This was a meeting for the Community Affairs/Workforce Committee of the Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) Board of Trustees.

Scene setting

This was an in-person meeting with eight contributing individuals and two Documenters present initially. Megan O’Bryan, the vice president of Development at Tri-C and president of the Tri-C Foundation, joined after the presentations concluded to update the group on the agenda action item related to grants and gifts.

Meeting start

The meeting started at 9:06 a.m. During the introductions, Tri-C Executive Vice President India Pierce Lee said that she is the co-chair of the Signal Cleveland Advisory Board [Editor’s note: Cleveland Documenters is part of the Signal Cleveland newsroom]

Attendees

• India Pierce Lee (Tri-C executive vice president)
• Colette Jones ( CMJ Consulting)
• Steve Griffin (Tri-C vice president of Skill Based Education and Career Pathways)
• Barbara Bell (Tri-C board coordinator)
• Radiah Blanton (Tri-C chief of staff)
• Phoebe Lee (Tri-C board of trustees)
• Ann Frangos (Tri-C board of trustees)
• Shana Marbury (Tri-C executive vice president of Workforce Innovation)
• Megan O’Bryan (Tri-C vice president, Development & president, Tri-C Foundation)
• Néna Roy (Documenter)
• Jamie Harman (Documenter)

The meeting agenda was originally posted on the Board of Trustees webpage but was replaced just after the meeting ended with agendas for upcoming meetings. The agenda for this meeting can be found in the attachments for these notes.

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Presentations

Tri-C Marketing and Communications: Consulting Engagement Overview and Roadmap by Colette Jones of CMJ Consulting

• Jones, who has a background in consumer and brand marketing, outlined her experience and credentials.
  
• Jones was brought on board to optimize the marketing and communications department and to develop a brand for the college.
  
• Some goals of the marketing efforts include clarifying the purpose of the department, assessing efficiency, and translating the work of the Vision 2030 Strategic Communication Plan into a brand and marketing strategy for the college.
  
• There was discussion about Amazon and other organizations launching learning opportunities. Jones stressed the need to get clear on Tri-C’s competitors beyond other colleges and universities. 
  
• The group discussed the need to understand potential learners and employers to find what they are looking for. These insights drive the brand strategy. 
  
• Long-term ideal outcomes include standing out from other higher education offerings and offering exceptional user experiences.
  
• There will be three phases to the plan.
  
• One of the challenges has been the college having a broad portfolio and it’s hard for the public to know all of the offerings. 
  
• Shana Marbury, Tri-C’s executive vice president of Workforce Innovation, said that it’s not one big audience, there are segments, and the marketing team will help Cuyahoga Community College understand how to target the segments. 

Workforce Innovation Update: Steve Griffin, Tri-C vice president of Skill Based Education and Career Pathways

• Over the past few months Tri-C’s Workforce Innovation department has been analyzing live market data.
  
• The program is building stackable pathways going from non-credit to credit.
  • Bridging non-credit to credit pathways positions people coming into Workforce Innovation to tie them to an associate degree. Currently roughly 10% do this with no marketing effort, but with a marketing effort, they should be able to get this to 30% to 50%.
    
• There are salary benefits to participating in Workforce Innovation  pathways.
  • Research shows that participants in noncredit workforce modules earn an extra 8% in salary. 
  • When they come back after a time and apply prior learning and gain credit, they have the potential to increase their salary another 25%.
  • Students who take a credential inside an associate degree starting from Workforce Innovation can then jump an additional 15%.
    
• There is a need to start monitoring the data collected from employers, students and community members and fold it into feedback for making changes.
  
• Workforce Innovation is working with employers to have their faculty work inside the employer partners in the community and bring lessons back to the classroom. 
  
• Griffin talked about the work of bringing in short-term jobs, long-term permanent jobs, contract work and gig work.
  • Griffin gave an example of a film project that came to town. He said that knowing when such projects are coming to town helps with short-term contract work and leverages what the program does.

Suggested Reading

Nearly 100,000 low-income Ohio college students could see changes to their Pell Grants under Trump budget plans

by Amy Morona June 12, 2025June 13, 2025

Action Items:

Review & Discussion of Recommendation for Board Approval of Grants and Gifts Report by O’Bryan

• For the period of April 29 through June 2 of this year, Tri-C and the Tri-C Foundation on behalf of the college have received educational grants and gifts totaling $453,074.
  • One notable grant is $130,000 from the Ohio Department of Higher Education.
    
• A motion was made to advance the acceptance of the grants and gifts to the full board at the next meeting.

Additional topic

• Marbury said that Workforce Innovation is launching five Workforce academies on July 1 of this year that are analogous to the schools that launched in July 2024.
  
• The academies are related to manufacturing and engineering, public safety, construction, transportation and healthcare.
  
• In addition to focusing on skills, they will create communities of belonging for students.

Future Tri-C Board if Trustees’ meetings

A calendar of upcoming meetings is available on the Board of Trustees’ website.

These notes are from Documenter Jamie Harman.

If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at [email protected]  with “Correction Request” in the subject line.