Interview with Shelley Berkley

It most certainly is. And as I was sharing with you earlier, when I was student body president of UNLV, we were in the process of getting this radio station licensed for the students at UNLV. And so to come back now and actually see the facilities and know what an important function this radio station serves for the students, faculty and for the entire Las Vegas community makes me very, very happy.

Well, and it's wonderful. And it's wonderful that you had the opportunity to be involved in that and see your grow. Well, as you know, we're both, you know, UNLV is our collective alma mater. Back then, you were a jack of all trades. So student government ran the radio station and did the yearbook and did the newspaper and did all the student activities. And now I think things are a little more sophisticated and mature. But 4045 50 years ago, things are a lot different. You

know, and I agree with you. I know when I was here at undergrad and in grad school that it seemed like students were encouraged to be involved in development of programs like this. I know I got involved in the setting up the Graduate Students Association, and administration was very open to encouraging students to do those kinds of projects. I don't know how it is today. I hope it's still similar to that. Well, I would hope so too. But I have to tell you the experience

i i received in student government here at UNLV. And you know, when I started it was Nevada Southern University. And then it changed to UNLV. But when I started, we were just a branch campus of University of Nevada, in Reno. And that's when a few years after I started school here, things changed dramatically. And, you know, the rest is history when it comes to

UNLV. But if there wasn't anything that I did in my political career, which spanned 30 years that I didn't learn as student body president of UNLV, you know, I was going to ask you if, if you're interested in politics, was encouraged or created by your participation in the student government here at UNLV. I believe it was, I was student body Secretariat at Valley High

School. And I part of the first graduating class at Valley that I gave actually, I was invited to give the commencement address and their 50th anniversary which made me feel very having said

that, that so I was student body secretary in Valley. And then I started at Nevada Southern University, which was just the smallest little school and we were all coming from the local high schools and most of us certainly me a first time college goer, my dad was a waiter on the strip, but most of the kids that went to school here had family working on the strip, and we were the first generation in Las Vegas that

actually went to college. And this was a big deal, but my experiences and student government really set me on the path that I that I certainly loved as an adult. Is this at UNLV where you met Dina Titus? No, I met her afterwards. I'm not sure she was here yet. But I'll tell you her father in law, John right to the building is named after was my history teacher. And I just loved that because I

knew most of of the namesakes of our buildings. It was such a it's hard for people to understand how very different it was those many years ago, but John Wright was my history teacher, Paul McDermott was one of the members of the Board of Regents. And of course, a very prominent businessman in town, Flora dungun, the humanities building, she was on the Board of Regents. I mean, you can go down the list of names of the

buildings, and I knew them there was an intimacy there. That was pretty striking. Yeah. And there was a close relationship between it seemed like, at least instructors in the political science department, I got to know very well. And me too. Yes, I agree. And it was nice. It was really interesting. You yourself came back after law school. You got involved in state politics, you sat in the were you in the assembly or

was in the assembly. And, interestingly enough, and this so this was, in a way, this is still a small town, even though when we moved to town and 63, there were approximately 80,000 People in the Las Vegas Valley. Now, of course, well over 2 million, but and when I was in office, I made it a point to meet everybody that came in. But for many years when I was in Congress, Clark County, or my congressional district was the

fastest growing district in the United States. Now, you were before you went to the House of Representatives you were on or was Yeah, you were on the Board of Regents. I was on the Board of Regents for eight years. And that was during the Tarkanian Maxim years. At the beginning, believe me when I tell you, when I would get phone calls from people, they were not going to get me into school, can you get my son and nothing can? Can I get a ticket to the Thomas and Mack I

want to see the rebels play. It was the hottest ticket in town and so exciting. And of course that came to an end. But it was an exciting time. And then of course, you paid the price for an exciting time. And the town was very, very divided. And we as a member of the Board of Regents, we got you know, a lot of people were either very supportive of you or very hostile to

you. With regards to Tarkanian leaving the school. Yes. And I was, much as I admired a maxim for really taking this university to the next level, I felt that TARC had been treated very, very unfairly. So Well, I think a lot of people agreed with you at the time. And you know, I think, Maxim I don't know, maybe he could have handled things better. I don't know. You know, it's it's past history now. And of course, the

university has moved on. But those are very exciting times, I have to say, when the rebels were playing in their heyday, I mean, the Thomas and Mack was vibrating. It was I read there was so much energy, so much excitement and and I remember tarts last game, you know, standing there looking around thinking, Are we crazy, we're throwing this away. So, unfortunately, but you know, things move on and the school is

certainly become far more mature. We have so many more graduate programs and the Law School, which we didn't have when I was a student, you were instrumental in bringing the law school to UNLV where you're not, that's a slight overstatement. But I have a border region that before that when I was student body president, they put me I was the student representative on the committee that was deciding whether or not we should bring a law school to a UNLV because obviously the natural place

would be where the Judicial College was up in Reno. But we we did, I was on that committee that I graduated, went to law school, ran for office, came home, got appointed to the Board of Regents 20 years after I graduated, they put me on the same committee. Nothing had been done. And so I vowed that I would not leave the Board of Regents until we had a law school and Carol harder was very, very excited about it. Jim Rogers and and Mr. Boyd, I mean, they saw the possibilities and funded it.

Those are the big contributors. Boys School of Law. And you know, 20 years after I made the motion to bring the law school to UNLV. My son graduated from the Boyd School of Law, so it's been great for us and your son is now running for judicial position. My son Max is running for justice of the peace. So I'm very, I have to say it now I was in office for 30 years, Leslie and I, you know, I became very accustomed to a political lifestyle. But I have to say, when you're your son, your child

is running. I was driving down West Sahara, and I saw one of his signs, I practically drove off the road. I was so excited. i Oh, my gosh, look at that side. So, yeah, it's a different perspective as a mother, and then when you're the candidate. Well, it's a wonderful thing. So you finished up your term in the House of Representatives in I think 2013. Yes, January 3 2013. was my last day I worked up and this was an example set by dip Brian, Senator Brian, he worked in till

12 noon, when his successor was sworn in, and Dix. The staff came in and said, you know, Senator, you have to leave now. And he picked up and left his desk and close the door. And that was it. And I thought that that Dick, Brian is worthy of emulating so when my time came, I did the exact same thing. What did what was your What were you most felt best about when you were in Congress? The what you accomplished

VA Hospital in North Las Vegas. It started out. I had a veteran's Advisory Committee, I had a Hispanic advisory, African American women, you name it. I had an advisory committee for it. That included the veterans. So we had our first meeting, I was a young freshman at the time. And when it was over a group of the women vets, mostly from World War Two and Korea came over to me and they said, We want our own advisory

committee. We don't want to be with the men. Okay, so we started a women veterans Advisory Committee first meeting, they said, We need a mammogram machine at the VA clinic. Because without it, you know, we a lot of us don't drive anymore, we have to get transportation to the VA clinic, and then they give us kind of a prescription to go get a mammogram, then we got to go back and get it read. And so I decided, you know, working with my staff, we were able to get a

mammogram machine. And at the ribbon cutting, and I still have pictures of it. At the ribbon cutting, I made a quip at the podium that you know, next time we're going to get an MRI machine, someone came over to me one of the, I guess, people that worked for the VA, and they said think bigger. And I said bigger than an MRI. And they said you need a hospital here, you've got over 200,000 veterans in the Las Vegas Valley. And if anyone is really sick, they gotta go to Long Beach. And they are away

from their family away from their support system. And that's when my mind started going. And that's not going. My mind is still started moving moving. That's, that was a big priority for us. And even and you could see how things have changed so dramatically in Washington. During the time that we were getting the funding and moving towards acquiring a VA hospital. The Democrats were in the minority. So I was in the minority party and was able to work with the majority party to

get the approval and the funding for a VA hospital. And that I don't think would happen anymore. And I don't think so. And that is very fortunate. Yes. And it's beautiful. 44 acres. That's a wonderful facility. VA hospital. It's I'm very, very proud of that. That probably was my one. My one most significant accomplishment. It's a wonderful thing. So we thank you very much for it's my

pleasure. Well, you are now the CEO and Provost of the Toro University both here in Nevada and the northern campus of Toro University. That's exactly correct. And you know, after after I I lost the Senate seat and I was sitting on my couch feeling really sorry for myself thinking what am I going to do with the rest of my life? I love public service, but I don't have a job to be a

public servant with anymore. And I received a very fortuitous phone call asking me if I would like to be either head of Toro. And you know, I said immediately I have no academic medical background at all. Just because my husband's a doctor doesn't qualify me to run a medical school. And they said, Well, we

still want to talk to you. And in two and a half weeks time from the initial phone call, the day after Thanksgiving of that year 2014, I decided to do it. And best thing, one of the best decisions I ever made. Well, you sound like you enjoy it very much. I absolutely love it. And we are educating the next generation of health care providers for the state of Nevada and beyond. I didn't realize I was doing some research that poro is the

largest medical school in the state of Nevada. Is that correct? Yes, we had 4200 applications last year for 180 slots in the med school. usnr has a little over 60 students graduating a year UNLV, around 60, they'd like to go up to 120. And I'm sure they will. And in my opinion, every one of those students and future doctors are needed in this state. So I'm thrilled to be a part of that. One of the things if I understand that you're

interested in in your position, we're residency programs. So what's the significance of residency programs? Oh, I'm so glad you asked. And again, this is newly acquired information for me, I did not know, eight years ago, and I took the job little over eight years ago. When you finish your four years of medical school, you're still not a doctor. I mean, you're a doctor, but you're not practicing. Uh, you need three years minimum residency, before you could

actually practice. And so those are it's called graduate medical education. It's the residency programs. Nevada has about 48th. In the United States, when it comes to providing residency programs. They're expensive to create. They're funded by Medicare, and Medicare funding is way down. And so if you are in a growth state like Nevada, there was no way for you to keep

up. So rather than waiting, and I think this is a tremendous tribute to our legislature, and Governor Sandoval, and now Governor sisolak, they recognize the need for doctors, we have a tremendous physician shortage in this state. And we have for many, many years,

ever. And the only way to correct that because here's the interesting number 70% of doctors end up practicing where they do their residency you have we don't have residency programs, all of these future doctors that are getting their education here have to leave town, and 70% of them are not coming back to Nevada,

how does it look for the future? Do you see the funding coming from the state legislature that will help out significantly that we have in when Brian Sandoval was governor, he was the first one to recognize the need and funded along with the legislature, I think $10 million biennium happened a few times. And then when Governor sisolak came in, he continued it. Now they cut it slightly during the pandemic, because I had no idea what the state budget was going to be like, but there was still

funding. And now I'm hoping that people are getting out and about hoping praying that things are going to get back to normal. We'll know what the budget is for the state when the legislature convenes. And hopefully there'll be additional funding, if we're waiting for the feds to fund Medicare to help us out. We're going to be waiting and awfully, but you and I won't be here anymore. So I'd like to see this done. Before we leave. You're also interested in health care reform?

Yes, we have a system where we need to ensure that people are insured, and that they can they have access to affordable health care. And I think that is something that's very important. This is what I don't understand is how people can say someone should not be entitled to health insurance and not and then ignore the fact that those persons are going to require health care anyway. And the cost shifts to the taxpayer

in the end we pay for it one way or another. It's more expensive when you I shifted over you are 100% Right let's i i listened to people argue against universal health care, and I just go you don't you realize how much more expensive it is and that you're gonna pay it anyway. Plus, it's very uncaring. How could you be so cruel? I, in the end, if somebody is terribly ill and they don't have insurance, they're going to end up at the UMC emergency room.

And we're that's our tax dollars that are Hang for that. So I would rather see everybody with affordable health care insurance so that they can take care of their own needs. And you know, that begins with children that begins. Neonatal that begins during pregnancy, if you don't support those people, you have the health care expenses over a lifetime lifetime. endodontic disease.

As a matter of fact, I'm awfully glad you mentioned that. United Healthcare just gave Touro University a $2.6 million grant to create a prenatal program. So we're in the process of creating that program and going into underserved communities to provide prenatal care to women that don't can't afford it. And, again, they were gonna live longer, live healthier and save billions of dollars of taxpayer money.

zactly. Right. So I was going to ask you, when we were talking about you coming over to the show, I asked you some of the topics that you were very interested in. I'm not sure which one to address, or dashcam, about at this point. I know voting is a really key topic for you. What is your concern about voting this year? Well, you know, you and I talked about this off air. Look, I think people are very confused, unhappy, frustrated, angry at

the political system right now. But I am encouraging everybody because I hear all the time, I'm not even going to vote next time. I don't care any more than I don't like any of them, I don't care. I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican, they all are terrible. But my opinion is this is the time that good citizens roll up their sleeves and get involved. I don't agree with everything the Democrats are doing. And I don't agree with everything that, obviously the Republicans are

doing. But I know this my vote, My voice matters as a citizen. And if I sit this out, if you sit this out, then who is going to be running this country. So let's as citizens, Let's appreciate our democracy and the fact that we have a right we have a voice in this country, and our responsibility as an

American citizen, to do our part. And that is at the very minimum, to go to the polls as an educated voter, and cast your ballot, if you don't like the person that wins, there's another election in two years, I promise you, there's always another election around the corner. But if you don't

participate, vote, just shame on you. I think of it in terms of a duty, it is something that we must do, so that we join everyone else, and determining who will hold those elected positions to sort of steer our government, from election to election, I couldn't agree with you more or less than, you know, I'm the granddaughter of immigrants that came to this country, they couldn't speak English. If they hadn't gotten out of Europe, when they did, they would have been exterminated in the

Holocaust, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you now. They came here, just so that their children and their children's children could have a better life, a better life in this country includes participating in the political process. That's right. And, and by doing that, we keep our country in hopeful, optimistic, and welcoming. Our country is truly a country of immigrants. My generations back came from Ireland, then from

Scotland. And, and it saved them this country that I suspect they came during the potato famine, years and years ago, they would not probably have survived if it wasn't for the United States welcoming them, they'll try and and I think everybody should embrace the fact that we're a country of immigrants. And that's a wonderful thing. And I am sure that your grandma, whoever came great grandparents bears that they could not have had an easy time here when they

got here. I'm sure they struggle, the same way minded. You know, I think that's the story of most immigrants is that your struggle and you find that the struggle was worthwhile. And it teaches you that it's, it's worthwhile to go through the struggle and to become a citizen and participate in our, our country. I couldn't agree with you more. And neither one of my parents, I mean, they were newly you know, they were born in the United States, but

they came from definite immigrant parents. They neither one graduated high school, but a generation later. I mean, the most important thing in our family was getting an education. My parents didn't care if my sister and I were pretty if we were popular mattered that we got good grades so we can make something of ourselves. And that's why UNLV was so significant to us than you know, you and I could sit here and talk about the

importance of education. And and the greatest renewable resource we have in this country are children and education, educating our children. And that's another topic that people should talk more about. I know. And, you know, it's, it's just so frustrating, because we need to desperately improve our education system here in Nevada, we fund it very, very poorly. And then we complain that our education system isn't stellar. Well, you get what you pay for You sure

do. And I don't understand how come a teacher and my families, a family of teachers, why they are paid less than, say, a fireman or a policeman or a nurse, I think, you know, in, in our society, in our culture, that people are valued by what they make. I mean, it's not it could they could be wonderful people and all of this, but in the end that I have my daughter in law is a teacher. I mean, it's shocking how how little she makes, and how necessary she is.

I mean, she is a vital person. And where would any of us be if we didn't have good teachers, from preschool, all the way through university graduate schools, but those, those early years are, as we all know, are some of the most or the most important years. And those people who dedicate their life to doing that should be well compensated

because the job is so important. And listen, it's not an easy job, you have to be well educated, well trained, you really know, half have to know what you're doing to be successful. It is it you are 100%, right. And, you know, I was honored with having a school named after me, Berkeley elementary school. So I go down there, I try not to be intrusive, but one when invited, I go down to see the kids and go into the different

classrooms. And I'm looking at these kiddies, and that they're the future of this community, the state our nation, and they deserve better than we're giving them. They do. They do. Absolutely do. And hopefully someday, things will funding will be corrected. I hope. So. It's an even let me even mention this when I was in the state legislature. So this is like a million years ago. I was part of this doesn't seem that long ago show. Oh, it is. But it's gone very fast, though. Very, very now.

It's going too fast. You know, I was part of this group. We were the Young Turks in the legislature that talking about economic development, and as much as I love the gaming industry, and I really do, I recognize that we have to diversify our economy, bring in hype good, high paying jobs for our people. And me started going there were a group of us started throughout California, in trying to encourage businesses to relocate to Nevada, and these were fledgling tech businesses

at that job sure don't exist anymore. And they've been bought up by the big guys. But they said back then, and this is 1983. They said, You know, we love your climate. We love your location. We love this that. But we don't love your education system. You've got to have good education system for all businesses. I don't. It's not just tech, all businesses, finance, okay. engine manufacturers, all businesses

require and look for good education systems. And I think you're right, I think that's one of the reasons Nevada has had trouble doing economic development. And you know, I'm a member of the board of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, our mission is to encourage businesses to come here, and we're still battling with the education factor. And until we recognize that it's an investment in ourselves in our future, that and our future

economy. Nevada is still going to be struggling. And that's unfortunate. Once again, it's short sightedness, right. It's kind of like health care. It's like, well, we're not going to spend the money on this. Because whatever. Not realizing or not recognize or just simply ignoring the fact that you invest now. You pay now pay later, and you're gonna pay more later, or later. Yes, indeed. That's right, Shelly. It's been wonderful. Unless it's great to

see you. My pleasure. My pleasure. And thank you again, you're very welcome.