- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Here when you need us most, now and always.

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NJM Insurance Group.

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The New Jersey Education Association.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

And by NJ Best.

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- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The jobs of tomorrow are not the jobs of yesterday.

- Look at this.

You get this?

- Life without dance is boring.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- Do you enjoy talking politics?

- No.

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

- Our culture, I don't think has ever been tested in the way it's being tested right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Steve Adubato Welcome to another compelling program, by the way.

I'm not sure when this is going to air but you can see it's a new look.

It's a new feel.

It's a new location.

But once again, we have the President of Berkeley College, Michael Smith.

Michael how you doing?

You're in your studio, in your studio you're in your office.

I can tell.

- We don't know where we are these days, but it's it's great to be in the office and looking forward to having all our students back on campus real soon and all our workforce back here and getting back to whatever the next normal is going to be.

- Yeah.

By the way, Berkeley, one of our higher ed partners and we produce a whole range of programming dealing with higher education.

As we do this program in the spring of 2021 it will be seen for a couple months after.

Let me ask you this, Michael, how hard is it to predict when everyone will be back on campus?

How and when with all the changes?

Yes, the vaccines are out there more and more, and we hope and pray that more and more people get vaccinated but how hard is it to plan Michael?

- You know, it's basically we're, we're at bat and we don't know what the pitcher is going to throw.

So basically we're swinging at the pitches as they come.

We've got a game plan as to what we're looking to do.

We know that we're a year into this at this point now so we know best practices we've been operating.

We know what works and we know what doesn't work and where we need to change our game.

As you said, the vaccine is, is real game changer.

We know that certainly from know folks that are older skewing, older, such as the teachers in the workforce are, are getting online.

They're getting the vaccine.

So, but you know, you know, we haven't seen a push down, you know, to the younger folks a lot of the younger students at this point.

So we, you know, they're, they're less susceptible but we know that, you know, once that, you know broadly based vaccine goes across the board, you know we're going to be in a much different place.

- Michael, let me ask you this.

Vaccine distribution as we do this program, we've done so much on vaccine distribution, vaccine awareness.

People will see the website up about a vaccine what you need to know.

COVID-19 what you need to know.

But I mean, it's just higher ed institutions.

Some of them are very actively involved in this.

And that includes yours.

Talk about it vaccine distribution.

- Absolutely.

So Berkeley has medical programs and all sorts of medical certificates and degrees associated all the way up to, you know, the, to the master's level which we'll be expecting the offering this fall Master's in Nursing, but we have practical experience.

So our students are learning the (inaudible).

They're learning how to inject.

And sometimes they practice on apples and oranges and and now they have, you know, they're they're getting the real life experience.

So we have four over 40 students and staff were volunteering at a drive-up center in in Clifton providing vaccine to people.

So it's, it's part of that workforce that gets it out there with practical real-world experience.

And that's, that's really where the value of education is these days.

There's great opportunities to learn online and some institutions are doing it really, really well but there's hard to, you know it's hard to replace that, that hands-on experience.

- Go back to the nursing piece, Michael you and I have had so many conversations about curriculum and education.

I've been honored to come in and provide a series of guest lectures on leadership at Berkeley, with your students.

But what I'm curious about is the impact of COVID on the profession of nursing A and B on the curriculum and a advanced program a master's program, right in Nursing.

How does it change?

Go ahead.

I'm sorry.

- So you nailed it exactly.

I mean, first of all, we're very appreciate the fact that you do come on campus and our students have a great experience when they hear you talk about leadership.

You're speaking, you know, you're very passionate speaker.

You speak from the heart, and that is very meaningful for our students so we love when you when you come on campus and speak.

So thank you.

You know, the, the reality is that nursing we know from a demand perspective is that you, you know physical is, you know, nursing is a physical job.

You're going to need someone to do it.

It's not a job that's going to be sent over to seed.

That's going to be an app that takes care of it.

It's going to be a hands-on profession.

We know that from an aging and from a census perspective that the current, you know workforce of nurses out there are aging out and they're going to be retiring.

The demand will be far greater than supply.

So Berkeley stepping into this space has been in the space and providing real world, you know training for our students to be successful.

That students come out of these programs they get hired right away and they have a very meaningful career.

And it's important.

We know if we've never appreciated the full value of the importance of, of healthcare, take a look at the last year, what it means to us and our families - Michael real quick, do you find that there are more or less people wanting to go into nursing?

- There are more - There are more - More - There are more people want to go into nursing at this point.

I mean, the challenge is that, you know, it's having the requisite academic abilities and skills to be able to do the work.

Now, not everyone can be a nurse.

You need to have that, you know, that, those quantitative, those mathematical, those analytical skills, to be able to do it and be able to go through a very, you know, tough regimen of training.

Because now when I go into a classroom, I ask my nursing students, I say, I go in joking with them saying "Who here is a C student?"

And, and you'll see some look around maybe you'll get someone to raise their hand.

And I say, well, I want to remember what you look like because I don't want you to get my medicines right 70% of the time.

And that's, that's the reality.

I mean, the nurses, you know, are are very hardworking, very intelligent, but the but the reality is that the academic rigor is important and we need that because the consequences of not getting something right is serious.

- And let me also say this, I won't get on my leadership soapbox, but in my work and my writing and teaching and coaching around leadership nurses are extraordinary leaders, let's put that out there.

Michael, real quick, before I let you go the initiative there's a task force on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Talk about it.

What is it, and why is it so important?

- So Berkeley is a very diverse population for starters, so so that our student body looks like the New York Metro, New York, New Jersey metropolitan area.

- By the way, the campus is, let everyone know Michael.

- So we're in New Jersey.

Our main campus is in Woodland Park, but we're also in Woodbridge, New Jersey.

We're also in Paramus and we're in Newark.

And those are New Jersey campuses.

- And New York?

- New York, We're in, at right in Midtown, right on 43rd street between Madison and Fifth and 41st between Madison Fifth and up in white Plains, as well as, you know, a very very robust online educational.

We've been in the online space for over 22 years at this point.

So we're probably one of the leaders in and had the ability to flip the switch probably as easy or better than anyone else in the metropolitan area, based upon our history.

- Michael, real quick, before I let you go.

Do the diversity equity and inclusion piece.

- Sure.

So, you know, we, you know, certainly and we've seen what happened over the summer and, you know, sort of, you know, the, the the troubles and the, and the travails of we went out there and sort of the public voicing of unrest which is important for people to express their voices.

But what's really more important on the back end is that something gets done about it.

It's great to have a march, but the reality is that it's not followed up by actionable behaviors.

Nothing gets, you know, nothing gets done, nothing changes.

Berkeley College has been focused on getting things done.

So we're very action oriented.

Our committee is together.

We surveyed our population to say, drilling down deep asking those hard questions, saying what are the things that we need to be better at?

And these, you know, we've focused, paid attention to it.

And that's really where we are.

We know from a very fine, detailed perspective how are our student body feels and how our staff feels?

And we're, we're, we're acting in that way continuously just to make sure that, you know it is a safe place.

It's a place where students have the ability to feel comfortable, that their voices are being heard.

And at the same time, getting a quality education that they know that will lead to employment.

- You've been listening to Michael Smith watching Michael Smith, who is the President at Berkeley College, one of the higher ed partners of the Caucus Educational Corporation and underwriter of the work that we do, Michael best to you and all of your colleagues at Berkeley as you navigate these very difficult and challenging times.

Thank you Michael.

- Thank you Steve.

And looking forward to seeing in person live real soon.

- I'm looking forward to being on campus again soon.

I'm Steve Adubato.

That's Michael Smith.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- We are now joined by Jose Lozano.

Who's President & CEO of an organization called "Choose New Jersey".

Good to see Jose.

- Great seeing you, Steve.

- For those who do not know what "Choose" is, let them know - It is a not-for-profit organization that solely focuses on business attraction and marketing some of the great assets we have in the state.

- Yeah, so let's play this out.

Jose and I have known each other many years, we're long time friends, we talk about business, we talk about family, but we also talk about the challenges of COVID as we tape this program mid March, 2021 to be seen later.

Jose, what would you say the largest or the greatest impact on business in New Jersey has been 12, 13, 14 months into this thing.

- Look, on attracting businesses it's been a little bit of a challenge.

Because folks want to see firsthand some of the great assets and folks have just been very difficult for them to start to travel and see some of the things firsthand.

But our team has done a really great job in doing some of these virtual tours and actually articulating some of the things that they're not able to see firsthand.

And so the attractive side it's taken it slow things down and made things a little bit harder but still last year alone we have 33 companies that committed to coming to New Jersey.

And so we, it was a pretty successful year.

- You know, I'm curious about this.

Office, the office space issue.

You and I have talked about this.

You talk about it all the time.

We're not obviously physically.

We can do what a lot of a lot of what we do, we do remotely.

And our team is great behind the scenes.

They're all over the place that being said What do you see as the "Office Space Situation"?

Not just in New Jersey, but as it relates to New York and New Jersey where we're seen in both States.

- Look, I think the office setups right now are gonna change for the future.

I think the five day work week is something of the past.

And I think companies are starting to look at how do you bring the teams together in a safe manner?

And so offices, I know folks who are looking at redesigning their offices.

I have some folks that are keeping the current designs and saying, we're just going to bring you in a couple of days a week and a kind of in pods and sort of teams.

I think folks are starting to work through some of those challenges now especially as we go through the vaccine as the number starts to continue to go down.

Companies are starting to become much more comfortable about bringing their teams back together.

But, but I do think in the next couple of months, folks you'll start to see more and more companies start to come back.

- The social, there is a social media campaign hashtag Mask-up New Jersey.

What is it?

And why does it matter?

Even though there are more and more vaccines being distributed, or as I say into arms as quickly as possible #MaskUpNJ, go ahead.

- So it was utilizing influencers, you know, it's kind of the new rave and a new trend and the way you talk to millennials and the gen Z years.

And so it's utilizing their followers to articulate the message of this state and of some of the public health messaging that's going on.

So we, we brought together about 450 influencers who were talking to the folks that are under the age of 40 years old in New Jersey, about some of the public health messaging.

- To what end?

What's the goal?

- Well, the goal is to try to get folks that were under the age of 40 to not only comply with the social distancing, and the masking, and the constant hand sanitizing, and washing up.

But it's also starting to get them to start to go out there and get the vaccine.

And the one way we're also articulating to folks is, "Hey, why don't you take your family members that are eligible right now for the vaccine?"

"Why don't you convince them to get the vaccine?"

And "Why don't you take them there?"

- You know, speaking of, and you go, as far as you want Jose in terms of what you want to say, you participated in the J & J vaccine trial.

Correct?

- Correct.

Yeah.

I've been in it for about a couple of months - Why'd you do it?

- You know, when I started to see healthcare workers and the frontline folks, what they were sacrificing and what they were doing, their part to combat the pandemic.

And when you started to see first responders, police officers, and fire, and you start to see supermarket workers everyone was doing their part.

And I felt like this was this was my part to give back to combating the pandemic.

So I participated back in the fall and I've been an active participant since then.

- You know, people don't know what most people don't know what it means to be in a trial.

What does it mean?

Describe it.

- Well, one, you take your temperature quite frequently.

You're using pulsometer twice a week.

I gotta login, a lot of my health statistics into an app which goes back to the research and the clinical team.

And then every couple of weeks I go physically and get blood work drawn and they do additional tests on me.

So even when the process is somewhat over, and I find for sure if I have the vaccine or the placebo, I still, I have committed to remain in the process for the remainder of the year - What does that mean "in the process"?

- So, well, I still need to fulfill the doctor's appointments and doing the app checks.

And so they will need to understand and continue to do the study on how long the actual vaccine remains.

- I think, you know, in the time we have left I'm curious about this, connect for us, Jose by the way, 2020, ironically it was a 10th anniversary of Choose New Jersey.

Talk about a challenging year, but but I'm curious about this.

What would you say the connection is between more and more people getting vaccinated and the health of the New Jersey economy?

- So, first thing, Steve, I think I said this to you almost a year ago when I was last on your show that New Jersey was gonna be a part of the solution.

And when you fast forward to today, you know between the Johnson and Johnson between we have 70 companies in New Jersey that are actively working to combat COVID.

Either be therapeutics, research and testing.

And so from the economic development perspective it's been amazing and know exactly that New Jersey has given their part to combat the pandemic on the life sciences side of the house.

- Yeah.

Before I let you go real quick Choose New Jersey is not the same as the New Jersey economic development authority Tim Sullivan on the team.

There, we have a great relationship.

We work with them on a whole range of Economic Development Awareness Programming.

What's the connection there.

They're a quasi government entity.

Yours is a absolute private not-for-profit correct.

- That is correct.

We consider the EDA as our brother or sister organization.

We work together to attract companies and then keep the companies that are here, expand and grow and relocate.

And so I don't think any major discussion that I have with any major company where I'm not working lock step and barrel with our colleagues down at the EDA.

- Bullish, 2021 New Jersey economy.

- Absolutely.

We are gonna rebound.

We're gonna be stronger than we've ever been.

We have quite a few companies that we're having conversations with about calling New Jersey home.

And I'm extremely optimistic that New Jersey '21 is going to be a great year for us.

- That is Jose Lozano.

He is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Choose New Jersey, Jose.

Good to see you, my friend and all the best to you and your family.

- Same to you, Steve.

Thanks for having me.

- Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- We are honored to be joined by Justin Johnson, Director of Clinical Services at the New Jersey Sharing Network.

Justin, good to see you.

- It's nice to see you too.

Thanks for having me - Our pleasure.

And by the way you follow our programming, you know that we've been doing public awareness around organ and tissue donation for many years now.

You'll see the website up for the New Jersey Sharing Network to inform people who want to know more about organ and tissue donation.

Describe your job, Justin, at the Network.

- As the Director of Clinical Services my job is to work with the staff and the people involved that are out in the field helping facilitate donation, talking with families in this time of a passing of a loved one and offering the gift of life to give to someone else and just working with them to be compassionate and eager and dedicated to work with those families and guide them through the decision of donation.

- Justin we're taping the middle of March, it'll be seen after that, things change all the time.

But as we speak right now, how would you describe the impact of COVID even with the vaccines out there right now, more and more people getting vaccinated, how would you describe the impact of COVID on organ and tissue donation for a year plus in?

- At first it was a lot of unknowns, but we kept our operations going and wanted to be resilient during this time.

To still be able to offer the gift of life during, just a tough time for everybody because there were so many unknowns.

And throughout that the generosity of the people in New Jersey to be able to say yes to donation during a time where for us and anyone involved when everybody's struggling about safety and that for us to keep operations going was just remarkable, and for those families to say yes to donation was, was truly outstanding to us.

- We're having a conversation on the day with Joe and Elise and Carolyn, the team at the Sharing Network, we're just talking about a whole range of things.

I don't want to give anything away.

We'll be doing future programming out in the field in the not too distant future about some pretty- you're smiling 'Cause you know what I'm talking about.

It's going to be an exciting time this summer in New Jersey and across the nation as it relates to organ and tissue donation.

But that being said I wanna ask you.

For, in that conversation they said that that organ and tissue donation is up.

And by the way, you can do it on your driver's license.

If you go on the website right now the Sharing Network website, you can see it but here's really what I'm trying to get at.

Do you believe, as you're talking about people being obsessed with being safe and protecting themselves and others around them that they'd be, they were less committed to or interested or caring of an organ and tissue donation.

And if that's true then how the heck did the number of donations organ tissue donation go up or people who signed up.

- I think there's a call to action.

You know, in this time that people in New Jersey would just more giving I think in this time, you know, it was, what can I do?

How can I help?

And I think with being able to offer organ and tissue donation to those that when their loved one may not have had COVID or whatnot and still be able to save lives was truly, you know something that we could rally behind.

And I think that people saw that as a positive to be able to rally behind that.

- You know, for people of all the years we've been doing this, Justin I still here, I mean, there's so much talk about misinformation and confusion around COVID there's sometimes misinformation and still confusion around organ and tissue donation.

So let's go through a few things.

I don't want to assume, by the way if you want to see previous interviews we've done on this topic, our website will be up steveadubato.org, check them out, check it out.

But I wanna try this, those who think that if they have a loved one who's sick, very sick.

And toward the end of their life that the Sharing Network swoops in, or somebody comes in to start talking to them about organ and tissue donation in a way that may be uncomfortable for them.

That's not the case?

- Correct.

No, it's not.

And it's an opportunity.

It's, it's a way to, for us to offer a legacy for someone to leave at the end of their life and what greater way to honor that by giving life.

And we, we do so much of our work around making sure everything's safe.

We do certain testing and certain things to facilitate donation in the safest way possible.

And that's, you know to also eliminate those myths that are out there when people really feel like they can't have an open casket funeral when you can.

And certain things, everything we do is surgically done in the operating room and with care and concern.

And we're, we're there from beginning to end.

And we also rallied behind that community to have those come part of our family.

So we have a lot of outreach a lot of things that we do here at the network and, you know, and it's, and it's big.

And it, it allows for families to heal with losing a loved one.

- Tell folks about the religious side of this who think their religion, not who think who believe that their religion may bar them from saying I want to donate my organs to give the give a gift of life to someone else.

Go ahead.

- Right.

And, and with that, as we know in different religions that there's no anything documented about being against donation that's out there.

And giving life is the greatest way to show gratitude to show love.

And, and that, and that's really, when we think about religion, what we rally behind in and in our beliefs.

- That's interesting, the way you framed that.

Let me ask you, one of the things that struck me over the years when we've been out there for the 5k or the other activities that are public and I get to meet people who've lost loved ones.

Many times they've lost a child and a decision was made to give the gift of life, organs and tissues of that lost child to so many others.

And then they wind up.

You ever see them connecting again with a person who now has those organs, that is powerful, emotional, and poignant.

You've seen it as well.

Haven't you?

- I have and next to getting married and having my own children is the most powerful moments that I've ever been a part of to see a mom listen to her sons heart in another man's chest.

And know that that, that gentleman has, you know more life because our son was able to give life at the end of his, those, those moments are so moving and touching that it's just, it's remarkable.

- You know, and again, when we're talking about children, we hope and pray that that never is the case, but when it is those parents have to make those decisions.

But for others, for those of us who are healthy and who have signed up and said, yes, what about for those who say, listen, I don't want to think about organ and tissue donation while I'm healthy, while I'm doing well.

I'll think about it later.

And again, we're not advocating or pushing but what do you say to those folks who say it's not the right time for me but I'd like to do it at some point down the road.

What's the, what are the pros and cons?

I got a minute left before we finish up.

- There's never the right time.

But at the end of the day, we have to think about who's going to be left behind and them having to, you want to take that pressure.

There's so many decisions that have to be made that that's one decision that can be given to your family.

So they know you can register, or you can just let them know that way they can make that decision at the worst time of their lives.

No one wants to think through that when they're grieving when they're hurt and that pain.

So it's, it's definitely take that, take that lead to for your loved ones, to not have to make that decision for you.

- Few seconds, one to 10, how gratifying is your work?

- 10, I would say 20.

- I'll tell you it has been an honor as a broadcaster, but more importantly, as a person and and my wife donated her kidney many years ago and I saw it firsthand, the impact that it had.

So I want to thank you, Justin.

And the team at the Sharing Network, keep doing what you're doing every day and we appreciate you joining us all the best.

- Thank you.

My pleasure.

- I'm Steve Adubato.

It has been my honor to be with you and check us out again.

Next time.

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

Funding has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

PSE&G.

NJM Insurance Group.

Englewood Health.

Investors Bank.

Summit Health The New Jersey Education Association.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

And by NJ Best.

Promotional support provided by Meadowlands Chamber.

And by New Jersey Globe.

(Music playing) NJM Insurance Company has been serving New Jersey policy holders for more than 100 years.

But just who are NJM'’s policy holders?

They'’re the men and women who teach our children.

The public sector employees who maintain our infrastructure.

The workers who craft our manufactured goods.

And New Jersey'’s next generation of leaders.

The people who make our state a great place to call home.

NJM, we'’ve got New Jersey covered.