She's helping prepare workers for one of Nevada's most important industries.

Bobbi Damrow CEO of the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas, is our guest this week on Nevada Week in person.

For Nevada.

Week in person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt and other supporters.

Welcome to Nevada Week in person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon, born and raised in Wisconsin.

She worked to revitalize the economy of a small city hit hard by layoffs at a local paper mill.

She'd go on to lead workforce development efforts at technical colleges and launch a nationally recognized apprenticeship center.

Today, she brings that experience to Southern Nevada with a mission of reducing poverty and unemployment by training people for family sustaining careers in the Las Vegas hospitality industry.

Bobbi Damrow, CEO of the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas, thank you for joining Nevada Week in person.

Thank you for having me.

So Wisconsin to Las Vegas.

well, it's been a journey, a warmer journey, let me tell you that.

But, you know, kind of growing up in Midwest small town northern Wisconsin called Glidden and about 1500 people or so, the oldest of four siblings and just a family that has always been really involved in community.

So it was just kind of a natural evolution for me to kind of pursue a pursue a life of service in making sure that people find their place.

Well.

And there are so many areas you can go into in the nonprofit and service area, but workforce and economic development.

What drew you to that specifically?

Yeah.

You know, growing up in the small town, I had a my father who was a teacher, but he was a serial entrepreneur.

So he left the teaching industry and bought the school busses.

So still in education, but he was educating people on the bus.

Right.

But then he realized that he could be much more efficient if he had a gas station.

So we purchased a gas station as a family.

So that was kind of that probably at the time we didn't recognize it to be starting to really vertically integrate.

Right.

And then shortly thereafter there was a part store involved.

So we had a number of little businesses that actually supported education.

Getting kids to school where my mom was a teacher at the school.

And then of course, just working with students.

We had a roller skating rink.

So the kids had something to do at in the evenings and on the weekends.

So we were kind of a family with a lot of little businesses, but it was super fun to kind of learn from that piece of that.

So that clearly shaped me.

My father would be like, okay, you need to do the books for the transportation industry this week, or you need to get up to the roller skating rink because we need to have food put away or but we are creating jobs all the way through.

Then years later, he sold the school busses to one of his employees, and he kind of took a road in economic development because he wanted to do bigger and better things.

And my husband's father bought the gas station.

He wasn't my husband then.

He was just a cute guy.

So he became my husband.

Did you meet him through that?

I did, I did.

And so that's how we met.

And then his family also were small business entrepreneurs.

So we ended up in a tire business together.

But at the time, you know, it was what we knew.

So I finished college and ended up working in a technical college system where I was able to really take all of those early learnings and really apply it to something kind of in a bigger sense, and dealing with students and really had a passion for the trades, the vocational education.

It really is what fuels my fuels, my soul.

A big part of that is that it can be a debt free education.

Debt free career training is so important to you.

What made you realize that that's really important and needed outside of the traditional four year college?

Absolutely right.

You know, any education is is great.

We know that this is kind of the social equalizer.

So we have to we have to have something past high school.

But we also know that college debt is is really kind of a tragedy right now.

And we don't we don't want people to to get out and not be able to, you know, be able to have the life that they've so dreamed of.

So there's so many different levels, and it's really kind of a, a ladder that many folks will take.

So I love the idea of individuals being able to earn while they learn, or finding different occupations or different grants where they can actually go to school and not end with one foot in the hole and then help them find jobs.

So, you know, kind of the trajectory of after Covid, we had one of our employees say, you know, would you be interested in selling the tire store?

And we said, yeah, why not?

And at that point, I could take a retirement out of the technical college system.

And my husband said, let's retire.

And I said, you know, my tank is on empty.

And so he said, where do you want to go?

And I said, Las Vegas.

I love coming out to the Sema shows.

Funny thing is, back in 85, we honeymooned here.

So it's always been a special part of part of my past.

So we decided to leave our leave our adult children and take a trip to Las Vegas.

And while we were here for that Sema show a couple years ago, there was a job opening posted for the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas, and when I read it, it's like I knew that this was like part of my calling.

Knowing that I could come into this project where we were really expanding the culinary academy, where there was just so much work to be done and meeting people where they were at, getting them jobs in, you know, really Southern Nevada's number one industry.

Hospitality totally spoke to my soul and so, so lucky, so grateful to have landed.

And how many years have you been in this position now?

Yes, I've been here for two years.

In April, we have completed our renovations and our expansion and looking forward to we really have a capacity where we could actually scale about 4000 individuals for the Hospitality industry every year.

So we're looking forward to doing that.

Back to your father.

I want to make sure we're able to use this picture of you and him from a news article in which you work together on the economic development of that small city I mentioned.

But I also wonder, what do you think he would think of this move for you?

Gosh, you know, when we go back to kind of like my family and my roots, there was a time in, in Wisconsin in many of the paper producing cities across the nation.

I mean, paper mills are going out every single day.

And there was a time when our paper mill in our town actually shuttered, and there was about 800 people out of a job, and my father was working in another county and economic development.

And the mayor came to me and said, hey, you should really work for our city and, and you should try to fix this.

And I said, I don't, I don't think I'm ready.

And he's like, no, but I think your dad will see you through.

So, you know, I left a manufacturing position that I was working in and moved into economic development, and we really did a lot for that little community in that it was a rapid response plan before rapid response plans were something, you know, because you have your economic, your social so many issues when when a town with the major industry kind of evaporates.

But we did find a buyer and it was it was a really great experience.

So then I stayed on with the municipality and built an industrial park.

And I did get that guidance from my father as far as working with both local, state and federal, leveraging different funds to do what we needed to do.

And so what do you think he would have thought of this move to Las Vegas?

Yeah, I think he would have said, that's a that's a great question because he he is he would have been all for it, but he would have been I'm going to come and visit often.

Yeah.

You know, so I think I think he would have been full of pride okay.

Yeah.

How has that transition been from from manufacturing to culinary.

Yeah.

You know, it's really similar because because their vocational and their trades.

And so you're building a skill and there it's transferable skills.

So whether you are working you're being a robotic welder or a machine tool or you are in the kitchen like fabricating some delicious cuisine, it's really kind of similar.

And there's such pride in, in that craftsmanship of, of whatever you're, you're making or building.

When I read the mission of reducing poverty and unemployment, I thought, poverty.

How how can you reduce poverty through this?

How do you think you can first?

Well, that's a great question.

Thank you for asking it.

The the mission of the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas is a training trust, and it is really to provide relevantly skilled workers to the ever changing, ever growing hospitality industry.

The vision behind it is that broader brush that we are so happy to paint with, and that is reducing poverty and bringing people up with economic mobility.

So we meet people where they're at.

About 40% of the students that we get to serve are new to industry.

So they may be may be young students, or they may be folks that are taking a chance or are unemployed, underemployed, meeting them at the door saying, what are your barriers?

Would you like to join the hospitality industry?

Here's what it looks like, but we're very intentional about that.

You know, there are certain there's certain skill sets, there's certain criteria in any industry.

And if that industry is right for them, we certainly will move mountains to to work with them to, to get them placed in a career here in Southern Nevada.

I was fortunate to get to go to the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas and tour it.

And what stood out to me was, you have a two week program, and I think you told me that you have had people come straight out of the Las Vegas rescue mission and, and train and get jobs.

I mean, that is that is poverty that you are helping.

You know, it.

There is such an affinity for this work, the staff that works at the Culinary Academy, second to none.

I mean, from chefs that have left very, very successful careers to housekeeping senior folks in there, you know, they're changing lives every single day.

Yes, we've had people come from the rescue mission and in different organizations around the area, and we remove those barriers.

We work with them.

Our guest room attendant or our kitchen steward, those are the programs where in two weeks we can get you ready with the skill sets that that are really required here in Las Vegas and in then get you placed.

And we have 51 partners that we're working with that are part of this trust.

And the possibility of retraining or upskilling exists as well.

How how so.

Yeah.

So the training trust 33 years ago.

And if you talk to some of my board members, they will tell you 37 years ago they started working on this.

And it is a fantastic collaboration between two of our unions, the Culinary Union and the Bartenders Union.

And at the time, 33 years ago, 12 strip properties.

That said, we will negotiate a benefit for our employees to come and train in upskill.

So when you think about, you might start as a bus person, but you might want to be a server, or maybe you are a housekeeper and say, oh, I'd like to be a barista that is available to those to those individuals that work at those venues.

And these are all of the strip, all of downtown, and then some off strip properties as well.

So if they work at those places, they can come on their days off and work on that ladder or lattice in some case for their career building.

Oh, that's so neat.

And when we were there, we ate at the restaurant that you have and there were servers training.

They were, I think one was a busser at one of the high end restaurants on the strip, training to be a server.

There was another gentleman who told us he had been a Domino's delivery driver for a long time, and was trying to to improve his situation.

It was really neat.

What about that restaurant and what other ways can people support the Culinary Academy?

Gosh, that we are so grateful for the community that we live in.

So our students actually run our West Side Bistro that's at 710 West Lake Mead.

It's open Monday through Friday from 11 in the morning until two, and it is entirely student run.

So our backup house, our cooks and training and an apprentice, we always have one apprentice there, and we have our busses and our servers with our faculty right alongside so that that is how our community can really help.

Because they can be a part of this.

Skilling in this, in this whole initiative of keeping this industry vibrant is helping train.

So by coming in and eating at our West Side bistro, or now we have a 710 coffee bar in the same in the same location where our baristas train.

So if you need a cup of Joe in the morning starting at seven in the morning, you can come on in and have a great cup of coffee or any other of the specialty drinks that we serve.

Cold or hot.

How neat.

Bobbi Damrow, CEO of the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas, thank you for joining Nevada Week in person.

Thank you.

Amber.