Hey, hey, hey. This is Lisa A. And you're listening to Who's That Star? on LCC Connect at Lansing Community College. Who's that Star is a behind the scenes show where I sit down and talk with the employees at the college. This is an inside look at LCC where you will have a chance to learn about their passions, projects, what inspires them both at work and in their personal lives. I'm your host, Lisa Alexander. I'm so excited to get a chance to talk to all the people who make LCC great. This show is for you to get to know the people that work at Lansing Community College a little bit more and see what makes them tick. Are you ready? Okay, let's go see who's today's star on Who's That Star. Today we have someone that has been in their career field for over 46 years. He is a native of Northwestern Pennsylvania. He's a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Can't wait to find out how he decided to come to Michigan. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Administration from General Motors Institute, GMI, now called Kettering University, and an MBA from Youngstown State University. He has worked in both the public and private sector with assignments as personnel director of the General Motors Lansing Stamping Plant, central office assignments in Lansing and Detroit. He also worked labor relations assignments at assembly plants in Linden, New Jersey and Kansas City, Missouri. He has been a member of Lansing Community College family, I think for about 14 years. And he's held, I think, two different leadership roles, but we're going to find out more about that shortly. He's a member of the Michigan Public Employer Labor Relations Association Boards of Director and he currently serves as board president. He's also a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, Lansing Alumni chapter, serving many roles in that organization. Not only that, he does other volunteering in the Lansing community. All right, everybody, are you excited to find out who's today's star? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome James A. Mitchell to the show. We are so happy to have you here.

Well, thank you, Lisa. I am great. I feel great about being here and I appreciate the invitation and look forward to the conversation.

Me too. It's exciting because I had an opportunity. I met your wife before you. I knew your wife because she worked at the Lansing School District school social worker. And I was a school social worker. So it was a really, it was a trip. When I found out that that's who your wife was, I was like, oh, wow, great to know that. But I want to find out about you today. So I want to know like, can you tell me more about what you do here at LCC?

Sure. I currently have the privilege of serving as the executive director of human resources, which means I have the privilege of working with the staff and leading the staff there in areas including compensation, benefits, employment, labor relations and organizational development are the primary ones. So I get to see kind of both sides of it because human resources are kind of the labor relations is one side dealing with employees, dealing with our unions, which I enjoy, and then is also dealing with the leadership group in, in a lot of ways on the other side, on the employment side. So it's just a fantastic opportunity. I really enjoy it. I really enjoy serving at the college.

Yeah. So as an executive director, I was thinking that you really didn't get your hands muddy per se. Like you would be over everybody, but you do get an opportunity to play different roles, like in the labor relations, like you would be there at the T. Or like, are you an advisor? I'm not really understand like what that role.

Well, yeah, as far as labor relations goes, I mean that was my previous role. I had that. I was the labor relations and employee relations director for like 12 years and that's the longest time I've ever held any job. So I was really involved in the collective bargaining process and I still am since I enjoy that so much. We have a great staff, but I am involved in the negotiations. I was involved in the bargaining of the last contracts and then in the administration. I'm not really into the day to day items, but I am involved in it. I do meet with our labor leaders on a regular basis. So I'm involved in that way. Then in the compensation and employment side, I do get involved in the vacancy management process and the budget process. So I do still have the privilege of interacting with employees at all levels. I do receive the notices of employees who are going to retire, et cetera, and I do interact with them. But it is a leadership role. But I see my role as trying to put the staff. And there's a great HR staff, just wonderful women and men to try to put them in a position to be successful, to support them and to make sure they have what they need. Because they're really a fantastic staff who they all know what their roles are and they're very good at it.

Okay, great. So I heard that you mentioned that you had did a previous position before the executive director. And what was that again?

That was the Director of Labor Relations and Employee relations.

Okay, so when you got to LCC, you were in the private sector?

Yes, I was.

What made you transition from private to public?

Well, it was primarily the. The economy, Lisa, around 2008, you may recall.

I do.

There was a lot of things going on in the economy. General Motors was really struggling. I'd been with General Motors my entire career. I had been the personnel director, as you mentioned in the beginning at the stamping plant was called Plant 3 here. But that plant closed. So I had a couple assignments down at the Global. Global headquarters at the Renaissance Center. And, you know, things were going south for General Motors economically.

Right.

And they offered. They offered early retirements. So I thought. I considered that. But while I was considering it, I was looking for other opportunities. So I reached out to some contacts that I had. There was one of my fraternity brothers, George Blockett, who did a lot of employment placement, and I called him up and he said, well, there's this position at LCC that's open, and I think you might be perfect for it. So I followed through and kind of the rest is history. It's history. And I've really enjoyed my opportunity to be a public servant here at the college.

What do you like most about it?

I really like the people, the staff, the great colleagues in all areas. I mentioned the HR staff, the union colleagues, the employees. I really enjoy serving, trying to solve problems, put processes in place. So I really enjoy those interactions. But then I also recognize that we're here to educate students. And while I don't have a direct role in it, I look at my role as helping others or putting others in a position so they can perform that work. And one of my favorite things here is the graduation ceremonies.

Yeah, that's right.

I mean, it's so exciting to see those young people graduate and their parents, and they're so excited. And, you know, frequently, you know, I've been in Lansing since 1989, so I have a lot of contacts. But to see children that I know, and they're not children anymore, graduating members of my church or other, you know, just folks that I know through Jack and Jill and Phi Beta Sigma. But to see those individuals graduate, it's just so exciting.

It is. And you've been around a long time, so you probably seeing like the children of children maybe now. Are you getting there yet? Have you seen that?

I don't think I can claim that yet.

Well, yeah. Cause you're doing more of the administrative aspect. I get to see people's kids, and now the kids have come.

I'm like, oh, yeah, that's awesome.

But I'm not that old, so I don't know how that's happening. But I wanted to know, James, what's the career highlight you are most proud of?

Wow. I would say here at the college in the area of labor relations, I would say the, The resolution of our contracts and improving the climate here. When I first started here, we had, I don't know, like 40 grievances and things were not that well as far as how HR and labor interacted with the unions. So I think that's improved. I know there was a long stretch. This is when I was in my former role. We went for over a year with zero grievances. Now that's kind of picked up a little bit and the pandemics had an effect on it, but just that. And also recently, over the last couple of bargaining cycles, we started to use the interest based bargaining approach, which is really a collaborative approach. And before that it was more of a traditional approach where we had an attorney at the table, very chief spokesman. And that's what I was used to in the public sector. But we moved, we moved away with that with the ibb and we have, it is a facilitated process and we're able to reach our agreements in a much more open fashion. It's like a team. And as you go through the process, it's really interesting that as you go through the process and you have discussions at the, at the table, contrary to the, to the traditional approach where you have a chief spokesman and you're very structured and only the chief spokesman speaks. This is, you know, everybody can speak. And it gets to the point where as you go through so long, through the process, it's not unusual for individuals on the same side, either on a college or on the union side, not to agree with each other. And that's okay. It's more of a kind of a buffet of ideas and interactions and it's just a lot more positive. So that's what I would say. Those improvements in the area of, of our labor processes, I think are what I would say. I don't. Proud isn't the right word, but I think I've been fortunate to be part of it and see that change.

And I think too that in the position that you're in, to want that collaboration and to want to hear more voices. Right. That's a great, that's a great thing because you get more ideas when you hear more voices.

Right. And I do have to confess, I was not easily convinced to even try it. I was really skeptical. But you probably know Giselle Oliver, who's our MEA director here. And she talked to me about it for a long time before I said, maybe I'll try it because I was skeptical. But now that I see it, I'm not. I've been involved in it. I'm a. I'm a full convert.

Hey, and that's the thing about it. At least you gave it a try, you know, and then. And it's worked out, and that's a good thing. So I'm glad. It seems like you enjoy what you do and you do a good job at it. I want to ask you, how did you end up in Michigan?

Well, you know, I worked for. For General Motors, and as you talked in the bio there, I had the opportunity to move around to different places primarily to get an opportunity for a higher position. So I had worked at. I started at the Lordstown, Ohio plant. I went to Linden, and this was all on the labor side. Linden, New Jersey. Then Kansas City. So when I was in Kansas City, I was over the labor aspect of it, labor safety, et cetera. That side of it. Well, that plant closed. So, you know, we went through the whole closing process and people were looking for homes and I was fortunate enough to get an assignment here in Lansing at the old Oldsmobile headquarters. So that's what brought me to Michigan and brought me to Lansing. But as we talked about, or as you mentioned earlier, I went to undergraduate school at GMI and that's in Flint.

Yeah. How did you get there in Michigan? Did you like from Pennsylvania to look at that. When you were. Did you come. I guess the first question when you were younger, like when you were out of high school?

I came right out of high school.

How did you, like, notice, like. Because I'm saying that they got other schools in Pennsylvania.

That's a great question. And actually they were looking for increasing the diversity. So there was a recruiter that came to my high school. In fact, it was a friend of my family and he was actually a member of my grandfather's church.

Okay.

Because. Well, both of my grandfathers were pastors, but he was one. So. And well, his name was Leon Ponder. So he came to the high school and they were looking for African Americans. And, you know, I had the right background.

Right. Because you.

That's not an easy science and math. And, you know, it really sounded almost too good to be true because I was really concerned about things economically. I had a sister. My older sister was. She's a couple years older than me, although she tries to say I'm older now. But anyways, I'm not getting into that, but my older sister was at. She was in an undergraduate at Brown University, and our family, it was kind of a struggle for her. In fact, my mother had gone back to work. She had been a stay at home mom. And then when it got time for us to start going to college, she went back to work. And so I was looking at a number of different things. And when this, you know, the thing about General Motors Institute, it was almost too good to be true because it was a co op work study program where you would go to school for six weeks and then you would work for six weeks all year round. Wow. They were only like three weeks off and you were able to make enough money so that you could pay for your schooling and, you know, other things. I was blessed to be able to afford a car because one of the things was when I was in my work section, I was able to stay at home. So that really helped. So economically it just made sense. And they said that, you know, they guaranteed you a job after you graduated. It was a five year program with a thesis at the end. So, you know, I really latched onto it for economic reasons, but it was a great program. And they had the engineering side and then they had. The industrial administration was the other option. And I didn't know much about engineering, but I just saw more like drawing on boards and stuff. So I said, I'm not really that interested in that, but I would really like. I like the idea of leading and managing people and getting into the business side. So that's what I, that's kind of how I arrived there. That's how I said, hey, I would like to, to, to, to, to go to GMI. And this came about really near the end of my senior year because I was planning to go to Washington University in St. Louis, but so I had never even been to the campus, Right. But I just said, yeah, it sounds like a, like a good thing. And as you said earlier, kind of the, the rest is history, right?

Yeah, it worked out for sure.

Yeah.

So this question I'm kind of gonna, I want to ask you a little bit about your hobbies, but I want to ask this question because I know you really don't have any, what they say, meet in a game or whatever, go green or go blue?

Oh, definitely go green.

Okay.

I mean, no question now. Well, you know, my wife Viola, who has two degrees from msu.

Okay.

My son went to msu, but even further back than that, when I grew up in my hometown in Farrell, Pennsylvania, one of the basketball stars. I mean, basketball was the big sport. We had teams that won like seven championships over about 20 years. But in any event, there was a player who came to Michigan State. His name was Julius McCoy. So I'd heard about Michigan State and I knew Michigan State was one of the first major colleges to have African American athletes. So I knew about Michigan State, so I was always positive toward it. So. And then when I moved here, and like I said, my wife and my. And my son graduated from there. I will admit that my daughter was kind of a. She was away from the mainstream. She went to the place down in. In Ann Arbor.

Okay.

But. But. But we still love her.

That's right. That's right. Seriously.

Yep. Yep. It is a good school. So we had that little friction in the family. But I will just mention one quick story about that because I mentioned my. My wife is a Spartan and my daughter decided to go to U of M. So we will go down there for their. Graduate, for their orientation. You know, when they take parents to all this stuff and we listen to it, I mean, it's a great school. I mean, they are, you know, but I definitely like to go green than go blue. But in any event, at the very end of the orientation, we were down there for a day, we took the tour and all that stuff. They're in the auditorium and then they start playing the Michigan fight song and they stand up and start singing. So, you know, I take my cues from Viola. So I kind of looked at her, she looked at me. She said, I'm going to stand, but I ain't singing. I said, I'm with you.

That's right. We go support our child, but we're not going too far, right? For sure. Well, I. I love that. I'm glad to hear it. I just wanted to ask you because I know this is a really important part. You are part of a member of Phi Beta Sigma.

Yeah.

Fraternity. But you also. You do volunteering as well, and you in a lot of different organizations. If you wouldn't mind taking a couple moments just talking about some of the things that you're doing outside of your work and, you know, pleasure.

Sure. One of the things. One of my passions really is my church. I'm a member of the West Lansing Church of God. And my faith is just a big part of my life. So one of my passions there is. I teach the adult Sunday school class. I've been doing that since 2006 maybe. And I really enjoy it, just preparing the lesson. So it requires that I study the Word and the lesson. And. And we've got. Well, our. Our pastor sits in the class, and we have some people that are very knowledgeable. So they keep me on my toes.

Right.

But. But it's really a good process. I also serve as a. As a trustee and also sing in a choir. That's one of the things I really miss from the pandemic, because we haven't gone back.

Got you.

We've gone back to live services, but we haven't gone back to the choir singing. And I just. I can't sing. But I enjoy that. That whole process.

Right.

I. I enjoyed. I really enjoyed the practices maybe more than the singing and the. The fellowship, et cetera. So, yeah. Serving there. We also have vacation Bible school. In fact, I'm going to help out with that. That's next week.

Got you.

And we've got a backpack giveaway that we're going to do. I think it's. I'm not going to be able to participate in it because it's this Friday and I'm going to be out of town. But those are the things that are really, you know, I really am. Enjoy my church family, and they put up with me, which is a great thing. And I enjoy those. Those interactions and that fellowship, seeing the young people in the church grow up and just interacting because there's just some really, really great people there. So that's a big area. And you mentioned Phi Beta Sigma. Our signature event is we do a youth workshop where we have high school students come in and we do a program. It's in February. We usually have a speaker, and that's a big event. We have high school students from all over the area. And I actually had the privilege to lead those workshops for about. I think I did it for about seven years. We also have a foundation, which we call our Education Fund, and the Education Fund funds that workshop. We also provide scholarships to high school students as well as college students. So those are some of the things that the. That Phi Beta Sigma does. It really. What drew me to it is that whole service aspect.

Right. Yeah.

And the volunteering.

It seems like you. You do that. I saw that throughout your bio and different things that you like volunteering and like giving back into the community. And so I did want to highlight that. Unfortunately, our time is up. James, I could talk to you. You.

Thank you.

Give really good, informative answers, and I'm glad that we got a chance to learn about you today.

So thank you.

Thank you for coming.

All right, great.

All right, everybody. I'm gonna see you soon. Thanks and take care. You've been listening to Who's That Star? I'm Lisa A. and you can listen to this episode of of Who's That Star and other shows from LCC Connect anytime online at LCCconnect.org thank you for listening. Catch me next time to find out Who's That Star.