S4,E12 - Dr. Carlene Lacey

Watch here.

This is Talk CNY, a semi-monthly podcast by CenterState CEO, recording in the production studio at CenterState's INSPYRE Innovation Hub. CenterState CEO is Central New York's premier leadership and economic development organization. Join us as we meet the people and explore the projects driving the regional economy forward. This is Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank. I'm Katie Zilcosky, Director of Communications at CenterState CEO and your host for Talk CNY. About a year ago, CenterState CEO announced Dr. Carlene Lacey as the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of ON-RAMP CNY. Since her appointment, Dr. Lacey has brought on new staff members, welcomed dozens of community residents into training programs, helped to forge new connections across the workforce ecosystem and much, much more. Now as we enter year two for ON-RAMP CNY, Dr. Lacey joins us here on the Talk CNY podcast to discuss what has been accomplished in the last year and what steps we need to take in the future.

Dr. Lacey, thank you so much for joining us again here on Talk CNY.

Oh, I thank you, Katie. It is my pleasure to return.

Well, it's been about a year since your last time on the podcast, also since you've started in your role as the chief executive officer of ON-RAMP CNY. So I want to take a second in the start of the podcast to just reflect a litle bit on the last year. What has it been like to lead this organization to help launch it and to get the first few cohorts underway?

It has been, the word that describes it for me, surreal. Surreal. When I look back over this year, and the journey that we have taken, all I can do is just take a moment and just breathe in to say we have done an amazing amount of work helping people and impacting this community through this effort, and I'm eternally grateful for that.

When you were taking the first steps in this role at this time last year, did you think you would've accomplished all that you had, or were you kind of thinking your timeline was a little off from your expectations? I mean, have you met your goals?

I have. I've met my goals, exceeded many of them. And to answer your first question very candidly, anyone who knows me knows that impact is a part of my makeup. And so I came in with an intentional plan. I had a nine-month plan when I came in, and we have reached all of those targets on that nine-month plan and with the incredible team and partnership and which has been built over this year. We've not only accomplished many of the goals, but we've achieved them. And so I'm pretty proud of that, looking forward to the future.

And you are no longer working as a one-man band at ON-RAMP. You have a whole team there now. Can you tell me a little bit about the members of your team and what they're helping you accomplish?

Absolutely. So - started from a team of one and now we have grown to a team of six. I have a workforce coordinator who helps with the success working with the trainees. I have a director of operations. I have a chief program officer. I have an executive assistant that helps with my calendar, which has become quite integral lately to the succes. And we have a receptionist that we hired. We have approximately 100 to 200 people coming within the building daily. And so that was really important. And we have two more roles to fill to compliment and roll out the team at a team of eight by the end of the year.

And so if someone's interested in those roles, should they connect with you?

They should connect with Sapphire Recruitment, and they will help with it.

All right. So I want to move on to some of the programs that have launched under ON-RAMP this year. You've had three total graduations so far, that's correct? Four. Four. Four graduations so far. So can you tell me a little bit about the programs that have welcomed participants and graduated them?

Yes. Since starting in our temporary location, which is 1224 West Genesee Street last year, October 2025, we've graduated out a cohort from our Pathways to Apprenticeship at ON-RAMP program. Pathways is a program that has been in existence for over four years and it's come under the umbrella of ON-RAMP, so we're excited. So we graduated out a cohort there in December. And then we launched our pilot officially for programming February 17th, and we ran a certified manufacturing cohort with SUNY EOC. We've run a heavy equipment operations program with partnership with Jubilee, and we have run our Pathways program an additional cohort there. So we have run at least three different partners and cohorts, and we've graduated them out on May 8th, May 21st and our last one was June

12th. So it's been a busy late spring, early summer for you all at ON-RAMP then. What has been some of the feedback from the participants who have taken part in these training programs and how are they guiding your next steps?

The feedback from the trainees and the trainee graduates has been amazing. It has been incredible. We have learned a lot of lessons and just something so simple as making sure that we have a vending machine on site so that when they come from their other jobs and/or when they come in, that they can get something to eat. Now to others, that may be something that is trivial, but for us it was paying attention to the details. And so we have partnered with an organization called SnackBox and we now have a vending machine so that our trainees can access food during programming and/or before.

That's great. And then about the physical programming itself, were a lot of the folks who are taking part in the training interested in these fields beforehand? Are they learning for the first time about advanced manufacturing and construction? Is it a mix? Tell me a little bit more about that.

Yes, it is a mix and it's a mix of people just exploring. It's a mix of individuals who are changing careers and it is a mix of those who are wanting to continue and gain additional credentials and they range anywhere from individuals 17 all the way up to that ripe young age of young and young at heart.

That's great. So can you tell me a little bit about, you mentioned lessons very briefly in the vending machine lessons, but what are some of the other lessons that you've learned along the way? I mean, I'm sure it's been a year. There have been, like you said, 100 to 200 people coming through the doors each day. There's got to be just a lot that you're taking in all the time.

Yes. Thank you. So from a programming standpoint, the lessons that we learned is that heavy equipment operation is very, very interesting. We had a waiting list between the heavy equipment and the construction of 600 when we started. That list is growing rapidly. There's a number of people who want to get involved and for our certified manufacturing and construction program, our partner, SUNY EOC continues to get people who are interested and we've had generational impact. There's been a mother, a daughter, a niece who have come through the certified manufacturing as well as the construction program. And so to sum it up in one word, transformative.

Definitely. And speaking of transformative, I haven't had the fortune to go to one of the graduation ceremonies yet, but I've seen photos, and it really looks like such a lovely experience. Can you talk a little bit about what it's like to be at those graduation ceremonies with folks who are entering and gaining skills, entering these in- demand careers, and what's the room like?

The room is energetic.

Yeah.

The graduation is a time when the families come together and celebrate the work from 12 weeks on of the candidates. And I do want to add that the candidates often either are working a job and/or changing their career and so it takes family support in order to engage it. And so at our graduations, which could be anywhere from 100 to 250 people at a time, we have some energy, we have young, young at heart, we have their children, we have babies there and the trainees are just incredibly excited. And if I can take the liberty at this moment, one trainee stuck out, he said, "I told my mom I would walk a stage one day and I've walked that stage through ON-RAMP in our heavy equipment operations program." That brought me to tears.

I was going to say that has to feel just so both rewarding and fulfilling to be able to hear that from someone and be a part of their journey in that way.

It's changing lives every day, one person, one training at a time.

Well, we will have much more with Dr. Lacey coming up here in just a moment, but first we're going to take a quick break from our presenting sponsor, NBT Bank.

At NBT Bank, we know that this day starts with this one. This day starts with this one, because no matter how unforgettable the extraordinary days are, there's a lot of every day that leads up to them. You can count on NBT Bank to help you get started. NBT Bank, it starts here.

Welcome back. This is Talk CNY presented by NBT Bank. I'm Katie Zilcosky, Director of Communications at CenterState CEO and your host for Talk CNY. On this episode of Talk CNY, we are speaking with ON-RAMP CNY's Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Carlene Lacey. Dr. Lacey, thank you for joining us here today.

Thank you, Katie.

We are talking one year later ON-RAMP. It's first year, you are the inaugural CEO there, but it is not just you. There's a huge ecosystem of partners who make ON-RAMP and its programming possible. Can you talk a little bit about the partners that you are working with and how they are helping to shape the ON-RAMP experience?

Yes. I first and foremost have to give homage and thanks to our founding partners and that is New York State Empire State Development Corp as well as Governor Kathy Hochul. Thank you. And a huge thank you to our founders, which is CenterState CEO. All of those were the backbone of ON-RAMP starting. I thank the Mayor of Syracuse, Sharon Owens. I thank Meg O'Connell from the Allen Foundation, and I thank Rob Simpson from CenterState. So those are our founding partners, but then we have a whole ecosystem of workforce development partners and if I begin to name them all, I would say charge it to my head and not my heart, but some of them are SUNY EOC, Jubilee Holmes, Equality Equation. We have worked with Pathways to Apprenticeship. We've worked with Erie 21 at Le Moyne College, SUNY Oswego, SUNY OCC. We've worked with a plethora of organizations that have helped us along this journey and we have partnered with industry partners such as Inficon, such as Haun Welding, the City of Syracuse, the County of Onondaga, and we have worked with plenty of individuals who are in the community as well.

I do want to give a shout out to our partners, Sapphire Recruitment as well as Wegmans. So I think I've covered several, and I know that I will give thanks to all of the others as we go through.

I mean, it's a very long list of partners and it takes a lot of people to make this work really successful. Can you talk a little bit about why it's so important to have partners from different industries who are experts in different things, and to ensure that this training program is not only successful in our own goals, but successful for the people going through and finding new careers.

Yes. I recently gave a talk at New York Workforce Connect, and it seems to be resonating throughout the community and the main message was from silos to systems and that is an illustration of what partners mean within this ecosystem. You cannot do this on your own. No one organization can fulfill and meet all of the needs that are needed right now in this transformative moment. And so ON-RAMP is an organization that respects the values and reaches out to those others to fill in the gaps, to make sure that we all as a collective whole can fill the needs of our community. We're getting ready for this Micron moment, this transformable trajectory, and we're excited to partner with all of those not to duplicate but to complement.

Can you tell me a little bit about all of the roles that different people play when it comes to workforce development and really having a holistic approach to that? Obviously training is a big part, learning the skills, but it takes more than just skill building to make sure that people are successful in their careers following their completion of the program.

Yes. So we take a person-centered approach and that person-centered aproach is making sure that we not only select and recruit the individuals who would be good and right for that role, but we also provide those wraparound services and we give a shout out because those wraparound services can be anything from mental health services, anything from legal to help them look at their driver's license to make sure that they have what they need to get to their sites, partnering with vehicles to work, partnering with SUNY EOC, Jubilee, all of those wraparound services that a person may need. But then we also partner with the industry partners, some of who I've mentioned already, to see what are the skills that are needed in order for a person to be successful in those roles. And then we also are partnering with our Community Advisory Committee, which gives us the voice of the community, not only for programming, but what will be at our permanent location as well.

And so all of that ecosystem, the ones that I've named thus far are the foundation of making sure that we're able to provide the services that we are offering.

You mentioned the Community Advisory Committee. I do want to talk a little bit more about that. Another accomplishment for this year for ON-RAMP, but forming that Community Advisory Committee does give the voice of the community that you're serving a role to really help guide and ground the work of ON-RAMP. Tell me a little bit about who's on that community advisory committee and how they have impacted ON-RAMP's work so far.

Yes. So our Community Advisory Committee is made up of 11 members within the community and those 11 members come straight from the community, north, south, east, and west of Syracuse. It was very important for us to be intentional, and they range anywhere from being a community organization, being someone in the political field, being someone who is in childcare, being someone who is within a respected person within the community and the faith-based and otherwise. It was important for us to get those categories of individuals that live in the community and that can give voice to it. And so we're tapping on organizations such as Allen Foundation, Blueprint 15, Northside Learning Center, local church, Victory Temple Church, as well as others to ensure that we hear the voice and we get the pledges from the community so that they are aware of ON-RAMP and that they can help shape ON-RAMP now and into the future.

Tell me a little bit more about the pledges. Yes.

When I started, there was at least a strategic outreach initiative to engage the community. And so we performed an RFP and hired someone, but I wanted to make sure that we had some real tangible outputs from engaging the community. And so having a Community Advisory Committee Pledge, what that means is each of our members will go out, talk to people in their network within the community and gain the pledges that people have an awareness of ON-RAMP and they have the ability to volunteer and/or lend their voice or resources in a tangible way. And this is a part of my sustainability plan because again, you cannot do it by yourself, but when you get ideals and you get smart people in the room and they're coming together, then we can build a sustainable effort that not only meets the need of the trainees of the industry partners, but also those within the community in which ON-RAMP will live.

What has been the reaction to the pledges so far? When you're out in the community or when the community advisory committee is out in the community, are people excited to learn about it? Do they kind of have a familiarity with it? What have you heard?

What I've heard so far is people are excited. They're still curious. We're one year old. I tell people all the time, grace is welcomed, but they're excited to learn about it. When you say ON-RAMP, you get a smile. People lean in a little bit more. They're curious about it, and they have a plethora of ideas in which we are trying to incorporate in a very agile way.

How do you envision the community advisory committee shaping ON-RAMP into the future? How often are you meeting? How are you taking their ideas and putting them on the to- do list?

That's a really great question. So we first start out with is getting them acclimated, getting them comfortable with talking about ON-RAMP, getting them comfortable with talking to community about what they need and bringing that back. And so we meet once a month and currently in that once a month, it's really getting the committee indoctrinated. We are so proud that they have not only accepted the call to help shape us, but they are a part of the journey and several committee members have advocated for us in the legislative office, several members of our, we call it the CAC, the Community Advisory Committee. Several of them have come and represented at our graduations. They have definitely done tours of our facility. So they're not only advocating for us, they are involved. Fundraising they've raised their hand for. So they are shaping not only what we do now, but what we will do in the future.

Speaking of the future, we talked about reflecting at the beginning of the episode, but I want to look forward now. Where do you hope to be in one year, in five years? What are some of your goals that you're hoping to accomplish in the near future for ON-RAMP?

Wow. I don't think we have enough time to cover all of those. So I would just limit it to three.

Okay.

So three, one, we want to make sure within the next three years that we've not only trained up to 500 individuals, but we have and will actively provide them with success opportunities for employment and employment within the field and that's advanced manufacturing, building trades, and adjacent industries. We want to make sure that we incorporate and build out a secondary education program and that will help feed the pipeline of candidates into the Micron initiative. And the third one for this one is that we will successfully have redeveloped and moved into our permanent location.

Well, sounds like you definitely have a to-do list on your plate, but we know that it will be a great future ahead. So Dr. Lacey, thank you so much for joining us here on Talk CNY today.

Thank you.

Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank, is recorded in the production studio at CenterState's INSPYRE Innovation Hub. Talk CNY is available on all major podcast platforms or centerstateceo.com. Additional content and clips can be seen across Center State CEO's social media channels. For new episode reminders, be sure to subscribe in your favorite podcast listening app and don't forget to leave a quick review or five-star rating. Thanks for listening to Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank.