Episode 1: Dr. Roy Church

Dr. Church served 45 years as a leader in higher education, 30 of those years as president of Lorain County Community College until his retirement in June, 2016.  Dr. Church is recognized for his leadership in creating innovative models to fulfill the four cornerstones of the comprehensive community college mission:  education, economic, community and cultural development.  Notable among these are the nationally recognized University Partnership Program, an Early College High School and a Public Service Institute with its Joint Center for Policy Research.  In addition, Dr. Church has worked to build collaborative initiatives with business, organized labor and government to enhance workforce education, economic development and entrepreneurial activity in Northeast Ohio.  

Dr. Church is nationally recognized for developing a comprehensive portfolio of innovation and entrepreneurship resources to help stimulate technology-based economic growth.  His leadership has led to the creation of GLIDE, which is recognized by the State of Ohio a highly successful Technology Incubator; the Innovation Fund, a $20 million pre-seed fund for regional technology start-ups; a 46,000 square foot commercialization center for sensors and microsystems; and a 75,000 square foot Advanced Technologies Center supporting advanced manufacturing and containing a National Science Foundation Weld-Ed Center and a digital rapid prototyping center. 

Upon his retirement in June 2016, the Lorain County Community College District Board of Trustees honored Dr. Church with title of President Emeritus.  In this role, Dr. Church will continue to advance the College’s pioneering work in technology commercialization, entrepreneurship and innovation as related to state and federal priorities.  In addition, Dr. Church will remain a Director of the Lorain County Community College Foundation, the direct support organization of College.  

Transcript

Matt Poyle (00:13):

In honor of Dr. Roy Church's 30 years of service as president of Lorain County Community College (LCCC), the Lorain County Community College Foundation created the Roy and Bobbi Church Visionary Leadership Institute in 2016 to bring the top thought leaders to our community. It's an honor to have Dr. Church as our first guest on the Visionary Leadership Institute Podcast. Dr. Church served 45 years as a leader in higher education – thirty of those years as president of Lorain County Community College, until his retirement in 2016. Dr. Church is recognized for his leadership in creating innovative models to fulfill the four cornerstones of the comprehensive community college mission – education, economic, community and cultural development. Notable among these are the nationally recognized University Partnership Program, an Early College High School and a Public Service Institute with its joint center for policy research. In addition, Dr. Church has worked to build collaborative initiatives with business, organized labor and government to enhance workforce education, economic development and entrepreneurial activity in Northeast Ohio. Dr. Church is nationally recognized for developing a comprehensive portfolio of innovation and entrepreneurship resources to help stimulate technology based economic growth. Upon his retirement, the Lorain County Community College District Board of Trustees honored Dr. Church with the title of president emeritus. Dr. Church, welcome to the podcast.

Dr. Roy Church (01:35):

Thank you very much, Matt. I'm delighted to be here and to see the Visionary Leadership Institute moving forward in such an effective way with its own podcast.

Matt Poyle (01:45):

So since this is the Visionary Leadership Institute Podcast, our first question will be: How would you define a visionary leader?

Dr. Roy Church (01:52):

Visionary leadership is a descriptor and is a byproduct, if you will, of leadership in a community. Let me step back just a little bit and give you a little bit of context. You know, when I was recruited to Lorain County (Community College) in 1986, (19)87, the county had just gone through a traumatic change from a heavy industrial manufacturing environment to the precipice of the digital economy. We had 80 companies close their doors and go out of business in the 1983 recession, 25% unemployment rates, during that time. When the trustees recruited me, one of the things they wanted me to do was to try to accentuate the role of a community college – a community based higher education institution to help lead and support change in the community, to try to write the economic ship and to provide a better future for individuals living in the county and for companies trying to grow and develop.

Dr. Roy Church (03:01):

So within that context, what we attempted to do was to put all of the cornerstones in place to build an environment that encouraged entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership. You know, one of the things that I have long believed is that leadership is everybody's business. Everybody can be a leader. What has to happen is leaders have to set goals. They have to work hard to focus on and implement those goals and then to effectively change those goals as the circumstances changed going forward. You know, one, one of the quotes that I have kept in mind for many years is that of Teddy Roosevelt, who said, “Do what you can, where you are with what you have.” And in a very real way, that's what Lorain County was faced with. Take the current environment and the major transformational change that had just taken place and try to make the most out of that as the county moved forward.

Dr. Roy Church (04:07):

And so there was a premium on everyone that could, and everyone that was so inclined to play a leadership role in helping to move the county forward. We were fortunate to have the Nord Family Foundation in the county that put some resources into encouraging leadership to grow and develop in the county. They actually brought a nationally known economic development guru to Lorain county to do a baseline study of the leadership in the counties. His name was Peter Zin and he developed a report called “Lorain County 2020” in the early 1990s. And one of the things he observed was that the county was ahead of the game because it had created its own community college. It had assembled higher education resources that could be mobilized to help and support other leadership activities as they evolve throughout the county. It's not the college's responsibility to lead the county.

Dr. Roy Church (05:15):

It's the college's responsibility to encourage, nurture and support leadership at many, many different levels through the engagement of individuals. Now, one of the things that has to happen to fulfill those three major purposes of leadership, setting goals, implementing goals and changing goals is to constantly be trying to understand what is the nature of change that's taking place. And to do that while you're working extremely hard at trying to fulfill goals and achieve what you have set out to do, you know, many people describe efforts to build an airplane while you're flying it <laugh> in many ways, that's the leadership challenge is to be able to understand and keep in mind the big picture of the airplane, but at the same time, be constantly building it and supporting its growth and development over time. So the Nord Family Foundation not only supported bringing Peter Zin in to lay out that baseline study and in that study featuring the potential role and responsibilities of the community college, it also funded the initiation of the college's public services Institute.

Dr. Roy Church (06:33):

And that Institute operated for 25 years and provided research and analysis support for the county, understand the nature of change as it was evolving in the county and how the county was responding to that. So we use tools like that to consistently try to fulfill that role of leadership. Now, you know, we've been described as visionary leaders and we don't really think that's true. The reality is we just have been trying to fulfill those three major purposes of leadership. And part of that is helping to change goals as the circumstances change. And so that means you gotta understand what's happening and then try to effectively set new goals and new implementation strategies in an iterative process as you move forward.

Matt Poyle (07:32):

And right now things definitely are shifting with the pandemic and the pandemic has poked holes in leadership and talent models. And I think we're all just trying to do what we can, where we are with what we have like Teddy Roosevelt said, but how can we as leaders, harness disruption and create a new way of thinking?

Dr. Roy Church (07:49):

One of my observations is that the pandemic exacerbated major underlying changes that were already taking place. I think I referenced that when I came to the college, we were right at the beginning of seeing the impact of the digital revolution. It was impacting manufacturing first and foremost at the time, but it clearly was headed toward disrupting every aspect of how we operate and function as a society and certainly as an institution. So then comes along the pandemic, which causes us to think even more specifically on how to use digital tools in being able just to do our foundational work, our fundamental work, as well as continue to play that role of helping a community come along in this environment. So it was disruptive change on steroids, and it has caused the county to draw on the very best resources it has available. And I am just so thrilled and honored and inspired to see the college continuing to play that role in this community as it goes forward.

Dr. Roy Church (09:09):

I think about the work that was done in, in creating the center for addressing the development of computer chip technology, and think about how many years the college invested in putting the educational programs in place, putting the infrastructure in place, creating the leadership support to encourage it. And then wouldn't, you know, that out of all this disruption comes an investment like Intel in the state of Ohio. You know, we didn't envision that was gonna happen. We didn't plan for that to happen. That was not on our goal list, but the county and the college were extremely well positioned to help nurture and support that kind of development. So the pandemic's been disruptive, it's accelerated disruption, but it does provide wonderful opportunities for the college to continue to have an expanding impact on its fundamental purposes of education, economic development and cultural development in our county.

Matt Poyle (10:15):

And how can we create and thrive for a better future?

Dr. Roy Church (10:19):

The seeds are of it are in what I just described – constantly understanding or trying to understand. You never fully understand, you know, when fundamental changes are taking place, but you continue to try to understand and to probe on that. And you do that from a variety of different ways. One is to gather insights and analyses from people outside your environment. People that can look in as well as of us that are trying to look from within looking out. And so that's part of what the Visionary Leadership Institute does is give a few resources to try to bring some of that external critical analysis of dramatic changes, like we're seeing, coming out of the pandemic, and further implementation of the digital revolution and to see what the college might do to tweak its impact on the community. Again, you know, one of the things that I always have stressed is it's not the college's job to do everything necessary for the county to move forward successfully. It’s job is to be supportive, to be supportive through providing the very highest quality educational opportunities for individuals, because we know that the real development potential is through people and <laugh>, and it's Lorain County's people that we're investing in first and foremost. But then to use whatever other resources we have to put infrastructure in place that enables those people to apply what it is they have to offer and what they learn to most effectively move the county forward in the future.

Matt Poyle (12:05):

Future And the past few years has put a lot of new leaders into power. So what advice would you give a new leader who's navigating the unknown through the next few years, few months, few years?

Dr. Roy Church (12:19):

Try to set goals for themselves and for the organizations with which they work that are realistic and will have a substantive impact on their mission to keep a, a diligent focus on achieving those goals, because it is through achievement that change is created and then to be open, to change, to tweak, to modify, to enhance, always looking for ways to create a better result than has been achieved before. You know, one of the wonderful things about leadership is it's a job never done. It is always a work in progress and the most you can hope for is to be a positive, constructive contributor to that process going forward. And the college has got wonderful resources and people, talent and support to be able to be an integral part of that.

Matt Poyle (13:24):

So I want to take a second and say thank you for being our first guest on the Visionary Leadership Institute Podcast. And I'd like to allow you to have any final thoughts, advice, anything that you'd like to, to leave us with today.

Dr. Roy Church (13:37):

My final thought is that when I completed my doctorate in higher education at Florida Atlantic University, I chose a path that was focused on these relatively new institutions of higher education called community colleges. Uh, because I was enamored with the notion of a community-based higher education institution that could focus all of its resources on enabling a community to be more successful. And I've pursued a whole career around that notion and have seen lots of successes and have seen a lot of transformational change for people from all walks of life within a community. Community colleges were a unique innovation of the United States in the post-World War II era. And it's one of the major factors that differentiated the United States from the rest of the countries in the world, because it educated a much broader base of human talent to take the community and to move it effectively forward. And I'm just proud to have been a small part of that.

Matt Poyle (14:54):

Thank you again so much for being our first guest on the Visionary Leadership Institute Podcast.

Dr. Roy Church (14:58):

You're welcome. And, Matt, it's good to see you again.