5Q: Meghan Hughes

 / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
/ PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

1 What has been the most interesting thing you’ve learned about CCRI?

Our students … are often the first in their family to attend college, and their grit and determination are incredibly inspiring. Every day, the example they set about what hard work looks like keeps me moving forward.

2 You previously were executive director of Year Up Providence. How did that role prepare you for this new position?

I built partnerships with Rhode Island’s leading companies and created effective employment pathways for our graduates, while ensuring they completed their first year of college with us, and were on the path to a degree. The opportunity Year Up created to change perceptions about where talent can be found in this state is something I have brought with me to CCRI. Year Up’s work depends on public-private partnerships to achieve its mission and CCRI has the capacity to do this work at scale.

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3 How do you think CCRI could better meet the needs of Rhode Island’s employers?

CCRI offers an extraordinary talent pool of motivated, hardworking students and graduates. It will be my responsibility to ensure that the college serves our students by actively building new employer partnerships and soliciting input from employers about their need for employees in high-wage, high-demand fields. We know we need to be more responsive to business needs, and I am incredibly grateful for the positive response companies have given us in these early days.

4 What can business owners and managers do to help CCRI grow?

Hire our graduates. Commit to building partnerships. Ask how you can support us. Mentor our students. Recognize that despite all of the conversations about ‘brain drain’ in our state, CCRI graduates stay here. They raise their families here, pay taxes and help grow our local economy.

5 You were a faculty member at Tufts University. How has that prepared you to lead CCRI faculty?

Having been a faculty member for 15 years, I have enormous respect for people who choose to give their lives to teaching. I’m incredibly fortunate to be leading an institution with committed faculty members who care passionately about their disciplines and who are equally passionate about our students. •

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