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Join The Urban Rez for an exciting journey that dives into the intersections of culture, sports, and lifestyle with a fresh, global, inclusive perspective. Each 30-minute episode brings a unique blend of conversations, stories, and interviews that explore the passions and experiences that define our lives.
Announcer 0:00
This is a KUNV Studios original program.
Wesley Knight 0:04
The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. The
Marcus White 0:14
Urban Res is underwritten by Southwest Gas. Since 1931, Southwest Gas has been committed to serving the communities we live in. Employees actively volunteer for and support organizations and initiatives that make our communities better places to live. For more information, s wgas.com. Welcome to the urban day show. Welcome to the urban day show. Welcome to the urban day show. Welcome to
Music 1:01
the urban day and show.
Marcus White 1:16
Happy Sunday morning! Welcome to the Urban Reds Show, Doctor B, it has been a very busy month, and one of the exciting things is that the Las Vegas Aces made the playoffs.
Dr. B 1:30
Yay, go Aces!
Marcus White 1:33
Yep, go.
Dr. B 1:34
I'm sorry, go Asia Wilson. I'm such a huge Asia Wilson fan, so I'm really excited that they made it to the playoffs,
Marcus White 1:42
and I actually think that she'll win the MVP again this year.
Dr. B 1:46
You know, I think she will, but she's got some tough competition. You know, I'm a big Hooper fan and all of it, so I've been actually watching Olivia Miles too. Not saying she is, but the league,
Marcus White 2:02
she's bombed,
Dr. B 2:03
or something to miss with. You know, I've been an Olivia Miles fan, you know, since she played at TCU and also Notre Dame. So I've been watching her for a minute, and for her to come into the league, I just want to give you know the newcomers some respect. But of course, Ace is all the way, of course.
Marcus White 2:19
Absolutely, no, Olivia Miles. She is the truth. I mean, yeah, she's a rookie, but she is. She's playing like she's been in the league, man, like at least four years. I mean, she is like really tearing tearing the league apart with her play.
Dr. B 2:33
Oh, I know. So I'm really excited to see the WNBA playoffs this year, and also closing off this summer. Where has time gone? Now we're moving into fall, and now we're going to start the NFL season.
Marcus White 2:48
Absolutely, go Raiders.
Dr. B 2:51
Okay, okay, I'll say go Raiders, but go Arizona Cardinals.
Marcus White 2:59
Oh, and I didn't tell you. So my nephew Elijah Tal Oliver is number 34 for the Baltimore Ravens, and and he's he's had he's had a good good preseason.
Dr. B 3:12
Oh wow! Well, we're gonna have to look out for for the nephew over there. So he's over there with Lamar Jackson and that gang over there. So we'll see how the Ravens do this year.
Marcus White 3:22
Absolutely. So, getting to the show, our guest today is Heather Brown. She is the Nevada System of Higher Education Regent representing District Six. She's a Las Vegas native, a Western high school graduate, and a first-generation UNLV graduate. Heather has built her career around entrepreneurship, economic development, and public service. She co-founded Startup Vegas. Previously served as the senior vice president of entrepreneurial development for the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, and today she she chairs the Board of Regents Workforce Committee, helping connect higher education with Nevada's evolving workforce needs, please welcome Regent Heather Brown to the Urban Rest Show.
Heather Brown 4:07
Hi, thank you so much for having me.
Marcus White 4:10
Glad to have you.
Dr. B 4:11
Hi, Heather. Hi,
Heather Brown 4:12
I'm looking forward to this conversation. And yes, go Aces, go Raiders, but more importantly, go UNLV.
Marcus White 4:19
Go UNLV.
Dr. B 4:20
I I will ride with that, Heather. I'm a double UNLV alum, and being that you were born and raised in Las Vegas, attended Western High School, graduated from UNLV, and now help govern Nevada's entire higher education system, did you ever imagine you'd one day be sitting on the board of regents.
Heather Brown 4:43
Thank you for that question. So I am a very proud graduate of CCSD and UNLV, and my time here at UNLV, I was very involved with student government. And during that time, you know, jokingly with my friends, we said one day we're going to run for the board of regent. But that was mostly out of, you know, frustration as a student of wanting a stronger voice, because I understood then and I understand now what it means to need, you know, help in order to attain higher ed and you know millennial scholarship, proud Western warrior graduate, one of the very few people from my school to matriculate to to college. I don't know if I ever was serious about running for the board of regents, but it just was the right time, and I felt like my voice was would be really helpful. So I threw my hat in the ring, and I've been here for three years.
Dr. B 5:37
Very awesome. I think definitely I like the the journey from you being a student to understanding, hey, maybe there might be some gaps here. We would like to address this from a student perspective, and now you are in a leadership perspective. So, based on that, and you being a first generation college student, and have taught about scholarships and financial aid, how does that personal experience influence the decisions you make today about affordability and accessibility to higher education?
Heather Brown 6:11
You know, I've never lost that outsider's perspective. You know, I didn't come from higher ed, right? Like it's not innate. I did politics. I did business. I did entrepreneurship. But I never forgot that the millennial scholarship was definitely what allowed me to graduate debt free, which put me on a completely different path. And I feel like being here on the board of regents. It's my duty to ask tough questions. It's my duty to ask: Is this what's best for students? It's also my duty to listen to the professionals that are growing each of our eight institutions. Listen to the student experience because I didn't graduate too long ago, but it's been long enough where you know it's different, and I just do my best to listen to students and be as accessible as possible, because I do understand, you know, there is different trajectory for everyone, and opportunity is what we're selling, and that's opportunity won't be available if we don't make it accessible.
Marcus White 7:18
Definitely, and so speaking of opportunity, you know, as a as a both Dr. B and I are both entrepreneurs, and so you co-founded Startup Vegas because you saw the gaps in Southern Nevada's entrepreneurial ecosystem. How would you describe Las Vegas's startup and technology ecosystem today compared with when you started, and then what are we still missing?
Heather Brown 7:44
Yeah, that's a great question. So I always have to start off with a shout out to Ryan Smith, who's no longer with us. He is the reason why our ecosystem has grown so much over the last five years. When I got started, my co-founder and I, Peter Tomasik, we looked at the ecosystem and said, "What are we missing? And it was really the connectivity. It was the opportunities for founders to get together. It was to practice your pitches. Right? You don't want to just pitch in front of your family. They're going to say that you're amazing and you know everything you do is great. Love our moms and dads, but sometimes we need critical feedback. And so we created Startup Vegas as a platform for bringing founders who were growing, and these were our future job creators. So we needed to show them support now. And you know, there's been so many incredible people who have helped build up this ecosystem, and I'm really proud. It's totally night and day different, and we actually have you know an infrastructure where if somebody comes to town, they can help. You know, not just the practice, not just the mentorship, not just the talking with other people. Because entrepreneurship is a lonely journey; it can be. But we also just have pipelines for people to get funding now, and it's just it's so it's so fun to see how just five years everything is completely changed.
Marcus White 9:06
That's awesome, yeah. And and I remember when I first came here, yeah, the business ecosystem wasn't great, but because of your vision and and your other co-founders' vision, I'm very happy that you guys had that to to create you know, this this pipeline of businesses coming in. I mean, think about it. When you started it, we didn't have a lot of professional sports teams, for example, right? That's
Heather Brown 9:30
yeah. I mean, we were the sports team was very new, right? 2017 was when VGK came to town. We got started in 2021. I think that's about when the Raiders' first season was right, like so, sports was still new, and sports is so much of a community. You know, that's what put us on. That's what put our community in the living rooms of normal people around the country who always just thought of Las Vegas as LVB. You know, we're still. Missing things, right? Like we're we're getting all this infrastructure and community growing through sports, through you know higher ed pivoting, and through just entrepreneurs. A16Z has told their people that they should move here, which is huge. Ben Horowitz and Mark Andreessen, excuse me. You know, but we're still missing things. We're missing density, right? We're still missing, you know, entrepreneurs who are experienced who can come in and build companies faster. We have a lot of newer entrepreneurs, which is fine, but we are missing some of that density. You know, my co-founder at Startup Vegas went on to create a company called TensorWave, and in in my opinion, it is the flagship startup company for Nevada. In just two years, they just made an announcement with their Series B. It's evaluated at $1.65 billion.
Marcus White 10:54
Wow!
Heather Brown 10:54
And this is less than two years, and it's because they understood they were previous exited founders, and this is what our ecosystem really needs to jumpstart it. And so that's why we're always trying to work with companies like TensorWave, companies like Ve, companies like Skillz, you know, all these incredible companies and incredible founders who are choosing Las Vegas because they understand that they can get the workforce here and they can get community support. You know, I think it's important to always highlight the city of Las Vegas. They have this mentality about creating test beds for technology. So if your technology needs a place, they'll create a six-month rule where you can test certain types of technology. Autonomous vehicles were a big thing, and to have a city government be so, you know, immersed in the ecosystem and the startup culture is so rare, and we're so lucky to have it.
Marcus White 11:54
As Nevada continues to diversify beyond gaming and hospitality into technology, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and other industries, are our colleges and universities moving fast enough to prepare students for the jobs in Nevada's trying to attract?
Heather Brown 12:10
Yeah, that's a fair assessment. You know, higher ed is moving fast, but the economy is always going to move faster. You hear that, like move move at the speed of business, but I have to acknowledge our schools, and and it's a little bit about the culture here, right? Like the culture in I'll talk about Southern Nevada, Nevada, but Southern Nevada hasn't always been matriculation into higher ed, right? A lot of people, I'm the first person in my family to go to school, and I've got so many cousins. It's because they became entrepreneurs. They worked on the strip. They, you know, did other things that weren't higher ed, the higher ed trajectory. But because of that culture, they've been very nimble over the years to create workforce programs to meet employers where they are. You know, if you and then I have to shout out CCSD, who has created all of these programs that people can go and learn HVAC. Well, then they matriculate to CSN, and then they can go get two more years, and then you come in at even a higher, a higher pay scale. It's yes, we have to do more because that's the nature of things growing faster and moving quicker, but we have a good infrastructure, and so if a company, I'll give you an example. If a company comes into town and says, "Hey, we want to do a training program, they can go work with the College of Southern Nevada, and they can stand it up in less than two months. And so that accessibility shows that one they understand that we want people to come in through the CCSD pipe or yeah through CCSD to the NCH the Nevada System of Higher Education pipeline, and by them becoming CSN students, even if they're just getting a certification, they have all these wraparound programs that they can they can get counseling they can do all of these things that are provided by being a college student and working with you know new employers existing employers this is how we're going to make higher ed and and you know the workforce really entangled with each other.
Marcus White 14:16
The urban res is underwritten by Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Las Vegas Motor Speedway is Nevada's largest sports venue, hosting two NASCAR race weekends, along with an NHRA drag race, the largest electronic music festival in North America, the Electric Daisy Carnival, and countless other corporate events annually.
Dr. B 14:34
Well, you've alluded to, I guess, pairing a student with local companies, do you think we need to do something different to convince some of our best graduates that they can build their careers right here in Nevada?
Heather Brown 14:50
I mean, look, I would be a hypocrite if I said, "Don't leave. I left. I actually left. I graduated in 2008. There were just no jobs here for me. But I came back, and so I use my own story because I was taxpayer subsidized education from CCSD to my time at UNLV, and I wasn't able to give back in my early early career. Now I'm doing it right, but I there was a boomerang, and it's almost a there was nothing that infrastructure-wise pulled me back. It was just my passion and my love for this community that pulled me back. So we obviously have to do that, but it's kind of like a double-edged sword because like retention is ultimately, you know, an economic development issue, and we need enough companies offering compelling careers and salaries and advancement opportunities in order to keep people here, but this is where you know being proactive and having our higher ed institutions actually having these conversations and making sure that we have quality internships and that we have like you know and and shout out to literally all of our higher ed institutions. I've had so many conversations with the with their different departments, and they are thinking about this. But we can always do more, and we can always spread the word out more to companies, and so they understand what's here on our campuses and what we can offer.
Marcus White 16:16
So I would be very remiss if I didn't bring up AI into our conversation. AI is changing the industry, the world, school systems. So businesses, small businesses. I mean, it's just insane how fast technology and AI has has has grown. So from your perspective as a regent and as as an entrepreneur, how should Nevada's education system respond to AI? And do you think that the curriculum is is changing fast enough?
Heather Brown 16:53
Yeah, I mean, I think this is the million dollar question, right? You know, higher ed obviously has to rethink what we're teaching because AI can perform so many of these early tasks that when we first entered the workforce we were charged with. Now AI is kind of surpassed that. But I also think that we shouldn't. I mean, it's complicated, right? Because we need to really just be focusing on critical thinking, judgment, creativity. You know, how do we actually teach communication and knowing how to use these tools? Because AI isn't going away, but I do think that we need to be keeping instead of keeping students away from it, we need to be keeping we need to be teaching how they actually utilize it. But we have to get down to the fun. We have to go back to the fundamentals of like critical thinking, and and this is a challenge for the students too, right? You know, just because you can use AI to solve a problem doesn't mean that you should use AI to solve a problem. You know, I I feel like we're probably similar age. We're very lucky. We were like the tail end of the latchkey kids, so we still had that come back before dark, you know. I we had to write cursive, and you know. But then I I entered a middle school where it's like you have to learn how to type in order to stay here. So it was that weird juxtaposition of like, you know, typing was such a you know necessary thing, and yet we were still writing papers by hand, and now if I use AI, because I would be a liar if I said I didn't use it almost every day. But I have those critical thinking skills. If if AI tells me something and I know that it's not right, I can challenge it. I worry that and and look, I hear it from plenty of professors. I've seen it. Unfortunately, you know, just because something is spit out, you have to you have to ask the question: Is this representing me correctly? Is this representing the idea that I want? And you got to go back through and actually make it human, because we can't, as a society, lose that. We can't use that. We can't lose that human touch. It would just be. I don't want to live in a world where robots are dictating everything we do. As a as a millennial crafty girl, I still love that you know tangible getting out and and being away from a computer screen and doing something. But when it comes to your day to day, like trust your brain, trust your creativity, trust your process, and use it as a tool. Don't use it as an answer.
Dr. B 19:27
I really resonate with what you said because I myself am an assistant professor at UNM College of Population Health, so I struggle with, you know, the teaching element of teaching students critical thinking skills without using AI, so it's it's it's definitely a hybrid skill set. I think us as instructors at different institutions have to always be mindful of. I think one of the most important things that we can teach our our young people nowadays are those critical thinking. Skills and kind of thinking about a critical analysis. Coming back to higher education and small business, what can NG institutions do to become stronger partners for entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses, not just only focus on large employers?
Heather Brown 20:20
Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, quite frankly, we just need to make the front door easier to find. You know, a small business is doing so much more with less people, and they are the backbone. So we shouldn't make them have to learn our system, or you know, figure out how to navigate each of the institutions differently when what they're looking for is to hire our students. That is the ultimate ultimate goal of what it is that we're doing. And so, you know, I would just challenge our institutions to constantly think about the small business, think about you know what they need to have access to what we're offering. And again, I don't want to. I don't want to frame it in a way that they're not, because they are. You know, I could shout them all by name. They're so wonderful, but I think it's always just an important reminder that you know the MGMs of the world are just as important as the mom and pops because they're both going to employ our people and all of our students are going to find different paths. Some want to work in big corporations. Some want to work for a smaller, you know, work for you know a smaller company because they'll feel more seen. They feel like they could have more of a of a impact of the trajectory. And I think we have to value both of them. You know, obviously, you know small businesses should help inform what we're building, but we also know large employers are important. But again, Nevada's in Nevada's economy is overwhelmingly influenced by small business. So even though there's a maybe a larger ROI by working with a large company, you know, at the end of the day, there's going to be more of a a reach, and when we really focus on the workforce needs of entrepreneurs and small businesses,
Dr. B 22:12
I definitely agree with you, Mia. I have a personal question. As I indicated before, I'm a double UNLV alum, and to be honest, when I was looking for where where I was going to continue my education, I researched every institution in the United States, looking to see if they had Native American faculty that were teaching within a master's of public health program at the time, and at the time I only found two institutions. One was University of Washington, and the other was UNLV, and that's how I made my selected choice to come to UNLV, so I could be mentored by Native faculty. What are some of the opportunities that you know of that Native students could embark on when they're thinking about continuing their education in Nevada.
Heather Brown 23:04
Well, for those of you who don't know, in 20 in the 2021 legislative session, Nevada actually created the Native American fee waiver, and partly was because we know that they've been underrepresented within NCH, and when the original waiver was adopted, NCH actually explicitly identified low enrollment as a challenge, and the waiver was a tool to improve that access. You know, since then we've seen exponential growth in accessibility, so the word is getting out there. But we also know that Nevada's challenge isn't just getting Native American students into college, it's creating pathways where students can, you know, persist and ultimately earn credentials, and that's why you know I think we focused on access retention and the completion as like three main goals that all need to be discussed together.
Marcus White 23:58
Nice, thank you
Dr. B 23:59
for that, Heather.
Marcus White 24:01
So you do a lot to to give back to students. I mean, you're always out in in the community giving back. So can you tell us a little bit about some of the things that you do to give back, and then also why?
Heather Brown 24:14
So you know, I was elected in November of 2022. Started my term in January 2023, and I said, you know, I was lucky to get six years, and I was going to make each of those years count. I remember being a student. I remember being how hard it was working two jobs, then being involved in all the clubs, and wanting to have that like traditional college experience while also needing to pay bills. And so, as a regent, I think it's important that I'm doing multiple things. One, I show up prepared, and I ask quality questions, and I question, you know, is this the right process, and are we thinking about the students when we're implementing these things? But also in my day to day, you know, there's so many incredible events that are happening, free and open to the public, really. On all of our campuses, and I try, and so we have eight. We have eight higher ed institutions, and I try and participate in something once a quarter on each of those campuses. I think it's important that I show up in person and I sit down and I meet with faculty and staff and students. I try and go to faculty senate meetings. I attend student government meetings. I go to different clubs. I take care. You know, I I make sure that I attend and I spend time with our university police because at the end of the day, you know, we are being protected by a police force, and they need to make sure that you know we're listening to them, and this is how I found out that we have like, you know, we haven't had new officers in the north in in years, and so now we're putting into place how do we actually fix that? But you're not going to have those. I'm not going to have that knowledge unless I have those conversations, and I do that also with the students too. You know, it's you know for last month in in August for the back to school, I was giving away little just like I don't know their cute little ready. You know, there's like chapstick. There's you know maybe a ibuprofen. I forget what. Oh, there was like a band aid. Just little college ready. You know, first week. You know something to keep them engaged, and you know over the summer I showed up on campuses and passed out snacks, had cute little stickers that was like office hours for your stomach. Like I just try and do cute things because it's already, and I think those little touch points really matter because you're going day to day and just living your life, and then if somebody can just interject a little positivity or a little something extra, I think it changes. You know, it makes me happy because I get to see smiles. But also, I think people know that somebody cares, even if they don't know who a region is, even if they don't know who I am. That's not important. I just think the human interaction is important. So that's always been a priority for me. I show up on campus, I ask tough questions, and I try and be as engaged as possible.
Dr. B 27:07
Heather, I really love the engagement. I think more leadership needs to be around community more to understand the challenges, but also the solutions. So I really vibe with that approach. Our last question is: Your current term ends in January 2029. When that day eventually arrives, what do you want students, faculty, and the Nevada community to say about you? What you've accomplished during your tenure as the Board of Regents?
Heather Brown 27:35
You know, I think the biggest honor at the end of my term, I think the biggest honor would be if somebody said that I left the system better than I found it. You know, I want to be known for someone who showed up prepared, asked tough questions. You know, always was accessible, was visible, and I actually, you know, I cared, and I want people to know that I was consistent. I, you know, treated people fairly, and I wasn't afraid to challenge the way we do things. But ultimately, I want my impact measured by opportunity. You know, did did more Nevadans have access to higher education? Did more Nevadans know that you know credit for prior learning was something that we implemented and that we saw was important, you know. Access to education, you know. I want them to finish what they start. I want to be able to translate what they get on our campuses into the workforce, and I want it to actually mean something. And so, I think if the two things I could be remembered for is I left it better than I found it, and that there were more opportunities when I left, that would be the biggest honor,
Marcus White 28:41
and I can tell you, absolutely. And I can tell you, I can applaud you because you have already made a difference more more than what you know in this community. So I I just want to say thank you so much for for being with Dr. B and I this morning, and we wish you much success. And anytime you want to come back? Just just let us know.
Heather Brown 29:02
Yeah, thank you so much. I I always think it's important to highlight all the good things happening on our campuses, and I could not be more proud of what we are doing for Nevadans. And thank you for amplifying that.
Marcus White 29:14
Everyone, have an awesome Sunday.
Dr. B 29:16
Have a great one, you all.
Marcus White 29:17
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