The ILR School’s Western New York presence has evolved in many ways during its 75 years but Lou Jean Fleron’s efforts to make the region a better place for working people has been a constant for more than four decades Fleron, who has directed ILR programs in Buffalo since 1976, announced her retirement as director this past fall. In her place steps Cathy Creighton ’87 will continue to lead the ILR Buffalo Co-Lab’s economic development initiatives “I am always drawn to a substantive focus on education research and direct action around economic development,” Fleron said “When I think of it from a career perspective extraordinary colleagues and enormous opportunities to change what I do so I can best make a difference.” Fleron was raised on the Great Plains by working-class parents – her mother was a schoolteacher her father worked in the oilfields – and she attributes her “working class” upbringing to her commitment to equality “There's a certain vastness to the Kansas landscape that makes you feel comfortably small,” Fleron said there weren't great economic differences among people in our community We shared a lot more than anything that divided us and you have to work with people where they are and you have to try to understand diverse interests and come to a common good is in some ways uniquely positioned to do.” Fleron also credits her extended family – which includes her husband, three children ten grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren – in connecting her to the work she has done in upstate New York.  just that my family—the ones before and the ones after me—are central to the way I think about what is important in life and our responsibility to care for everybody like those who were anti-slavery Kansas settlers who carry on the values of equality and active citizenship.” After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Fort Hays State University Fleron earned a master’s degree in government from Indiana University Her first teaching job came in the political science department at Northwest Missouri State and she held similar posts at the University of Kentucky and the State University of New York at Buffalo and served on the first Title IX faculty committee at the university “It is important to note that the breadth and depth of our ILR impact in Buffalo would not be possible without Lou Jean Fleron’s tireless dedication commitment and vision over the past four decades,” said ILR Associate Dean for Outreach Ariel Avgar “I am grateful to Lou Jean for her leadership and passion for our land-grant mission but I am also grateful to have her continue to contribute in her new role to the Buffalo Co-Lab and to ILR.” Fleron has been at the center of initiatives such as The High Road Fellowship program, the Partnership for the Public Good and the ILR Institute for Industry Studies While picking a favorite would be like “choosing between your children,” she pointed to the ways they moved industry practices and economic policies toward more equitable opportunity and innovation in Buffalo and beyond.  the Institute for Industry Studies tackled deindustrialization with applied research and workplace education aimed at keeping good jobs in competitive industries,” Fleron said we sent teams of teachers to Ford plants all over the country to bring supervisors and rank and file workers together for week-long classes to learn about the global economy diversity and team-building in the workplace.  “Buffalo’s economic revitalization is based on grassroots community development and ‘radical collaborations,’ to use a term historically associated with ILR The Partnership for the Public Good grew out of our work with the Buffalo Living Wage Commission and is now a powerful ally with over 300 organizational partners collaborating on a more just sustainable and culturally vibrant Buffalo Niagara.  since 2009 High Road Fellowships have been awarded to 208 Cornell undergraduates for summers of hands-on work with Partnership for the Public Good community organizations They leave Buffalo with stronger civic organizations and take with them valuable career experience and inspiration.”  Fleron looks forward to continuing her work with the Co-Lab as an “activist political economist.” “I'm a very optimistic person by nature,” she said I see an immense need to continue the work that is really about providing opportunity for everybody in the economy I think that racial and economic inequality is our nation's worst problem “On the Structure of Freedom,” that ‘a society is as free as its underdogs are.’ And that really motivates me “I've seen the impact of ILR in other immensely challenging times and I believe that the Co-Lab has the potential to continue especially along with our community allies to address the huge problems of these times.” who is excited to have more time to spend with her husband has no plans to step away from the Co-Lab and her life’s work “People always ask me when I’m going to ‘really’ retire and I always say unless we get everything fixed.’ I guess that’s when I'll retire when I get to the point where I'm not useful anymore but hopefully I’ll find a way to keep going.” Lou Jean Fleron credits her family for the belief that a strong democracy requires strong active citizens – and that belief guides her personal and professional lives research and civic lives merge to advance democracy and a sustainable A member of Cornell University ILR School faculty since 1977 Fleron currently directs High Road Fellowships putting Cornell students to work to revitalize the Greater Buffalo economy.  Fleron served as Cornell ILR’s statewide director of workforce and founded the Institute for Industry Studies these programs provide applied research and education to employers unions and policymakers in industries from auto and metals to telecommunications and the arts was a benchmark for labor-management cooperation and innovative workplace practices in Western New York A tireless advocate for quality jobs and workers’ rights she served as the first Chair of the City of Buffalo Living Wage Commission.  Fleron also co-directs the Partnership for the Public Good (PPG) a community-based think tank which unites more than 185 organizational partners to build a more just sustainable and culturally vibrant Buffalo. PPG develops an annual agenda of policy planks and produces publications and other resources to give the non-profit community and citizens a stronger voice in public policy she served as Project Director for a collaborative that earned the Open Society Foundation’s long-term investment in Buffalo one of only three sites in the United States.  Jack Williams – a retired president of United Steelworkers Local 593 – Ms Fleron is active in politics and community affairs She and her husband enjoy their family of three children numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren – all heirs to the active citizen legacy they continue to be above the norm; in particular additional tasks may fall to this workforce in settings where there are not enough registered nurses could lead to retention difficulties in this segment increases from preceding years would already be baked into labor costs this could result in an incremental $90 billion of cost in 2027 in the healthcare system hit the healthcare system hard in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic especially in personal protective equipment Global bottlenecks have also created supply chain difficulties and increased costs across the economy We expect that continued supply chain issues will push nonlabor costs above the trend we would have projected in 2019 Using consumption deflators as a proxy for how costs could rise across the system we expect additional nonlabor costs to increase by up to $110 billion in 2027 particularly for payers in government lines of business In commercial (employer-sponsored) lines of business providers’ ability to pass on increased costs is governed by contracting life cycles (the average contract locks in specific rates and inflation escalators for about three years) and by the outcome of negotiations we expect that it will take one to three years for incremental costs associated with the commercial population to flow from providers to payers Payers’ ability to pass these costs onto employers will be linked to bid cycles with the first major impact likely occurring in the 2024 pricing cycle (to be negotiated in 2023) will then face the choice of bearing these increased costs or Government payers (Medicare and Medicaid fee-for-service) would likely start to see increased costs in two to three years given standardized methodologies for using historical inflation rates to set next year’s prices For government payers to raise rates sooner the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) or state Medicaid agencies would need to be willing to use current experience to override historical rate-setting methodologies but we still do not expect that it would entirely alleviate the cost pressures discussed in this article we estimate that clinical labor wages will increase 10 percent this year nearly six percentage points higher than the IPPS rate increase Private payers in government lines of business (Medicaid managed care and Medicare Advantage) would likely not see additional government revenue until 2026–27 given how prices in those lines of business are set largely due to rising prices paid to hospitals and pharmaceutical companies and increased use of services by enrollees relatively few insurers are seeking to lower premiums; only four out of 72 insurers filed negative premium changes while the remaining 68 insurers requested premium increases Some plans are seeking increases of more than 25 percent We modeled three extremes of impact to better understand what might happen to industry profit pools (Exhibit 2) but there is no new revenue from any source and the increases are passed on to payers in the form of unit price increases but payers are unable to pass these increases to end customers such as employers or state governments what happens if payers are able to pass the increases to end consumers of healthcare Our analysis shows that if players do not take any mitigating action industry profit pools will erode in all three scenarios due to the lag in contracting cycles described above and the inability of most players to pass on increased administrative costs and even within each example the impact on any one company could differ greatly compared with other firms as they are expecting that payers and providers will rely more heavily on technology to promote efficiencies These executives said they expected a drop of about 15 to 50 percent Some of the actions these executives take could include layoffs more than a quarter of executives surveyed believe that they may have to let go of at least 10 percent of their workforce in the next six to 18 months attracting clinical talent was the number-one priority for providers indicating that layoffs would likely affect nonclinical employees the top two being use of technology to reduce labor burden (66 percent of surveyed executives) and skill-mix optimization to enable clinicians to practice at top of license (64 percent) Rate increases are unlikely to offer a way out payers recognize that price increases beyond historical levels are unsustainable; therefore The actual financers of healthcare—employers and consumers—can’t afford more than historical levels of increase Also, capital has become more expensive. Over the past 12 months, healthcare market valuations have trended lower as well; the S&P 500 has dropped by about 15 percent, while S&P Healthcare fell by 10 percent.14As of August 26, 2022. And capital availability has tightened the federal funds rate has increased by 225 basis points But we already know that more than a trillion dollars of value is available in the healthcare system that has not yet been accessed This is the perfect storm that could spur the industry to address productivity gains the combination of cost pressures and a labor shortage provides an incentive to use technology-enabled levers to increase productivity as any move to do so would free up capacity to meet demand and improve access while also reducing costs Healthcare executives will need a disciplined approach and fast action if they want to come out stronger from this period Well-known tactical actions exist that can spur the required improvements just as a set of well-understood organizational measures can help companies thrive during a period of uncertainty The real question for the healthcare industry is whether incumbent stakeholders will be able to quickly set high aspirations in these areas Those that do not only will weather the storm but may well come out ahead Addie Fleron is an associate partner in McKinsey’s Chicago office; Aneesh Krishna is a partner in the Silicon Valley office; and Shubham Singhal is a senior partner in the Detroit office and Cara Repasky for their contributions to this article WASHINGTON (CNS) — It’s Thursday evening and Georgetown University’s small Copley Crypt Chapel is filling up with students from every corner of campus Most wear jeans and boots or Converse in contrast to the chapel’s medieval solemnity The students have gathered for a session of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program which prepares people to join the Catholic Church as the Mason Inn down the street has just opened for Mug Night (bottomless mugs of Bud Light sell for only $2.50) what draws young people to embrace Catholicism “The Catholic Church offers people of my generation the hope of something larger than ourselves,” said Mariana Hernandez an economics major and senior at Georgetown in Washington This hope guides dozens of students a year to participate in Georgetown’s RCIA program Between 15 and 22 students have been attending the university’s weekly sessions Addie Fleron is a sophomore and medieval studies major who will be fully initiated into the church at Easter “I always sort of wished I had been raised religiously,” she said but noted that choosing Catholicism was almost “an accident.” In the second semester of her freshman year Fleron was helping a boyfriend through some trouble and consequently became very stressed She began attending Mass and speaking to Georgetown’s Jesuit chaplains Fleron reached a stage when she thought that she couldn’t learn any more on her own “In order to decide whether this was right for me,” she told Catholic News Service “I needed to start the process.” For students like Fleron who are completing full initiation into the church that process is a yearlong program beginning in September students meet with the RCIA director in one-on-one meetings to explain their faith journey and interest in Catholicism They begin weekly classes focused on spiritual reflection they officially become catechumens preparing for baptism They are presented to the congregation at Mass and receive a cross from their sponsors Next begins the longest phase of the RCIA process Catechumens read from the Catechism of the Catholic Church every week and discuss it Usually on the first Sunday of Lent the Rite of Election takes place when catechumens publicly express their desire for baptism second and third scrutiny on subsequent Sundays during Lent confirmed and receive the first Eucharist at Easter Vigil Fleron conceded it can be a lot to handle for the average college student “I have a Latin midterm Thursday and a paper due on Tuesday and I got five hours of sleep in two days,” she admitted in a recent interview she believes that Mass and the sacraments give stability to busy students like herself: “The ritual of (Catholicism) is very soothing and helps me to orient my life especially in college where it is helter-skelter and all over the place.” Other students in the Georgetown RCIA group are cradle Catholics who waited until college to be confirmed They are called “candidates” and go through the program to enter into full communion with the church Kent Carlson, a senior majoring in international politics, credited the Jesuits and Georgetown’s environment with helping him take this extra step in his faith though my mother said I should,” he said When his friends invited him to attend Mass “Every service and homily seemed to speak to me,” Carlson said “That sort of feeling is very powerful.” While many of Georgetown’s students are practicing Catholics but said that the diversity of Georgetown led her to examine her beliefs more closely “A lot of people (at Georgetown) aren’t Catholic,” explained Zovak “That really made me think about what I believe and why it is important to me.” The intellectual rigor of college causes many students to re-evaluate their beliefs inspire young adults to commit to a faith tradition The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate found that young adults are the group most likely to be received into the Catholic Church; 40 percent of people who entered the church as adults entered between the ages of 18-29 As more and more young people are raised without religion college offers them an opportunity for discovery Kathy Overturf, the RCIA director at Villanova University has observed that many students raised in non-religious households wish to return to the traditions of their grandparents and might not even know what they are — but they know that their grandparents used them,” she said The memory of attending Mass with their grandparents inspired many of Overturf’s students to explore Catholicism Secular colleges as well as Catholic colleges are welcoming students into the faith — some in large numbers Gerry Hince is the RCIA coordinator for St. Mary’s Catholic Center at Texas A&M University in College Station Her group has more than a hundred students who want to enter the church every year not including numerous baptisms and confirmations When asked about the success of the program Hince said it is because it is considerate of its audience “RCIA programs have to meet millennials’ needs: spiritual The RCIA program has a format that appeals to students and we feed them the word of the Lord,” said Hince Then the students pray together and hear a lecture Mary’s also has taken the standard RCIA educational materials and reworked them for their college population team members worked through the binder and created questions to go along with the lessons They have also developed “cheat sheets” for group leaders so that they can better answer students’ questions The program is not only enjoyable and informative for students but has had a lasting impact Most of the students who have gone through it still attend Mass weekly two of Hince’s former RCIA participants became priests and two more will go to seminary this year Hince is grateful to have the opportunity to minister to college students who come seeking the truth “The soil here is ripe,” she said Mary’s is able to reach out and touch the hearts and minds of pilgrims searching.” — Catastrophic flooding destroyed many parts of Southern Belgium including municipalities that have sister cities in Louisiana — Rochefort (twinned with Broussard) a tax-deductible organization based in Lafayette to raise funds for families who have lost everything in Southern Belgium Because of very special ties between Belgium and Louisiana the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) and the Lafayette International Center are assisting La Fondation Louisiane in this effort according to a spokesperson for Lafayette Consolidated Government As French teachers arrive in Louisiana for the upcoming school year “There are many CODOFIL teachers in the state that are from Belgium and that have family and friends in great need of financial assistance please consider making a contribution to help them get back on their feet.” Belgian organizations and individuals showed their solidarity for the people of New Orleans and Lake Charles following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita holding several fundraisers and sending money to Louisiana Lafayette International Center Director Dave Domingue said “Many people in Southwest Louisiana were devastated by the storms last year and this year so it’s easy for us to identify with the overwhelming loss and grief facing our friends in Belgium We encourage everyone who is able to do what they can to assist those grappling with similar hardships our office has worked with many of these cities particularly those which are twinned with cities in Acadiana We have now sent them messages of consolation and encouragement and urge everyone to make whatever financial contributions to this effort that they can.” "It's a time for us to show our solidarity the people in Belgium sent money and sent teams to help and sent food and letters ofencouragement and now it's our turn," Domingue added “The people of Belgium and Louisiana have a very special relationship that goes back more than 50 years We must help Belgium in their hour of need.” Click here if you would like to make an online donation to the GiveButter crowdfunding platform or mail your tax-deductible donation by check to SOLIDARITY WITH BELGIUM ------------------------------------------------------------Stay in touch with us anytime To reach the newsroom or report a typo/correction, click HERE Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox. Select from these options: Breaking News Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Follow us on Instagram Subscribe to our Youtube channel six-picture frame hanging on the wall of her office at Creighton the law firm she helped found in 2002.   A gift from Lou Jean Fleron, five of the six sections feature photos of Fleron, Lois Gray The sixth carries a script message authored by Fleron:  the first director of ILR’s first extension office in Buffalo who has directed ILR programs in Buffalo since 1976 who steps into the ILR Buffalo Co-Lab director role on Jan “I gave that to Cathy soon after Kate had been a High Road Fellow and when Cathy had just moved into her law firm’s new offices,” said Fleron who will continue working at the Co-Lab on political economy initiatives “I meant it as a thank you for all the contributions she has made over the years to ILR’s success Cathy and Kate just because we all share such strong commitment to worker power and fairness as well as a bit of an irreverent or ‘sassy’ personality trait.” Creighton has been connected to the Co-Lab for many years. For eight years she taught classes to workers interested in becoming union representatives through the ILR Extension’s Labor Studies Program. She has also been involved with ILR’s High Road Fellowship program since its inception Creighton, who helped draft Buffalo’s living wage ordinance, is former chair of the city’s Living Wage Commission She is also a director of the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority Creighton serves on the Coalition for Economic Justice Workers’ Rights Board and was formerly a board member of the Lawyers Coordinating Committee of the AFL-CIO and the Labor and Employment Relations Association of Western New York “My commitment to labor stems not from something radical but from common decency — the belief that people should have a voice in their workplace and be treated fairly,” she said It also stems from personal experience.  Creighton recognizes that her story is the prototypical American Dream worked for the New York Telephone Company (later Verizon) and was a member of Communications Workers of America Local 1101 a firm which represents about 45 unions.  she is returning to her roots at ILR.  “It will be a new challenge,” Creighton said I think the thing that’s the most appealing for me is that I can hopefully help employees and their employers in a different context – through education and research.”  Creighton hopes to expand its work outside the Buffalo workforce and into government by engaging in research that can be used to develop high road model legislation for employee rights in New York state and beyond Creighton would also like to see more ILR alumni involvement in Buffalo a returned focus on education for workers and managers and an expansion of High Roads engaged learning link with students on campus.   “I’ll admit it is nerve-racking to step into a program that's been here for 75 years,” Creighton said “It's nerve-racking to make sure that it succeeds and thrives in the next 75 years so I'm a little concerned that I have the right skills but that also means that I'm going to work hard to make sure that I’m successful.” Fleron has no doubt that Creighton is up to the task “Having Cathy take over the program is like passing the baton to a teammate in a relay race—you feel exhilarated Her preparation to run the next leg of the race for ILR in Buffalo assures wins in reaching the ultimate team prize—a more equitable The once-in-a-century pandemic thrust the healthcare industry into the teeth of the storm The combination of accelerating affordability challenges access issues exacerbated by clinical staff shortages and COVID-19 and limited population-wide progress on outcomes is ominous This gathering storm has the potential to reorder the healthcare industry and put nearly half of the profit pools at risk Those who thrive will tap into the $1 trillion of improvement available by redesigning their organizations for speed to accelerate productivity improvements innovating new business models to refashion care The healthcare industry has lagged behind other industries in applying these practices; players that are able to do so in this crisis could set themselves up for success in the coming years This is the first in a five-article series where we address the following questions: what are the major storm clouds on the horizon and how does the potential impact compare with past periods of upheaval; how does rising inflation—both broadly as the industry confronts a clinical staff shortage—affect access and growth; what impact might an endemic COVID-19 have on the expected trajectory of healthcare costs; and what should stakeholders do about it The potential for discontinuous change in healthcare has increased The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic marked the end of a decade of relative calm in US healthcare real spending on healthcare rose only 0.3 percentage points above growth in real GDP This compares with a 3.0 percentage-point differential in the decade before the enactment of the Affordable Care Act periods of acceleration in healthcare costs well above the growth of the economy have resulted in fiscal interventions by the government (Exhibit 1) economic recessions in these periods have led to broader healthcare reforms (Exhibit 2) As inflation persists at the highest levels since the 1970s the economy has experienced two successive quarters of negative GDP growth and heightened risk of a recession the potential for discontinuous change in healthcare has increased Our analysis finds that national health expenditure could grow at a rate of 7.1 percent over the next five years from 2022 to 2027 compared with an expected economic growth rate of 4.7 percent this would equate to healthcare expenditure growth in excess of economic growth of 2.4 percentage points Health expenditure growth could exceed economic growth by up to 5.9 percentage points in 2023 The potential for healthcare expenditure growth to exceed economic growth so significantly in the shorter term is driven by a combination of current high inflation and lower economic growth in 2023 (Exhibit 3) The combination of significantly higher healthcare costs than expected and the challenges facing end payers—employers and government—in paying for this increase will force a reckoning in the industry have limited ability to absorb this potential acceleration in costs there is a $1 trillion improvement opportunity available in healthcare It provides the best avenue to improve healthcare for all stakeholders and alleviate the potential margin pressure on the industry The headwinds for healthcare are significant and the risks for the industry are sizeable But the size of the opportunity outstrips those challenges The challenge for the industry is to scale up these innovative models at speed “The gathering storm: An opportunity for leaders to reorder the healthcare industry” outlines the approach industry leaders could adopt to capture these improvements Addie Fleron is an associate partner in McKinsey's Chicago office and Shubham Singhal is a senior partner in the Detroit office The authors wish to thank Daniel Brown for his contributions to this article Those who thrive will tap into the $1 trillion of known improvement opportunities by redesigning their organizations for speed ‘You cannot withstand the storm.’ The warrior whispers back That is the rallying cry for industry leaders this level of opportunity is based on innovations already in use and available to executives today The imperative for companies that seek to thrive in coming years will be scaling up these innovations much more quickly than they currently do The coming years will provide a test for leaders of incumbents and disruptors across the healthcare industry companies that rise to the occasion will probably be rewarded with sustained overperformance creating strategic distance from their competitors and establishing themselves as recognized leaders in improving healthcare resilients are likely to be organizations that deploy four actions faster and more effectively than their peers The pandemic forced executives in all sectors to make extensive changes to increase the flexibility and speed of decision making in their organizations Nowhere were these changes more critical than in healthcare which served as the nation’s front line of defense against COVID-19 As society transitions toward managing COVID-19 as an endemic disease healthcare leaders might take this opportunity to identify which changes from the past two years are working and which have outlived their usefulness Of particular importance is for leaders to be even more bold to sustain the gains made during the pandemic and further increase the speed of decision making and execution these advantages are even more significant in difficult times when decisions have more important consequences and it is necessary to outpace competitors at every phase of the process That kind of speed will be essential during the next few years The devastating effects of cost increases eroding affordability and margins require scaling-up speeds (for example executing a six-fold increase in the number of patients in risk-bearing value-based care arrangements in the next five years) unlike those the industry has ever attempted But increasing an organization’s speed isn’t easy Even most executives at sector-leading operators can identify at least a few hurdles that prevent them from moving even faster and slow processes frequently interfere with attempts to make decisions and get work done more quickly leaders could start by asking these questions: What are the top one to three bottlenecks slowing down the organization What has prevented the organization from addressing them Are roles and responsibilities for key processes identified clearly Have unnecessary stage gates that stymie decision making been removed Have trigger points been set to enable immediate action when thresholds for key decisions are crossed Increasing efficiency is a perennial objective of healthcare executives incremental improvements probably cannot meet the moment leaders must shift their mindset and adopt much bolder aspirations to raise productivity bold actions must be thoughtfully prioritized to improve not only the costs but also the quality of care transformations are vital in this environment The need for improvement is particularly urgent for providers many of which face a one- to two-year lag between the elevated costs they incur today and the opportunity to negotiate higher reimbursement rates from payers providers are experiencing poor year-to-date performance and a souring outlook for investment income which has served as a significant buoy for health system finances over the past decade providers have an opportunity to reimagine how things get done in back-office functions and the delivery of clinical care and to prioritize the most critical work Providers can pursue transformations that address a comprehensive set of value levers They might also use current labor shortages and increased competition for talent as an opportunity to reduce the amount of labor needed to get work done: for example providers could roll out innovative technologies (including automation) and use tried-and-true playbooks for staffing Successful initiatives could improve not only financial performance but also the patient and caregiver experience To avoid unsustainable price increases for purchasers payers too will need to accelerate their efforts to cut medical and administrative costs payers could play a leadership role in transforming the delivery of care—for example by significantly increasing the number of value-based care programs enabling and scaling up new care models in lower-acuity and more convenient sites of care (including homes and virtual care) and reimagining care pathways to make them more effective and efficient payers should also improve their productivity—for example deploying new technology (including automation) payers should seek ways to help reduce the 25 percent of national health expenditures spent on administrative expenses Known interventions could lower the level to 18 percent a goal that payers are well placed to pursue in their role as orchestrators of the healthcare system where profit pools are rapidly shifting—in many cases away from the core segments of the sector’s incumbents the competition for attractive profit pools is fierce are rapidly deploying new business models to capture the fastest-growing and highest-margin segments These disruptors are often unburdened by legacy constraints or the need to manage a separate core business Some are backed by substantial venture-capital and private-equity funding disruptors often get to market faster than incumbents accustomed to incrementally evolving business models Several incumbents have already begun to see success through diversification have created diversified business units operating in care delivery and other technology and service businesses Some providers have created very profitable units to manage revenue cycles and enable value-based care Our analysis has shown that diversified healthcare companies can deliver higher returns Although this analysis is based on the returns of publicly traded companies in our experience private not-for-profit healthcare organizations also often see financial benefits from diversification (Exhibit 4) These changes are driven by the preferences of patients and physicians and by sectoral shifts including the increased adoption of value-based care models Many health systems are already far along in developing a robust ambulatory footprint in these spaces it will probably be important to focus on buying risk-bearing management service organizations (MSOs) Payers face a similar imperative to diversify and reinvent their business models Profit pools are shifting away from individual and administrative-services-only insurance plans and toward government segments: the Medicaid and Medicare supplements segments are forecast to grow at a CAGR of more than 10 percent through 2025 To succeed in achieving diversified growth organizations need a set of competencies that may be new—and different from those required in the day-to-day business These new competencies include programmatic M&A programmatic acquirers need to develop an integration competency that is “always on” and makes it possible to scale up and integrate an acquired company’s core operations quickly Business building is also essential when large incumbents buy innovative small to midsize companies but need to enlarge them many times over to handle the scale of the incumbents’ volume the skills and experience required to scale a new enterprise rapidly are quite different from those typical of healthcare incumbents such a reallocation is more important than ever Many organizations struggle to reallocate at the necessary pace Successful reallocators follow a tested portfolio of processes that aim to seed high-growth areas with the resources necessary to succeed while avoiding retrenchment in the core business Maintain absolute clarity on the objectives for capital allocation The most successful reallocators take a clean-sheet approach to allocating strategic (as opposed to maintenance) capital They focus on identifying the minimum allocation of maintenance capital to sustain the core business To act quickly when markets shift or new opportunities arise organizations should see budgets as rolling Remove budget anchors to avoid rubber-stamping the same allocations every year And have clear ground rules for early termination to stop underperforming projects Ensure that the best talent focuses on the most important growth areas four sets of actions will help the healthcare sector weather the storm and outperform through the recovery assess the speed of your organization to ensure that you can make hard decisions faster than your peers do launch (or recommit your organization to) a bold performance transformation that protects the core business create business optionality on the balance sheet do invest in growth proactively through programmatic M&A and partnerships Put a particular focus on diversification and innovative business models aligned with the $1 trillion opportunity reallocate organizational resources to realize the value creation agenda—for example by taking a clean-sheet approach to capital and budget allocations The opportunities are known and the approaches we describe are proven Healthcare leaders must set clear priorities adopt proven approaches for the necessary transformation Daniel Brown is a consultant in McKinsey’s New Jersey office, Addie Fleron is an associate partner in the Chicago office, Shubham Singhal is a senior partner in the Detroit office, and Drew Ungerman is a senior partner in the Dallas office A recent study undertaken by the Cornell University ILR School in Buffalo in partnership with the Live Well Erie Emergency Child Care Task Force and public officials has put a stark focus on the issue of child care in Erie County and the gross disparities that exist between the needs for equitably accessible quality child care and current funding models The True Cost of Child Care: Erie County NY sought to determine the actual cost of quality child care by modality in Erie County and compare those costs to NYS Office of Children and Family Services’ (“OCFS”) “market rate” price of care The study also compared current costs with true costs if all child care workers were to earn a living wage Cornell and Erie County will provide the data and analysis to county and state officials for consideration in public policy and budget negotiations in 2022 and Cathy Creighton led the study on behalf of the Cornell ILR Buffalo Co-Lab In addition to strains on families and caregivers as they search for quality child care employers are also feeling the squeeze as they lose employees who are unable to find child care and are forced to drop out of the workforce or work fewer hours Other workers are forced to juggle jobs and child care arrangements that are temporary unsustainable and often lead to job loss and turnover for employers Erie County has worked closely with the Buffalo Niagara Partnership on this issue to assess and ameliorate the effect on local employees and businesses The study can be read here  “Erie County was the first and only county in New York State to use U.S CARES Act funding to support child care providers during the COVID-19 pandemic allocating millions in grant funding to directly support childcare providers and adding additional funding to replenish and expand the childcare subsidy to include families earning up to 85% of the NYS median income We provided a critical lifeline to our community then and we are urging NYS to continue that work now,” said Erie County Executive Mark C Poloncarz. “This cost of care analysis was completed pursuant to a 2021 NYS Childcare Availability Task Force recommendation to close the gap between the market rate and the actual cost of care and the data revealed here will heavily underscore the necessity for changes to the child care system statewide to better care for our children I thank our partners at Cornell University and in the community for their work and look forward to bringing these findings to the Governor’s attention.” “This Cornell-Erie County study of the True Costs of Child Care in Erie County identifies and quantifies gaps in the current system:  gaps between actual operating costs and NYS subsidy support; gaps between current wages and living wages for child care workers; and equity gaps in access and sustainability,” said Lou Jean Fleron of the Cornell University ILR School in Buffalo. “Cornell has played a role in child care reform since the early 2000s and continues to provide actionable research and collaborative assistance aimed at a child care system that meets the needs and promotes equal opportunities for all children and parents for child care workers as well as the general workforce and employers.  There is no longer any doubt that accessible quality child care is a universal benefit to the economy.  The job now is to reconstruct early child care and education as a public good.  Erie County is a leader in bringing stakeholders together to address the crisis locally and to promote public policies that advance long-term improvement.”         The study’s findings revealed that in Erie County the number of jobs in child care grew for five years The industry’s current workforce numbers from 3,100 to 3,300 when including self-employed That workforce is the lowest in over a decade and recorded an 11% loss between 2019 and 2020 as child care workers left the industry for jobs with increasing wages in retail and fast-food Average annual wages for full-time workers are just over $23,000 Three-quarters of all child care workers earn less than $15/hour compared to just one-third of all workers in Erie County especially family and group family providers who report working between 1,000 and 1,200 hours per year for which they are not compensated “Several family daycare businesses have closed and continue to close due to low reimbursement rates for subsidized children I get paid $190.00 weekly for an infant that is in my care from 30-45 hours per week Many of my parents use public transportation and their children are with me from 9-10 hours a day Based on the market rate I get paid between $3.80 to $4.22 an hour,” said Diane Abrams Director of Toot Toot Day Care. “I pay my staff minimum wage while I work 60- 70 hours a week paying myself less than minimum wage and often not paying myself in order to pay staff.  Family daycare providers cannot continue providing child care to low income families under the current market rate We must get paid for enrollment and the cost of care.”     More than half of all child care workers lack employer health care compared to one-quarter of the county-wide workforce Child care workers in Erie County are disproportionately women (88%) and people of color (35%) therefore their low wages and poor benefits exacerbate existing patterns of economic and racial inequality Given the foundational role that child care work plays in support of the entire workforce system allowing these dynamics to play out uninterrupted has multiplying effects throughout society and the economy “Child care providers in Erie County have been caught in a difficult place for a long time seeking to provide the best possible care while forced to do so with scant resources This has resulted in long hours with low pay or sometimes no pay and care suffers as a result,” said Commissioner of Social Services Marie A Cannon. “Change at the state level would greatly ease the pressure on the child care industry making it easier for our community partners to provide the level of quality care that all want to.” The study utilized a three-pronged methodological approach: • a professional on-line survey was conducted with all 499 Erie County licensed providers resulting in 234 valid responses and a sample well representative by geography and by modality; • public geographic and economic data were expertly analyzed for understanding the economics and workforce of the local child care industry; and composed of eight to twelve providers each as well as the challenges and opportunities for improving child care in Erie County In-depth focus group conversations provided valuable information about the true cost of high-quality child care focusing particularly on non-personnel costs The concerns of providers in the focus groups mirrored findings of the survey and also highlighted less obvious Among the most prominent cost concerns was unpaid working time as Group and Family Day Care providers report working on average 25 hours a week uncompensated Seven out of ten survey respondents indicated that they currently do not make enough money to offer the level and quality of services they wish to provide That situation is more severe for DSS subsidy recipients: over 80% of subsidized providers report inadequate revenue compared with 50% of providers who do not care for subsidy children meaning that the facilities serving more financially disempowered children are themselves more financially disempowered Two-thirds of providers who accept DSS subsidies agree that existing subsidy rates do not cover their current costs of care subsidized facilities report higher interest in expansion of services an important source of unrealized capacity When asked to rank eight categories of needed investment if they had sufficient funding higher salaries and better benefits for current staff "Child care is an essential workforce support Two million women remain out of work and millions more could be working if we valued Erie County and Cornell's invaluable report illustrates just how impossible the current system is for child care providers These providers are predominantly female small business owners who choose to serve our most marginalized families Our economy will not thrive without a better system to support working parents and child care providers," added Sheri Scavone said, “We applaud leaders in County government for taking the initiative to commission a first of its kind study of child care wages and the true cost of providing child care For too long child care providers have been struggling to maintain their business.  This study identifies the struggles that providers face every day.  Child Care Resource Network has supported this endeavor since its inception.  We are moving in the right direction for increasing sustainable wages for Child Care Providers Child Care Providers are finally being heard.  We need to improve this broken system.  Our children deserve the best and so do the providers that care for them.” The Poloncarz administration has sent a letter to NYS Governor Hochul outlining the child care issue in Erie County and urging action in the 2022-23 state budget process Erie County will request NYS to increase the state market rate such that it more closely aligns with the actual cost of care and to increase the total NYS Child Care Block Grant allotment given to social service districts around the state such that they can pay the increased market rate without having to decrease the number of children/families receiving the subsidy "Our economy will not fully recover unless we make child care more affordable," said Assemblymember Monica Wallace.  "Access to quality affordable child care is critical to helping parents get back to work and addressing our current labor shortage.  I want to thank Erie County and Cornell University for producing this study to help us understand why child care is so expensive and what we can do to address these costs.  I look forward to working with my colleagues in the state legislature to find solutions to address this growing child care crisis." Visit https://bit.ly/3nDTdh7  to register For more than 10 years, the Cornell ILR Buffalo Co-Lab has sponsored High Road Fellowships which give undergraduate students an opportunity to participate in research engaged learning and service in community-based economic development in Buffalo Emily Blanchard ’21 is pictured with Assemblyman Sean Ryan more than 180 students have spent a summer working on grassroots projects such as a citywide living wage ordinance; hiring and pay equity policies tied to tax incentives; and paid family leave legislation The success of High Road has led to a new program: Working on Democracy: Buffalo Summer Fellowships with NYS Legislators The inaugural class of fellows – Emily Blanchard ’21 and Tamara Palms ’22 from the ILR School and Wendy Lau ’22 from the College of Arts and Sciences – spent the past two months working with state lawmakers from the Buffalo area Palms worked with Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes D-141st; Blanchard worked with Assemblyman Sean Ryan The fellows spearheaded projects to increase voter turnout among naturalized citizens researched key elements for responsible and equitable drug policy and did research on public transit and its environmental impact “We developed the projects much like we do for High Road,” said Lou Jean Fleron “We ask that it be a project that will really give the students some policy work Our partners form a project that they want a student to do we work with them to refine it and the student also has some input into that process.” the project provided her the freedom to create workshops based on her research “Buffalo has a large refugee population in general and the district that Ryan represents contains a lot of them,” Blanchard said “He gave me a broad prompt to do research on the refugee communities and see some of the difficulties they’re facing specifically to voting and becoming citizens.” Blanchard created a survey and conducted interviews to identify the difficulties these populations have in becoming citizens and She found that the main obstacle for naturalized citizens is a lack of education on how the voting system works Her solution was to partner with High Roads fellow Livvie Smith ’22 who spent the summer working at an area community health center They held a pair of voting rights workshops for people in the process of becoming citizens about the right to vote and the voting process “We even did a sample election to get them excited and encouraged about voting,” Blanchard said “It was super cool to see them get excited about the process And the project got me more excited about a possible future in public policy or in a politician’s office.” much of their work centered on research and interacting with constituents chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee Lau did research on the past 50 years of public-purpose bonds She analyzed which bonds passed and which failed the language used and the percentage of people voting for or against the bill Lau also did research on different forms of sustainable transportation in the U.S to discern which types were used to promote a more environmentally friendly setting Tamara Palms ’22 is pictured with Mark Boyd chief of staff for Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes “Doing a lot of research on bills has made me want to focus more on policy work,” Lau said “I feel like policy is the forefront of change and I think that by helping shape policy then I can reform what needs to be changed.” Palmer worked with Peoples-Stokeson the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act which failed to land on the Senate floor before the session ended in June Peoples-Stokes intends to revamp the bill and push for it in future sessions “It was pretty close [to passing this session],” Palmer said “I think it came down to specifically the business side of the bill I conducted extra research to see how to rework the bill for next session.” According to all three Working on Democracy fellows the experience helped illustrate the possibilities of working in public service and for the greater good “The program comes from a recognition of how important public service is,” she said “It’s based on the idea that if democracy is to work government and government service needs to be valued as an important endeavor – worthy of career aspirations.” Julie Greco is a communications specialist with the ILR School Get Cornell news delivered right to your inbox much like their cohorts in other industries While the crisis of the pandemic itself is far from over it is clear many are evaluating the long-term repercussions for the healthcare sector due in no small part to the current economic downturn we discuss how payer operations will look three-to-five years from now based on decisions and actions that are being put in place today We see three major drivers for payers to respond to: The traditional frame of reference for payer operations has been specific A journey is the end-to-end experience of accomplishing a specific goal or task; this experience may cut across many functional areas in the service of that single end goal This stakeholder-based lens creates an important switch in perspective While the pure functional view of operations has contributed to the perception that core processes (such as processing claims) are cost drivers the journey-based view allows us to articulate how different functions contribute to processes that ultimately are critical to driving strategic value building and running value-based relationships with provider partners We map payer operations into 18 specific journeys (Exhibit 1) each of which has two classifying characteristics: key stakeholder (member or government) and core value driver (healthcare value This list excludes journeys that are internal employee-facing only (for example some drive disproportionately more strategic value we find that journeys fall into three categories for a given payer: the strategic value drivers will vary depending on the strategy the payer is pursuing While payers may display characteristics from across all three archetypes they tend to create value using one of the archetypes much more strongly than the others A payer that understands its primary archetype can identify the most important actions to take and capabilities to build they can consider their strategy as a guiding principle for other decisions including which operational capabilities to build and how to deploy scarce resources Some payers have already begun pursuing a specific archetype and the key for these payers will be ensuring that this choice informs future prioritization decisions The next step is to invest in the capabilities to build those journeys These capabilities vary based on archetype The pace of change in healthcare continues to accelerate and this acceleration will have an impact on payer operations Payers will increasingly drive value through varying business models that require prioritizing different operational capabilities Payers can position themselves for success by understanding early on what operational archetype will best enable their strategy and dynamically allocating resources—including organizational mindshare—to those areas that will drive differentiated value Brandon Carrus is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Cleveland office. Sameer Chowdhary is a partner in the Dallas office Addie Fleron is a consultant in the New York office The authors would also like to thank Dave Wollenberg for his contributions to this article This article was edited by Elizabeth Newman Aaron Bartley saw a need for action on community development and set about building a base of support among the neighborhood’s residents “We were up at around 20 to 25 percent vacant housing,” said Bartley, a Buffalo native who co-founded PUSH Buffalo to address the problem neighborhoods become very vacant very quickly There’s a threshold point at which things just spiral “Everywhere you turn you have talented individuals and you also have this incredible built landscape of Victorian homes that have become vacant and the nexus of those needs and interests and passions was the genesis of PUSH,” he said PUSH, which stands for People United for Sustainable Housing, has worked with Cornell in Buffalo and the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) since 2007 the nonprofit group has improved 120 parcels of land on the West Side rehabilitating derelict and abandoned properties into sustainable housing and creating community gardens and urban green spaces on vacant lots including developing 102 new units of rental housing and four commercial units on the West Side are a source of pride for people living in the culturally diverse neighborhood co-chair of PUSH Buffalo's board of directors a net-zero house built and maintained by PUSH Buffalo had been seen as a Rust Belt city in decline But grassroots-level work by Cornell University with community partners on sustainable redevelopment and improving livability is changing that The Partnership for the Public Good (PPG) founded in 2007 at Cornell in Buffalo by the ILR School works with a diverse network of stakeholders Cornell and ILR have been embedded in the city since 1946 conducting outreach and research – work that has accompanied the city through economic boom times “Buffalo at the time was a powerhouse of transportation and industry and culture … There have been many transformative periods when ILR didn’t just react but helped create progressive change in the economy,” said PPG board chair Lou Jean Fleron an ILR extension faculty member whose work in Buffalo spans more than four decades “We are a city that at one time was a model of middle class existence from unionized jobs that paid a good wage and products that were exported all over the world Deindustrialization came to define the poverty that was left there the sense that our glory days were in the past.” is intended “to strengthen institutions so that they can more effectively change the world and create an economy that works for everyone,” she said Working to effect lasting local change and to create policies advancing equity social justice and nonprofit organizations in the Buffalo area It leverages Cornell resources for its community partners including research expertise and student interns PUSH was among the first 36 partners to sign on in 2007 advocacy and research to more than 280 organizations in the Buffalo-Niagara region it’s meant having access to best practices from around the country written up on a monthly basis,” Bartley said Cornell partners with community organizations like PUSH to support Buffalo’s growth and redevelopment Cornell in Buffalo and PPG also host Buffalo Commons a digital library of research on western New York with tools to help community organizations and researchers connect collaborate and share strategies for organizing the University at Buffalo and other institutions have contributed to the resource which also gives residents direct access to information on local policy and opportunities for civic engagement “We’re trying to make Buffalo a model of urban regeneration that really warrants the attention of researchers even as we use higher education for innovative thinking and making it a better place,” Fleron said Buffalo’s West Side neighborhood is continuing on a path of revitalization “PUSH is the organization we’ve worked the most with New York state affordable housing programs and pushing to get cities to emphasize sustainability more,” said Sam Magavern Energy-efficient housing and sustainability efforts by PUSH have extended to providing jobs while protecting Great Lakes freshwater resources – the focus of PUSH Blue a related initiative established in 2009 and dedicated to “building a blue economy” through sustainable landscaping projects and youth training programs “They figured out how to put disadvantaged workers to work on the storm water problem,” Magavern said speaks about PPG’s partnership with PUSH Buffalo PPG and PUSH produced a white paper in 2008 showing how “to improve water quality in a city like Buffalo that has really old sewer systems without digging those systems up which is a billion-dollar project,” Bartley said digging rain gardens and bioswales to capture water runoff and make it seep into the ground rather than going into the sewer system PPG took an interest in that and documented our work … to really systematize what we are doing,” he said The report was circulated outside of Buffalo and soon Bartley was fielding calls from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations “wanting to learn specifics about green infrastructure and how communities can create jobs,” he said PUSH continues to attract foundation grants as well as grassroots support for its many projects “The biggest amount of support comes from members of this community,” said Executive Director Rahwa Ghirmatzion whose family emigrated from Eritrea to Buffalo She has lived on the West Side for 26 years PUSH has put families in homes for 12 years renovated the long-neglected Massachusetts Avenue Park and established job-training houses for local youth learning the building trades was recently redeveloped into senior housing and community space PUSH holds monthly meetings of community members and engages them in ongoing planning efforts to prioritize development After leading PUSH in generating more than $45 million in sustainable housing and commercial development Bartley stepped down as executive director this year and is now an ILR visiting scholar He is leading workshops this fall on Cornell’s Ithaca campus and teaching a course in the spring called Organizing and the Next City: Land Labor Capital and Community in Post-Industrial Urban America Bartley’s civic engagement experience in Buffalo “will affect students who take his course,” Fleron said “It will have an impact on the way the community organizations of the future work because it expands our collective understanding of community change.” a longtime member of the PUSH Community Development Committee walks through one of the community gardens in his neighborhood Another PPG partner, the Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP) puts young people to work growing and delivering fresh food to the community We’re still one of the poorest cities in the country and we have so much vacant land that could go to addressing this,” said MAP Executive Director Diane Picard ’86 who studied international agriculture and development at Cornell Her organization’s mission is “to build youth leaders who can really work to change the food environments in their schools and communities.” MAP is based within PUSH’s 25-block Green Development Zone on the West Side and the purchase of four PUSH lots in 2015-16 “expanded our farm by about a third,” Picard said “Sam and the PPG staff have been great partners in terms of research and policy work on urban growing and our farm-to-school initiative They did a white paper on urban agriculture several years ago … Just having that in our back pocket helps in moving things forward” with policymakers “we were the first organization in recent history doing an urban farm” in Buffalo She estimates there are about 15 urban farms and 100 community gardens today: “Over the last five to seven years the interest in community growing has taken off in Buffalo.” “We have been working on getting the Buffalo school district to adopt a purchasing program to increase their local food procurement for school meals … to make the meals more appetizing and healthy at the same time,” she said Margaret Lee (ILR ’20) and Jenny Chan (HumEc ’19) speak with Jim “Swannie” Watkins a historic industrial site on the Buffalo River Much of PPG’s work to influence public policy is determined by a Community Agenda laid out each year Local residents and community groups identify needs and vote on issues of the most concern – such as criminal justice reform “The first year we did the Community Agenda the Common Council of Buffalo adopted seven of the 10 planks to push policy forward,” said Ghirmatzion The participatory model is also empowering “but we also give our partners tools to do better advocacy themselves Our goal is not to lead advocacy campaigns but to add value to our partners' campaigns.” “[High Road fellows] really helped flesh out a lot of our activism and citizenship organizing with our youth and doing research.” This year, ILR launched a Careers in Public Service program in Buffalo funded by the New York State Assembly to engage students in learning about public policy by working directly with city officials and community leaders The program will inform the next generation of civic leaders In the long-running High Road Fellowship program ILR matches about 20 Cornell student interns each summer with PPG partner organizations working on community and economic development “We’ve had consistently high-quality interns from Cornell who would be able to take a list of properties that were vacant do property research … and come back with a real picture of why those properties were vacant and how we could go about getting ownership or challenging the owners,” Bartley said worked with PPG in 2014 when he was a graduate student in the field of city and regional planning He researched a section of Buffalo’s East Side a site of segregation and neglect following a period of deindustrialization in the city “He put together a lot of the neighborhood data that was the start of finding solutions,” Magavern said “The city had around 200 vacant lots in this neighborhood known as the Fruit Belt east of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus – an area that was dealing with speculation and gentrification abandonment and disinvestment all at the same time.” taught English as a second language and citizenship classes through her High Road placement at Jericho Road Community Health Center Those four economic stressors around land use urban planning and development continue to have an impact on residents of a city in transition In neighborhoods threatened with gentrification PPG is helping to provide innovative options “we helped in creating the city’s first urban land trust in the Fruit Belt That’s a model we think can be used throughout the city.” Ghirmatzion said that the new Fruit Belt land trust is looking to acquire up to 50 parcels for affordable housing and community space speaks about Cornell’s connection with the broader community in Buffalo Buffalo has seen solid employment and wage increases over the past decade, with growth in medical and tech jobs and in higher education, as home to three state-affiliated institutions and six private colleges. There is new commercial construction and development, and a local and regional commitment to sustainable redevelopment and livability “More and more people are moving back into the city and there is a greater sense of how we can build on the assets of the city as well as the people to solve the problems that still exist here like poverty and inequality and segregation,” Fleron said Affordable housing is still an issue in the City of Good Neighbors where the housing market is considered “healthy” in only a few neighborhoods Economic development spending is in the millions every year The Partnership for the Public Good assists PUSH in supporting housing development that is sustainable – strategically located to strengthen existing communities and ecologically friendly to reduce energy costs and pollution “Hopefully PUSH and other entities are making redevelopment better but there has yet to be considerable financial resources dedicated to the far East Side such as the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood,” said Katelin Olson visiting lecturer in city and regional planning she researched the history of 31 blocks of Buffalo for her Cornell dissertation and led the nationally recognized Albion Main Street Alliance in nearby Orleans County Grassroots efforts have succeeded in rehabilitating a few historic East Side buildings even without economic development funding “These places … haven’t necessarily been abandoned by key constituent groups who have become skillful in leveraging a diverse range of resources It is these fixed groups that have the greatest dedication to particular places Hopefully the prospects for the most neglected portions of the city will benefit from the rest of the city rising.” Magavern and the community social and economic justice group Open Buffalo have sent policy recommendations to Mayor Byron Brown’s administration including advocating for Green Development Zones throughout the city “I think PPG in another 10 years will be even more powerful than it is,” Fleron said “That form of collectively developed knowledge – actionable motivated by the public good – is what is regionally important all across this country “The world of work is such a big part of every regional economy There are very few sectors of the economy or parts of the community that Cornell and ILR haven’t influenced in this city.” Cornell is partnered with the community in a very real Buffalo Commons student and community research for the public good in Buffalo Gentrification Can’t Be the Theme of Rust Belt City Recovery (2018) PUSH Buffalo’s Green Development Zone: A Model for New Economy Community Development (2017) Building the Blue Economy: Opportunities for Community Based Organizations in Stormwater Management (2016) local governments and communities depend on Cornell to turn discoveries into real-world solutions and ensure a vibrant Ian Greer, an ILR senior research associate who earned his graduate degrees at the school, became the first director of the new ILR Ithaca Co-Lab this past summer Modeled after the ILR Buffalo Co-Lab the ILR Ithaca Co-Lab mobilizes ILR students and researchers to address labor issues relevant to the Ithaca area Created to strengthen the bond between ILR and Ithaca the co-lab is just one example of how Greer has served the Ithaca community Greer first came to ILR as a graduate student in 2001. He was motivated to study the labor movement due to his own experiences as a worker and union member. During his time as a student, Greer studied union strategies in the United States and in Germany. Working with Professor Emeritus Lowell Turner and the director of the ILR Buffalo Co-Lab, Lou Jean Fleron Greer was connected with activists and learned to connect workers and organizations across borders After spending 10 years teaching in London Greer returned to ILR as a senior researcher in 2015 Greer has been dedicated to connecting ILR’s scholarship with the community directing ILR’s resources to “tackle the challenges of fighting unemployment winning a living wage and organizing for worker voice.” Many in Ithaca are experiencing an employment crisis who worked with Greer as a research assistant on the living wage project went door to door with Greer to see what workers and community members think about the living wage They also held open-ended interviews with employers in the community seeking to understand how a minimum living wage would affect their businesses Greer will follow up with these employers to understand the effects of the state minimum wage increases Greer and Weaver are also studying how an increase in Tompkins County’s minimum wage would affect the benefits that many low-wage workers who rely on alongside the analytical work that he has done with Weaver will be presented to the Living Wage Working Group These results are expected to inform how the Tompkins County Legislature acts if they choose to implement a living wage and Greer, whose 2020-21 Engaged Faculty Fellow project is focused on the co-lab also creates community impacts through his teaching Through the unemployment course that he teaches as part of the co-lab Greer creates opportunities for students to do community-engaged learning alongside community organization addressing labor issues in the Ithaca region In addition to learning about social problems in theory Greer’s students are tasked with creating work that is directly useful to the community Students in Greer’s unemployment course are partnered with a number of organizations. Many have worked for Legal Assistance of Western New York. The organization offers upstate New Yorkers free legal services on civil legal issues. With support from Cornell’s Office of Engagement Initiatives students have done a number of projects alongside the group including representing clients through the process of appealing the denial of their unemployment benefits and research on legal procedures to help people with criminal records obtain employment An additional organization that Greer’s students support is Ithaca’s Women’s Opportunity Center served on the center’s board before taking Greer’s course last spring When the pandemic hit during the middle of the semester Cornell worked with the center to hold a webinar on how to navigate the unemployment system “I was able to take what I learned in class and help members of our own community,” Cornell said Cornell reached not only the center’s clientele which is largely made up of low-income women but representatives from displaced workers’ organizations from across New York state who were then able to take what they learned and share it with their clients “It was a really great experience,” Cornell said synthesize it and share it with the community.” Cornell credits this impact to Greer The webinar she created was not originally part of her coursework but when Cornell began to see the effects of COVID-19 on employment she approached Greer and explained her idea “His eagerness to improve the lives of people in the community through the work done at Cornell is really tremendous.” Students are researching and developing a new plan for funding and managing the services that help meet labor supply with the demands of local employers Greer’s projects include working with Chris Kai-Jones of the Cornell Cooperative Extension to research how Cornell can better use its financial might to promote economic opportunities and lock in resources for the local area With the financial support of the Office of Engagement Initiatives Greer and Kai-Jones are researching ways Cornell can address disadvantages in the labor market recruit disadvantaged job seekers and purchase more local food for campus dining halls Greer helps lead the Transatlantic Dialogue, which connects his work in Ithaca to that of labor practitioners in Europe. The Transatlantic Dialogue which is holding its 18th annual conference this year brings together academics and trade unionists in the United States and Europe to talk about strategies to address worker challenges and local leaders on the connection between worker power and mutual aid Greer’s work has directed more ILR resources toward the Ithaca community and provided more community-engaged learning opportunities for students.“The thing about engaged learning,” Greer said “is that there are big challenges that we’re trying to find solutions to and these aren’t problems that you can solve in a semester thanks in part to Professor George Boyer’s annual ILR-themed haiku the annual McPherson Awards celebration was held Thursday at the Statler Hotel Opening remarks were made by ILR Dean Alexander Colvin The names of award recipients were presented by Kevin F Catherwood Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations Student awards and those who received them include: SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence ·      Margot Treadwell  ·      Undergraduate – Naveen Sharma  ·      Graduate – Lekshmy Venugopal  ·      Connor Campbell-Diehl  ·      Tatio Paige daCosta  ·      Ximena Chafloque  Ives Felix Kaufman-Sophie Seidenberg Memorial Senior Award ·      Robert Farbman  ·      Jesusla Sinfort  ·      Undergrad – Josephine Mentry  ·      Grad – Nelson Dragsbaek  MacIntrye Award for Exemplary Teaching & Advising ·      Christina Homrighouse (undergraduate students) ·      Eli Friedman (graduate students) General Mills Award for Exemplary Graduate Assistant Teaching ·       Daniel Bromberg  ·      Rachel Schlund  ·      Virginia Doellgast  Smith Award for Staff Advising & Mentoring ·      Lizzie Cushing  ·      Marissa Porter  Lou Jean Fleron Award for Engaged Learning ·      Kristin Ksiazek  their scholarships and the colleges they will attend: Westfield High School: Howard Moffatt Memorial; Michael Beauregard Charles & Elizabeth Smith Trust; Shannon Broderick Sardinha Family Scholarship; Nicholas Burrage Sardinha Family Scholarship; Vincenzo Carbone Herbert Kittredge Trust; Julianna Ceccarini George Flessas & Westfield Nurses Association Endowments; Brian Chambers Neary & Popko Scholarship; Kaitlin Chambers Mary Brendza Hodder Memorial Endowment; Emily Chrzanowski Murray (Aero Fasteners) Memorial Endowment; Westfield Spanish American Association Endowment; Katelyn Cyrankowski Elizabeth Barcome Memorial Endowment; Victoria Dansereau Pat & Ed Lee Family Endowment; Paul DeGrandpre James Arps Memorial Endowment; Timothy Dostie Cavanaugh Family Memorial Endowment; Brian Elie Margaret Gordon Memorial; Michael Enko,WPI American Legion Post 124 Al Drega Memorial; Ellen Ferst Bernice Adasiewicz Burris Memorial Endowment; Jack & Marge Mulligan Memorial Endowment; Nicholle Fleck Roger & Arline Moltenbrey & Santina Tonelli Memorial Endowments; Addie Fleron Charles & Elizabeth Smith Trust; John Foley Sardinha Family Scholarship; Elizabeth Gale Elizabeth (Betsy) Gaylord Endowment; Casandra Gamelli Augie Tefts Memorial Endowment; Daniel Gaylord Cavanaugh Family Memorial Endowment; William Gonet Attilio & Alice Chistolini Memorial Endowment; Emma Gronbeck Westfield Academy Scholarship; Rebecca Hardy Cavanaugh Family Memorial Endowment; Christopher Hart Cavanaugh Family Memorial Endowment; Amy Hewins William Crean Memorial Endowment; Lindsey Hewins Ralph Cuzzone Memorial Endowment; Thomas Hibert Cavanaugh Family Memorial Endowment; Cynthia Howe Cavanaugh Family Memorial Endowment; Russell Isler Ann & Jack Pagos Memorial Endowment; Jordan Jacobson Joel Philip Brown Memorial Endowment; Joshua Jacobson Thomas "Pop" Bowler Memorial Endowment; Jacques Amercian Legion Post 124 Walter Range Memorial & CSF Scholarship; Sardinha Family Scholarship; Peter Kochanek Music Scholarship Endowment; Shelley Kusnierz Westfield Academy Scholarship; Zachary Kusnierz Charles & Elizabeth Smith Trust; Matthew Labombard Todd O'Connor Memorial Endowment; Christy LaPlante Joe Kareta Memorial Endowment; Janna Liptak George Beglane Memorial; Kenneth Lombardini Mary Rutzen Memorial Endowment ; Meaghan McClure Ed Manley Memorial Endowment; Tara McMahon Dorothea Burgum Memorial Endowment; Mariya Mikhalinchik Rose Curran Knapik Memorial; Sean Millikan Leonard Puza Memorial Endowment; Elizabeth Moller Howard Moffatt Memorial; Marilyn Musterait Leonard Puza Memorial Endowment; Max Newman Joel Philip Brown Memorial Endowment; Benjamin Parent Cavanaugh Family Memorial Endowment; Perreault & Edwin Smith Trust Endowment; Hannah Placzek John & Pearl Malawka Athletic Endowment; Katherine Ritchie Agriculture Scholarship Endowment; Emily Robichaud Charles & Elizabeth Smith Trust; Jacqueline Robichaud Linda Lee Zawrotny Memorial Endowment; Jennafer Rowbotham Park Square Realty Scholarship; Anthony Sanford Westfield High School Student Council Scholarship; Dillon Sienko Arthur Seher Memorial Endowment; Yevgeniy Temchenko Fran Rosso & Mark Sturm Memorial Endowments; Delaney Thompson Westfield Academy Scholarship; Christine Tompkins Cavanaugh Family Memorial Endowment; Amelia Tooker Westfield Academy Scholarship; Chelsea Villareal & Loretta Baker Pohl Memorial Endowment; Insurance Endowment & Butler Agency Scholarship; Amy Wardner American Legion Post 124 Francis "Hank" Dooley Memorial; Melissa Welch Rodden Family Endowment; Christopher Wellspeak & Jean Cantell Pease Family Endowment; Raina Wesson Catherine O'Brien Memorial Endowment; Heather White Frank Stanley Beveridge Memorial Endowment; Jared White & Richard Holcomb Memorial; Tyler Wilk Jose Torres Memorial Endowment; Ryan Wilson State University of New York at Plattsburgh Al Yaracz Memorial Endowment; Amanda Womeldorf Westfield Vocational Technical High School: Charles & Elizabeth Smith Trust; Jeremy Blackwelder Richard Sunderland Memorial Endowment; Marianne Carr Westfield Academy Scholarship; Emma Dubovaya Miami International University of Art & Design Leonard Puza Memorial Endowment; Kaylee Paulson Westfield Spanish American Association Endowment; Nadine Tran John & Pearl Malawka Athletic Endowment; Eric Willcox St. Mary High School: Cutcher Memorial Endowment; Joseph Lubanski Westfield Academy Scholarship; Jeanette Peretti Charles & Elizabeth Smith Trust; Mario Peretti Westfield Residents from other schools or who were home schooled: Cavanaugh Family Memorial Endowment; Troy Denton Kordeczka Family & David Modena Memorial Endowments; Caroline Foley Dunkin' Donuts Customers' Scholarship; Ryan Summers Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce Scholarship; Ryan Tettemer Maniscalco Family Trust Endowment; Nicholas Veronesi William Arment Memorial Endowment; Alan Veronesi Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, (updated 8/1/2024) and acknowledgement of our Privacy Policy, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/1/2025) © 2025 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us) The material on this site may not be reproduced except with the prior written permission of Advance Local Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site YouTube's privacy policy is available here and YouTube's terms of service is available here Ad Choices \n m_gallery = \"citizens_scholarship_awards_presented\";\n m_gallery_id = \"13101487\";\n m_gallery_title = \"Citizens\\' Scholarship awards presented\";\n m_gallery_blog_id = \"4502\";\n m_gallery_creation_date = \"Wednesday 6:14 PM\";\n m_gallery_permalink = \"http://photos.masslive.com/4502/gallery/citizens_scholarship_awards_presented/index.html\";\n m_gallery_json = \"https://blog.masslive.com/photogallery/4502/13101487.json\";\n m_gallery_pagetype = \"embed\";\n m_gallery_type = \"photo\";\n <\/script>\n Gallery: Citizens' Scholarship awards presented Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Sign in Join now, it's FREE! Passed away unexpectedly at home on December 26 Mark Entwistle (Katrina) and the late Collin Scott Daughter of the late Lucienne Belsito and stepdaughter of the late Frank Belsito and survived by Madeleine Skouris (late Bill) and Jerry LaBelle Memorial donations in memory of Gloria may be made to ARCH (Payable online or by cheque) Visit www.osullivanfuneralhome.com to leave condolences or share photos for the family Arrangements entrusted to O'Sullivan Funeral Home (215 St James Street More In Memoriam > comments need to be approved before they are published Dialogue and debate are integral to a free society and we welcome and encourage you to share your views on the issues of the day. We ask that you be respectful of others and their points of view, refrain from personal attacks and stay on topic. To learn about our commenting policies and how our community-based moderation works, please read our Community Guidelines