“As administrators, we sign a lot of documents and push a lot of paper. But, it’s really about the lives that we touch. How do we do that better? How do we help more? No matter how much we do, there’s always more to do. You have to have the right heart to do this work.”
After graduating college during a recession, Alicia Booker struggled to find a job and fell into a temporary receptionist position at a workforce agency — the same agency she would lead as its CEO years later. Throughout that remarkable accession, Booker has never lost touch with her deep connection to the people she serves as a workforce development professional of 30 years. “I don’t know how you could do this work and not feel for the people who you work for, and that’s kind of what I’ve carried with me throughout my career. When you change someone’s life for the better, it will impact them and their children. We can really see change happen over time, and I think that’s critically important to the work that we do, especially at a community college.”
