Andrew Lattanner, director, PCC's OMIC Training Center

SCAPPOOSE, Ore. – As Portland Community College gets closer to finalizing a property purchase in Columbia County, it has selected Andrew Lattanner as the director of the college’s Workforce Training Center, part of the regional Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center (OMIC) in Scappoose. He will begin his work with PCC on July 15.

The OMIC effort is a collaboration of industry, higher education and government focused on creating a world-class innovation center. It seeks to combine applied research and development and workforce training to serve the region’s advanced manufacturers, specifically the metals manufacturing industry. R&D projects are led by industry and university partners, while the Training Center will be led by PCC and shaped around a novel apprenticeship model.

“Andrew’s vast public policy and community engagement expertise will add great value to this key leadership position for PCC,” said Marc Goldberg, associate vice president for Workforce Development and Continuing Education at the college, whose division includes the OMIC Training Center.

“Our goal is to build a pipeline of talent for regional manufacturers through OMIC, to meet their future workforce needs,” he said. “At the same time, we’re striving to create economic mobility for area residents to access living wage careers in a key industry sector that is growing in Oregon.”

In late October 2018, PCC began the process of negotiating a purchase and sale agreement on a parcel of land – just over 17 acres – earmarked for the OMIC Training Center. Located just north of Wagner Court and east of West Lane Road, in Scappoose, the property offers easy access for students and the local community, and is close to the OMIC R&D operations center.

As the director, Lattanner will oversee a center whose stable of programs includes Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) Operations, Machine Manufacturing, Industrial Fabrication, and Mechatronics. The center will offer training that combines work-based experience with classroom and lab instruction, in an apprenticeship format that enables students to “earn while they learn.” Additionally, he will be responsible for connecting regional manufacturers with OMIC training, to ensure the apprenticeship model meets their priority workforce needs.

Lattanner is a transplant to Oregon from Washington, DC, where for the past 12 years he has been charged with bringing diverse stakeholders together to address pressing challenges faced by communities, states and regions. Workforce development has been at the top of Lattanner’s priority list, in part because of his role to support a U.S. Senator and Representative from Indiana, the most manufacturing-intensive state in the country.

Most recently, from 2013 until this year, he has served as the legislative director, then as deputy chief of staff, for Sen. Joe Donnelly. In this capacity, Lattanner was Donnelly’s top legislative advisor with responsibility for legislative planning, strategic communications, and constituent and stakeholder outreach. Prior to this role, he was the chief of staff for then-Congresswoman Kathy Hochul.

Lattanner is a graduate of Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, where he earned his Master of Public Administration degree. He completed his undergraduate work at Mount Union College in Alliance, OH, graduating Summa Cum Laude.

PCC’s OMIC Training Center is slated to open in fall 2020, with construction beginning this summer after the property sale closes.

About Portland Community College: Portland Community College is the largest post-secondary institution in Oregon and provides training, degree and certificate completion, and lifelong learning to more than 71,000 full- and part-time students in Multnomah, Washington, Yamhill, Clackamas, and Columbia counties. PCC has four comprehensive campuses, eight education centers or areas served, and approximately 200 community locations in the Portland metropolitan area. The PCC district encompasses a 1,500-square-mile area in northwest Oregon and offers two-year degrees, one-year certificate programs, short-term training, alternative education, pre-college courses and life-long learning.

 Visit PCC news on the web at http://news.pcc.edu/

Save_A_Seat_Campaign_Poster.jpg

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) has awarded the Portland Community College Foundation with two of its biggest honors.

As the college’s philanthropic organization, the PCC Foundation is the recipient of the CASE Circle of Excellence Award and the Educational Fundraising Award for 2019. The volunteer-led CASE is a global nonprofit membership association of educational institutions, and helps develop the communities of professional practice in alumni relations, fundraising, marketing, student recruitment, stakeholder engagement, crisis communications and government relations.

CASE honored the Foundation with the Circle of Excellence Award for its “Save A Seat” Campaign. The Foundation launched its annual faculty, staff and retiree campaign in 2018, highlighting various ways the community can support PCC’s hardworking student population. By making a gift to fund scholarships, campus food pantries or emergency grants, PCC employees and retirees improved student access to resources to help them in their college journey. The series of hand-illustrated images were conceived and designed by PCC alumni Alla Nikiforov, Warren Gunn and Ryan Bunao.

“Employees and retirees know the immense challenges PCC students face, and this campaign allowed the community to come together and provide wraparound services to ensure equitable student success,” said Ann Prater, executive director of the PCC Foundation. “The campaign encouraged donors to ‘save a seat’ so students could afford to learn, and not let hunger or setbacks slow them down.”

The CASE Educational Fundraising Award is an annual honor given to exceptional fundraising programs at educational institutions in the United States. The PCC Foundation was one of only ten community colleges receiving the award in 2019. CASE annually recognizes exemplary fundraising programs and activities, and noted that the PCC Foundation showed, “the highest levels of professionalism and best practice in fundraising efforts.”

Here’s a complete list of CASE Educational Fundraising Award winners.

And, the complete list of Circle of Excellence Awards winners.

About Portland Community College: Portland Community College is the largest post-secondary institution in Oregon and provides training, degree and certificate completion, and lifelong learning to more than 71,000 full- and part-time students in Multnomah, Washington, Yamhill, Clackamas, and Columbia counties. PCC has four comprehensive campuses, eight education centers or areas served, and approximately 200 community locations in the Portland metropolitan area. The PCC district encompasses a 1,500-square-mile area in northwest Oregon and offers two-year degrees, one-year certificate programs, short-term training, alternative education, pre-college courses and life-long learning.

Visit PCC news on the web at http://news.pcc.edu/

Eric Blumenthal

PORTLAND, Ore. – Two Portland Community College administrators serving in interim roles have been made permanent in their current positions.

Eric Blumenthal has been appointed as the college’s Vice President of Finance and Administration, and Tricia Brand has been tapped as PCC’s Chief Diversity Officer. Both appointments are effective July 1.

“Eric and Tricia have proven to be exemplary, collaborative leaders for the institution, and I am delighted to announce their full, permanent appointments,” said PCC President Mark Mitsui.

“Since joining PCC, Eric and Tricia have each demonstrated deep knowledge and commitment to the unique needs and concerns of their respective constituents and to the environmental factors that affect the college. They are strategic and creative, and offer a fresh approach and energy to their roles. PCC is fortunate to have their leadership in-house,” Mitsui said.

Blumenthal joined PCC in 2016 as the Associate Vice President of Finance and Administration. In this capacity he has provided strategic leadership and direction of all college-wide financial and administrative services related to payroll, procurement, budget, risk/insurance services, bursar operations, treasury, accounting services and financial systems development. He also serves as a peer evaluator for the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, the regional accrediting agency of higher education institutions in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington, as well as British Columbia, Canada.

He stepped into the interim vice president role in October 2018, succeeding Jim Langstraat who left PCC in September to join Pacific University. Since then, Blumenthal has been instrumental in the issuance of $172 million in PCC pension obligation bonds to address PERS obligations, working with both bond underwriters and rating agencies -- a move that was able to significantly lower the college’s PERS unfunded actuarial liability. Additionally, he has increased visibility and communication efforts about the college’s budget throughout the legislative session, hosting forums and town halls, meeting with a variety of stakeholder and student groups, and regularly presenting budget work to PCC’s elected Board of Directors.

Prior to coming to PCC, Blumenthal served as the Vice President of Finance and Administration at the University of Western States from 2011 to 2016, and before that, as the Director of Business Affairs at Portland State University beginning in 2007.

A native of the East Coast, Blumenthal earned his master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and a bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Cum Laude, from Boston College.

Brand began her tenure at the college in 2014, as the Associate Dean of Students at PCC’s Southeast Campus. In this capacity she supported the Dean of Students in establishing the campus’ first-ever Resource Centers, providing direction to multiple service lines within its Student Services division -- academic advising, the orientation center, testing and placement, and career exploration. At the Southeast Campus, Brand was a key collaborator in such college-wide efforts as Oregon Promise, advising redesign, student retention, degree completion, student conduct (rights and responsibilities), Title IX compliance, and student recruitment. She also served as a campus Title IX investigator, offering guidance and resources to students, faculty and staff.

In 2018, Brand was tapped to serve as the interim Dean of Students at the campus, and in January 2019, she was brought on to serve as the interim Chief Diversity Officer for the college, filling the gap left by the departure of Kim Baker-Flowers who joined Cal State University, East Bay (Hayward, Calif.).

In the past six months, Brand has sponsored and organized multiple college-wide social justice workshops, attended by more than 200 employees. She has assisted the president’s office with organization of PCC Faculty and Staff of Color caucuses and the president’s Communities of Color Council. In April, Brand represented the college on a panel regarding equity in the workforce, hosted by the Portland Business Journal as part of its “How Oregon Works” series. She also co-presented an invitation-only, pre-conference panel with Mitsui at the American Association of Community Colleges annual meeting. Additionally, she played an instrumental role in convening, organizing and leading PCC’s presence as part of the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education that took place in Portland last month.

Prior to arriving to PCC, Brand served in a variety of Student Affairs positions at Lewis & Clark College beginning in 2009, including as interim Dean of Students. Before this, she was with the University of Arizona from 2006 to 2009, most recently as its Associate Director of Undergraduate Initiatives.

Brand holds a master’s degree in Educational Psychology from Rutgers University and two bachelor degrees, in Psychology and Educational Foundations, from Washington University in St. Louis.

About Portland Community College: Portland Community College is the largest post-secondary institution in Oregon and provides training, degree and certificate completion, and lifelong learning to more than 71,000 full- and part-time students in Multnomah, Washington, Yamhill, Clackamas, and Columbia counties. PCC has four comprehensive campuses, eight education centers or areas served, and approximately 200 community locations in the Portland metropolitan area. The PCC district encompasses a 1,500-square-mile area in northwest Oregon and offers two-year degrees, one-year certificate programs, short-term training, alternative education, pre-college courses and life-long learning.

Visit PCC news on the web at http://news.pcc.edu/

WHAT & WHERE:

PORTLAND, Ore. – This year, Portland Community College’s 57th commencement ceremony is about more than simply earning a degree. It’s about a symbolic celebration of how PCC graduates are building the workforce.

Commencement starts at 7 p.m., Friday, June 14 in the Memorial Coliseum, 300 N. Winning Way. On hand will be more than 1,000 graduates, who will walk across the coliseum stage to receive their associate degree or certificate. For further details, visit https://www.pcc.edu/commencement/

WHY:

Community colleges like PCC are the economic engine for the region, providing not only educated residents but a trained workforce to fill the skills gap. In Oregon, 50 percent of all jobs are considered “middle skill jobs,” which means they require education beyond high school but not necessarily a four-year degree.

Out of the roughly 4,800 total degrees and certificates being awarded this year, more than 1,200 are short-term career technical education certificates.

INTERVIEWS:

The following featured students and graduates are available for interviews before and during commencement. If media are interested in attending and documenting any of these stories, contact us at (971) 722-4376 or email jghill@pcc.edu. We will arrange parking passes for media and connect them with graduates.

Media with branded vehicles can park at the coliseum in these yellow areas.

STORIES:

All in the Family: Margarita and Veyda Hernandez of Southeast Portland are graduating the same day. Mother Margarita, a PCC grad, will receive her master’s degree at Portland State University in the afternoon and her daughter, Veyda, will accept her associate degree from PCC in the evening. The day symbolizes their escape from domestic abuse, overcoming an uncertain immigration status, and discovering their passions through education.

Read: https://www.pcc.edu/news/2019/06/all-in-the-family/

The Ultimate Comeback: From near death to becoming a PCC graduate in maritime welding, commencement student speaker Jess Kurtz epitomizes words like miracle, superstar and success. A scooter accident left Kurtz with a crushed skull, fighting for her life. Several surgeries later, coupled with much reflection throughout, Kurtz recovered and decided to re-imagine her career. She entered PCC’s Welding Technology Program, is now graduating with a sparkling 3.87 GPA, and has a full-time job as a welder for Vigor Industrial.

Read: https://www.pcc.edu/news/2019/05/jess-kurtz/

Overcoming Cancer: Eric Pennella of Southeast Portland isn’t letting Hodgkin’s Lymphoma stop him from an education. Pennella started the one-year Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) certificate three weeks after finishing chemotherapy. Pennella has earned his CADD certificate and will be able to find an entry-level job, using it as a stepping stone to enter Portland State University’s Mechanical Engineering Program.

Read: https://www.pcc.edu/news/2019/04/eric-pennella/

From Dropouts to Ophthalmic Grads: Broussard and Thornton are Northeast Portland graduates of the Ophthalmic Medical Technology Program. Both were high school dropouts, juggling duties of young parenthood while holding down full-time jobs. Now equipped with specialized training, workers like Broussard and Thornton are in demand as the population ages.

Read: https://www.pcc.edu/news/2019/02/ophthalmic-medical-technology/

About Portland Community College: Portland Community College is the largest post-secondary institution in Oregon and provides training, degree and certificate completion, and lifelong learning to more than 71,000 full- and part-time students in Multnomah, Washington, Yamhill, Clackamas, and Columbia counties. PCC has four comprehensive campuses, eight education centers or areas served, and approximately 200 community locations in the Portland metropolitan area. The PCC district encompasses a 1,500-square-mile area in northwest Oregon and offers two-year degrees, one-year certificate programs, short-term training, alternative education, pre-college courses and life-long learning.

Visit PCC news on the web at http://news.pcc.edu/