElevateEdAZ which is our education
initiative w
orking directly with high school students to try to
better prepare them for college and career.
Todd Sanders:
02:19
Yeah. Well, it sounds like your career as far as up to this point
prepared you for this role where you're really focusing on, in
many ways, mostly workforce.
Jennifer Mellor:
02:29
Absolutely, and I look back to my journey, yes, I was that girl
that knew I wanted to
be an accountant when I was an eighth
grader. And all through my high school journey, I knew that's
exactly what I wanted to do, that was going to be my career,
that was going to be my job, but it took a lot of post
-
secondary
education to get there.
Todd
Sanders:
02:48
Yeah, it did. I think that's a good point about
this idea that it's
black and white, your college career. No, it's a lifelong journey,
and I think that's part of the work that you're talking about.
Let's go into that a little bit. You mentioned ElevateEd, was this
something that you just dreamed up one
day and decided this is
the work we'd be doing? How did this come about?
Jennifer Mellor:
03:07
ElevateEd has been just this evolution of different work. It's
definitely transformed, thanks to a lot of the expertise from
experts across the country and looking at best practices. That's
really what shaped ElevateEd and
what we're doing. We
actually started all of this work with our workforce
collaboratives, and we have six workforce collaboratives under
the Chamber umbrella where we're bringing industry together,
and trying to collaborate and get them to solve talent iss
ues
together. And a lot of that work was done in the postsecondary
space, but what we really started to understand is that we are
not preparing kids in high school to fill those roles whether
those require postsecondary education or if those are going
dire
ctly into a career.
Jennifer Mellor:
03:59
So we started to thi
nk about how we could pull that workforce
thread back into our high school system, and we actually took a
tour of the academies at Nashville. You, myself, along with
several business leaders in the community went to the
academies of Nashville alongside Pho
enix Union School District
and some of their teachers and academic leaders, and we
started to look at what the Academies of Nashville model
looked like and how we could replicate that work back in the
Phoenix market. Once we came back, we brought a ton of
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community leaders together, both educators and community
leaders that have a vested interest in education. And we got a
lot of input, and what we found is the Nashville model parts of it
could work here in Phoenix, but not the full model.
Jennifer Mellor:
04:51
And so, after different discussions and iterations, we fo
und
what would work for us, and then we started working with
Phoenix Union. And as we started that partnership, we found
some things that worked, some things that didn't work, and we
really started to narrow in our focus. And now, I can say we
have four ve
ry, very clear objectives of our work that we've
been able to pinpoint and we're now able to build and expand.
Todd Sanders:
05:17
Yeah. I like to call it the ten
-
year overnight success story. I think
it's really interesting to watch what happened. Let me ask you
because a lot of times [inaudible 00:05:27] the mytholo
gy
around through the workforce problem is, business leaders and
others to look at education will. Obviously, you're not hitting
the mark. Is that true? Is it necessarily an education issue? Is it a
business issue? Where is this?
Jennifer Mellor:
05:43
It is both. We need businesses leaning into the education
system a
nd helping support the education system. I think we
have a lot of investments from the community that are helping
build the infrastructure to support our schools, but what
happens is we build these packages and then we hand them off
to a school and we say,
"Okay. Now, go and implement," and
that final mile is really, really critical. And I think that's where a
lot of the big picture work that's being done in our community,
that's where it falls flat, and that's where I think ElevateEd leans
in and we have c
ollege and career coaches on campus that are
really pushing through to make those changes.
Todd Sanders:
06:26
Well, I want to come back to that in a second. In my time at the
Chamber and even before the legislature, there was always the
number of initiatives to do something in workforce or
something in education. When
you started to talk to business
leaders about this idea, what was the reception? Was it a warm
reception? Was it cool? Was it, "We needed to wait and see"?
What did you hear?
Jennifer Mellor:
06:49
Yeah, I think the business community would say... Or when we
started working on ElevateEd. They would say, "We need to
engage with education, but we don't necessarily know how to
do it." And I think we've seen a lot of examples where the
business community, one specific business partner has leaned
into a school. That was how the Phoenix Coding Academy got
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started. It Was o
ne business that said, "We need this in our
community." What happens though when some of those
business partnerships are formulated is they might be built on
one person, and then they're not sustainable because that
person leaves that company or that compa
ny, maybe they go on
a hiring freeze and those partnerships start to dissipate, and a
lot of time in investment put into building those up. Where I see
businesses struggle is offering internships or engaging with high
school students. A lot of businesses w
ill say, "We can't have
students working on the manufacturing floor because they have
to be 18," or, "We don't think that high school students can do
what we need them to do," and so changing that perception I
think is difficult.
Todd Sanders:
08:03
And that's a heavy lift. I mean, there is that perception, and
whethe
r they could be the best student at the high school or
someone who just needs some help, but I think there's that
perception that, "Well, high school kids shouldn't really be in
this type of environment."
Jennifer Mellor:
08:17
Exactly. And I can say, I did a mock interview with a young lady
yesterday and I was like,
"Wow, any company would be really
lucky to have her on board."
Todd Sanders:
08:27
Yeah. It's interesting to watch some of these success stories. I'm
going to ask you about that in a minute. But you mentioned
college and career coaches, and I think one of the things that I
learned about our system is that the student
to counsel ratios
over 900 to one which is stunning, and there's no way that
those counselors can to meet these demands. We decided to
put folks, boots on the ground in the high schools. How many
high schools are we in now?
Jennifer Mellor:
08:53
We are currently in 10 high schools.
Todd Sanders:
08:55
Okay. We're in currently in 10, that's expanding. Talk to us
about what our fol
ks are doing at the high schools and the
impact.
Jennifer Mellor:
09:02
Yes. So we currently have nine college and career coaches
e
mbedded at those 10 campuses. We're working on the 10th
one, so we're hoping to find somebody great there. But those
college and career coaches are one, working with
administrators to try and break down barriers. So maybe it's,
"Hey, we need to offer dual
enrollment courses in these
particular areas," and so working with administration in that
format. But then also working with teachers and students to try
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to best prepare them for college and career, and trying to get
them into some of these CTE pathways.
J
ennifer Mellor:
09:40
So as an example, yesterday one of our co
aches held a series of
mock interviews helping prepare students for internships which
students will be placed into over the next couple of weeks, so
we have a number of companies that have committed to
internships, and again, our coaches are making sure th
at they
have their resumes up to snuff, that they have a mock interview
so that they're best prepared for that opportunity. But they're
also working with teachers to help try and achieve some of our
outcomes. So one of our metrics is around dual enrollment
and
trying to increase the number of students that aren't just sitting
in a dual enrollment class, but are actually opting into that dual
enrollment credit. And so we have coaches that are working
with those teachers, trying to get them to talk about dual
enrollment, helping students understand how to navigate that
process. We will incentivize teachers to actually increase the
number of students taking dual enrollment.
Todd Sanders:
10:38
Well, and for the folks who maybe are thinking about advanced
placement as maybe something they'd heard of before, talk to
us about
what is dual enrollment, and what's the difference
between that and advanced placement and why should we
care?
Jennifer Mellor:
10:50
Yeah. So advanced placement and dual enrollment, both lead to
early college credit. Advanced placement I think, has been
around a lot longer, is really heavily incentivized. But a stud
ent
that's in an advanced placement course, they basically take the
course throughout the year and then they take a test at the end
of the year. If they get a three, four or a five, that's considered a
passing grade and they get credit for that as an early
college
credit.
Todd Sanders:
11:22
And do they have to pay fo
r all of this?
Jennifer Mellor:
11:24
They have to pay for
the test, but it's fairly nominal.
Unfortunately, only 50% of students actually take the test, and
then even fewer of those actually pass the test, so not really
great results as far as achieving early college credit. On the
other side, we have a dual enro
llment option and a student that
actually enrolls in a dual enrollment course, they're actually
considered a student at both the high school and the
community college. And as long as they get a passing grade, so a
C or better on the class, they're getting
that early college credit.
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And data tells us that 95% of the students that actually take a
dual enrollment course get the early college credit.
Todd Sanders:
12:09
So one of the challenges for us is to make sure the kids are
actually enrolled though so that they get the credit. Is that
correct?
Jennifer Mellor:
12:14
Correct. You could actually be in a dual enrollment class, but
unless you opt into the community college and become a
community college student, then you're not considered a dual
enrollment student.
Todd Sanders:
12:26
So what I'm hearing you say, especially as it relates to kids
graduating high school, is it conceivable to think that a kid
graduate and have their first year or m
aybe even a bachelor or
an associate's by the time they graduate from high school?
Jennifer Mellor:
12:38
Yes. There's lots of examples of students that have actually
achieved an Associate's degree before they graduate from high
school, and that's really what we're trying to build up, is making
sure that students do ha
ve that early college credit so that they
can cut some time off at the community college and university
level.
Todd Sanders:
12:56
Well, and I imagine that's also significantly reduced costs for
higher education for people that are trying to make sure they
have that education.
Jennifer Mellor:
13:03
Absolutely.
Todd Sanders:
13:04
Reduce the cost significantly. One thing that occurs to me, so
imagine that you're a business and you're also loo
king for a
workforce, but you think, "Well, I can just go out and create my
own solution, why do I need to work with the foundation? I can
just go and find the folks that I need and I'll be good." What
would you say to that business?
Jennifer Mellor:
13:21
Well, I would say there's just a changing mindset with
compani
es now where it's like, "Hey, just send me people and
I'll hire them and train them," and that's really not all that
realistic. There's a big difference between healthcare talent and
IT talent, for example, just the basic skills. But I think we're
seeing m
ore and more companies that have this, "Send them to
me and I will train them," mentality. And unfortunately that
doesn't play well long term for those employees because if
you're training talent on specifically what you want them to
know, then when that i
ndividual goes out and tries to get
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another job opportunity, that employer is relying on the skills
that you've provided as a certification, if you will. Whereas
individuals that actually get a degree or a certification, those are
industry standards that h
ave been adopted where an individual
that comes with, in my case a CPA, you know that, "Hey, I'm
going to have somebody that has technical knowledge in
Accounting."
Todd Sanders:
14:28
And selfishly I think, "Well, that's great because they'll stay with
me," but in the event you need to hire someone else from
somewher
e else, it's going to be difficult because they're not
going to have the training you need.
Jennifer Mellor:
14:37
Exactly. And if you have to downsize which we've seen a lot of
downsizing happen in previous markets, then those individuals
are going to have to go find employment elsewhere, and they're
going to have a
difficult time.
Todd Sanders:
14:50
What role do
certificates play in this process? Is it something
that kids can actually go out and get and graduate with?
Jennifer Mellor:
14:57
Yes. Many of our students are actually getting certifications at
the high school level, but the value of those certifications ranges
significantly. So we have the number one certification
that's
earned in the state, our employers have said, "We don't even
know what that is." So we're putting a lot of investment into
getting students this certification when that student goes into a
place of employment and says, "Hey, I have this certificatio
n,"
the employer's going to go, "That doesn't have any value to
me."
Todd Sanders:
15:29
Currently, we're training kids with a certification that no
employer recognizes?
Jennifer Mellor:
15:34
Correct.
Todd Sanders:
15:34
Okay. What are we doing about that?
Jennifer Mellor:
15:38
So we're working with our school partners to try and increase
certifications in highly aligned areas. So for example, we're
working with our education partners, our districts and Arizona
Department of Education to get some new
certifications on the
list that industry has said, "We highly recognize these, we value
these." And then we're also working to try to get some of those
other certifications removed from the list. We're also
incentivizing teachers and students in those cert
ifications that
industry has deemed valuable, and we saw a significant uptick
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in the number of certifications that were earned last year as a
result of those incentives.
Todd Sanders:
16:22
Which is the goal, college and career ready.
Jennifer Mellor:
16:24
Yep.
Todd Sanders:
16:26
You mentioned other industries, and I know you look at the
data all the time... Healthcare, what are we seeing post ish
pandemic, what's happening in that industry
, especially as it
relates to nurses?
Jennifer Mellor:
16:39
Ye
s. So Healthcare is a huge industry for us, and the nursing
shortage was a challenge prior to the pandemic. Now, it's an
even more significant challenge, and we're also seeing across
the entire healthcare spectrum a decrease of employment
because if you wo
rk in food service or housekeeping, for
example, we've heard from our hospitals that people are
worried about getting sick and the exposure of being in a
hospital. So it's not just at the nursing level or the clinical level,
but it's all across the board i
n the Healthcare Sector. At the
same time, we've also seen significant attrition in the healthcare
space. We know that a lot of nurses got burnt out during the
pandemic. A lot of them have shifted into other careers. I was
talking with somebody today, and
they said 75% of their nurses
were new grad nurses which when you're going in to get
medical care, you want to make sure that you have a good
balance of experienced nurses and some of those new folks, so
definitely a significant challenge.
Todd Sanders:
17:49
Absolutely. Advanced manufacturing, we've seen a big influ
ence
of the advanced manufacturers like TSMC, clearly we have Intel.
What's the story there?
Jennifer Mellor:
17:59
Manufacturing is an anomaly. When we look at workforce dat
a,
we look at historic workforce data. And if you go look at the
historic workforce data manufacturing has really not been a
significant industry for Arizona. We definitely have our sectors
in the Aerospace sector, for example, but over the last couple of
years with the announcement of TSMC and the expansion of
Intel, it's blown through the roof. And so we're actually working
at the high school level to try and get new manufacturing
programs put in place at some of our high school partners. We
have one prog
ram across the three districts that we partner
with that serve roughly 50 to 75,000 students, one program in
manufacturing that served 24 students.
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Todd Sanders:
18:51
We have a lot of work to do.
Jennifer Mellor:
18:52
A lot of work to do, but I'm really pleased to announce that one
of our new school partners actually announced that they would
be implementing a manufacturing p
athway as part of our
partnership.
Todd Sanders:
19:02
That's f
antastic. Well, we do have a foundation and that's part
of your purview. Giving Tuesday's coming up, why should
people consider giving to the foundation, and how can they do
it?
Jennifer Mellor:
19:13
Yeah. So I think the foundation is under the radar when it comes
to giving, but the impact that we have on students i
s really
significant. And we are truly changing lives of individuals in our
community while also meeting a workforce need, so when you
think about giving, I do hope that others will join me in giving to
the Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation. And you can d
o it
easily online through our website at
phoenixchamberfoundation.com.
Todd Sanders:
19:43
Excellent. We only have a few minutes left. Again, you're very
involved obviously, at the Phoenix Chamber level, the
foundation a little bit. Community
-
wide, you're really engaged.
When you think about this, think about your f
amily, what are
Arizona's biggest strengths and what are Arizona's biggest
challenges? You can make one or two in each category.
Jennifer Mellor:
20:02
Yeah. That's a really good question, and I am very entrenched in
our community and want to see this success of Arizona and
Greater Phoenix specifically, but I think e
ducation is the answer
to both of those. It is a strength. I think we've got some really
great examples of success in education. Unfortunately, it's not
been replicated across all of our schools, and so there's lots of
inequities in our education system, a
nd that's what we're really
trying to build with ElevateEd, is to build some additional
parody and make sure that all students have access to a quality
education.
Todd Sanders:
20:43
I think that's a great way to end this, but we're not going to let
you get away with that easy. We're going to do a quick lightning
roun
d, just real quick answers here. We'll start easy, and I think
you might have answered this, but first job?
Jennifer Mellor:
20:57
My first job was making donuts. Actually, I decorated the
donuts before I went to kindergarten when I was five.
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Todd Sanders:
21:06
What did you learn from that job?
Jennifer Mellor:
21:08
That not everybody wants sprinkles.
Todd Sanders:
21:11
Which is weird. And besides the obvious current job you ha
ve
with us at the Chamber, dream job?
Jennifer Mellor:
21:18
S
o I really wish I would have been a professional water skier. I
think I'm probably out of the realm of that [inaudible 00:21:28].
Todd Sanders:
21:28
Is that a job?
Jennifer Mellor:
21:30
People make money doing it.
Todd Sanders:
21:31
A professional baker, I could see obviously, you are great there,
but skiing... Well, who am I to argue? Who's your role model?
Jennifer Mellor:
21:39
My mom is my role model. She actually was with the same
company for over 40 years when she retired, and she started a
s
a tele switch operator, connecting phone lines which was a
thing, yes. And she ended up the highest ranking woman with a
rail company.
Todd Sanders:
22:07
Okay.
Jennifer Mellor:
22:07
A railroad company.
Todd Sanders:
22:08
So the apple didn't fall far from the tree.
Jennifer Mellor:
22:11
Yeah.
Todd Sanders:
22:12
And then finally, if you couldn't live in Arizona, which would be
terrible, where would you live?
Jennifer Mellor:
22:20
Oh, I'd probably live in Hawaii, and run a food truck or
s
omething fun.
Todd Sanders:
22:25
Well, on that bombshell, Jen
, thanks for taking the time to
speak with us today. Thanks for the great work you're doing
with the foundation, and hopefully we'll have you back in a year
or so to see how these things are going.
Jennifer Mellor:
22:36
Thank you.
Todd Sanders:
22:37
Thank you