Nick Nissley started his tenure as Northwestern Michigan College president January 1, and to give you an idea just how organized he is, he’s been working from a “relationship map” of 150 people he needs to meet, and also noted when a recent staff meeting went four minutes long that he’d make sure that didn’t happen again. Nissley’s organized mind was just one of the things The Ticker learned about him and his first three weeks during a conversation in his office.

Ticker: Tell us what you’ve been up to. I assume a lot of listening and meetings.
Nissley: Yes. I frame it as listening and learning. The board has been really good in giving me some framework of how or where I should focus and three charges: 1) to maintain momentum, which to me means the college has a long history and has a strategic plan and projects in the pipeline, so 'Nick, keep the momentum going;' 2) learn about NMC, and I recognize I’m on a very steep learning curve; and 3) build relationships. That means internal, with our community, board members, donors, and businesses. So that’s given me a guide. And in fact even more specifically, folks here have created a 150-person relationship map, who I should be meeting with prioritized over the next six months, so that’s literally how my days are populated, making sure I’m talking to the right people. 

Just yesterday we completed a little document for the board to say what I have been up to to, and I think we were all pretty amazed that there been over 100 calendar events in three weeks. From about seven in the morning to 10 at night, I’ve been booked solid. 

Ticker: So those three priorities have a six-month horizon?
Nissley: Right. The board has said take these first six months, and in the summer turn the conversation toward strategic planning. A lot of people, when a new executive shows up, they ask, ‘what’s your vision,’ which is a ridiculous question, because if you’ve got a vision you’re not doing what you need to be doing: listening to the wider community.

Ticker: There was a debate among the board during your hire over your lack of higher education experience. I’m wondering what you told them in your interviews about your experience.
Nissley: First I'd say I don’t think I have a lack of higher education experience, just that my most recent experience wasn’t in higher ed. I was at the School for Creative & Performing Arts, the only K-12 arts school in the country and also a unique public/private partnership in a school district with the second highest child poverty rate in the country, so it’s wrought with complexity and challenges. However with higher ed, I’ve got experience as a professor, so I’ve worked like our faculty. I’ve been a program director of a masters and doctoral program; and also was dean of a business school at a community college. So that’s a strength that I play up: experience in K-12, in a community college, in higher ed at the masters and doctoral level, in corporate training, and I led an international center with continuing education, so really that entire continuum of education.

Ticker: I think you could call your predecessor’s agenda “ambitious and far-reaching,” from international, a focus on the trades, underwater and in the kitchen, STEM, the arts — and yet some in the community still just want a simple community college. Any observations?
Nissley: I don’t think it’s an ‘either/or.’ I think it’s a ‘both/and.' I have a background in improvisational theatre, so I’m one to always understand the value of ‘both/and.’ 1) I understand how important history is with this institution. One of the first things I did was connect with our archives, and found the first 1951 course catalog. It has a tagline of "community centered, community serving.” Isn’t that amazing? That’s exactly what people think of NMC today. So maybe on one end, yes, we’re going to be exactly that.

I’ve told faculty and staff that change is going to be inevitable. I’m not sure what it will be yet, but the one thing that won’t change is the place we came from in 1951. On the other hand, we’re going to continue to be far-reaching. We have great assets like the maritime academy, which pulls students from around the country…so whether it’s the UAS programs, culinary, aviation…we’ll continue to have those international connections and we’ll grow them. Specifically our mission talks about serving our communities. We have a physical geography of Traverse City, but there are other communities like the maritime community, culinary, that might extend beyond those physical boundaries. 

Ticker: Have you observed anything about the “bench strength” here at NMC?
Nissley: Probably too early to say, but I will say I’ve already boiled down to what I call the 'three Ps,’ and that first one is about the passion of the people. I’ve found there’s an incredibly passionate workforce staff, faculty, students, donors here. To me, one of the most important things about bench strength is ‘are you showing up excited about work?’… because we can always work on the capabilities end. But I’d also say, back to your last question, the college is in a strong position, and you don’t get there on the backs of weak people, so my assumption is we are where we are because of my predecessor and everyone here who has worked so hard. 

Ticker: What are the other two Ps?
Nissley: The programs. We have programs geared to the community's needs, and that’s not always the case...And the third is I sense a tremendous sense of possibility. I’ve always thought of myself as a possibilitarian. But when I got here I thought, 'that isn’t me alone.' This entire NMC community is filled with possiibilitarians…and I think about some language dating way back, talking about being not just a community college, but the community’s college...

Ticker: I know this was considered externally and probably by the board -- during your hire -- that this hire should be either an innovator who pushes the envelope or more of a caretaker of a great foundation as you said.
Nissley: Well, the good news is they got both! I was a two-for hire. I think there might be a negative connotation when you think about a caretaker, but that’s a really important role. It’s someone who is taking care. Care is something we need. Staff need fed, faculty needs fed, our community needs fed. That happens from care, so am I caretaker? Absolutely. But am I going to sit on my hands and do nothing? Absolutely not. 

Ticker: Anything you’ve identified at this early stage as the biggest specific opportunity here?
Nissley: As some context first, my approach as a leader is as a servant leader. So these aren’t my programs; I’m being entrusted as a steward of this proud mission. I look around and there are some really innovative programs. For instance the Experiential Learning Institute led by Brandon Everest and Kristi McDonald…they’re trying to transform the traditional model of learn to do…and turn that on its head, where you actually do to learn, because what we’ve come to realize is if you can engage people in doing something they then learn it better. So to me that’s one I know I can put energy behind…

Ticker: Your most pleasant surprise?
Nissley: Wow. Surely it’s been as I’m talking to people one-on-one. One example: A couple weeks ago I go to breakfast at sugar2salt. I sit down and immediately find out the [restaurant] owner is an NMC alum. She sits down and begins passionately pouring out her heart about NMC. She didn’t begin telling me she was the owner or about her success. She said how proud she is to be going back to the culinary school, helping the students. I call that ‘attitude of gratitude,’ something I want to see us develop even more. If you have graduates who are that passionate — that virtuous cycle — they’re coming back to give back, so that next generation are also going to go out and give back. That’s an incredibly pleasant surprise. 

Ticker: Just that those people exist or that they’re so passionate or that there are so many of them?
Nissley: Yes! Then another young woman comes up to me who’s serving me [at the restaurant] and says, ‘I’m an NMC student!’ So I’ve been going back there for three weeks to get a coffee and a cinnamon roll to hear from a student who’s able to give me insight. And she told me beautifully that she goes home at night and puts her tips in a glass jar. At the end of the semester she pours it all out and pays for her tuition. Now a lot of colleges talk about affordability, and might pay a lot of money to come up with language about value proposition that would be really dry...But this young woman is able to stay employed, go to school online and face-fo-face, she has a vision to finish this program and go enroll in a four-year nutrition science degree. So that speaks to me.

Ticker: A potentially troubling surprise?
Nissley: So far none, but I’m also a realist, and I know the strategic planning process does four things, and first and foremost it allows you to identify challenges. 

Ticker: Right, but you’re not just having meetings, you’re actually taking notes and noticing things that need fixing.
Nissley: Yes, and it’s way too early for me to say what those are. Another thing that connects back to another question is we’re going to have to do some reconnaissance into the future to figure out what does this community need, given an aging population and fewer high school graduates. All that is going to play into how our programming is probably going to look different, not just now, but five or ten or 15 years from now, and make some decisions about where do we place our bets.

Ticker: In an effort to give us insight into your personality and the arts, do you have a favorite medium or artist or piece of art?
Nissley: The arts I’ve been drawn to are the theater arts. For the last 25 years I’ve performed in something called playback theatre, which is improvisational storytelling…it’s just real people like me and you invited on stage to tell a story...

Ticker: What have you learned so far about the area?
Nissley: I've been out to hike at Empire Bluffs. The last two Sundays I was skiing at the lighthouse on Old Mission Peninsula. I’ve been on the Vasa Trail and out to Hickory Hills…trying to get into all the restaurants, especially where we have alums….We’ve already bought a house out on Old Mission Peninsula. Jim Votruba [related to the Traverse City Votruba family] is a prior president of Northern Kentucky University. I reached out asking if he’d coach and mentor me…and I sat down with him for a full afternoon and he hold me how he spent summers in Traverse City, and one thing he told me was. 'Nick, make sure people know your bags are unpacked.’ Too often in the world of college presidents it’s difficult to get things done if people don’t know you’re there for the long-term.