AUDIO TRANSCRIPT:
In 2020, I was working as the Chief of Staff for a nonprofit in Denver, Colorado. A part of our larger vision was to build rural collaboratives centered at the intersection of K12, higher education, and industry. Our first location was in Southwest Colorado working with Fort Lewis College, which meant I had the opportunity to travel to Durango often, meeting with Tom, Cheryl, and other campus leaders.
The following year, I had the opportunity to make my work with FLC permanent, so moved to Durango in November 2021 as the Director of Strategic Initiatives. In my role, I build programs from the ground up – which includes identifying sustainable funding, overseeing all aspects of project management, and engaging in collaborative program design with campus stakeholders. It’s an amazing role!
My favorite memory is from last October when we welcomed the CU Anschutz College of Nursing team to our campus. In February 2022, FLC and CU Anschutz signed a joint agreement to launch a collaborative 4-year nursing program on FLC’s campus. This is a super exciting and innovative degree program that I (and many others) worked on tirelessly since the MOU was signed. Bringing the CU team to our campus after building a strong partnership was amazing. This was the first time many of their team had seen our campus. They had the chance to meet with faculty, staff, and students, and see firsthand the student-centered approach we take on campus and they were blown away. It was a defining moment for the program!
My name is Alana Romans, and I am the director of Strategic Initiatives at FLC.