<\/p>\n
Northern Essex Community College\u2019s new Director of Corporate and Community Education, Alex Rodriguez of Melrose, Massachusetts, has experience as a business professor, economic development strategist, and marketer for software companies.<\/p>\n
A Texas native, Rodriguez has been teaching strategy and marketing at local colleges, including Lesley University, UMass Boston, and Newbury College for the past seven years.<\/p>\n
He previously worked for the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a Boston economic development organization founded by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter that focuses on driving economic growth within distressed urban communities.\u00a0 At ICIC, Rodriguez ran the Inner City 100, the organization\u2019s flagship program that recognizes the 100 fastest-growing inner city firms in the United States and provides them with the necessary management education resources to help their CEO\u2019s continue to grow their firms. Under his leadership, Rodriguez consistently grew ICIC\u2019s network of new firms and partner organizations to include Members of Congress, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, chambers of commerce, the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the National Association of Women Business Owners.<\/p>\n
He also worked in various marketing and business development roles for software companies.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez joined the college in September and will be responsible for leading and driving education and training programs for corporate and community audiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlex has the perfect combination of skills and experience,\u201d says Allison Dolan-Wilson, Northern Essex\u2019s vice president of institutional advancement. \u201cHe understands the academic environment and has worked very successfully with business and nonprofit partners to build workforce development training programs with results.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodriguez says he is looking forward to bringing together his nonprofit, academic, and private sector experience in this new role. \u201cI miss the hands-on experience of being a true practitioner and cannot wait to bring my background to augment the Center\u2019s profound strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n
His first step will be to work closely with employers and community leaders to assess the college\u2019s current programs and make sure they\u2019re meeting community needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to leverage the College\u2019s and local community\u2019s natural assets to assist in creating truly equitable upward economic mobility for more local residents,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez has a bachelor’s in political science and an MBA from Texas Christian University and is a candidate for a Doctorate in Business Administration specializing in higher education marketing and strategy at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.\u00a0 The son of an immigrant from Juarez, Mexico, Rodriguez says he \u201cis a product of the Houston oil patch\u201d as his grandfather worked in a Shell Oil refinery, and both his parents practiced law in the energy sector.\u00a0 Rodriguez moved to New England twelve years ago with his wife, Katie, a New Hampshire native. The couple has two children, Charlie, 5, and Sam, 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Northern Essex Community College\u2019s new Director of Corporate and Community Education, Alex Rodriguez of Melrose, Massachusetts, has experience as a business professor, economic development strategist, and marketer for software […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n