The keynote speech was delivered by Dr. David Doré on Thursday, Aug. 8 at the beginning of the Chancellor’s Retreat held in Roanoke, Virginia. A text version of the chancellor’s speech appears below in its entirety:
Good afternoon. –Thanks to VCCS State Board Chair Terri Thompson.
I hope you are enjoying our speakers!
Over the last year, together, we have made tremendous progress, and I am excited about the impact we will make in the year ahead. – I hope each of you feel a sense of pride and accomplishment for what we achieved last year.
I want to spend my time with you today focused on three things:
First, celebrating and reflecting on our success
Second, sharing my vision for where we are going, unified as a system with a common Mission and Purpose
And third, outline how we will achieve our goals through stronger collaboration moving forward
Last year, I challenged all of us to embark on a transformation.
Meeting the needs of Virginia requires increasing our regional capacity, enhancing funding for our most successful programs and programs with the strongest labor market demands, and moving decisively towards a future where every Virginian has access to a meaningful postsecondary credential from one of our 23 colleges leading to a good, high-paying job, or successful transfer and completion of a four-year baccalaureate degree.
True transformation is not an overnight process; however, the past year has seen the beginnings of transformational change, and I want to highlight some of our most significant achievements.
Enrollment:
As of April, we’ve completed our fifth consecutive semester of enrollment growth.
Higher education institutions across Virginia, and the nation, are grappling with declining enrollments.
Our system has achieved consistent growth in the current landscape, and this speaks volumes about the value and quality of education we provide.
Our combined system-wide credit and non-credit headcount now stands at well over 230,000 students.
This growth is not just a number – it represents thousands of Virginians who have placed their trust in us to help them build better futures.
But It’s not just about enrollment…
More importantly, over 1,500 more students graduated from our credit programs in the 2023-2024 academic year than the previous year, and FastForward is on track for a similar outcome.
Go Virginia:
We’ve also made significant strides in coordinating our colleges around GO Virginia regions, fostering collaboration to more strategically and efficiently address workforce needs from both a regional and statewide perspective.
2023 Healthcare Summit:
As most of you know, last year, we held our first ever state-wide industry summit focused on one of the most in-demand industry sectors in Virginia – Healthcare.
One of the goals of the summit was to share and scale innovations happening across our colleges.
Since then, I have seen promising initiatives take root across the commonwealth.
Blue Ridge Partnership of Health Sciences:
One example of an initiative coming out of the healthcare summit is happening in Hampton Roads.
Behind this success are a number of components including a comprehensive analysis of health sciences workforce needs; and seamless education-to-employment pathways for students and job seekers; What we are seeing is deep collaboration across the healthcare eco-system with K-12, our community colleges, and healthcare employers.
This is exactly the kind of collaborative, and solution-focused thinking that will drive our system forward to better serve our students, our communities and employers.
We will continue to create more opportunities for productive dialogue between our system and industry partners throughout Virginia.
Skilled Trades:
On October 22, our second industry summit focused on Skilled Trades will be held here in Roanoke, where we will bring together industry leaders from across Virginia to create concrete action plans to scale talent across the Commonwealth in this critical and diverse sector. The Skilled trades workforce impacts multiple sectors critical to Virginia’s future including infrastructure, energy, manufacturing as well as other sectors. The Skilled trades impact every person in this room. Think about how important that HVAC technician is to you when we are having one of our 100-degree days here in Virginia and your air conditioning breaks down. Trust me, coming from a decade in Arizona, they are literally life savers.
And there is more to come as we will continue to hold additional state-wide summits in key industries that matter most to Virginia’s advancement.
Economic Impact:
Regional collaboration across all sectors will continue to enhance our system’s impact on the statewide economy.
A recent study by Lightcast revealed that our Virginia Community College System generates over $11.6 billion dollars annually in economic activity across the Commonwealth.
As economist Laura Ullrich noted , we already have a tremendous impact, but we have the potential to do even more as a unified system.
Our collective efforts continue to be recognized on the national stage.
At our most recent state board meeting, we heard from Amazon Web Services, who identified the Virginia Community Colleges as the model for developing innovative and productive college/industry partnerships.
I am continually impressed by how many of our colleges are held up as national models of best practice, whether in transfer alignment, workforce development, or student success. I want us as a system to be highlighted even more on the national stage in the years to come.
National Recognition:
This July, Virginia was named the #1 state for Business by CNBC.
What’s particularly noteworthy is that Virginia’s education system ranked #1 in this year’s study.
I am incredibly proud of YOUR hard work, dedication, and commitment. Each of you has played a central role in setting the stage for businesses to succeed and workers to thrive in the Commonwealth.
You should all feel a deep sense of pride in this recognition.
Find Your Answer:
We’ve also made great strides in elevating our system as a brand.
Our “Find Your Answer” campaign has been instrumental in raising awareness of the Virginia Community College System and the life-changing opportunities we offer.
This campaign isn’t just about attracting students – it’s about changing the narrative around community colleges and showcasing the vital role we play in Virginia’s educational and economic landscape.
Strategic Plan:
Now, as we celebrate these achievements, we must also look to the future.
Last fall, we submitted a six-year plan to the Governor’s Office. Under the guidance of our State Board, we’ve used that plan as the foundation for an exciting new strategic plan.
Today, I am formally launching the priorities behind our strategic plan “Accelerate Opportunity”
This name embodies our commitment to speed, convergence, and adaptability.
It reflects the State Board’s interest in operating at the “speed of industry,” the value we collectively place on getting learners to their goals through programs like FastForward, and the expectation that we, as leaders, are moving our system forward in step with the pace of industry 4.0
Goal:
At the heart of “Accelerate Opportunity” is one overarching, ambitious goal: to award 300,000 cumulative meaningful credentials by 2030 across all regions through accelerated access and success for every student.
This goal is both inspiring and challenging, pushing us to reach new heights in service to our students and our state. It is also attainable.
Our system of community colleges has a proven track record of educating and training the new majority of learners – working learners and learning workers, parents, veterans, high school dual-enrolled students, and recent high school graduates.
Our colleges serve ALL Virginians.
Virginia’s Community Colleges are best positioned to grow Virginia’s workforce, and I am confident in our ability to achieve success.
Strategic Objectives:
Our plan will focus on five key objectives:
#1 Developing Virginia’s Talent: This involves aligning our programs with the needs of Virginia’s industries, ensuring our students are well-prepared for the jobs of today and tomorrow.
#2 Reaching More Virginians: We must expand our outreach efforts, making sure every Virginian knows about and can access the opportunities available through our community colleges.
#3 Delivering Education to Today’s Learners: This objective focuses on adapting our teaching methods and delivery systems to meet the diverse needs of modern students though high-impact institutional practices.
#4 Supporting Today’s Learners: We recognize that our students often face challenges outside the classroom. This objective emphasizes comprehensive support services to help students overcome barriers to success.
#5 Investing in Virginia’s Workforce: This involves ensuring that our programs support students’ needs for financial flexibility while supporting the vitality and sustainability of our colleges.
This plan is now very metrics-focused, with specific goals for each college.
We will also be implementing consistent data dashboards across our colleges to monitor our progress on the Strategic Plan.
We are committed to data-informed decision-making, allowing us to quickly identify what’s working and where we need to improve.
I would like to acknowledge the Strategic Planning Steering committee chaired by Dr. Marcia Conston, and the many colleagues who contributed to the development of the plan.
Commitment to Excellence:
I, along with some of our presidents and leadership, recently presented our vision to the Governor, his Chief of Staff, and our Secretary of Education.
I’m pleased to report that the Governor and his staff are very impressed with our direction, particularly our focus on expanding the workforce pipeline and connecting students to high-demand careers with family-sustaining wages.
Their enthusiasm reinforces what we already know – that our work is vital to the future of Virginia.
However, we must acknowledge that achieving our goal of 300,000 meaningful credentials by 2030 is no small feat.
It will require unity, collaboration, and a shared commitment to excellence across our entire system.
When we truly work together as a System with a common Mission and Purpose, extraordinary things happen for our students and for Virginia.
So, how will we get there together?
I want to talk about two elements that I believe are important to our work ahead: creating a Culture of Care and cultivating a mindset of unity.
Culture of Care:
First, Let’s talk about creating a Culture of Care.
Last year, I shared with you what I learned as a young teacher from Fred Rogers – that “love is at the heart of all learning.”
I was recently speaking with Ken Sherwood, who will be presenting tomorrow, about what it truly means to “love your students to success.”
This concept goes far beyond providing academic support – it’s about creating an environment where every member of our community feels valued, supported, and empowered to achieve their goals.
As I travel across Virginia visiting our 23 colleges, I hear and witness so many stories that demonstrate what a Culture of Care looks like.
This past spring, I was invited by Dr. Pat Huber to watch the live premier of a PBS show, called Buzz, about New River’s Access To Community College Education (ACCE) program.
To illustrate what this Culture of Care looks like at New River, I’d like to share a story. It’s about a nursing student named Danielle.
Danielle was pursuing her associate’s degree in nursing. However, she faced an unexpected obstacle when she purchased the wrong type of shoes required for her clinical rotations and could not afford to buy another pair. This may seem like a small thing, but for Danielle, it was a potential roadblock to completing the nursing program.
Enter Erika, a staff member with the New River Community College Foundation. When she learned of Danielle’s situation, Erika didn’t just offer words of encouragement – she took action. She personally took Danielle to a store and bought her the type of shoes she needed for her clinical rotations.
Now, you might think that’s where the story ends – a nice gesture that helped a student in need. But it doesn’t end there. Fast forward two years later, and Erika’s mother was diagnosed with cancer and admitted to the hospital. And who should walk into her hospital room as her nurse? None other than Danielle, wearing those very shoes that Erika had bought her for her clinical rotations.
This story exemplifies a Culture of Care. It’s not just about solving immediate problems – it’s about creating a ripple effect of positive change that extends far beyond our campuses. It’s about recognizing that every interaction, every gesture of support, has the potential to change a life.
This is the culture we want to foster across all our colleges. It’s about every employee, regardless of their role, being invested in student success and belonging. From the admissions office to the classroom, from the financial aid department to the career center, from the IT department to our Facilities staff, every possible point of contact should reflect this commitment to care.
Achieving a New Mindset:
Throughout the year, you may have heard me talk about operating as “One System.”
But how do we achieve this mindset? One of unity and collaboration. When I say we are stronger together as a System with a shared Mission and Purpose, I mean two fundamental things:
First, we must center everything we do on our learners, ensuring a high-quality and consistent experience across all 23 colleges. This means whether a student enrolls at a small or large college, a rural or urban college, they should have access to the full breadth of our programs and receive the highest level of excellence in education and support.
Second, we should seek opportunities for greater effectiveness and efficiency as a system, reducing replication and unnecessary expenditures without compromising the student experience. This includes identifying high-value operational processes that can be implemented consistently across all our colleges to improve service and support and increase efficiency.
Some of these changes will be quick wins – low-hanging fruit that we can implement relatively quickly. Some things – such as Transfer VA and shared distance learning – embody “One System” already – and we do them well. Others will be multi-year projects, requiring sustained effort and commitment. But all of them will contribute to our collective success and our ability to serve our students better.
As we embark on this journey together, I want to emphasize the importance of trust and igniting greatness in everyone. We must trust in each other’s expertise, commitment, and potential. And we must work to ignite the greatness that exists in every member of our community – our colleagues, our partners, and most importantly, our students.
This Year’s Priorities:
Looking ahead, I want to outline my priorities for the coming year:
First, implementing our strategic plan: This will be a major focus, ensuring that “Accelerate Opportunity” moves from concept to reality across our system.
Second, advocating for a fair funding formula in upcoming legislative sessions: We need to ensure that our system has the resources it needs to fulfill its vital mission.
And Third, Launching our “One System” initiatives. These include:
Addressing software sprawl across the system and streamlining our software to reduce costs and complexity, and to ensure seamless integration for a better user experience.
We will also be consolidating our 25 different cybersecurity units to a cohesive, singularly accountable cybersecurity system to enhance our overall security posture.
Next, we will be defining a clear vision and strategy for dual enrollment, ensuring its sustainability and consistency as an effective pathway to higher education and career readiness.
We will also be updating our 23 different Student Codes of Conduct to a single code that reflects our values and expectations, and ensures a consistent experience for our students.
We will also be exploring AI applications and web personalization to enhance student services and engagement.
There are many more initiatives that I am exploring with our college presidents, such as:
Developing common curriculum and sharing programs in key areas
And an improved system-wide onboarding process for college executives
I’m confident that Virginia’s Community Colleges will adapt, grow, and excel together. But we must remember that creating meaningful change takes time and dedication.
It is one thing to talk about these initiatives, but I want to take a moment for you to hear from our students – because their words, not mine, are the true testament of the impact of Virginia’s Community Colleges.
We are already accelerating opportunity for Virginians – these stories of our students bring to life our impact and the change we seek to make.
Meet the Students
Call to Action:
Stories like these are unfolding on our campuses every day because of the work you do, and I hope the success of our students inspire all of us with a sense of unity of purpose, a commitment to care, and this dedication to excellence that we know makes a difference.
Together, we are part of a powerful, transformative system that has the potential to reshape Virginia’s educational and economic landscape.
We can reshape the future of Virginians.
This quote by Harvey S. Firestone: “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” perfectly encapsulates our mission as leaders.
Our role as leaders is to inspire and empower our people to fulfill our mission and achieve our ambitious goals.
Before I end, I want to share with you a few thoughts I garnered from an article on leadership in this month’s Harvard Business Review Magazine.
Let’s approach our work as a marathon, rather than a sprint. We must set a deliberate pace and a long-term sustainable strategy to achieve the goals we want for ourselves and those we lead, understanding that we have to pace ourselves to reach success faster.
Let’s prioritize the right things and focus on strategies that will have the most profound impact on our learners, their families, and our communities’ lives. That is our mission.
If we are to accomplish our mission, it starts with all of us in this room.
It starts with you and the teams you lead who are critical to our efforts.
It is your role to align your teams to our shared mission. Others will join you when you are visible and engaged – on your campuses and in your communities. Focus your communication on possibilities, not just problems, and find ways to repeat our most important messages over, and over.
And, perhaps most importantly, we all must commit to working on ourselves, to bettering ourselves and to creating a system-wide environment where all our employees are growing and developing every day to become the very best version of themselves.
Leadership Charge:
Today I ask each of you to make a commitment to being part of the solution. Every action, no matter how small, contributes to our collective success.
When we do this – when we truly come together as one system with one mission – incredible things happen. We’ve already seen it in the stories that have been shared and our impressive achievements over the past year. There is a lot more work ahead to achieve our goals.
Together, we have the power to transform lives, to strengthen our communities, and to drive Virginia’s economy forward. We have the power to open doors of opportunity for hundreds of thousands of Virginians who are looking to build better futures for themselves and their families.
And I know that “We are stronger as one!”
Thank you for your dedication, your passion, and your commitment to our students and our mission. Together, we will accelerate opportunity for all Virginians.
