Photos by Ralph Freso
Arizona’s education journalists gathered at Grand Canyon University on Tuesday to examine workforce solutions, including career-focused programs that reflect what President Brian Mueller called a higher education market in motion.
The Arizona Local News Foundation and Center for the Future of Arizona Symposium brought together university leaders, Arizona industry experts and the Arizona Local News Foundation’s statewide network of education reporters to discuss how education can prepare people for jobs the state needs to fill. GCU’s teacher preparation, nursing, engineering, mental health and manufacturing programs served as examples of how colleges can connect coursework with career pathways.
“The higher education market is not shrinking,” Mueller said during his keynote address. “The higher education market is moving. It's moving into a new phase. It's moving into new avenues, into middle-class jobs, and I think it's unbelievably exciting.”
He described a shift toward programs designed around students’ circumstances and employers’ needs, rather than a single, traditional route through a four-year campus experience. GCU, he said, is combining campus, online and hybrid learning with shorter workforce certificates and hands-on training.
“We need to deliver it in a way that they can consume it, not in a way that’s most convenient for us,” Mueller said.
In education, the university’s Rise 360 program aims to help students earn degrees while gaining experience in schools, including in the communities where they grew up. Dr. Meredith Critchfield, dean of GCU’s College of Education, said the model blends coursework with classroom experience and can give students a pathway back to local schools as teachers.
Secondary education major Greyson Mezo described another route into the classroom, working as a substitute teacher while completing practicum hours. Through an app, he said, he can choose available shifts, gain paid experience and fulfill program requirements.
The university is applying a similar work-and-learn approach to manufacturing. Weston Smith, GCU alum and founder of Lux Precision Manufacturing, described a campus facility where students work alongside experienced employees and make parts for industries, including aerospace and medical devices. College of Engineering and Technology Dean Paul Lambertson said the experience also helps engineering students understand how designs are made and how manufacturing decisions affect the finished product.
Jackie Fan, manufacturing department manager at the world’s largest semiconductor producer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, highlighted GCU’s technician-training program as a significant source of candidates for the company. The partnership, he said, has produced stronger hiring outcomes than many other TSMC recruiting channels.
The Center for the Future of Arizona’s statistics and trends overview provided a statewide backdrop for those examples. Despite a negative narrative around higher education, Senior Director of Education Peter Boyle highlighted survey research showing broad support for expanding pathways to college, community college, technical and trade schools. The organization’s workforce dashboard allows users to examine projected openings by industry and education level.
Arizona faces a substantial need for workers with postsecondary credentials. Achieve60AZ, an alliance of more than 150 members, including GCU, aims to have 60% of adults in Arizona hold some kind of postsecondary credential by 2030.
For Tregg White, president and CEO of the Arizona Local News Foundation and Arizona Media Association, connecting journalists with educators, employers and researchers is part of the work. The foundation’s Arizona Community Collaborative supports 16 education reporters across the state. White said the collaboration had produced more than 3,000 education stories since 2025.
“Solutions are not solutions unless we all hear about them,” White said, “and that's what our journalists are doing every day.”
The symposium also reflected the foundation’s partnership with GCU. In 2025, the university announced a $250,000 contribution to expand the Arizona Community Collaborative and public-service advertising focused on education resources.
Rudy Rivas, director of foundation projects, said bringing journalists and leaders together can help build relationships that are useful when reporters cover education and workforce issues in their communities.
“We're thankful to Grand Canyon University for their partnership,” Rivas said. “We just really want to make sure that the journalists, university leaders, community leaders are building strong relationships.
“In addition to hearing about all the great things that each of the sites are doing, it's having the journalists be able to see firsthand some of the things that President Mueller mentioned today. … . A lot of these journalists today are seeing GCU for the very first time.”
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction-elect Dr. Teresa Leyba Ruiz, a career educator and former community college president, made a surprise appearance. She named GCU among the vital partners that can contribute to strengthening the state’s teacher workforce and emphasized collaboration as a way to address education challenges.
“Arizona's kiddos deserve better. Arizona deserves better. And our workforce and our industry leaders deserve to have a workforce that's prepared and ready to go,” said Ruiz. “We’re going to work together. We’re going to solve problems together.”
At GCU, reporters got a firsthand look Tuesday at how those workforce goals are taking shape.
GCU News senior writer Jason Gonzalez can be reached at [email protected].
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