Bridging Recovery and Workforce with PCC’s Wildland Fire Academy & Mathew Barboza, Dean of Business and Enrollment Management Episode 170

TRANSCRIPT - Dean Barboza [00:00:00]: Working here in Pasadena City College. Yes. We had the Eaton fires and a lot of our cadets joined because they wanted to give back directly and they lost property or they lost their job or what have you. And they were specifically looking for a way to give back directly. And this really provided them the vehicle to do that. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:00:19]: Hi, I'm Salvatrice Cummo, Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development at Pasadena City College and host of this podcast. And we are starting the conversation about the future of work. We'll explore topics, topics like how education can partner with industry, how to be more equitable, and how to attain one of our highest goals, more internships and PCC students in the workforce. We at Pasadena City College want to lead the charge in closing the gap between what our students are learning and what the demands of the workforce will be once they enter. This is a conversation that impacts all of us. You, the employers, the policymakers, the educational institutions, and the community as a whole. This is the future of work. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:01:08]: Hi and welcome back to The Future of Work podcast, I am your host, Dr. Salvatrice Cummo. Today we are joined by Pasadena City College's Dean of Business and Enrollment Management, Matthew Barboza, to discuss how one of the programs that falls under his umbrella is playing a supporting role in our recovery efforts following the Eaton fire. The Wildland Fire Academy. The Wildfire Academy offers an occupational skills certificate to become a wildland firefighter. The program's curriculum prepares students in becoming skilled at supporting fire mitigation, response and long term community resilience. In this conversation, we'll discover how training programs like this are meeting urgent regional needs while while shaping the future of work in public safety as we continue our rebuilding and recovery efforts after the Eaton fire. Welcome, Dean Barboza. Dean Barboza [00:02:04]: Thank you, Dr. Cummo. Thanks for having me. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:02:07]: Very welcome. Well, we're just gonna jump right in and start with Dean Barboza. Before we dive into learning more about the Wildland Fire program, we'd like to hear about what drew you to your role as Dean of Business and Enrollment Management at pcc. Dean Barboza [00:02:23]: Well, that is a long and accidental journey. I never wanted to work in academia. I had worked 15 years in advertising and marketing. And based on a need that my boss told me about, I was invited to go teach extension courses at ucla. But keep in mind that I only did that as a favor. I never really was interested in teaching, but that's really what got me teaching. And while I was in the advertising and marketing industry, I was being flown all over the world. I was being told that I was the best graphic designer since sliced bread. Dean Barboza [00:02:59]: So you can imagine my head was this big. Not knowing anything really about the community college system, I was challenged to try to get a job at a community college. I interviewed with everybody and because of my, let's call it confidence, I was going into interviews basically dictating how long I would wait for an answer from the prospective college before I just signed you off. I was hired at Riverside Community College, Marino Valley campus and I taught there for 19 years across several faculty service area. So I taught computer information systems, graphic design, digital art, video game production and computer science. I realized that as a professor I could reach many students and guide them towards career or transfer. But as a dean I found that I was able to locate programmatic equity gaps and guide factors faculty towards solutions. When I was challenged as a faculty member to put on the dean cap, I was hired at Copper Mountain College. Dean Barboza [00:03:58]: That's a college in Joshua Tree, California. It's actually one of the smallest colleges in the California Community College system. And I worked there for three years, made possible a few of new programs including a wildland fire academy there at Copper Mountain College. When I moved to Pasadena City College and I've been here for going on four years, my fire faculty from Copper Mountain College gave me a call and told me that they would like to start a wildland fire Academy here at pcc. And that's really the driving force behind why we have been able to institute this WFA so quickly and with all the pieces in place. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:04:40]: That said, let's dive into the wildland Fire academy program itself. It launched at the heels of the Eaton fire and since then has had tremendous success. Could you tell us a little bit more about the program and how it came together so quickly? Dean Barboza [00:04:57]: Surely the program is an eight week short term low unit academy or certificate which leads to gainful employment. At the time when I was back at Copper Mountain College, the state chancellor was calling for this type of a class, the quick entry, quick exit, short term, low unit that led to livable wage. And this was brought about by the pandemic. So we realized that a wildland fire academy, especially an eight week wildland fire academy, fits very well into what the state Chancellor was asking for. So while I was at Copper Mountain College, I was approached by several firefighting faculty and I was asked if I wouldn't support their need for wildland fire Academy. I asked the simple questions which were, I mean, I'm just coming onto the job here at Copper Mountain College. Why don't you already have a wildland Fire Academy. Because all arrows pointed to yes. Dean Barboza [00:05:58]: And they said, the dean before you, who is now my VP of instruction, who was my VP of instruction, didn't see the value. And I thought to myself, okay, are you guys setting me up for failure? Because you're telling me that I now have to go to the person that didn't see the value in this program and convince her that it does have value. I was able to gather labor market information. I was able to gather a lot of different bits of data that supported why we should have a Wildland Fire Academy. One of the bits of data that really convinced my VP of instruction at the time was that we recognized that we were so close to the Twentynine Palms Marine Base, and we could be offering credit for prior learning to those Marines that already have fire training, and we could offer intro training for those that are getting out of the service and are looking for gainful employment. What we come to realize is not just that we were servicing the servicemen and women, but they also have families. And the families, I mean, if you have one family member that's a Marine, you probably have a significant other and several children and dare I say children that are going to be looking into something like this in the near future. So we were able to successfully launch a Wildland Fire Academy at Copper Mountain College. Dean Barboza [00:07:20]: I was lured away by several colleges in the local area, and Pasadena City College is where I ended up. When I left Copper Mountain College, the Firetep faculty threw a dinner for me. And during this dinner, they told me that they had so much success and they've never received so much support from a dean that they'd follow me anywhere. And, you know, you hear that and you think those are kind words. But sure enough, about a month after I landed at Pasadena City College, I get a call from Chief Rickman. And those of you in the field should know Chief Rickman. He's known all over the world by lots of firefighters. And he said, true to our word, you've landed at Pasadena City College, and we would like to come out and launch a Wildland Fire Academy there. Dean Barboza [00:08:10]: He told me something else that I didn't really understand. I do now, but he said, Pasadena City College sits right to lead all other colleges in this area because we sit in the middle of the Verdugo corridor. I didn't know what the Verdugo corridor was until I went on to Google and Googled it, and I said, okay, yeah, we are in the middle of this. I had the cadre of faculty most of them travel all the way out to Pasadena City College to help launch our very first Wildland Fire Academy in the spring of 2025. That was how I was able to bring it together so quickly, because I already had a successful team that had done this before with me, worked with me, and we just replicated what we did at Copper Mountain College. Now, I went from Copper Mountain College, which is one of the smallest community colleges in the system, to Pasadena City College, which is one of the largest in the system. So whatever we did in Copper Mountain College, we had to multiply by five. Dean Barboza [00:09:09]: So when we got everybody on board, all of the faculty that we needed, all the professional experts, everybody that we needed, we were able to launch. Now, that covers all of the pieces that make up the vehicle. Another issue, and the issues just traditionally arise. You have to be ready for these issues. And the same issue that I faced at Copper Mountain College, I was facing here at Pasadena City College. It was getting it through curriculum and instruction in a timely manner. When I introduced this to our curriculum experts, they said, it'll take two to three years. And I said, we don't have two to three years. Dean Barboza [00:09:44]: We need to do this now. To put it succinctly, I was laughed at by curriculum instruction folks. They said, we don't know where you come from, sir, but here we have processes for everything. And our processes state that minimum two years, possibly three. With the support of Dr. Ramirez, my VP of instruction, we were able to get it fast tracked through cni. Now here's the interesting thing. Had we been able to get this through CNI a month earlier, we would have graduated our first wildland fire academy in time to help with the Eaton fires and the Palisades fires. Dean Barboza [00:10:21]: As it stood, we graduated our first academy in the early spring of 2025. As you know, the fires occurred in January, so we were a little bit behind there. But we were successful in placing most of our graduates in either wildland fire jobs or allowing them to transfer to a full blown structure fire academy. And that's really the beginnings of how we got it started and how we were able to get it started so quickly. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:10:50]: That's an amazing story. And it also underscores the power of network and nurturing something that is the data shows that is needed and answering the call to putting our students into high wage careers. And so there's a need and then there's the call. And together you're able to develop with your colleagues and your faculty a program that has been successful now in two different colleges. It Leads me to think about. And while, yes, we didn't have the students, the first cohort to graduate before the fires. But that said, it has been a year since the fires, and it has been a year since the launch. You launched spring of 2025. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:11:36]: Or we're kind of hitting up to a year. Right. We're kind of coming close to a year. Thinking about this whole year, how has the program played a role in the recovery efforts? Because not only has it helped in the recovery efforts, but I'm also going to, like, sprinkle in. You know, we've had some really great success stories with our students. Dean Barboza [00:11:55]: Yes, we have. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:11:56]: Share with us. Dean Barboza [00:11:57]: Well, I'd like to say that, yes, we launched our first wildland fire academy here at Pasadena City College in early spring of 2025. We just graduated our second cohort a few weeks ago. So we now have clocked two very successful wildland fire academies. One in 2025 and now one in 2026. The reasoning behind why we offer these in springtime, it's very strategic. We make sure that by the time our cadets are graduating, it coincides with the hiring cycles of U.S. forest Service and Cal Fire. So we've talked about running this year round. Dean Barboza [00:12:36]: We just worry that the students that are off cycle will have to remember so much material by the time they apply, it would be much more difficult for them to gain that employment. Whereas if they're just graduating, it's fresh in their minds. They're going to be able to go test in and be hired at either local municipalities or by U.S. forest Service. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:12:58]: And I believe we had a recruit. I'm thinking back to one of our board of trustees meetings. We had students come up and talk about their experiences and that they were incredibly connected to it, not only because it was a need, but also a calling to them that was so incredibly powerful and impactful. And to hear directly from the students was quite something else. I have zero words to explain how it felt, But I feel like a lot of our students that are entering, and correct me if I'm wrong, a lot of these students that are entering our program, they're entering from a call to serve. Dean Barboza [00:13:34]: Absolutely. Absolutely. Every one of these cadets has something special, and that's the will and the need to serve. I won't hesitate to call every one of our graduates heroes. As a matter of fact, I'll share this story with you. That it's just recent. You may have read about it in the paper, but if not, you will. We have every week of the eight week Program, we have different modules every week represents a different certificate that the faculty member signs off on. Dean Barboza [00:14:04]: At the end of the program, they should have nine certs, two of which can only be signed by very high ranking fire officials. And we have both of them working for us. So when a cadet graduates from Pasadena City College, Wildland Fire Academy, they come out with two more certs that nobody else in the state of California has. And so they're already a leg up on people. Well, one of the components is cpr. And our cadets had just learned the aspects, the finer points of cpr. And keep in mind that we cover cpr. The Wildland Fire Academy covers CPR for seniors, for middle aged, all the way down to babies. Dean Barboza [00:14:47]: And as their luck would have it, three of our cadets were leaving MRCA one afternoon. It was a week after they had trained their cpr and they were flagged down by a motorist. This woman was frantic and she was just running around her car hoping that somebody would stop. These three heroes stopped. The woman's baby was choking and she did not know what to do. They sprung into action and they were able to dislodge this item from the baby's esophagus, saving the baby's life. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:15:17]: Oh my goodness, how beautiful. Dean Barboza [00:15:19]: And that's before they graduated. So when I say these are true heroes, I mean it from my heart. All of these people are true heroes. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:15:26]: That's the most beautiful story. And you're right, they are heroes. They're called to that. They're called to serve, they're called to that duty. And it's so amazing to hear and to watch their stories. Thank you for sharing that. I want to shift gears just a little bit because you and I both know that in our world of higher ed and academia, there's processes and things in place. So, Matthew, from your perspective, what do we need to understand as educators and practitioners when it comes to aligning curriculum with a need and stay vigilant and not have to wait for three years like you mentioned earlier. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:16:04]: Right. Like someone's telling you, well, it's going to take a three year process. Well, okay, that's nice, but we need it now. What do we need to understand? Dean Barboza [00:16:11]: Well, I think as educators, especially in cte, we need to understand that we must keep our hand on the pulse of whatever industry we're examining. We need to consider and research the newest technologies and we need to make sure that we're applying them to new or existing programs so when our students graduate. And again, I'll gear this back to Wildland Fire Academy, we make sure that the equipment that we're using is the latest and greatest equipment. Yes, it costs a little more, but when they graduate, they are already used to using this equipment, not something that they used five, seven years ago. I think that it's very important to have a robust advisory committee. Advisory committees are absolutely necessary. They can't just be made up of your faculty. They are made up of industry experts. Dean Barboza [00:16:58]: And that's really the guiding voice that leads us to what we should be using, how we should be using it, and what their specific needs are. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:17:06]: At any given moment, we encounter hurdles. What have you found as the best way to manage the hurdles? Dean Barboza [00:17:15]: Information. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:17:16]: Yes. Dean Barboza [00:17:17]: I think that if you give proper information, most people are open and willing to examine that information and sometimes even change their attitudes or their minds regarding a certain situation. Working here in Pasadena City College, yes, we had the Eaton fires and a lot of our cadets joined because they wanted to give back directly and they lost property or they lost their job or what have you. And they were specifically looking for a way to give back directly. And this really provided them the vehicle to do that. I think that we need to understand that California used to have fire seasons. Remember when they used to come on the news and say, it's fire season, so watch out. Well, now it's not the case. Climate change has brought about a much drier winter. Dean Barboza [00:18:01]: So California's fire season is year round. So what we're doing with our wildland fire academy and we suggest that every, whether it's wildland fire or whether it's an informational outreach to the community, that we need to train people in fuel mitigation techniques. Why did the Eaton fire have such devastating effects? And a lot of people will say it was the wind, and yes, the wind drove it, but without fuel, that fire is not going anywhere. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:18:26]: Right. Dean Barboza [00:18:27]: And I think that's probably one of the most important things that I would like to see is especially people that live in forested or rural areas, start taking a more direct approach to dry brush and fuel mitigation before this occurs so that there's not the fuel that we saw this time where it just carried all the way down to the ocean. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:18:48]: The unfortunate part of all of this is you said it best. The fire season is all year round. So unfortunately, we will see something like this again. And we need to be as best prepared as possible and build in careers and know that this is an option for, again, a call to serve, an option for our students. What do you want our listeners to understand? We've talked about a few things, right? We've talked about how it started, what it's doing now, where do we want it to go in the future? So what would you like a listener to understand about where this program is going in the future? Dean Barboza [00:19:26]: I think that I would like our listeners to understand that this program is just expanding. Our first year, we were limited by classroom size to 40 and we were able to graduate 38 out of those 40. We realized that there were still some people that wanted to join the academy, but we just didn't have the space. So we found a larger space here on the Colorado campus. And this past spring we were able to graduate 50 wildland fire cadets. And I think the most important takeaway for me is understanding that we are actively working to rebuild Pasadena and Altadena and we're pumping out professional wildland firefighters at an incredible rate. And if we can keep doing that and while keep expanding, that's what I would like everybody to understand is because without understanding that we have this program going, a lot of people might think nobody cares, nobody's doing anything. There's a lot of people out there that care and there's a lot of people out there that are prepared to step in and assist if and when this happens again. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:20:35]: Thank you, Matthew. Thank you. This has been a lovely conversation and I appreciate you taking the time and talking about the Wildland Fire Academy. And it does not go unnoticed that this is a program that we need to continue to infuse with resources, with talent, with real estate, with promotions, with all the things because, and you said it best, we are going to experience fires throughout the whole year. It's not going to be a seasonal thing. It's no longer a seasonal thing. And so the best we could prepare, not only from a community development standpoint, but from a academia talent development standpoint, the better we will be positioned. Unfortunately, for something like this to happen again. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:21:22]: Thank you so much. If any one of our listeners wants to connect with you, Matthew, what's the best way they can connect with you and the program? Dean Barboza [00:21:30]: You can reach me through my email. It's mbarboza M B A R B O Z A the number three at Pasadena.edu. You can call me and leave a voice message. My phone number is 626-585-7684. You can contact our faculty full time faculty lead Captain Frank Brambilla. His email address is fbrambila f b r a m b I l a 2 that's 1L, not 2 at Pasadena.Edu. His phone number is 626-585-7647 or you can go to Pasadena Edu and search for Wildland Fire Academy and that's going to give you all the information you need to contact me, to contact Captain Murbilla and to get as much information as you would like to and allow you the dates to sign up for our next academy. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:22:21]: Excellent. Thank you so much, Dean Barboza. Pleasure to have you. Happy to have you again anytime. Thank you. We'll be sure to put all of that information into the Show Notes so it's easily accessible for our listener. Dean Barboza [00:22:32]: Great. Dr. Salvatrice Cummo [00:22:33]: Thank you for listening to the Future of Work podcast. Make sure you're subscribed on your favorite listening platform so you can easily get new episodes every Tuesday. You can reach out to us by clicking on the website link below in the Show Notes to collaborate, partner or just chat about all things Future of Work. We'd love to connect with you. All of us here at the Future of Work and Pasadena City College wish you safety and wellness.