Health Care continues to be one of the fastest growing industries in California and faces unprecedented challenges to its delivery systems. The California Community College Chancellor's Office and it's Economic and Workforce Development Program has established the California Community College Health Care Initiative to provide education and training programs to meet these emerging demands for health care delivery.

Economic & Workforce Development Program (EWD)

The Chancellor's Office EWD coordinates programs and projects in the California Community Colleges that are funded through competitive grants for economic and workforce development activities. The EWD was designed to leverage resources and connections within the community college system. By linking projects together, the program can increase every project's access to the rich and deep expertise and intellectual resources that exist in the colleges across the state. The program allows best practices that are developed in one arm of the projects to be replicated without delay or additional cost in other projects.

Health Care Initiative

The purpose of the Health Workforce Initiative is to provide education and training programs to meet emerging demands for health care industry workers; to determine needs, facilitate development of innovative solutions and to locate resources to implement planned responses; to evaluate and initialize health-related educational programs.

Health Workforce Initiative Centers (HWIs)

The California Community College Health Care Initiative includes five Health Workforce Initiative Centers and one affiliate strategically located across the state to provide service to seven regions. The purpose of the HWIs is to provide a mechanism for community colleges to address the needs of the health care industry. HWI staff develop partnerships that encourage collaboration between health care employers and education providers from all segments. They also complete needs assessments, job analyses, curricula and resource development, training, certification testing and employee referrals to health care industry employers. The centers focus the services of qualified community colleges on the critical needs of the Health Care industry anticipating high job growth in that industrial sector.

Health Workforce Initiative Statewide Advisory Committee

The Statewide Advisory Committee is the oversight committee for the California Community College Health Workforce Initiative. The committee helps connect the needs with the outcomes by advising the Health Workforce Initiative participants on business trends, needed special services, curriculum design, distance education, and computer based training in both FTE generating and Contract Education programs. It also advises on new worker skill sets and helps get the word out to business and industry regarding community college programs and services throughout California.

Health Workforce Initiative Director
Linda Zorn, MA, RD

Ms. Zorn  is the statewide initiative director for the Health Workforce Initiative.  She is also the co-chair of the North Far North Regional Consortia which includes 15 community colleges in the north state.  She is currently serving as the assistant director for the Western Region Community College Health IT Workforce Training Program.  Linda has a Master of Arts degree in organizational development and communications from Marquette University, and a Bachelor's of Science degree in Dietetics and Food Service Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

[Health Workforce Initiative Committtee Mission Statement]

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