- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been provided by MD Advantage Insurance Company.

NJ Best, New Jersey'’s five-two-nine college savings plan.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

Johnson & Johnson.

Valley Bank.

Delta Dental of New Jersey.

Everyone deserves a healthy smile.

Suez North America.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Clean Energy program.

And by the Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided by Insider NJ.

And by New Jersey Globe.

[MOTIVATIONAL MUSIC] - We have him back.

He is in fact, Dr. Dale G. Caldwell, who is the Executive Director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University Rothman Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Good to see you doctor.

- Hey Steve it's great to see you again and again, as I said I admire all that you're doing so it's an honor to be on your show.

- I am a fan of what you're saying, no who I'm I kidding.

(laughs) Hey let's do this.

Let's do this.

Innovation and entrepreneurship, I'm obsessed by leadership.

You know, I write about it, think about it, talk about it.

And as I always say, make mistakes around it.

What is the connection between innovation and leadership and then we'll do entrepreneurship?

- Yeah and that's a, that's really a great question.

In fact, we at, at it, I think Jim Berud who you may know was the Executive (inaudible) to the Rothman Institute.

And he added that innovation to really take entrepreneurship to the next level to really try to identify the latest and greatest.

And one of the things is, you know in this country we thrived on innovation and sometimes we get so comfortable, with our success that we don't look at innovation.

So we're really trying to promote innovation in every aspect, but really around entrepreneurship.

- Okay so let me follow up on that.

I often say in leadership seminars and in my leadership coaching in another life I have outside of broadcasting that quote unquote, the status quo even when you're doing well is not really an option.

It's not actually a good option because if you're not evolving if you're not innovating, you're going backwards.

And I don't want that turn into a long-winded plaque somewhere.

I really believe that in our industry university, life whatever.

Do you believe the status quo is not really an option?

- It's not only not an option.

See, but what's happened over time is it's become even less an option.

You know, when we were young kids growing up there was more technology has made things move so quickly.

You know, we're now working in avatars we're now doing things and you see the rate of change has accelerated.

So if you aren't moving forward, not just even, a little bit, you have to be moving forward a lot.

So you have to innovate and innovation needs to be the standard.

- And so change is not a question of whether you accept change it's whether you embrace it and drive it.

And I would argue that-- And again, I'm not gonna turn it into a leadership seminar with you, but I have a feeling you and I could go back and forth for a long time about this, that too many people that I'm around professionally in all walks of life they'll wait to be told what to do that's not only not leadership that's the opposite of innovation, correct?

- That's the opposite of innovation.

And frankly, people are looking for people.

I don't care if you're an administrative assistant.

I don't care if you're a CEO of people who are thinking outside of the box, who are thinking around the corner and that's the way, and you work with a lot of young people.

I work with a lot of young people and that's what we need to let them know is that you've gotta be thinking about tomorrow, today.

- Before I go into entrepreneurship and even though this is a not for profit.

Yeah I love when people call it, oh the Caucus Educational Corporation.

You're a not for profit.

Yes we're a not for profit.

That has a bottom line, that has to raise money, that has to keep our expenses down, run like a very tight business.

And any nonprofit that doesn't do that has problems.

But here's the question.

We're a nonprofit in the age of COVID two years into this we're taping this in February, 2022 be seen later, COVID has forced the issue of innovation more than ever.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Talk about it.

- Well absolutely.

And what's happened is there's always a positive with negatives.

And so COVID has forced us to get out of our comfort zone.

And one of the things is this video, I've been doing a number of things with regular video meetings, and you can really, you know the 2080 rule, the 20% of the people do 80% of the work.

Well, if you have regular videos and you're trying to set up a program or something, the bad 80% drop off and the 20% stay on and you can work with people across the country as if they're right next door.

And I don't think people have really taken advantage of that as much as they possibly can going forward.

- Let's talk entrepreneurship A, but B what are entrepreneur zones?

- So one of the things is the opportunity zones which and everyone knows that you knows under- - Yes, federal government supported them, we interviewed-- take a look at our interview with Senator Corey Booker, one of the leading initiative, leading supporters in the US Senate regarding that.

What is the difference between that and an entrepreneur zone?

- Well, the trouble with a lot of opportunity zones and Corey, you know I've known Corey for years, will say that is it actually accelerates gentrification in some communities.

Some communities, I think Newark's done a good job of really trying to bring the communities.

So what I mean by that is you pay these developers to come in, they make these beautiful hotels, they squeeze out the local entrepreneurs.

So I wrote an article, an ROI and another one NJBIZ about this idea why don't we have entrepreneur zones where we create an ecosystem of entrepreneurial businesses in the economic challenged community so that they can thrive and grow and they won't be pushed out by a lot of these developers?

And Tim Sullivan, who I love is just a great guy.

- New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

- Exactly New Jersey Economic-- And they actually put this in the economic development legislation.

And so I'm chairing a committee to really look at doing entrepreneur zones.

And we're focusing initially on Trenton and Bridgton with the idea that maybe we can do that.

And my obsession is ending poverty.

And I think entrepreneurship, and job growth is really the secret to really ending poverty.

And that's why these entrepreneurs zones are really focused on it.

- Let me ask you something you mentioned entrepreneurship and businesses coming out of communities, but dare I ask you your father was very closely aligned in worked shoulder to shoulder with Dr. King.

Dr. King was a big advocate of economic entrepreneurship and its connection to civil rights.

Do I have that right?

- Absolutely, absolutely.

And so my dad was at, in the March on Washington, and the March on Washington was for jobs and freedom.

And so Dr. King in the poor people's camp and around that and so if he were alive today he would go full force on entrepreneur zones, full force on turning communities around because the reality is IBM is not gonna move into the poorest sections of Newark and hire 10,000 people.

It has to be the local businesses that are thriving, that are innovative that are meeting the needs of the community that can do trauma informed job training and give people jobs.

And so that's, I think this is an extension of the civil rights movement Steve.

I really think that entrepreneurs zones is the next iteration of where this movement can go.

- I'm gonna you about the work with veterans in just a moment, but I'm curious about this.

Your passion for innovation, entrepreneurship and everything connected to that tied to the larger civil rights fight that goes on as it should.

Where's it come from?

Does it come from your dad?

- It comes from my dad, but it also comes from experiences.

I've been on the New Brunswick Board of Education for 22 years now.

I'm president of the board right now.

I actually had an opportunity to be the head of school at the Village Charter School, Steve, and in Trenton it was 90% free and reduced launch, 90% African American and many of our kids.

And I talked to Ras Baraka the mayor of Newark about this had what looked like it was post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD.

And so I actually coined a term called urban traumatic stress disorder and found that mindfulness actually helps folks and adults focus.

And so the idea is that trauma informed entrepreneurship training, trauma informed job training, bringing in mindfulness.

And so I really saw firsthand how when you help people thrive then their lives are transformed.

That they feel good about who they are and where they go.

And I think that that as the politicians in the world should be really focusing on making entrepreneurship and job creation job one.

- Before we end the program I wanna ask you about this veterans initiative.

What is the veterans launching ventures?

What is it?

- So veterans launching ventures that we've done that for about 12 years.

And this is one of the reasons the pandemic has forced us to go on Zoom, Steve.

And so we had about 12 to 20 people in person.

We had to go on Zoom the program expanded to 25 states and three countries.

We had an article in a veteran's administration paper a few weeks ago that convinced 500 people to apply to our program.

So we quickly had to pivot and so we went from one veteran program where we are training veterans or immediate family members, a nine week program on developing a business plan and growing their business.

So we've now have expanded that to three programs so we can accommodate the need.

There are veterans out there who are looking to create their own business so they can survive.

- So it's interesting for years, got a minute left let's find a job for a veteran a veteran needs to get a job.

Yes, that's true.

But you're saying there's another way.

- There's another way.

And many of these entrepreneurs, if given the support they need and the guidance are extraordinary entrepreneurs, and they can create jobs.

- Look at their training.

- Look at their training.

- Look at their training.

- Look at the discipline that they have.

You know, and that is the foundation of successful entrepreneurship.

So this veteran's program should really be a major investment of corporations and government going forward.

- Dr. Dale G. Caldwell is Executive Director of Fairleigh Dickinson University's Rothman Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship as a student, not only of leadership, but obsessed with entrepreneurship and innovation or we wouldn't be here right now.

That's not about me.

That's about our team.

So I feel like Dr. Caldwell and I are speaking the same language and I look forward to future conversations.

All the best Doctor thank you.

- Thank you.

Thanks for this opportunity.

Take care, take care everybody.

- You got it.

Stay right there I'm Steve Adubato that's Dr. Caldwell.

We'll see you next time.

To watch more Think Tank with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- Hi, Steve Adubato.

Welcome to a very important discussion on the current state of healthcare and the future of healthcare.

We're joined by Jeff Alter, the CEO of Summit Health.

Jeff, good to have you with us.

- Thanks, Steve.

Glad to have some time with you today.

- Absolutely.

Jeff, let me ask you, you come with an interesting background to Summit Health.

First of all, explain what Summit Health is to everyone, and then, we'll talk a little bit about your background.

- Sure, Summit Health is a connected care model that goes across this tri-state region with the connection to a very large urgent care practice called CityMD.

- Right.

And your background?

- Yeah, so I, you know, I come at this, having spent the past 25 years of my career in health insurer side, you know, mainly with United Health Care and most recently, with Anthem, and quite frankly, gotten to see what works and doesn't work in terms of medical groups across the country, and Summit Health is one of the groups that works, and having spent the past four years on the board, I've always been really excited about the promise of linking a first-class urgent care network with a top medical group to create a high-quality, care delivery model with hundreds of access points.

- Let me do this.

I'm gonna disclose that Summit Health is one of the underwriters from the healthcare side that supports our healthcare programming.

And the other thing is that in my hometown of Montclair, Summit Health just opened up a Summit Health facility.

And what struck me about it when I was there was that everything, I shouldn't say everything, I had went to see an orthopedic specialist there, but you look around and there are lots of other specialties in this building.

Is that thinking, and is that model, Jeff, intended to deal with what you have called the siloing, if you will, of healthcare?

- Yes, you know, we believe that one of the issues that confronts, or challenges that confronts us in the way that we deliver care in the US system is fragmentation of care.

And the ability to have under one roof, many multi-specialty practices, along with your primary care physician enables you to get that connected care, knowing that you're not gonna fall between the gaps of the various silos of healthcare.

- Why would it take, why has it taken so long to figure that out?

Because on the surface it seems logical, but easier said than done.

- You know, I think there's a lot of dynamics in play.

And quite frankly, you know, just the way that the healthcare system is really a bunch of smaller physician practices and then very, very large hospital systems, but not a lot in between.

And that's I think the promise of Summit Health is to create that in-between model.

- By the way, what I mentioned, it's actually a medical hub.

There's a healthcare hub, if you will, coming together that I mentioned before.

You've also told our producers, and you've talked about this with the aging population.

What does an aging population have to do with the larger health care issues we face as a state, region, and nation?

- Yeah, I think there's probably three challenges.

One we've already talked about, the fragmentation, the cost of the system, and then, we've got an aging and probably, a somewhat less-healthy population.

And so perhaps if, you know, in days gone by when we were younger and more healthy, the fragmentation and the chances of you falling through the cracks of the system mattered less.

But as we get older, as our population gets, you know, somewhat less healthy, those important connection points really drive a lot of the costs.

And quite frankly, the poor outcomes for folks in the country.

- You know, I've talked to a lot of physicians, I've done a lot of leadership coaching and communication coaching with physicians, and the whole question of quality, right?

Quality outcomes, patient care, and then you got the finance, the economics of this, right?

And there are a fair number of physicians, and you deal with them all the time, Jeff, who say, "Wait a minute, you want me to have better quality outcomes, but you also want me to have the metrics, the numbers, that show that we're being economically efficient.

and dare I say, profitable."

Do they match up well in your mind and in reality, Jeff?

- I do believe they do.

The system needs to use data and technology better and differently than it has in the past.

And I think that is one of the challenges of a smaller practice is the ability to invest in those and understand how to use those, to create better outcomes and quite honestly, to prove your value.

And so I do believe that there is a lot of value being practiced across the country, but getting your arms around what that's worth and how to do that in a more systematic, data-driven way is one of the challenges.

But I think it's also one of the opportunities to really improve healthcare in the US.

- Final question on this one, Jeff.

I'm not the only person who's used FaceTime or Zoom or whatever you wanna, technology your talking about for a telehealth visit with a particular physician, and it works in some cases and others it's a little tricky, in some, it absolutely does not.

What do you see as the place for telehealth moving forward into 2022 and beyond?

- I think there's two primary areas where we've shown over the last 18 months or so that telehealth could work really well.

One is behavioral health, getting access to those clinicians in an almost immediate way is vitally important to the behavioral health of our patients.

Number two, I think the follow-up, getting people back into the, back into an office after they've had a procedure or, is difficult.

And we can eliminate a lot of hospital readmissions if we could connect virtually to those patients, find out how they're dealing with, you know, the post-surgery or not, and then intervening before it gets to the point where they have to go back to a hospital.

- Yeah.

It's complex stuff.

And by the way, real quick, before I let you go, learned a lot during COVID, have you not, you and your colleagues?

- We have.

Some, I would say that it was a great experiment and we've learned where things work and what can and cannot be continued in the future.

- No one would have wanted to have learned from this, Jeff.

That's what the reality is, either you pivot and you adapt, or you don't.

And again, once again, to all the healthcare workers on the front lines, we can never say thank you enough to physicians, to nurses, to respiratory therapist, and so many others.

Jeff Alter, CEO of Summit Health, I want to thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you, Steve.

- You go it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

To watch more Think Tank with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We're now joined by Steve Swetsky, Executive Director, New Jersey Education Association.

Steve, thanks for joining us.

- Hi, glad to be here.

- I'll tell you what, it is always great when we're physically down in Atlantic City in the Convention Center right there on the floor but this year we're not able to do that but it was a hybrid, some in-person, some virtual.

For you, what has been most exciting about and not to mention challenging about this convention?

- Well, the exciting part was actually being in person again with our members and our staff.

For many of them, it was the first time that they were actually together in person for 18 months.

So that part was exciting.

And a second part to that was the ability to also interact with our members across the state through the virtual pieces that we put together.

So we took what we learned last year in a completely virtual environment and this year we put together a program that was both in-person and virtual.

Steve, let me ask you something.

One of the things that's come out of this and you and I have talked about this a lot.

This whole question of social equity justice, the inequities that exist and have been exacerbated if you will by this pandemic.

The Office of Human and Civil Rights, Equity and Governance, what is it and how is it connected to what went on in Atlantic City?

- So we recently created office at NJEA and the reason we did that was we wanted to be able to both look internally within our organization around the issues of human and civil rights, equity and our governance structures as well as externally with our members in the public.

And so that's become a place where we are, it's kind of an umbrella for all of the work that we do as an organization but you know what they say about organizations, show me your budget and we'll show you your priorities that's really what we put together here was an investment in those issues, human civil rights, equity, social justice issues as you point out throughout the pandemic, those issues have become, they've been brought to light in ways that never were before.

And so NJEA we were a little ahead of the curve, we created that office prior to the pandemic but it's a testament to the focus of our work around public education.

- Steve, you've joined us recently with Sean Spiller your president and we talked about some of these issues but that was before the November 2nd election, the historic election, a lot went on there.

Let me ask you something, from your perspective, from your organization's perspective.

And again, I disclose this all the time, NJEA a big supporter of public broadcasting, a supporter of what we do.

A second Murphy administration, were they legislature with a different makeup, right, different makeup, may potentially different mood, I don't know, we'll look at that particularly on State of Affairs, our public affairs program.

Highest priority for your organization particularly as it relates to the children in our public schools, in the second Murphy administration.

- Yeah, I would say absolutely looking ahead to what does post pandemic education in New Jersey look like?

How can we, not let that rubber-band snap back and just, snap us back to where we were pre-pandemic.

Awful lot was learned around education, around possibilities, around how we interact with students, with parents, with caregivers.

It's a real opportunity to look forward relative to public education and see what the opportunities are and utilizing the funding that's available from the federal government through the ARP funding.

There's a real opportunity here so look at facilities-- - American Rescue Plan.

- Yes.

- I'm sorry, the real opportunity, I interrupted you, I'm sorry, go ahead Steve.

- Yeah, I mean there's a real opportunity here with that additional funding which is here now and we'll be here for up to three years for districts to really look at what they're doing, what they learned and how they can move forward from the pandemic.

Back into what we would call a more normal school scenario.

- I'm gonna get an update on this.

The pandemic vaccines, testing will continue to be a part of this, the science but also people's attitudes.

Have you seen any significant shift?

First of all, what percentage, if you know this Steve of public school educators are vaccinated, number one, number two, are you seeing any shift as more and more people are vaccinated and the results of that had been pretty positive that's not editorializing, that's just a scientific fact.

- Yeah, so upwards of 90 to 95% of our members are vaccinated.

And so that's at a huge impact in terms of safety, in terms of the ability for schools to be back in person.

And if you look around the country compared to New Jersey right now while there's hotspots that pop up here and there, we're certainly doing as well or better than any other place in the country.

The availability of the vaccines now for school-aged children, all the way down into the elementary levels will make a huge difference.

And moving away from kind of the restrictions that have been in place for safety reasons will allow us to get back, again, more of a normal kind of a school experience for both our educators that are in the classrooms and we work with the kids as well as the kids themselves.

- I need to say this every time we talk about anything related to the pandemic, which is everything.

We're taping at the end of 2021, this will be seen later.

Steve Swetsky is talking on the 15th of November, the 15th of December, the 15th of January, Steve Swetsky is not making a prediction nor am I (laughs) that's irresponsible.

So I want to clarify that Steve.

- It's November 15th, we'll see what happens in December, in January.

But I think that your question was about a second Murphy administration and great things have happened in the first Murphy administration relative to schools, public schools and we look forward to continuing our partnership with the administration and the Department of Education as we look forward to what's next and how we can move New Jersey forward.

- Hey, before I let you go Steve, real quick, give me a minute or less on the New Jersey Public School Labor Management Collaborative.

What is it, cause I know it was featured in Atlantic City, go ahead.

- Yeah, so that's a program that we're partnered with along with all our state wide partners in School Boards Association, Superintendents Association, Principals and Supervisors, Rutgers University and the National Education Association.

And all of those groups we've been working together on this project for about seven years now, where we bring together school districts on both sides of the table, labor on one side, management on the other and work with them to help train and develop good labor management collaborative processes in those districts.

The research out of Rutgers University by Dr. Saul Rubinstein shows that in places with high levels of collaboration between labor and management, students do better, teacher turnover is less.

It just provides for a better work environment and just really good things happen in those districts when they learn and implement and utilize those practices.

- Hey, Steve, thanks for joining us.

We look forward next year, no predictions, being on the convention floor and interviewing people in person.

Thanks Steve.

- Sounds good.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Thanks Steve.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by MD Advantage Insurance Company.

NJ Best, New Jersey'’s five-two-nine college savings plan.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

Johnson & Johnson.

Valley Bank.

Delta Dental of New Jersey.

Suez North America.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Clean Energy program.

And by the Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided by Insider NJ.

And by New Jersey Globe.

- [Announcer] What is your child's dream for the future?

Doctor?

Teacher?

Architect?

Whatever they aspire to be, a college education may realize those dreams and NJ Best can help.

It's the college savings plan specifically designed for New Jersey families.

Start saving today with as little as $25, because now is the time to invest in their future.

To learn about NJ Best 529 college savings plan, its investment objectives, risks and cost, Read the investor handbook available at njbest.com.