Dr. Sharon B. DeVivo President and Chief Executive Officer of Vaughn College

Dr. Sharon B. DeVivo - President and Chief Executive Officer of Vaughn College

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everyone, this is Steve Delson. Welcome to this week's
edition of CEOs you should know. I am joined by
doctor Sharon Devivo, the President and chief executive officer of
Von College.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Sharon, thanks for being here today.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Thanks so much for having me follos over here.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
We're so excited to be able to dive into the
conversation learn more about you and more about Von College.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Terrific.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
So let's kick off a little bit about yourself.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
I know you've been with Vaughan College for over thirty
years and you rose to become the first female president.
What originally drew you to the college and what has
kept you there for so long?

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Yeah, so I really didn't know anything about the programs
that we offer when I got there, but I came
in as the director of communications, and if you're in
a communications background, you have to explain a lot of
things you don't understand. But what's kept me there for
this long is the students. They are amazing, mostly from

(00:51):
underrepresented backgrounds, primarily from New York City and the surrounding area.
Really excited, committed and passionate about what they want to do.
And so it's just a pleasure to serve alongside them.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
I love to hear that. That's so important.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
I know that you grew up as a navy brat,
So how did that really shape your worldview and how
you really view leadership, especially in this role.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah, so I was really lucky, you know, in terms
of most some people would say not so lucky. Seventeen
schools and twelve years.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, three colleges, right, a lot of different experiences. I
think it made me curious about people and about different
kinds of cultures and really interested in learning as much
as I could. It also made me very adaptable. If
you go to seventeen schools and twelve years, you have
to be very adaptable, you know. And change is coming
at us really fast right now, and so that ability

(01:40):
to be nimble and flexible and pivot is important for
the institution and also important in terms of my own
leadership journey.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
I think curiosity is key, not so leadership. So I
love that answer, And it's probably so interesting to be
able to experience all those different institutes and now obviously
be overseeing a college too.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean I don't think anybody aspires to
be college president, honest, you know, you get there because
somebody's recognized something in you, and that's exactly what happened
to me. And then it's just this awesome, amazing opportunity
to serve, right, So, Yeah, nobody gets in those jobs
and go gay. Now I'm going to like rule the world?
Is that what it's about.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
You've earned degrees from institutions all across the growth glode,
from Munich to Pennsylvania. How is that variety of academic
experiences really influence your vision for Vaughn and the students.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, So, the University of Maryland used to have a
campus in Munich, Germany set up for military dependence. It
was on an army post and I lived in army barracks,
which was an awesome experience, really small place, about two
hundred students. And then the flip side of that is
where I got my doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania,
which is thousands and thousands of students. And I think

(02:51):
what I learned was that I really love small institutions
because I love knowing the impact of the work that
I do. You know, when you're a big place, you
don't get a sense of the work as well, especially
when you're an administration and so to be at a
small place and you know, I know we're going to
talk about this more. You really get to know students
and their stories. And for me, that's the motivation, that's

(03:14):
where I get my energy from.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
That's so important.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, I know shared under your leadership, vanas transform from
a training institute to offering advanced degrees and all aviation
engineering management technology. What were some of the key steps
in decision and really leading this transformation for the school?

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah, I mean, it really is about listening to the
industries that we serve, right, because they were the ones
that were saying we need more of filling the blank
airport managers, air traffic controllers, engineers. Right there are Boeing
and Airbus studies that point to the fact that we
will not produce enough engineers, pilots, air traffic controllers, maintenance

(03:52):
technicians in the next twenty years, right, And so being
responsive to what the industries are telling us is how
we've charted this growth path that we've been on for
the last several years. And then it's about trusting the
people that are the experts in the field. Right, So
our faculty members who say, yeah, we should take this tech,
we should add this program, we should buy this equipment.

(04:14):
You know, there's no way that I can be the
expert in all those fields. And so we have an
awesome team of faculty members who are very many of
them come from industry, and so that perspective really assists
us in guiding the path forward.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, that's an awesome characteristic of you as a leader, right,
listening to what's needed and obviously taking that advice and
implementing it to real life.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
So that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
I know that's something that you're proud of is innovation,
and you've really cultivated innovation in this traditionally structured academic environment.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Right. How did you do that.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
In both the teaching standpoint as well as the student
experience side.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, so there's right, it's back to some of that
is listening again to students in particular who ask for
an outstanding and demand actually as they should, they're paying
an outstanding educational experience. And then it's about making sure
that you know what the innovative things that are out
there or thinking about things. I'll give you a good example.

(05:12):
During during the pandemic, we started to see the initial
phases of AI chatbots, right, and I'm not talking about
the ones where you go on websites. I'm talking about
ones that actually interact with students on a twenty four
to seven basis. And we did that very early because
we didn't have anybody on campus, right, and we know
that young people have a tendency to do things off hours, right,

(05:36):
and we want to be responsive at two am when
you want to know when graduation is right, but we
don't have anybody in the office to answer that question,
you know. And the other good thing about this particular
AI chatbot is that it looks at students on a
bunch of different quadrants finances, academics, social engagement, and checks
in to make sure that they're doing okay. Like maybe

(05:57):
you're having trouble with time management, so it'll up a
video on how to manage time cool or budgets, or
it'll say, hey, you know what, We're going to connect
you with the counselor on campus. They're going to reach
out and talk to you. So it helps us in
terms of staffing hours, right. It takes care of those
sort of easy questions, and at the same time it
provides students with the support that they need to be

(06:18):
successful at a time where we might not be available.
So that's what we mean about, and we tried it
out and it's been really terrific. So you have to
have this spirit of experimentation if you want to get
to innovation.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
We touched this on this a little bit earlier, but
can you share how Vaughn's unique culture, being a highly
diverse first generation student population, really has also influenced that
approach to leadership and some of the priorities you have
for the institution.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah, absolutely so, And you could see the big grin
because I just love I just love what we serve.
And you know, there's a reason that we're the best
institution in the nation, the region and New York City
in moving students from the bottom percon diches of income
to the top. That's not just about lawn. That's also
about the industries that we serve, which include aviation, engineering,

(07:07):
technology management degrees. It also speaks to the incredible demand
that is out there right now for our graduates. But
I'd also like to think it has something to do
with the educational experience that we are deeply invested in
as an institution, and so it's really why we come
to work it's why we do what we do. And
to know that you've helped a student. I'm thinking of

(07:31):
Mathon who first semester family had a massive fire in
their apartment building and math And sustain burns over fifteen
percent of his body. We've reached out, provided a gift
card for stopping shop, tried to help him with his coursework.
He was just the commencement speaker in May and has

(07:51):
just started a job at GE in Atlanta as a
field engineer.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Right.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
To know that story and to know the impact that
we've been able to have on math And and his
family and their trajectory and his brother's still on campus,
which is great, is just incredible.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
That's awesome and I'm sure very rewarding.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Absolutely, you can.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Tell that you have that passion and that love for
what you do as you tell these stories and leading
into that. I think that's probably one of the reasons
that Vaughan's vision is to change the world, one student
at a time. Right, So what does that look like
in action? Obviously you just told one yeah story, but
how do you really measure that success and achieving that
mission across the entire student body?

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, So there's a you know, you can look at outcomes,
you can look at persistence along the way. In fact,
we just did our annual look back to see how
graduates are doing in terms of employment. So we do.
We survey you when you graduate, but then we survey
you a year out to see are you employed, are
you working in your field? And the numbers is breaking news.

(08:50):
The numbers just came out two days ago. Ninety nine
percent of our graduates are employed, are continuing their education
within one year, seventy eight percent in their field right.
And it's about making sure from almost the moment, even
the moments before you come to campus as a registered student,
So new student orientation, making sure that you're getting all
the supports, know who the people are that you need

(09:11):
to reach out to, encouraging you not to wait until
there's a real problem, you know, making sure you take
the first year experience course which makes you're engaged. You
have support services. You know, if you're having our biggest
barriers affordability and finances, making sure you've got the supports,
connections to scholarship Universe which you'll connect you to scholarships,

(09:33):
that you know how to get, emergency assistants, that you
know how to take advantage of our food pantry, right
those kinds of things, and then in your sophomore year
taking our CD Career Development CD one on one course,
so that you've got a good LinkedIn profile, that you've
got a good resume, that you know how to interview,
that you're using our tools on campus for even part
time or internships. And then making sure by the time

(09:56):
you get to your capstone project, which is sort of
your graduation project, that you've got team building skills, public
speaking skills, you know, all the critical thinking, analytical communications
skills that you're going to need to be successful in
that job. And then providing you with lifelong placement services
right let's say two years. You know, after you've gotten
into the industry, you're like, I think I want to,

(10:18):
you know, try something else right of it. You can
come back to us and we'll work with you. We
often have employers who come back to us because of
our specialties and say, can you reach out to your
alums and see if they'd be interested in this sort
of higher level job that requires experience. And then it's
about staying engaged with those students right after the fact
and finding out what those stories are and you know,

(10:39):
we've done issues of our Vawn magazine that looks at
you know, twenty in their twenties and you know, sort
of tracking everybody's path. We've been around since nineteen thirty two,
so we have some older graduates as well, but really
staying engaged with those young alums and those ones that
are in their first decade of work is really important.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, it's awesome to see that you have so many
support resources, not just for the student body, but really forever, right, forever,
they'll always be part of VON and always have to
support and resources that you guys provide.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
Yeah, absolutely, that's great.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
I know that you've earned top national rankings and economic
and social mobility. What strategies or implementations did you put
in place that were the most critical to achieving those outcomes?

Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yeah, So, aviation engineering technology fields don't have great awareness
in underrepresented and underresourced communities, right. You know, people tend
to think of aviation as like pilots and flight attendants, right,
and just about any job you can think of you
can do an aviation So a lot of the work
that we have to do is about creating awareness early,

(11:43):
not high school. That's too late. Actually, it's about middle school.
Now assume we're gonna chip kindergarteners, I think, but it's
about having those engagement activities with them at a pretty
early age so that there's awareness in their families.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Right.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
So, air traffic control is a great example of this,
although it's been getting a lot of press because of
some of the difficulties right now. But I don't think
folks necessarily understand what that job means, what it is,
how well it pays. Right. The average air traffic controller
on Long Island makes three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
And there are Vaughan graduates thirty percent of the JFK.
Towers Von graduates. The supervisor at Westchester County Airports a
Von graduate LaGuardia Airport Von graduates.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Right.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
So, but you need to see it to be it right.
And so using our own students, our own alums, to
go back into communities where they can show off right
and really say, hey, this is really possible, you know.
And we also need girls not to give up right,
you know. So all of this is part of what
we do in terms of outreach to Girl Scouts or

(12:49):
local public schools or doing drone projects in Brooklyn and
Queen's High schools and Long Island High schools. It's really
about showing students and families what the pathways look like.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
It's so important just to be able to inspire those
young young individuals that they could see someone like themselves
in those roles in those professions. It gives them that
motivation that that could be them someday.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
Yeah, you got to see it to be it.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
We mentioned this earlier, but I know that the college
is nearly approaching its one hundred.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Year and congratulation, thank you.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
How do you plan to continue to have von as
that leader in aviation and engineering education for the next century?

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, this is kind of back to where we started, right.
It really is about making sure that we're listening to industry.
And I don't just mean that in sort of a
oh I happen to talk to a CEO and say, hey,
what do you need?

Speaker 1 (13:39):
Right?

Speaker 3 (13:39):
This is about having very structured approaches, but also some
informal approaches too. So whether it's making sure that we
have advisory councils for each of our major areas, so
engineering and engineering technology, we have an Aviation advisory council,
we have a management advisory council and really listening to
them about what they're telling us. I'll give you good

(13:59):
for instance, and so our airport management, airline management, general
management programs right now a foreign language component because when
we've built those programs twenty years ago, the local airport
advisors said to us, make sure they know how to
speak another language. Probably not as critical anymore. What they're
now telling us is make those courses AI courses, right,

(14:21):
because we're using AI in managing our airports. Right, we
manage how quick we can turn a plane because the
more planes you can get into a gate, the more
money the airport makes.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Right.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
So being able to analyze data, write a good prompt. Right,
these are all skill sets that students are going to
need in the future.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
That's so interesting to see, like the evolution of them.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, well there's a lot of positive I'm sure there
also could be challenges along the ways. Right. What were
some of the biggest challenges you faced as a higher
education institute.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Yeah, so pandemic was really tough for the institution. Our
average family incomes about forty two thousand, and students had
to choose between rent and tuition, and rent one as
it should right so, and much like after nine to eleven,
we see this sort of hick down in enrollment as
the industry is trying to recuperate, and then you get

(15:15):
this hot literally a hockey stick of recovery. And we're
in the hockey stick right now, which is great. Yeah,
about forty percent growth enrollment in two years. And yeah,
so in those situations, you just have to work really
hard to keep your faculty, staff and students informed. Right
after the pandemic started, we called at that point, we

(15:36):
had roughly fifteen hundred students called, every one of them,
how are you doing? What do you need? Loner laptops?
Emergency assistance. You know, we wanted to make sure that
students understood we were there to help them. That's great,
and that theme really continues as they as they have moved,
as we have moved out of the pandemic and into
this really unbelievable demand. I mean, in my thirty years

(15:59):
at the institution, ever seen demand like we're seeing right now.
That's awesome, and it's because more of us are flying,
more of us, you know, are using technology in our
everyday lives. You know, these are great, great pathways and
we shouldn't be afraid of AI. That's the other thing, right,
you have to be an expert in your field, right,
it's an insist it's not taking over. So giving students

(16:21):
those skills is what's really important.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
It's great to hear.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
We touched on this a little bit earlier about getting
more women into the industry. What advice would you give
to any young women that are aspiring to leadership roles
higher education or really STEM industries.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah, so we know from the research that girls tend
to be even ahead until about eighth grade, and then
when they get into high school they sort of back off, right,
And I think some of that is there's not enough
role models of women in the fields right, particularly around
STEM is they kind of get this idea that it's
not for them, they're not welcome, right, And so some

(16:58):
of this is on industry to make sure that they're
fostering a sense of belonging, right, making sure that you've
got work family policies and practices to hold on to
those women when they decide or not how they're going
to manage their lives. But really it's about talking to
girls in middle school. It is if you're waiting till
high school. They've already made up their mind, and we

(17:20):
have to be active and approachable about what our pathway
look like, what some of the struggles have looked like.
There are still struggles as a women in particularly in
underrepresented fields, you know, and how you manage that and
how you have a tribe of people around you to
talk to and think things through and so that you
can stay the course and be incredibly successful. Because we

(17:43):
know those companies that are more diverse, whether that's gender, race, religion,
any kind of different lived experience is an awesome contributor
to companies and we also know from the research that
it makes them more successful, and so we need to
find as many ways as we can to help keep

(18:04):
girls on that path.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
I love that couldn't agree more. So, what is next
for Vaughan College? Do you have any exciting developments or
expansions on the horizon.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
Yeah, so a couple of things. One is, we talked
a little bit about air traffic control. The FAA has
now moved to so the pathway used to be you
could go to an institution like Vaughan, or you could
reply to what's called a general public announcement and if
you got accepted, got a recommendation from US you would
go to the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City. They, because

(18:34):
of the pandemic and because of the mandatory retirement age
of fifty six, are in desperate need of about four
thousand air traffic controllers. The academy can't handle all of that,
so they have opened it up. I think there's a
half dozen institutions across the country night right now, including Vaughan,
that offer what's called an enhanced air Traffic Control training program,
which means you don't have to go to Oakland and

(18:56):
home at all. You can stay in New York and
do all of your training here. So that's an awesome
opportunity for students to become air traffic controllers. The required
the mandatory retirement age is fifty six, by the way,
so you have to get in it by the time
you're thirty one. We also offer what's called a contract
tower option, slightly different and allows folks up to thirty

(19:17):
five to get into contract towers. So just a terrific
after opportunity. The other place that's really going to be
interesting is you know air taxis which are coming to
New York I think next year Wow. So this whole
idea of taking an air taxi from Manhattan to JFK,
or from Manhattan to Newark, right being part of you know,

(19:38):
the folks who maintain those fly those manage what's going
to be called a vertical airport, vertiport design, the batteries,
those kinds of things. And another really cool piece about
technology is this, you know, use of virtual reality with
lab assignments. So we used to joke that we would
have loved to have sent our students home with an

(19:59):
engine during the pandemic. Virtual reality is good enough now
that you basically can do that.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
That's so cool.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
And so students are going to see more and more
technology in these spaces that really help supplement the skills
that we're teaching them in the classroom.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
It's awesome excited to see that happen. Yeah, we covered
a lot.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
Of the amazing work that von College is doing. But
for our listeners, if there's one thing you want them
to take away about the mission about the school, what
would that be?

Speaker 3 (20:24):
Yeah, that Vaughan College really cares about students, right, we
really do. We don't just say it, We prove it
with things like food pantries and emergency assistants. And probably
one of the biggest ways is you know, because we're
a small institution, sometimes it can be tough to get
big companies, especially manufacturers that are not in this area
to come to Vaughan and so we are very good

(20:44):
about supporting students to go off to the National Society
Black Engineers, Women in Aviation Society, Women Engineers, the Hispanic
Society Professional Engineers. Right, all of these places are have
Lockheed Martin and and Airbus, And this is where students
get internships and jobs. That's where our placement rate is

(21:05):
so high. And we know our students don't always have
the resources. So investing them in them all across their
degree programs and making that commitment in a very real
way is how we help transform their lives and their
families lives.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
Well, I think that mission and that commitment definitely shine
through our conversation today.

Speaker 3 (21:22):
Terrific. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
Absolutely, is there any last call to action you'd like
to share? If someone that is tuning in wants to
engage or learn more about von College, what should they do? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (21:32):
Absolutely, please visit our website so www dot Vaughn Vaughn
dot edu or please connect with me on LinkedIn.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
Sharon Devvel Awesome, well, Sharon, thank you so much for
coming in today, for sharing your story, for telling us
all more about von College. It is very inspiring and
it is amazing work that you guys are doing at
the college, and you could tell that you love what
you do, so thank you so much for.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Sharing your story.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
Yeah, thanks for having me. It was a pleasure.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Thank you all for tuning in. Tune in next week
for next week's edition of CEOs.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
You should Know