An Educated Guest Wiley - Todd Zipper

How do you build skills and cause proven, sustained wage gains for young adults in the US? Just ask Gerald Chertavian, founder and CEO of the youth workforce development non-profit, Year Up. 

Tune into this episode of An Educated Guest and join Gerald and host Todd Zipper, Executive Vice President and GM at Wiley, to learn how Year Up is closing the Opportunity Divide, returning $2.46 to society for every $1 invested in the organization, and teaching employers how to implement inclusive, skills-based hiring. 

Key Takeaways:
Year Up’s leadership in operationalizing emergent talent at scale by combining workforce and youth development 
How the organization has caused the largest proven sustained wage gains for young adults in the US 
How Year Up provides high support and high expectations through its multi-modality, three-stage program 
Why social capital and building higher socio-economic connections are critical to talent career success 
Year Up’s virtuous, ecosystem approach of bringing young adults and employers together through skills-based hiring 

Guest Bio
Gerald Chertavian is dedicated to closing the Opportunity Divide that exists in our nation. Determined to make his vision a reality, Gerald combined his entrepreneurial skills and his passion for working with young adults to found Year Up in 2000. 

 Gerald’s commitment to working with young adults spans more than 25 years. In 1999, he sold his technology company, Conduit Communications, and left his career on Wall Street to help low-income, at-risk youth. A year later, in 2000, Year Up was born. 

Gerald holds a B.A. in Economics from Bowdoin College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He’s also a New York Times best-selling author of his book published in 2012 called A Year Up. 

What does it mean to be an equity-serving institution? And how can universities actually serve learners for life?

Michelle Marks, Chancellor of the University of Colorado, Denver (CU Denver), sheds light on these topics in the quest to redefine the public, urban research institution. On this episode of An Educated Guest, hosted by Todd Zipper, EVP and GM at Wiley, Todd and Michelle explore CU Denver’s ambitious strategic goals to equitably serve a diverse population of students for life.

Key Takeaways:
How CU Denver is redefining the public urban research institution
The impact of CU Denver partnering with Apple and K-12 to teach tech skills early
How the university’s Smart Cities living laboratory can improve Coloradans’ quality of life
How CU Denver’s work as an “age-friendly university” is creating a new, non-traditional learner demographic

Guest Bio
Michelle Marks is the Chancellor of the University of Colorado, Denver, as well as a tenured professor. She is well-known for developing innovative programs that help students succeed, attracting new student populations, facilitating research opportunities, and driving new revenue growth.

Previously, Michelle served as vice president for academic innovation and new ventures at George Mason University. In this role, she focused on leading strategic partnerships to deliver online programming at scale and support adult degree completion.

Michelle holds a BS in psychology from James Madison University and an MA and PhD in industrial/organizational psychology from George Mason University.

To value student centricity is easy. But to prove these values are actualized in student outcomes bears asking, “How do we really know we do what we say we do?”

This is one among many spirited insights from guest Dr. Gregory Fowler, President of the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), in this episode of An Educated Guest. Dr. Fowler and host Todd Zipper, Executive Vice President and GM at Wiley, discuss a wide range of topics in career-connected education, such as the true implications of student centricity, how to meaningfully surface skills through lifelong learning, and the broader implications of AI and ChatGPT.

Key Takeaways:
What led UMGC to become the number one college serving transfer students 
How the university is experimenting with a “metaversity” to help learners develop skills 
The importance of learners’ dispositions beyond knowledge and skills
How successful student outcomes hinge on validating and communicating skills 

Guest Bio
Dr. Gregory Fowler is the President of the University of Maryland Global Campus, the largest public online university in the US, with courses offered online and in more than 20 countries and territories worldwide. Gregory is a nationally recognized scholar and leader in developing innovative learning models and experiences for adult and non-traditional learner populations.  

Prior to UMGC, he served on the leadership teams of Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) Global Campus and Western Governor’s University. At SNHU, he led efforts to develop competency-based online and hybrid programs that respond to the rapidly changing demands of the workforce and global communities, including disadvantaged students in Los Angeles, refugees in Africa and the Middle East, and learners in Mexico and Columbia.

In addition to his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Morehouse College, George Mason University, and SUNY–Buffalo, Gregory holds an MBA from Western Governors University and completed programs at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and Business School.

Power skills. Capability academies. Learning in the flow of work. Cutting-edge concepts will redefine how higher ed and corporations innovate learning. And one HR guru is leading the charge: Josh Bersin.   

In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper, Executive Vice President and GM at Wiley, welcomes Josh Bersin, founder and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company. Todd and Josh explore new frontiers in skill- and capability-building that higher ed institutions and employers need to future-proof themselves. 

Key Takeaways:
Why all businesses have a skills gap and how the evolution of business is making it worse 
Why “power skills” are the most essential and in-demand yet hardest to teach 
Why educators and business leaders should be developing capabilities, not just skills 
How apprenticeships and ‘hire-train-deploy’ models create long-term value

Guest Bio
Josh Bersin is the Founder and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company, a global leader in research, advisory services, and professional development for HR teams around the world. He is known as an analyst, author, educator, and thought leader focusing on the global talent market and the challenges and trends impacting business workforces around the world.

Recently, he launched the Josh Bersin Academy. In his role as dean, Josh guides program offerings, interacts with members, and shares relevant research and insights to help HR and talent professionals stay current on the trends and practices needed to drive success in the modern world of work. 

Josh has a BS in engineering from Cornell University, an MS in engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Greg Shove made it his mission to provide learners with the value of an elite business degree at a fraction of the cost. But how did this big idea become a reality?

In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper, EVP and GM of Wiley University Services and Talent Development, welcomes Greg Shove, CEO of Section4. They discuss how Greg and founder, Scott Galloway, are making elite business education more relevant, accessible, and affordable to all. 

Key takeaways:
How Section4 brought key features of in-person learning online at scale 
How the company aims to disrupt the business school market through its 80-10-1 model 
Why Section4 vets students “on the way out,” not on the way in 
The benefit of “live learning” from today’s top business leaders 

Guest Bio
Greg Shove is the CEO of Section4, a new business school designed to help curious, ambitious thinkers excel in the tech economy. He believes that business education needs to be reinvented. That’s why Section4 offers affordable and accessible all-access membership plans for online courses featuring cohort-based learning, a mix of lesson videos with live lectures, and TA office hours.

Prior to Section4, Greg founded five companies resulting in three exits, two of which were over $100M (2Market to AOL, SocialChorus to Sumeru Equity Partners). He is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

How can higher ed ensure everyone has the opportunity to live a healthy and productive life? That’s precisely the question The Gates Foundation seeks to answer through its US Program in Postsecondary Success.

In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper, EVP and GM of Wiley University Services and Talent Development, welcomes Patrick Methvin, Director of Postsecondary Success at The Gates Foundation. Todd and Patrick discuss the role of philanthropy in higher ed and how the postsecondary sector can help fulfill the promise of economic mobility for all, regardless of race, gender, or family income.

Key Takeaways:
The Gates Foundation’s roots in funding education
The importance of higher ed advancing socioeconomic mobility
How their education funding stacks from K-12 to postsecondary to the workforce
Postsecondary funding areas the Gates Foundation targets
How the Foundation seeks to close attainment gaps

Guest Bio
Patrick Methvin is the Director of Postsecondary Success at The Gates Foundation. He oversees work designed to significantly increase the number of Americans achieving post-high school credentials and eliminate educational attainment disparities by race and income.

Previously, Patrick served as a principal in the Boston Consulting Group’s Social Impact and Consumer Goods Practice Areas. In this role, he supported higher ed institutions in managing operating model changes required by their rapidly changing funding environments.

Patrick holds an MBA from the Wharton School, a master’s in educational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of North Carolina.