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Tag: collaboration

SW community colleges to create wind manufacturing workforce

The presidents of four community colleges in Southwest Virginia signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday to establish a wind manufacturing workforce development partnership.

“Today’s MOU signing is meaningful because it demonstrates our resident and abiding interest in collaborating. Our four community college presidents are setting an example of how to find ways to work together over significant opportunities that can empower the region as a whole,” said Will Payne, managing partner of Coalfield Strategies LLC and project lead for InvestSWVA.

Mountain Empire Community College, Southwest Virginia Community College, Virginia Highlands Community College and Wytheville Community College “will work together to promote, develop and expand the training and development of a workforce prepared to enter” the supply chain manufacturing workforce in the offshore wind energy field, the MOU states.

“We are realistic about the number of people ready to go to work in manufacturing,” Wytheville Community College President Dean Sprinkle said in a statement. “As a result, we see the wind energy sector as an exciting and compelling path for people who may be ‘on the fence’ about a manufacturing career. Training workers and inspiring them to live and work in our region are elements of our mission in community colleges, and this is an enticing opportunity.”

InvestSWVA commissioned Aberdeen, Scotland-based energy consulting firm Xodus Group Ltd. to perform research for Project Veer, its initiative to help Southwest Virginia manufacturers find entry points in the supply chain for wind energy equipment components announced in December 2021. The firm recommended that regional community colleges sign an MOU formalizing their collaboration, and that the project’s members identify a “major tier company” to act as an anchor and help pave the way to form relationships with global equipment manufacturers

With the MOU signed, the next step in the process is for the colleges to form a leadership team with a senior official and at least one other representative from each college. The stakeholders will work closely with the commerce and trade secretariat, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Virginia Department of Energy and legislators to identify the “major tier company.”

“We accelerated the pace of this first phase of Project Veer from six months to three, so that we could spend the next three months building a timeline around the MOU, a potential partnership with the Hampton Roads Alliance and figuring out how we coordinate centrally to seize this opportunity,” Payne said.

The other chief recommendations of Xodus Group’s report are for the project’s members to form such a partnership with the Hampton Roads Alliance, designate a regional entity to act as a single point of entry into offshore wind and coordinate an approach to retain the next generation of workers, including highlighting the advantages of offshore wind careers.

“Virginia’s Southwest is an answer, a resource and the place to be for wind energy manufacturers looking for business partners who can satisfy market demand in a quality fashion,” Payne said. “The agreement we announce today is foundational to our success not just in the wind energy industry but to our ability to rally around opportunity, together. The presidents of our community colleges are setting a great example.

“This is beyond brainstorming — it’s about action — and they are the catalysts,” he said.

NoVa Chamber and U.Va.’s Sorensen Institute partner to promote civics

The Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service announced Tuesday their Advancing Civics partnership to encourage collaboration among business and government leaders.

The Northern Virginia Chamber wants to promote civic-minded leadership, said Clayton Medford, vice president of government relations for the Chamber.

“We’re seeing so much nationally, and even unfortunately in the states, this dialogue around campaigns that is not about that compromise. It’s not about coming to the table and finding solutions to shared problems,” he said, which led the Chamber to think about how it could highlight centric approaches to problem-solving.

The partnership plans to host speakers who demonstrate collaboration and compromise in business or government this year, Medford said. It also plans to provide recognition through leadership awards.

The Sorensen Institute was a natural partner for the Northern Virginia Chamber, Medford said.

“The Sorensen Institute has a long history of providing Virginia’s future leaders with the tools they need to accomplish great things by working together,” Sorensen Institute Director Lawrence Roberts said in a statement. The Chamber’s core values of integrity, equity and community make it a great partner for the Sorensen Institute. … Together, we can make great strides toward fostering a more collaborative approach to solving problems in Virginia.”

The kids are getting better

Richmond-based health care company StageZero Life Sciences Ltd. has teamed up with a nonprofit started by legendary The Who frontman Roger Daltrey to improve diagnosis and survival rates of teens and young adults with cancer.

StageZero developed Aristotle, an mRNA multicancer panel that screens for several types of cancer in a single blood sample. The Richmond company is joining forces with the nonprofit Teen Cancer America, co-founded by Daltrey and bandmate Pete Townshend, to improve earlier cancer detection in younger people, who often are diagnosed during later stages, when there are fewer treatment options. The iconic rockers also co-founded the Daltrey/Townshend Teen and Young Adult Cancer Program at UCLA Medical Center.

“A lot of times, cancer is not found among adolescents until it’s symptomatic, and it’s really late,” says StageZero CEO James Howard-Tripp. Also, about 50% of Americans aged 18 to 39 don’t have primary physicians or, in some cases, health insurance, so “people are not seeking treatment until they have to,” he adds.

According to statistics from the National Institutes for Health’ National Cancer Institute, more than 88,000 people between the ages of 15 and 39 were diagnosed with cancer this year, with 4.6% of all cancers and 9,130 deaths occurring among this age cohort.

StageZero Life Sciences CEO James Howard-Tripp

A Teen Cancer America board member reached out to StageZero, Howard-Tripp says, and the two organizations are working on a multistep plan to increase awareness of cancer among younger people, as well as working with large national employers that could provide workplace cancer screenings for younger employees. Eventually, Teen Cancer America will publish research that shows the economic costs of cancer in young people.

“Our core mission is to develop specialist programs and facilities for young people with cancer in hospitals throughout the U.S. and to advocate for investment in research that will improve their experience, outcomes and chances of survival. Tragically, late diagnosis and misdiagnosis are more common in young people than other age groups and we are dedicated to supporting any initiative that will change that narrative,” Teen Cancer America Executive Director Simon Davies said in a statement. “The fact that a company like StageZero is particularly interested in the early detection of the rare cancers that affect young people and is supportive of our mission is vitally important to our cause. This can help us to significantly increase awareness around adolescent and young adult cancer and the challenges that these patients face, while also working to improve the testing, detection and treatment that could save these young lives.”

Howard-Tripp says another possibility will be a symposium offering more information on the economic impact of cancer among younger people — as well as a possible visit from Daltry, the pinball wizard himself.