Awards of Excellence Finalist Presentations – Place

Asset Based Planning in Rural Tennessee Counties Submitted by The University of Tennessee In 2016, the UT Center for Industrial Services (UTCIS) and Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) developed an Asset Based Planning Program serving 23 rural, distressed counties throughout the state. The purpose of the program is to help participating counties identify 2-3 economic development projects that build on community assets and can be implemented within a twelve-month period. UTCIS and TNECD expanded the program to an additional 21 counties in 2017, and has continued to grow and improve the program through 2018. The program has several unique factors, including: (1) an ABP meeting in each participating county to help community leaders define community assets and identify economic development projects; (2) network of university agencies and development districts that provide the reach, capacity, and reputation to quickly ramp up, deliver and continually improve a statewide program; (3) ongoing technical assistance effort involving TNECD, Development Districts and UTCIS to assist counties throughout the process, revisit existing plans, update goals, and evaluate results; (4) central role in state rural development strategy and integration with other regional and state funding and technical assistance efforts; (5) emphasis on positive actions that build on community assets and strengths; and (5) collaborative partner efforts to continually revise, improve and strengthen the program. Results include: (1) 44 completed asset based plans and reports that identify key themes, community assets, and actions; (2) Identification of approximately 150 short-term projects addressing site development, tourism, retail development, workforce, and other topics; (3) TNECD grants and other funding to help counties implement projects; (4) projects that are completed or close to completion in each of the initial 23 counties; (5) More visible university role in rural development; (6) Statewide network, approach and process to to assist with project implementation, plan revisions and evaluation; (7) Proven rural development approach that is ongoing, replicable and producing results; and (8) Positive planning environment that focuses on capitalizing existing strengths and extensive partner-community collaboration. UGA Archway Partnership Addresses Health Care Needs in Rural Georgia Submitted by The University of Georgia Rural hospitals are in crisis as the complex health care landscape continues to change. Nationally, 83 rural hospitals have closed since 2010.  Georgia has experienced six such closures in that time period and many other rural hospitals have had to eliminate emergency care or other services. Taylor Regional Hospital in Pulaski County, GA, was once on the precipice of closure. Hospital leadership credits the strong community bonds created through the community’s participation in the UGA Archway Partnership program as a key factor in the hospital’s ability to not only stay open, but expand services at a time when similar hospitals are shutting their doors. Embedded faculty from UGA work side-by-side with local stakeholders to identify challenges and opportunities and garner appropriate university expertise to support community goals. Through the community’s involvement in the Archway Partnership, faculty and students from the College of Public Health evaluated health data, conducted surveys and hosted focus groups to conduct a mandated Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) on behalf of the hospital. Feedback received through the CHNA process led to the establishment of an urgent care clinic.  The clinic, known as Taylor Express Care, has been key to the hospital’s ability to survive. Performance results delivered by this innovative partnership have led to a thriving urgent care clinic seeing, on average, 18 patients per day and a reduction in non-emergent use of the emergency room, decreasing emergency room volume by nearly 10% since the clinic opened.

• Michelle Elliott, Operations Coordinator, Archway Partnership
• Sam Perren, Archway Professional – Pulaski County

North Campus Corridor Industry Co-location Development Submitted by Kansas State University In an effort to create the kind of campus spaces in which K-State can partner with established public and private sector partners while having a physical nexus to campus, collaborations can be expanded, and companies can take advantage of close proximity to NBAF, K-State and the Manhattan community are creating the North Campus Corridor, a 4-mile stretch of streets that make up the north edge of the Kansas State University campus.  This will be a place that will be fitting of the university’s global leadership and reside on the campus north edge alongside both College of Agriculture and College of Veterinary Medicine research facilities and research land as well as the future National Bio and Agro-defense Facility (NBAF). The North Campus Corridor cultivates national, state and industry collaboration to solve some of the world’s most pressing questions. New facilities built in this corridor will benefit and be able to leverage the extensive resources and capabilities of Kansas State University and existing partners. Anchored by the $1.25B National Bio and Agro-defense Facility and K-State’s Biosecurity Research Institute, the Corridor serves as the physical nexus of a plan that establishes Kansas, the region, and the university as the destination for the world’s established food and animal health companies and global food systems-related research and educational talent. The City of Manhattan, Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce, Kansas State University, KSU Foundation, KSU-IC, and K-State Athletics have partnered to develop plans and financing strategies to make the corridor visions a reality. The KSU Foundation has taken a leadership role in developing 56 acres that make up the K-State Office and Research Parks, providing office and build-to-lease lab space for established companies, state and federal partners that advance Kansas State University. In addition, the public infrastructure investments in the corridor will create a vibrant neighborhood for the public. The area described is currently a high vehicular traffic thoroughfare for the community, but also has large sidewalks that are heavily used for pedestrians as running or biking trails. The streetscape, however, is unattractive, dilapidated and dangerous to cross because of the high vehicular traffic, especially on K-State Athletics gamedays. The vision for the corridor is to enhance the pedestrian experience via the addition of streetscape and landscape (trees, iconic kneewalls and gateways/entry features), as well as enhance the safety features for pedestrians (crosswalks, medians, bus dropoffs).  Advance Iowa Submitted by The University of Northern Iowa The majority of Iowa is rural and most of their small businesses are isolated from the services necessary to successfully operate and grow. Rural businesses continue to face challenges into the information age and the biggest hurdle for rural companies is yet to come. According to the Business Enterprise Institute (BEI) in the next ten years two-thirds of all businesses are going to transfer ownership. Without proper planning and support, these rural companies won’t be able to make the transition effectively, which will result in the loss of wealth, jobs, and economic vitality in the communities they serve.  CBGI has established Advance Iowa, a comprehensive consulting program designed to work with small to medium enterprises to enhance profitability and growth, create strategy within their companies, and plan for their exit. Leveraging an array of tools and resources, the Advance Iowa staff is addressing the complex problems and issues facing today’s entrepreneurs, including strategy development, transition planning, wealth enhancement and leadership improvement. The project includes a combination of one on one project work, peer learning groups, and connections with university resources, private service providers, and other economic development assistance programs throughout the state.  Over the 5+ years of the Advance Iowa program’s existence, 465 companies in 68 of Iowa’s 99 counties have received assistance.

• Paul Kinghorn, Director, Center for Business Growth and Innovation at The University of Northern Iowa
• Dan Beenken, Business Incubation Manager, Regional Business Center, University of Northern Iowa

Awards of Excellence Finalist Presentations – Innovation + Talent

Peer Mentorship Program to Promote Diversity within the Nutrition and Dietetics Profession Submitted by California State University, Northridge: Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition, and Dietetics There is a shortage of bilingual and culturally diverse Registered Dietitians (RD/RDN) to serve the needs of our community.   In a day in age where the Hispanic population makes up more than 15 percent of the US population, followed by Blacks and Asians  and 32 states have a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 25 percent it makes sense that health care workers should be representative of the population.  However, data released by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics indicates that only three percent of all registered dietitians (RD) self-disclosed themselves as Hispanic, three percent as Black or African American, and five percent as Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander.  In addition, only three percent of all RDs self-disclosed as being male. This recognition has led the Academy to develop programs and initiatives which promote diversity in dietetics. California leads the nation with the largest Hispanic population; which is also categorized as the fastest growing minority population. In the San Fernando Valley, more than 40 percent of the population was Hispanic or Latino In order to attract culturally diverse candidates, primarily of Hispanic/Latino or Asian descent, to the CSUN/NEVHC Dietetic Internship, the program actively recruited through a formal Mentoring Program, open houses, seminars conducted with current Dietetic Interns, and one-on-one counseling. A supportive mentor can mean the difference between struggle and success. Mentorship is vital for professional development and advancement in careers in nutrition and dietetics, as well as related professions (e.g., nursing, academic medicine, public health and epidemiology,global health innovators, occupational therapy, and physical therapy). Sylvia Escott-Stump, MA, RD, LDN, dietetics internship (DI) director for East Carolina University and consultant for Nutritional Balance, explained, “Often the best way to become successful is by teaching and supporting others.”  Because mentoring is recognized as being important, the Academy started offering mentoring programs. In addition, local and state dietetics associations have mentoring opportunities for registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) to mentor aspiring RDNs. The intent of this project is to present an overview of a peer mentoring program for the DI at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) to promote diversity within the dietetics field. Understanding the experiences and components of the CSUN DI peer mentoring program may be helpful to other DI programs who want to promote diversity and mentorship in dietetics education and other professions. CSUN Summer Accelerator Submitted by California State University, Northridge CSUN’s Innovation ecosystem is based on taking students of diverse backgrounds and interests and uniting them to apply technologies to sustainably resolve commercial and social problems. The hallmarks of the system are: inclusion, irrespective of scholastic major all are encouraged to participate; diversity, we encourage and support development of inter-disciplinary teams as multiple perspectives are likely to produce better solutions; curiosity, students are encouraged to consider how various tools might address the needs of a particular problem, design experiments and generate data to prove hypotheses. Our ecosystem is comprised of three tiers: (1) student/faculty technology engagement (learning how new tools might be used to address a wide variety of problems (2) customer discovery (packaging and delivering the technology into a format preferred by the customer and superior to competitive alternatives in meaningful ways), and (3) launching ventures through the resources and guidance provided by the CSUN summer accelerator and incubator. The CSUN summer accelerator was designed to afford students the opportunity to work on either commercial or social ventures developed in I-Corps, Clinton Global Initiative, Bull-Ring, or student/faculty technology showcase events over ten weeks of summer.  Over these weeks, team’s interview 100 customers to confirm product/market fit and Business Model Canvas components, learn from industry experts about design thinking, competitive positioning, debt, equity, and grant funding, legal/financial requirements. Teams will visit and interview startups in the region, and meet weekly with dedicated EIR’s to identify and resolve issues.  From a group of over 60 applicants, 8 teams were selected. Comprehensive Digital Records for the 21st Century Workplace Submitted by Elon University The academic transcript was once seen as the gold standard for equity and opportunity. But multiple reports on graduates’ career readiness and rigor have indicated that these credentials are outdated to the needs of the 21st century workforce. This is because the academic transcript struggles to signal to employers skills and competencies learned in the classroom. Institutions now are being pressured to demystify the value and practicality of a college degree. In 2013, collaborations between the Elon Office of the Registrar and Student Affairs began to explore the production of a co-curricular transcript. What began to be known as the Elon Experiences Transcript (EET), the credential would document a student’s participation their Elon Experiences – five High-Impact Practices (global education/study abroad, internships, leadership, service learning, and undergraduate research. The EET would serve as a credential certified by the institution to document a student’s co-curricular activity. The transcript intended to provide students with an institution-backed credential they could share with employers to indicate skill attainment and “soft skill” development. Elon University was selected as one of eight institutions in 2015 to receive a $1.27 million grant by AACRAO and NASPA to consider how to expand the learner record. The University Registrar and his design team decided on a digital-first credential that could embed data and links within the transcript. The Elon Visual EXP, the transcript’s latest iteration, provides employers an added layer of clarity to learning outcomes and competencies attained from their Experiences.

• Alexander Taylor, Assistant Registrar for Communications, Office of the Registrar , Elon University

The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (CUEED) Submitted by Rutgers University The Entrepreneurship Pioneers Initiative (EPI) provides first generation entrepreneurs with intensive training, individual business and financial counseling, peer counseling, networking opportunities, and mentoring over a nine-month period to help them have profitable and sustainable businesses. EPI assists the entrepreneurs with developing a strategic plan to grow their businesses. At the completion of the nine months, participants have a plan to grow their business over the next three years that they can immediately start to implement. EPI was developed and is managed by The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development (CUEED) at Rutgers Business School – Newark and New Brunswick. This initiative of CUEED is a collaboration with partners from non-profit, for-profit, corporate, and community-based organizations.

• Jasmine Cordero, Managing Director/Administrator, Rutgers Business School- The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development
• Marcela Zuchovicki, President and CEO, Jalima & Associates

12:00 – 1:30 pm

1:15 – 2:30 pm