Partnership in National Spotlight

Fairview System Director of Talent Acquisition Laura BeethAugsburg College President and Partnership Chair Paul PribbenowAugsburg College President Paul Pribbenow and Laura Beeth, Fairview’s System Director of Talent Acquisition, represented the Partnership at the Anchor Institutions Task Force annual conference in New York on November 11.  CCAP Counsel Louis Smith also attended the gathering of over 140 leaders of education and medical institutions from across the United States.   

CCAP’s work was praised for its progress and commitment to equity and regional prosperity. With 12 partners, CCAP is the largest anchor partnership in the country.    

2016: Pathways & Progress in Securing Regional Prosperity

The work of anchor institutions to promote our regional prosperity requires the clear alignment of goals and resources, a spirit of collaboration to create shared value, and hard work.  It also requires patience.  This is not the setting where quick fixes appear overnight.   

Nevertheless, we have much progress to celebrate as we meet in the fourth quarter of 2016.  As this Update reports, we are moving hundreds of young people into pathways to  health care careers, steering our construction and operating dollars to local businesses, and introducing thousands of First-Year college students to transit. 

We will be sharing this news on a national stage next month at the Anchor Institutions Task Force annual conference in New York City.  While many of us are new to this work, our Partnership has already become one of the largest collaborations of ‘Eds and Meds’ in the country.  

So there is much here in which we can all take pride, and much more great work ahead for us to do together.

Securing Regional Prosperity Through Cultural Competency

Although new to my position as President of Metropolitan State University, and new to the Central Corridor Anchor Partnership, throughout many years at Metropolitan State, I have witnessed how critically important it is for us to empower students by fostering a culturally inclusive environment. 

At Metro State, we know the value of partnership--to learn in, from, and with the urban communities where our campuses are located and where our students are rooted. 

This unwavering commitment to community engagement produces valuable opportunities for student learning, faculty scholarship, and community partnerships which draw from the area's rich diversity of cultures and perspectives.

This Anchor Update highlights one of the younger students who have attended Metro State, Sharif Attia.  His story of ambition, hard work, and mature understanding of the role of cultural competency in health care reminds us that it is indeed the capacity to promote equity and inclusion and embrace our diversity that will guide Metro State and our Twin Cities region to a future of success and prosperity.