Harrison Keller's guest appearances

Harrison Keller

Today’s Students, Tomorrow’s Talent

Rio Grande Guardian's Podcast

The Innovating Together Podcast 

George H.W. Bush

Marcia Ballinger

Freeman Hrabowski

Ted Cruz

Beto O'Rourke

Jeh Johnson

Ben Nelson

Dan Patrick

Angelica Garcia

Wendy Wintersteen

Will Hurd

Paul Quinn

Mari Cauce

Timothy Renick

Michele Siqueiros

OwlTail

Texas Commissioner

Background Today on the Innovating Together Podcast, we interview Dr. Harrison Keller.  Dr. Keller previously worked as Deputy to the president for Strategy and Policy and as a faculty member at UT Austin. Earlier in his career, he was heavily involved in the Legislature at the Texas Capitol. As Texas Commissioner of Higher Education, he leads the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the state agency that coordinates across multiple University systems, fifty different community colleges, and private higher education institutions throughout Texas.  Dr. Keller sees the agency's mission to serve as a resource, partner, and advocate for students and institutions. He spends much of his time working with chancellors, presidents, the Texas Governor, the Legislature, chambers of commerce, and employers. Most recently, Dr. Keller led development of a new higher education strategic plan for the state, which is called Building a Talent Strong Texas. When Bridget asked Dr. Keller what skills, he was surprised he has leaned on in his current role, Dr. Keller responded with, “Besides wit and self-deprecating humor, the most surprising thing would be that I found my dissertation was even more useful than I ever expected. My education is in philosophy and specialized in moral and political philosophy. I wrote my dissertation on respect for persons. I think drawing on those years of serious study in philosophy was great training for the kind of work I get to do every day as Commissioner.” Aligning with workforce needs Dr. Keller discusses some of the fundamental workforce needs everyone can get behind. One specific example he talked about was the difficulty that employers are currently having when it comes to finding the talent they require in an employee. After COVID when the Texas economy came roaring back, there are more jobs than pre-pandemic, “but the jobs look different. Almost all the new jobs require education beyond a high school diploma.” Many displaced workers have found that additional training is required just to get a similar job in the same industry. Strengthening work-force education will be essential for Texas to be competitive in the future.  Dr. Keller said they will  be working with employers and institutions to get a sense of what employers are looking for and what drives the variance in earnings in different disciplines. “We want to make sure credentials have value as reflected in wage premiums. We are listening to and paying attention to the signals from the job market about what translates into value for individual students.” Career Advice Dr. Keller often gives upcoming leaders the following advice. “Don’t get too focused on obtaining a specific position. Think about the kind of problems that you’re compelled to work on, and whether different kinds of career opportunities give you a platform to do that kind of work in the world.”  He also shared, “As a leader, your most important job is to build an excellent team.” There are three qualities he looks for when it comes to his team members. First, he looks for people who are competent and get things done. Second, he looks for people who fit into the team dynamic. Third, he looks for people who have ambition for the work, who are constantly thinking about how the work can be better. Book Recommendations Michael D. Watkins, “The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting up to Speed Faster and Smarter” about “accelerating your learning” when transitioning into a new role. Jay Lorsch and Thomas J. Tierney’s “Aligning the Stars: How to Succeed when Professionals Drive Results” on building high performing teams.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/innovationalliance/message

Background Today on the Innovating Together Podcast, we interview Dr. Harrison Keller.  Dr. Keller previously worked as Deputy to the president for Strategy and Policy and as a faculty member at UT Austin. Earlier in his career, he was heavily involved in the Legislature at the Texas Capitol. As Texas Commissioner of Higher Education, he leads the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the state agency that coordinates across multiple University systems, fifty different community colleges, and private higher education institutions throughout Texas.  Dr. Keller sees the agency's mission to serve as a resource, partner, and advocate for students and institutions. He spends much of his time working with chancellors, presidents, the Texas Governor, the Legislature, chambers of commerce, and employers. Most recently, Dr. Keller led development of a new higher education strategic plan for the state, which is called Building a Talent Strong Texas. When Bridget asked Dr. Keller what skills, he was surprised he has leaned on in his current role, Dr. Keller responded with, “Besides wit and self-deprecating humor, the most surprising thing would be that I found my dissertation was even more useful than I ever expected. My education is in philosophy and specialized in moral and political philosophy. I wrote my dissertation on respect for persons. I think drawing on those years of serious study in philosophy was great training for the kind of work I get to do every day as Commissioner.” Aligning with workforce needs Dr. Keller discusses some of the fundamental workforce needs everyone can get behind. One specific example he talked about was the difficulty that employers are currently having when it comes to finding the talent they require in an employee. After COVID when the Texas economy came roaring back, there are more jobs than pre-pandemic, “but the jobs look different. Almost all the new jobs require education beyond a high school diploma.” Many displaced workers have found that additional training is required just to get a similar job in the same industry. Strengthening work-force education will be essential for Texas to be competitive in the future.  Dr. Keller said they will  be working with employers and institutions to get a sense of what employers are looking for and what drives the variance in earnings in different disciplines. “We want to make sure credentials have value as reflected in wage premiums. We are listening to and paying attention to the signals from the job market about what translates into value for individual students.” Career Advice Dr. Keller often gives upcoming leaders the following advice. “Don’t get too focused on obtaining a specific position. Think about the kind of problems that you’re compelled to work on, and whether different kinds of career opportunities give you a platform to do that kind of work in the world.”  He also shared, “As a leader, your most important job is to build an excellent team.” There are three qualities he looks for when it comes to his team members. First, he looks for people who are competent and get things done. Second, he looks for people who fit into the team dynamic. Third, he looks for people who have ambition for the work, who are constantly thinking about how the work can be better. Book Recommendations Michael D. Watkins, “The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting up to Speed Faster and Smarter” about “accelerating your learning” when transitioning into a new role. Jay Lorsch and Thomas J. Tierney’s “Aligning the Stars: How to Succeed when Professionals Drive Results” on building high performing teams.--- Send in a voice message: <a href="https://anchor.fm/innovationalliance/message" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://anchor.fm/innovationalliance/message</a>

Interview with Texas Commissioner of Higher Education Dr. Harrison Keller

MCALLEN, Texas - The commissioner for higher education in Texas has admitted that the challenge of getting Texans the skills they need for today’s jobs is keeping him up at night.Harrison Keller spoke in depth about the impact the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent recession has had on higher education and workforce training at a breakfast gathering hosted recently by the McAllen Chamber of Commerce.“Let me share some of what is keeping me up at night. How we move forward on this is going to depend on how we work our way through three key dilemmas. First, one of the most striking things to me about the recession we’ve experienced is how strong the correlation is between unemployment and educational attainment,” Keller said.“So, right now, we can see that Texas workers that have bachelor’s degrees are not back to where they were pre-pandemic but they are actually really close. Folks who don’t have any kind of post-secondary education beyond high school have experienced a much deeper and a much more sustained recession.”Keller said the data “looks even worse” when broken down by geography and demographics. “So, in particular there is a strong correlation between lower educational attainment rates for our Hispanic populations, for our Hispanic communities, and for our black communities and high unemployment. Of course, the same communities have been hit especially hard by Covid-19. So, this recession is the most inequitable that we have seen since this data has been tracked.”Keller then spoke about the second thing that keeps him up at night.Editor's Note: To read the full story please go to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service website. 

MCALLEN, Texas - The commissioner for higher education in Texas has admitted that the challenge of getting Texans the skills they need for today’s jobs is keeping him up at night.Harrison Keller spoke in depth about the impact the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent recession has had on higher education and workforce training at a breakfast gathering hosted recently by the McAllen Chamber of Commerce.“Let me share some of what is keeping me up at night. How we move forward on this is going to depend on how we work our way through three key dilemmas. First, one of the most striking things to me about the recession we’ve experienced is how strong the correlation is between unemployment and educational attainment,” Keller said.“So, right now, we can see that Texas workers that have bachelor’s degrees are not back to where they were pre-pandemic but they are actually really close. Folks who don’t have any kind of post-secondary education beyond high school have experienced a much deeper and a much more sustained recession.”Keller said the data “looks even worse” when broken down by geography and demographics. “So, in particular there is a strong correlation between lower educational attainment rates for our Hispanic populations, for our Hispanic communities, and for our black communities and high unemployment. Of course, the same communities have been hit especially hard by Covid-19. So, this recession is the most inequitable that we have seen since this data has been tracked.”Keller then spoke about the second thing that keeps him up at night.Editor's Note: To read the full story please go to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service website.

What keeps Harrison Keller up at night 

Cathy Longstreet

To understand the impact of COVID-19 on communities across the nation, we talk with three guests responsible for responding to student needs and preparing for recovery.  Guests include: Cathy Longstreet, a high school counselor from Hastings, Mich.; Chancellor Juan Salgado who leads the City Colleges of Chicago; and Dr. Harrison Keller, the Commissioner for Higher Education in Texas.

To understand the impact of COVID-19 on communities across the nation, we talk with three guests responsible for responding to student needs and preparing for recovery.  Guests include: Cathy Longstreet, a high school counselor from Hastings, Mich.; Chancellor Juan Salgado who leads the City Colleges of Chicago; and Dr. Harrison Keller, the Commissioner for Higher Education in Texas.

Responding Today, Preparing for Tomorrow – Harrison Keller, Cathy Longstreet, & Juan Salgado