Workforce Development Is a Team Sport

Van Ton-Quinlivan is a nationally recognized leader in workforce development, higher education, and inclusive economic mobility. Her career spans the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, including service as Executive Vice Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. She is the CEO of Futuro Health, a nonprofit focused on improving community health and economic opportunity by expanding the allied healthcare workforce.

Van has been recognized as a White House Champion of Change, received the California Steward Leader Award, and served as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s mediaX program. She is a frequent speaker and advisor on education, workforce strategy, and cross-sector collaboration, and serves on several national boards and advisory councils. She is also the host of the WorkforceRx podcast and author of the bestselling book WorkforceRx: Inclusive and Agile Strategies for Employers, Educators and Workers during Unsettled Times.

Episode Summary

In this episode of The Nonprofit Exchange, Hugh Ballou speaks with Van Ton-Quinlivan about why workforce development must be understood as a collaborative community effort, not the responsibility of any single organization. Van explains that healthcare workforce development offers a powerful model for nonprofit leaders because the same principles apply across many fields: people need trusted guides, clear pathways, practical training, and community encouragement to move toward meaningful work.

Van shares her own story of coming to the United States from Vietnam as a child and how access to education helped her family rebuild. That experience shaped her lifelong commitment to opening doors for others. Her work today focuses on helping people gain the credentials and confidence needed to enter healthcare careers, especially in allied health roles that are essential to community well-being.

A central theme of the conversation is the “three-legged stool” of workforce development: employers, educators, and community organizations. Employers define the skills needed and offer the jobs. Educators help close the gap between current ability and workforce readiness. Nonprofits and community organizations serve as trusted connectors who invite people into new possibilities, help them understand available pathways, and support them as they take the next step.

The conversation also highlights the dignity of opportunity. Nonprofits are not called simply to rescue people, but to help them recognize their gifts, build confidence, and see a future they may not yet imagine for themselves. Van notes that many people in every community have untapped potential but need encouragement, information, and access to the right pathway.

Hugh and Van also explore inclusion, accessibility, and the importance of recognizing talent among people who are often overlooked, including individuals with disabilities, those with lived experience, adults returning to work, and young people seeking meaningful career exposure. Van points out that some career pathways, such as peer support roles, actually depend on lived experience as a qualification.

The episode closes with a practical challenge for nonprofit leaders: identify one action this week that can help someone see a future in healthcare, in your organization, or in another meaningful career path. Workforce development is not only about filling jobs; it is about changing the trajectory of lives by building pathways of trust, dignity, opportunity, and collaboration.

The Interview Transcript

Hugh Ballou

Welcome to the Nonprofit Exchange. Today we’re talking about workforce development as a team sport and why nonprofit leaders have a unique role in helping people imagine and pursue a future they may not yet see for themselves. Our guest is Van Ton-Quinlivan, CEO of Futuro Health and a nationally recognized leader in workforce development, education to career pathways, and economic mobility. Vaughn has worked across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, including prior service as Executive Vice Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. Her work has focused on helping learners, workers, employers, educators, and community partners align around pathways that lead to opportunity. The heart of this conversation is simple and powerful. Nonprofit leaders can change the trajectory of someone’s life by helping them see a future in health care, and this could be applicable to other spaces, but she’s an expert in this, and by building the partnership that makes the future reachable. Van, welcome today. Would you elaborate a little bit more about this topic today, this topic of workforce development as a team sport?

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Well, Hugh, I’m delighted to join you and your nonprofit leaders on this podcast and share more about workforce development, the role that they can have in order to improve connections between community members and good jobs, as well as unlocking opportunity. I do it in healthcare but the same principles apply to any of the industry sectors that they may be involved in or that’s important for their, their backyard. Hugh, maybe a little bit of background on how, why I wake up to do this work. Like all of your listeners, we’re so committed to the work that we do. It’s very purpose-driven. I actually started out in the private sector with a company of 20,000 men and women. And the company had no opinion in workforce development. And in the years that I worked there, I was able to bring it to becoming a nationally recognized industry best practice. And then I was appointed by our governor for the state to shepherd the workforce mission of the largest system of higher education, which is the California Community Colleges. When I stopped off, I was approached by a very, very large healthcare system, Kaiser Permanente and its partners. And for two years, they had been wrestling with how do you grow the next generation of healthcare workers, specifically the 65% of healthcare workforce that we all need in our backyard. They are called the allied health workers. So Hugh, imagine if you happen to be in a car accident, which I wouldn’t wish on you or your listeners, it’s basically, think of the ambulance that comes. It’s the emergency medical technician that is in the ambulance. that carries you to the hospital. It’s the medical assistant that checks you in, it’s the x-ray tech or the phlebotomist that takes your blood. 65% of all healthcare jobs are these roles that don’t necessarily require a bachelor’s degree, but you do have to have a credential and qualifications in order to get that interview, in order to break in. And so I was approached by the big healthcare system who had been struggling for two years Like, how do we do workforce development and grow the next generation of healthcare workers? And they asked me to apply some of these best practices. Now, Hugh, you know, this is a question also of personal risk, because I had just come from growing a big system from 100 million to 200 to 700 to over a billion dollars in public investment over the eight years. So I was running a billion dollar system and then here I was being asked to create a startup, right? A blank slate. And I thought, well, what if I fail? What if I can’t solve the problem, right? The problem space. And so like everyone who needs, who sort of feels like you’re at a career precipice where it’s like, do I step off or do I not? Do I stay with what is safe? And I have to say, this is one of those moments where I had to reach back deep into my background. You know, I came to the United States from a war-torn country that was Vietnam. I was six years old, and thanks to the opportunities that were available to me through education, public education, free education, my family was able to restart. And I’ve always been very grateful. And as I think about my career, my last job with the community colleges, this job with Votoro Health is all about paying it forward, paying forward opportunity, that I had through education. And so we’re trying to unlock opportunities for others. And so that’s why I took the risk and worked on founding Futura Health. So we work on equipping community members with credentials and qualifications so that they can get their first health care career. and they come out debt-free. Fast forward five years later, we’re now in nine states, and wherever there’s a sponsor for the scholarship so that scholars can come out debt-free, we’re able to come in. And we’re so proud. Our average age is 31. 46% are bilingual. 90% come from multicultural communities, so we’re able to get a workforce that is reflective of the communities being served. And the reason why it’s important, whether it’s rural or urban or, you know, multi-languages, is that in healthcare, you get better healthcare outcome when there’s trust between the healthcare providers, the caregivers, and the patients. And so starting with a workforce reflective of the community is so important. And so I’m so pleased that I can wake up every day and unlock opportunities for our community members and get them their qualifications and credentials.

Hugh Ballou

I can see and hear the passion when you talk about this. So let’s unpack a couple of these things that you’ve highlighted. A, many of us have started, like we started a non-profit. We’re probably not an expert in running a business, which is a non-profit, you know, for a purpose business, a non-tax organization. So that’s a lesson itself. Plus, part of this work that you’re doing is collaborative. You’re putting together the education sector, the healthcare sector, the government, the nonprofit, maybe even churches and social, like rotaries and whatnot. So we don’t do this in a vacuum. So talk about how all of us, I mean, this is the health of the community. Of what you’re talking about. It’s not it’s not a isolated channel by itself or silo So talk about how important it is for us to learn how to work together And it this is benefiting everybody in the community. So would you explore this collaborative work a little bit, please?

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Yes, and it’s not just collaborative work between all of us who are in the community organizations, but even employers when they start having to struggle with their lack of talent or what I call a talent puddle instead of having a talent pool, their assumption is I got to jump in and I have to solve everything on my own, which means that they’re going to have to build it from scratch. And so, you know, in health care, for example, you begin to see some health care providers, health care system building their own medical school, building their own nursing school. But in the allied health area, which is a wonderful entry point into health care, this is where it makes more sense to think about workforce development as a team sport, not an individual sport. And so why do I say this? I say this because there is just not enough resources that any of us have in order to solve all the different occupations, the different skill sets for all the communities that we represent. it’s more important to think about what is the best and highest use of each of the key stakeholders in workforce development. And the way I describe it is it’s a three-legged stool. So you always have to have the employers in workforce development because at the end of the day, they are the ones who can define the skill sets and they are the ones to hire. So you always have to bring them into the picture. The second partner are the education entities. They could be public, private, or some combination in between. And the point of the education partner is not necessarily to offer up what they currently have, but it’s to close the gap between the cohort of students where they are, the learners where they are, and what the employers need. So I’ll give you an example. When I was in the energy sector, where people were falling down on the pre-employment test was actually spatial reasoning and physical conditioning, right? So the gap closure program was an intro to energy fundamentals. It was spatial reasoning, which is really a fifth grade book or workbook on spatial reasoning. Think about like the Rubik’s cube, if you were to like move it in different ways, like when it turns, when it turns, when it turns, you know, how did the pieces put together? And then there was a gym teacher who then incorporates soccer as the standard activity to get everybody back into shape. for the physical conditioning. And then one more thing, for most adults, our pre-employment test back then was a time test, and most adults, if you’re out of practice, it’s not something that you’re going to do well. So basically, the curriculum was a three-month one that incorporated all that in order to close the gap to bring the community you know, into a higher pre-employment passing rate. So that’s an example of what can be done. So that’s the second stool. The third stool are really us community organizations, right? Because it’s not the day job of employers to go out and deeply engage with communities in the way that we want them to invite the community in. But we are already connected to the community and trusted by the community and can do a much better job getting out and deepening and inviting others to think about careers. Have you thought about this option? It’s just not healthcare, but any of the good jobs. And so the community needs a trusted partner to come and invite them in, but to also decode what is involved. So maybe there’s screening, there’s some evaluation that is done so that we can develop a better pool that then the employers can invest education in order to cultivate a better talent pool. So three partners, that is the magic of workforce development where it’s a team sport. The employers, the educators, and the community organizations.

Hugh Ballou

I want to highlight to non-private leaders that think, well, health care is not what I’m interested in. Health care is the specific channel. But what you’re telling us is generic. We’re all looking for qualified workforce. So one of my skill sets as a conductor is facilitating meetings. And so one of the meetings in Lynchburg, Virginia, where I live in the South, by the way, was our workforce development. And it was a coalition of 20 different non-profits, including the local community college. and the local hospital is a non-profit. So, you know, we have for-profit, non-profit in education and in healthcare. So, what it taught me, I’m not an expert in healthcare, but it was workforce development. It just comes to my mind that here I am, I don’t even know about it, I was amazed at how much goes on underneath the surface and how do we help cultivate the talent. And I think one of the bridges is for people need encouragement, they need training, but there’s other things they need to climb out of where they are to seek their possibility. And so I was 18 when I stepped in front of my first choir. Somebody recognized I was nothing but potential, but they recognized it was there. So I started a 40-year career because somebody saw potential. So talk about how we can all work together in helping people who might have the ability, but they haven’t got the pathway. So part of your work is creating the pathway, isn’t it?

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Yes, the pathway, navigating the pathway is actually very difficult and very, it’s not obvious to most in the community. And so I’ll just give you, I thank you, Hugh, for giving your example. Let me just give you like three examples. So Margaret Oh, she was in her 30s. She was a security guard at a hospital. And she started having to care for her mother who had cancer and saw our flyer, the Futura Health flyer, and decided to become a phlebotomist, which is the person who draws your blood. And so she went from being on the sidelines into a direct care role, debt-free, through our work. So that’s Margaret, who sort of had a mid-career change. Or Justice. Now, he got laid off during the pandemic. he had a thought that he wanted to go into nursing, but he was actually working at a noodle shop, making money, trying to save up. And so his aunt had heard of Futura Health, and so he applied quickly on the website. And so he became a medical assistant, came out debt-free, and he’s now working in healthcare, getting the healthcare experience to see if he likes it. And he does, he’s been promoted multiple times. And now he’s taking advantage of his company’s tuition benefit in order to become a nurse. Or Yoshiko, who is now empty nested. She used to run a retail store. She empty nested, has a bachelor’s degree. But during the period in which she stopped out from work, you kind of lose touch with the place of work. applied to Fitzgerald and became a patient care representative. And I’m so proud of her because she went into an interview, a panel interview of five, which you know, can be very intimidating, including two doctors. And she was able to answer the questions and able to get the offer. So I think we have a lot of talent sitting on the top sideline in our community. And it’s going to get harder and harder and harder to do to get talent into not only our own organization, but all the different types of industry sectors that fuel our economy. Hugh, I want to just share like three numbers with your audience. 12, seven, and four. So roughly 50 years ago, we had like 11.7. So roughly 12 working age adult for every person who was over 65. Our nation is aging. tremendously. Today, there’s seven working adults for every person over 65. And soon enough, there will be only four. What does that mean? That means that there, you know, it’s not just the healthcare worker, but the person who’s going to work in your bakery shop or, you know, driving the cars or, or working in the library, you know, so, or in our respective nonprofits. So there’s going to be a competition for talent. just by virtue of our nation aging. And so we need to kind of all learn how to do workforce development and grow our own talent where we, in the past, may have been able to just transact posts for the talent. We get it. Well, soon enough, that’s not going to happen. We’re going to get frustrated. And so we have to figure out how to grow our own talent. for even our own organizations, much less our industries.

Hugh Ballou

Let’s talk about the role that a non-profit plays in the community, because that’s a trusted source. We tend to want to help people, rescue people, which is not what we need to do. We need to support their dignity. So, an example, my church, the homeless shelter we had in Lynchburg closed, Lowberry Shelter, so they stepped up and said, we got a building. So, after getting all the compliances, it opened two weeks ago. And so, there are talented people in that pool. So it isn’t just for sleeping, it is giving them a pathway for rehabilitation, learning to a job, and then they’ve connected with a number of agencies. So it’s a trusted source to give somebody a space to create the pathway. So non-profits have special influence when they give people opportunity and don’t rescue them. So you want to talk about that paradigm a little bit, or maybe you don’t agree with that, or do you?

Van Ton-Quinlivan

No, no, no. It’s very important to empower individuals. And I think we have also an absence of information. The most, if you were sitting around the dinner table and you talked about careers, maybe you would know about nurses or doctors or policemen, maybe engineers. But usually it doesn’t roll off the tongue. Oh, I want to be a medical sonographer, right? Or a radiology tech. Or how would you become, did you know that many of the firefighters come first through a career pathway that starts as an emergency medical technician, right? So there’s so many of these careers and it’s a mystery on how you go from A to B. And so nonprofits, I think are particularly well-suited in their trusted relationship to kind of decode for individuals how do you navigate from here to there, but also building people’s confidence that they can go from here to there. And I think that’s one of the things I’m super proud of, even my organization, we do it very well. How do you on-ramp people into an education journey to get their credential, especially most adults? It’s been intimidating because it’s been a long while for most adults to be in education, to go back to education, but to education online. So how do you rebuild confidence as they go through the program? Probably the hardest is even to make the move to apply for a program, right? I mean, that’s not a small step for a lot of adults who’ve been out of the workforce.

Hugh Ballou

There’s a forgotten sector that I have a passion for and it’s accessibility. So to put accessibility as part of inclusion. So we have, last time I looked at 28.9% of our population, we call disabled, including invisible disabilities like PTSD. Those are very skilled, very talented people. And we tend to forget about them. How can we, how can we access, that’s a skilled community. That’s part of the workforce, isn’t it?

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Yes. And then, you know, you have to think about like, what’s the career pathway and the match of the skill sets. But like, I mean, others who are your listeners will be better able to talk about what are good roles that match in their communities. But I can tell you, for one, there’s a set of mental health, behavioral health roles called peer support specialists. So it requires you to actually have had lived experience. So if you have lived or know someone who has lived with the disability, then you can help others navigate their situation. It also applies to like if you have recovered from alcoholism or a drug use situation, you could also be of help in coaching others as they go through their journey. So it’s a unique occupation where they that the lived experience that you bring is actually a prerequisite for entering into that career. So there are so many careers out there. It’s just unknown. And this is where community organizations can really help. Before we leave this topic, I wanted to also say, nonprofits also have a role in providing work experience to college students or graduate students. It is so difficult right now, especially with AI entering the workplace and taking over a lot of task-oriented duties. Many of us started as analysts or coordinators or some of these roles where we’re just learning kind of through repetition and watching others, and they can easily be done through AI tools. So I had to think about it myself. It’s like, how do I proactively invite college students in their gap year, in their summers, to come to my organization and learn about nonprofits and contribute, frankly, their AI and most recent knowledge and help us solve some of our workflow issues or see if they can do something a better way because they think about things so fresh. We and college are just wanting those opportunities for their students. So highly suggest reaching out to college career centers, finding and creating a pathway for them to come to you.

Hugh Ballou

Well, and they’ve got some expertise, but we got data. There’s still the human part of implementation. So that takes humans. So let’s talk about your website just a minute. Give us the link where we can find your website.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Yes, please go to futurohealth.org. And futuro is like the word future, but just with an O, futurohealth.org. And, you know, my favorite parts about this website is when you click under For Scholars, there’s all these stories, video vignettes, Meet Our Scholars. Sorry, go ahead and Meet Our, For Scholars, Meet Our Scholars, the wonderful video from the voices of people who have participated in our program really just come through and how life-changing the work is. And I’m so proud that we can do this work every day. And then of course, our course and career catalog right there. If you click the first link, career program and course catalog, you can see the range of programs. And we, we not only focus on getting people the technical credential that they have to have, but we double down on the essential skills, the soft skills that are so critical to healthcare. And so we have a human touch healthcare. that 100% of our scholars go through before it unlocks the scholarship to the technical training.

Hugh Ballou

Love it. F-U-T-U-R-O health dot com.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

No, no, dot org.

Hugh Ballou

Dot org. I’m sorry. Dot org. Forgive that. So a couple of quick closing questions. One word that describes a healthy workforce ecosystem.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Collaborative.

Hugh Ballou

What’s more important?

Van Ton-Quinlivan

And accountable. Can I say accountable, too? Amen.

Hugh Ballou

Amen. The most overlooked partner in workforce development?

Van Ton-Quinlivan

The employer.

Hugh Ballou

One question every nonprofit leader should ask a local health care employer.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Every question a nonprofit leader should ask a local health employer. What is your pain point on hiring?

Hugh Ballou

What gives you hope about the future of health care workforce development?

Van Ton-Quinlivan

The urgency.

Hugh Ballou

Van, this is great. You’ve helped me realize the idea that non-profit leaders have the power to change the trajectory of someone’s life. So if you’re a non-profit leader listening today, what is one action you can take this week to help someone see a future in healthcare or in your organization or anywhere? You’re the encourager. You can invite people. So begin building community pathways that make more things possible because everybody in The community has a skill set to employ. This has been very inspiring today Thank you for sharing your wisdom with our audience today on the non-profit exchange Thank you so much you and it was fantastic to be with your listeners today Okay