Dr. Gregory A. Sedrick, the newest full-time professor at The
University of Tennessee Space Institute, testified before Idaho
lawmakers this week about what he calls a “national technical work force
crisis.”
Sedrick founded and is executive director of the New Economy Institute,
a regional economic development organization established to assist
businesses in applying new technology and work force development.
“We need Engineering Management to bridge the gap between management and
technology,” Sedrick says. “We must work smarter as we face job loss,
career technicians being laid off because their jobs have gone overseas,
and too few young people going into science, technology, engineering and
mathematics.”
This week he is opening an NEI office in Idaho, which recently joined
Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Virginia, South Carolina and Missouri as
participants. Sedrick, noting that “other states are asking for our
help,” emphasizes that the work force problem exists throughout the
nation.
“Getting Dr. Sedrick is a terrific boost to our program,” said Dr. John
E. Caruthers, UT associate vice president and UTSI’s chief operations
officer. “He is the key to our growth plans in this area. Not only is he
recruiting and teaching Engineering Management students, he also is
pushing EM principles to solve critical problems in the nation’s work
force.”
Sedrick is co-author of one of three proposals chosen by Gov. Phil
Bredesen to submit to the U.S. Labor Department. It is aimed at
developing a “regional, integrating approach for creation of high
skilled, high wage jobs and careers.” If approved, the initiative grant
would bring about $3 million to UTSI over three years.
In response to the Labor Department’s soliciting three proposals
from each state with plans to accept 10, Sedrick and Dr. James
L. Catanzaro from Chattanooga State Technical Community College,
principals of the New Economy Institute (NEI), submitted a plan
called “WIRED.” This acronym stands for ”Workforce Innovation in
Regional Economic Development.” The proposal is being passed on
to the Labor Department by the State of Tennessee Jobs Cabinet.
He is bringing NEI with him to UTSI. It will be housed in the
Distance Learning wing of the main academic building. NEI
emphasizes partnerships, new skills training, recruitment of
students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,
and collaboration by colleges, universities, technical centers,
labor unions, and other institutions. Scott Dismukes, director
of communications and public strategy with NEI, will join
Sedrick at UTSI.
The WIRED proposal is a “continuation” of NEI, which is already
doing demonstration projects for the Labor Department. If
funded, Sedrick says, “WIRED would allow us to do more of those
pilot demonstrations across the seven states in which we
operate. We picked the New Economy title because with the rapid
increase in technology, we must have educated work forces.”
A long-time UTSI adjunct faculty member, Sedrick joined the
full-time faculty at the start of the year as part of UTSI’s new
emphasis on the EM program headed by Dr. Max Hailey.
“We need more engineers, scientists, and technicians taking our
EM classes and applying that body of knowledge to improve all of
our industries in Tennessee,” he says. “We are working with all
eight of the state’s engineering schools so we can offer the EM
program with the best minds that the UT system has. We expect to
expand in sheer numbers, improve through collaboration, as we
have more faculty working together.”
“We (NEI) are in the background as enablers,” Sedrick said. “We
want to help businesses get funding and in various other ways.”
By “leveraging the business and educational resources of the
NEI,” Sedrick proposes “building on and expanding existing
efforts funded by U.S. Department of Labor grants, government
programs, regional academia training resources, and private
funds.”
The WIRED proposal takes this work to the next step by
implementing the Tennessee Innovation Roadmap recommendations
for a technology-based economic development, entrepreneurship
and work force infrastructure designed by the State of
Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development
(ECD), the professor said. It focuses on "core occupations” for
the Tennessee Valley Corridor in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics. Also the plan addresses the
middle-aged workers who need skill certification in order to
take advantage of emerging technologies.
“The big question is how are we going to survive in a new
economy,” Sedrick said. “In the short term we want to take care
of middle-aged workers who suddenly no longer have a job because
it has gone off shore. We must certify and retrain them in
emerging technologies.”
Sedrick says so-called “baby boomers” are not doing well in
science and math and as a result there is a “work force crises
across the country.” The challenge, he says, is to create more
jobs in those areas “to get them excited by providing a place
for them to work and build careers. We need to commercialize
intellectual property coming out of Federal labs so as to create
more jobs for the next generation.”
A professional engineer, Sedrick came to Tennessee in 1991 from
the Virginia Polytechnic and State University where he was a
research associate with the Virginia Productivity Center.
Sedrick recently served as founding Dean and Professor of
Engineering and Engineering Technology at LeTourneau University.
He previously served as vice president and professor of
Chattanooga State Technical Community College and was Chief
Academic Officer of the college. Prior to this he served in many
capacities at UT-Chattanooga, including Interim dean of the
College of Engineering and Computer Science, Chair and Director
of Engineering Management, Industrial Engineering, and
Manufacturing Engineering Programs and Associate Professor of
Engineering. While at UTC, he held a UC Foundation
Professorship, served two terms as Vice President of Faculty
Council, two terms as Graduate Council President, and was
elected to Alpha Society (community honor society). He has
served on the Governor’s committee for Distance Education and on
both distance education implementation teams of the Tennessee
Board of Regents and the UT System. In 1994, Sedrick was elected
to Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Management. He
received his BS and Ph.D. from the University of Missouri at
Rolla with a minor in electrical engineering. He holds the
Master of Science in Systems Management with the Florida
Institute of Technology and an electronics/electrical
professional certificate from the O’Fallon Technology Center in
St. Louis.
Welcoming Dr. Gregory Sedrick, right, to a meeting of the UTSI
Support Council are,
from left, Dr. John E. Caruthers, UT associate vice president
and UTSI’s chief
operating officer, UT Vice President of Academic Affairs Bob
Levy, and Dr. Max Hailey,
associate professor and Head of Engineering Management at the
Institute.
-- UTSI Photo
Writer: Weldon Payne (931) 393-7222
wpayne@utsi.edu
