Jody Holzmiller has been officially appointed CEO and President of Southeast College, after serving in the interim role since July. She will step into the permanent position on May 1st.
Holzmiller brings a wealth of experience from her 20 years with the college, and the Saskatchewan college system.
“It is both a pleasure and an honour to have been given the opportunity to fill the interim role since July and now be awarded the permanent role as CEO. I think what I bring to the position is the experience and the knowledge of the Saskatchewan College system.”
“Having worked in that system for almost 20 years, I think that level of knowledge, not only about the system, but the internal workings and the partnerships that need to be formed to allow training to happen, is invaluable. I'm also really excited for the opportunity to work with the existing staff that we have.”
She also notes her anticipation to work within their partnerships with First Nations in the region, business leaders, communities, and other post-secondary institutions.
Holzmiller says the transition from interim to permanent CEO has been smooth, as she has already held the authority and responsibilities of the role since last summer. However, she anticipates bringing a level of stability to the role, as it has seen some turnover.
“It's the, I think the level of comfort that it gives to all of our stakeholders, knowing that I'm in the position for, at minimum, the next three years. It gives staff the opportunity to not operate with the question of who will be coming in? Will it be somebody new or somebody that we already know? And helps to continue to build and maintain those relationships with stakeholders, as well as all of our staff.”
Looking toward the future holding the position, Holzmiller looks to continue with business as usual, maintaining a level of stability within the college. However, she says she won’t hesitate to seize opportunities.
“We just need to kind of get our feet under us and start the path forward. I know there are some very exciting things in the future for us as a college. Let's talk about the wind turbine project in one of our local communities. Is there an opportunity for our college to be part of that with some training? There's talk about the small modular reactors in another one of our college communities.”
“There definitely are big opportunities for some new training coming our way. That will be our focus. And then in the background, we continue to do the training that we currently have on our books, just as excellent as we have always done it.”
She also acknowledges the beginning of their practical nursing course and returning power engineering course when discussing the growth she has observed in their programming in her time with the college. She says opportunities have expanded.
“Our mandate is to obviously offer programming that has learner demand, as well as labor market demand. It's that agility of our college to be able to navigate through the changes in the labor market and offer the programming that's required to keep our students living where they have learned.”