Kevin Krall: You're listening to special programming sponsored by
Stovall and Associates law firm. The content of this program does
not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jas and more,
the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of
the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Leslie Stovall: Good morning, this is Vegas law talk. This is
Leslie Stovall. Today I have the pleasure of having Shelley
Berkley, as my guest. I hope everybody's doing well this
morning, and I hope you enjoy our conversation. Shelley. Thank
you so much.
Unknown: And Leslie, I was absolutely delighted when your
office called it's nice to see you after all this time.
It has been a while it has been a while. And I understand you're
doing wonderful.
Well, I think so I'm happy. My family is healthy, Touro
University where you know, I'm the CEO and senior provost is
blossoming. And so it's a good life. And I'm grateful for it
isn't a wonderful we're sitting here in UNLV is radio studio.
And what a wonderful facility.
It most certainly is. And as I was sharing with you earlier,
when I was student body president of UNLV, we were in
the process of getting this radio station licensed for the
students at UNLV. And so to come back now and actually see the
facilities and know what an important function this radio
station serves for the students, faculty and for the entire Las
Vegas community makes me very, very happy.
Well, and it's wonderful. And it's wonderful that you had the
opportunity to be involved in that and see your grow.
Well, as you know, we're both, you know, UNLV is our collective
alma mater. Back then, you were a jack of all trades. So student
government ran the radio station and did the yearbook and did the
newspaper and did all the student activities. And now I
think things are a little more sophisticated and mature. But
4045 50 years ago, things are a lot different. You
know, and I agree with you. I know when I was here at
undergrad and in grad school that it seemed like students
were encouraged to be involved in development of programs like
this. I know I got involved in the setting up the Graduate
Students Association, and administration was very open to
encouraging students to do those kinds of projects. I don't know
how it is today. I hope it's still similar to that.
Well, I would hope so too. But I have to tell you the experience
i i received in student government here at UNLV. And you
know, when I started it was Nevada Southern University. And
then it changed to UNLV. But when I started, we were just a
branch campus of University of Nevada, in Reno. And that's when
a few years after I started school here, things changed
dramatically. And, you know, the rest is history when it comes to
UNLV. But if there wasn't anything that I did in my
political career, which spanned 30 years that I didn't learn as
student body president of UNLV, you know,
I was going to ask you if, if you're interested in politics,
was encouraged or created by your participation in the
student government here at UNLV.
I believe it was, I was student body Secretariat at Valley High
School. And I part of the first graduating class at Valley that
I gave actually, I was invited to give the commencement address
and their 50th anniversary which made me feel very having said
that, that so I was student body secretary in Valley. And then I
started at Nevada Southern University, which was just the
smallest little school and we were all coming from the local
high schools and most of us certainly me a first time
college goer, my dad was a waiter on the strip, but most of
the kids that went to school here had family working on the
strip, and we were the first generation in Las Vegas that
actually went to college. And this was a big deal, but my
experiences and student government really set me on the
path that I that I certainly loved as an adult.
Is this at UNLV where you met Dina Titus? No,
I met her afterwards. I'm not sure she was here yet. But I'll
tell you her father in law, John right to the building is named
after was my history teacher. And I just loved that because I
knew most of of the namesakes of our buildings. It was such a
it's hard for people to understand how very different it
was those many years ago, but John Wright was my history
teacher, Paul McDermott was one of the members of the Board of
Regents. And of course, a very prominent businessman in town,
Flora dungun, the humanities building, she was on the Board
of Regents. I mean, you can go down the list of names of the
buildings, and I knew them there was an intimacy there. That was
pretty striking.
Yeah. And there was a close relationship between it seemed
like, at least instructors in the political science
department, I got to know very well. And me too. Yes, I agree.
And it was nice. It was really interesting. You yourself came
back after law school. You got involved in state politics, you
sat in the were you in the assembly or
was in the assembly. And, interestingly enough, and this
so this was, in a way, this is still a small town, even though
when we moved to town and 63, there were approximately 80,000
People in the Las Vegas Valley. Now, of course, well over 2
million, but and when I was in office, I made it a point to
meet everybody that came in. But for many years when I was in
Congress, Clark County, or my congressional district was the
fastest growing district in the United States. Now,
you were before you went to the House of Representatives you
were on or was Yeah, you were on the Board of Regents.
I was on the Board of Regents for eight years. And that was
during the Tarkanian Maxim years. At the beginning, believe
me when I tell you, when I would get phone calls from people,
they were not going to get me into school, can you get my son
and nothing can? Can I get a ticket to the Thomas and Mack I
want to see the rebels play. It was the hottest ticket in town
and so exciting. And of course that came to an end. But it was
an exciting time. And then of course, you paid the price for
an exciting time. And the town was very, very divided. And we
as a member of the Board of Regents, we got you know, a lot
of people were either very supportive of you or very
hostile to
you. With regards to Tarkanian leaving the school. Yes. And
I was, much as I admired a maxim for really taking this
university to the next level, I felt that TARC had been treated
very, very unfairly. So
Well, I think a lot of people agreed with you at the time. And
you know, I think, Maxim I don't know, maybe he could have
handled things better. I don't know.
You know, it's it's past history now. And of course, the
university has moved on. But those are very exciting times, I
have to say, when the rebels were playing in their heyday, I
mean, the Thomas and Mack was vibrating. It was I read there
was so much energy, so much excitement and and I remember
tarts last game, you know, standing there looking around
thinking, Are we crazy, we're throwing this away. So,
unfortunately, but you know, things move on and the school is
certainly become far more mature. We have so many more
graduate programs and the Law School, which we didn't have
when I was a student,
you were instrumental in bringing the law school to UNLV
where you're
not, that's a slight overstatement. But I have a
border region that before that when I was student body
president, they put me I was the student representative on the
committee that was deciding whether or not we should bring a
law school to a UNLV because obviously the natural place
would be where the Judicial College was up in Reno. But we
we did, I was on that committee that I graduated, went to law
school, ran for office, came home, got appointed to the Board
of Regents 20 years after I graduated, they put me on the
same committee. Nothing had been done. And so I vowed that I
would not leave the Board of Regents until we had a law
school and Carol harder was very, very excited about it. Jim
Rogers and and Mr. Boyd, I mean, they saw the possibilities and
funded it.
Those are the big contributors.
Boys School of Law. And you know, 20 years after I made the
motion to bring the law school to UNLV. My son graduated from
the Boyd School of Law, so it's been great for us
and your son is now running for judicial position.
My son Max is running for justice of the peace. So I'm
very, I have to say it now I was in office for 30 years, Leslie
and I, you know, I became very accustomed to a political
lifestyle. But I have to say, when you're your son, your child
is running. I was driving down West Sahara, and I saw one of
his signs, I practically drove off the road. I was so excited.
i Oh, my gosh, look at that side. So, yeah, it's a different
perspective as a mother, and then when you're the candidate.
Well, it's a wonderful thing. So you finished up your term in the
House of Representatives in I think 2013.
Yes, January 3 2013. was my last day I worked up and this was an
example set by dip Brian, Senator Brian, he worked in till
12 noon, when his successor was sworn in, and Dix. The staff
came in and said, you know, Senator, you have to leave now.
And he picked up and left his desk and close the door. And
that was it. And I thought that that Dick, Brian is worthy of
emulating so when my time came, I did the exact same thing.
What did what was your What were you most felt best about when
you were in Congress? The what you accomplished
VA Hospital in North Las Vegas. It started out. I had a
veteran's Advisory Committee, I had a Hispanic advisory, African
American women, you name it. I had an advisory committee for
it. That included the veterans. So we had our first meeting, I
was a young freshman at the time. And when it was over a
group of the women vets, mostly from World War Two and Korea
came over to me and they said, We want our own advisory
committee. We don't want to be with the men. Okay, so we
started a women veterans Advisory Committee first
meeting, they said, We need a mammogram machine at the VA
clinic. Because without it, you know, we a lot of us don't drive
anymore, we have to get transportation to the VA clinic,
and then they give us kind of a prescription to go get a
mammogram, then we got to go back and get it read. And so I
decided, you know, working with my staff, we were able to get a
mammogram machine. And at the ribbon cutting, and I still have
pictures of it. At the ribbon cutting, I made a quip at the
podium that you know, next time we're going to get an MRI
machine, someone came over to me one of the, I guess, people that
worked for the VA, and they said think bigger. And I said bigger
than an MRI. And they said you need a hospital here, you've got
over 200,000 veterans in the Las Vegas Valley. And if anyone is
really sick, they gotta go to Long Beach. And they are away
from their family away from their support system. And that's
when my mind started going. And that's not going. My mind is
still started moving moving. That's, that was a big priority
for us. And even and you could see how things have changed so
dramatically in Washington. During the time that we were
getting the funding and moving towards acquiring a VA hospital.
The Democrats were in the minority. So I was in the
minority party and was able to work with the majority party to
get the approval and the funding for a VA hospital. And that I
don't think would happen anymore. And I don't think so.
And that is very fortunate. Yes. And it's beautiful. 44 acres.
That's a wonderful facility. VA hospital.
It's I'm very, very proud of that. That probably was my one.
My one most significant accomplishment.
It's a wonderful thing. So we thank you very much for it's my
pleasure. Well, you are now the CEO and Provost of the Toro
University both here in Nevada and the northern campus of Toro
University.
That's exactly correct. And you know, after after I I lost the
Senate seat and I was sitting on my couch feeling really sorry
for myself thinking what am I going to do with the rest of my
life? I love public service, but I don't have a job to be a
public servant with anymore. And I received a very fortuitous
phone call asking me if I would like to be either head of Toro.
And you know, I said immediately I have no academic medical
background at all. Just because my husband's a doctor doesn't
qualify me to run a medical school. And they said, Well, we
still want to talk to you. And in two and a half weeks time
from the initial phone call, the day after Thanksgiving of that
year 2014, I decided to do it. And best thing, one of the best
decisions I ever made.
Well, you sound like you enjoy it very much.
I absolutely love it. And we are educating the next generation of
health care providers for the state of Nevada and beyond.
I didn't realize I was doing some research that poro is the
largest medical school in the state of Nevada. Is that
correct?
Yes, we had 4200 applications last year for 180 slots in the
med school. usnr has a little over 60 students graduating a
year UNLV, around 60, they'd like to go up to 120. And I'm
sure they will. And in my opinion, every one of those
students and future doctors are needed in this state. So I'm
thrilled to be a part of that.
One of the things if I understand that you're
interested in in your position, we're residency programs. So
what's the significance of residency programs?
Oh, I'm so glad you asked. And again, this is newly acquired
information for me, I did not know, eight years ago, and I
took the job little over eight years ago. When you finish your
four years of medical school, you're still not a doctor. I
mean, you're a doctor, but you're not practicing. Uh, you
need three years minimum residency, before you could
actually practice. And so those are it's called graduate medical
education. It's the residency programs. Nevada has about 48th.
In the United States, when it comes to providing residency
programs. They're expensive to create. They're funded by
Medicare, and Medicare funding is way down. And so if you are
in a growth state like Nevada, there was no way for you to keep
up. So rather than waiting, and I think this is a tremendous
tribute to our legislature, and Governor Sandoval, and now
Governor sisolak, they recognize the need for doctors, we have a
tremendous physician shortage in this state. And we
have for many, many years,
ever. And the only way to correct that because here's the
interesting number 70% of doctors end up practicing where
they do their residency you have we don't have residency
programs, all of these future doctors that are getting their
education here have to leave town, and 70% of them are not
coming back to Nevada,
how does it look for the future? Do you see the funding coming
from the state legislature that will help out significantly
that we have in when Brian Sandoval was governor, he was
the first one to recognize the need and funded along with the
legislature, I think $10 million biennium happened a few times.
And then when Governor sisolak came in, he continued it. Now
they cut it slightly during the pandemic, because I had no idea
what the state budget was going to be like, but there was still
funding. And now I'm hoping that people are getting out and about
hoping praying that things are going to get back to normal.
We'll know what the budget is for the state when the
legislature convenes. And hopefully there'll be additional
funding, if we're waiting for the feds to fund Medicare to
help us out. We're going to be waiting and awfully, but you and
I won't be here anymore. So I'd like to see this done. Before we
leave.
You're also interested in health care reform?
Yes, we have a system where we need to ensure that people are
insured, and that they can they have access to affordable health
care. And I think that is something that's very important.
This
is what I don't understand is how people can say someone
should not be entitled to health insurance and not and then
ignore the fact that those persons are going to require
health care anyway. And the cost shifts to the taxpayer
in the end we pay for it one way or another. It's more expensive
when you I shifted over you are 100% Right let's
i i listened to people argue against universal health care,
and I just go you don't you realize how much more expensive
it is and that you're gonna pay it anyway. Plus, it's very
uncaring. How could you be so cruel?
I, in the end, if somebody is terribly ill and they don't have
insurance, they're going to end up at the UMC emergency room.
And we're that's our tax dollars that are Hang for that. So I
would rather see everybody with affordable health care insurance
so that they can take care of their own needs. And you
know, that begins with children that begins. Neonatal that
begins during pregnancy, if you don't support those people, you
have the health care expenses over a lifetime lifetime.
endodontic disease.
As a matter of fact, I'm awfully glad you mentioned that. United
Healthcare just gave Touro University a $2.6 million grant
to create a prenatal program. So we're in the process of creating
that program and going into underserved communities to
provide prenatal care to women that don't can't afford it. And,
again, they were gonna live longer, live healthier and save
billions of dollars of taxpayer money.
zactly. Right. So I was going to ask you, when we were talking
about you coming over to the show, I asked you some of the
topics that you were very interested in. I'm not sure
which one to address, or dashcam, about at this point. I
know voting is a really key topic for you. What is your
concern about voting this year?
Well, you know, you and I talked about this off air. Look, I
think people are very confused, unhappy, frustrated, angry at
the political system right now. But I am encouraging everybody
because I hear all the time, I'm not even going to vote next
time. I don't care any more than I don't like any of them, I
don't care. I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican,
they all are terrible. But my opinion is this is the time that
good citizens roll up their sleeves and get involved. I
don't agree with everything the Democrats are doing. And I don't
agree with everything that, obviously the Republicans are
doing. But I know this my vote, My voice matters as a citizen.
And if I sit this out, if you sit this out, then who is going
to be running this country. So let's as citizens, Let's
appreciate our democracy and the fact that we have a right we
have a voice in this country, and our responsibility as an
American citizen, to do our part. And that is at the very
minimum, to go to the polls as an educated voter, and cast your
ballot, if you don't like the person that wins, there's
another election in two years, I promise you, there's always
another election around the corner. But if you don't
participate, vote, just shame on you. I
think of it in terms of a duty, it is something that we must do,
so that we join everyone else, and determining who will hold
those elected positions to sort of steer our government, from
election to election,
I couldn't agree with you more or less than, you know, I'm the
granddaughter of immigrants that came to this country, they
couldn't speak English. If they hadn't gotten out of Europe,
when they did, they would have been exterminated in the
Holocaust, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you now. They
came here, just so that their children and their children's
children could have a better life, a better life in this
country includes participating in the political process. That's
right. And, and by doing that, we keep our country in hopeful,
optimistic, and welcoming. Our country is truly a country of
immigrants. My generations back came from Ireland, then from
Scotland. And,
and it saved them this country that I suspect they came during
the potato famine, years and years ago, they would not
probably have survived if it wasn't for the United States
welcoming them,
they'll try and and I think everybody should embrace the
fact that we're a country of immigrants. And that's a
wonderful thing.
And I am sure that your grandma, whoever came great grandparents
bears that they could not have had an easy time here when they
got here. I'm sure they struggle, the same way minded.
You know,
I think that's the story of most immigrants is that your struggle
and you find that the struggle was worthwhile. And it teaches
you that it's, it's worthwhile to go through the struggle and
to become a citizen and participate in our, our country.
I couldn't
agree with you more. And neither one of my parents, I mean, they
were newly you know, they were born in the United States, but
they came from definite immigrant parents. They neither
one graduated high school, but a generation later. I mean, the
most important thing in our family was getting an education.
My parents didn't care if my sister and I were pretty if we
were popular mattered that we got good grades so we can make
something of ourselves. And that's why UNLV was so
significant to us
than you know, you and I could sit here and talk about the
importance of education. And and the greatest renewable resource
we have in this country are children and education,
educating our children. And that's another topic that people
should talk more about.
I know. And, you know, it's, it's just so frustrating,
because we need to desperately improve our education system
here in Nevada, we fund it very, very poorly. And then we
complain that our education system isn't stellar. Well, you
get what you pay for You sure
do. And I don't understand how come a teacher and my families,
a family of teachers, why they are paid less than, say, a
fireman or a policeman or a nurse,
I think, you know, in, in our society, in our culture, that
people are valued by what they make. I mean, it's not it could
they could be wonderful people and all of this, but in the end
that I have my daughter in law is a teacher. I mean, it's
shocking how how little she makes, and how necessary she is.
I mean, she is a vital person. And
where would any of us be if we didn't have good teachers, from
preschool, all the way through university graduate schools, but
those, those early years are, as we all know, are some of the
most or the most important years. And those people who
dedicate their life to doing that should be well compensated
because the job is so important. And listen, it's not an easy
job, you have to be well educated, well trained, you
really know, half have to know what you're doing to be
successful.
It is it you are 100%, right. And, you know, I was honored
with having a school named after me, Berkeley elementary school.
So I go down there, I try not to be intrusive, but one when
invited, I go down to see the kids and go into the different
classrooms. And I'm looking at these kiddies, and that they're
the future of this community, the state our nation, and they
deserve better than we're giving them.
They do. They do. Absolutely do. And hopefully someday, things
will funding will be corrected.
I hope. So. It's an even let me even mention this when I was in
the state legislature. So this is like a million years ago. I
was part of
this doesn't seem that long ago show.
Oh, it is. But it's gone very fast, though. Very, very now.
It's going too fast. You know, I was part of this group. We were
the Young Turks in the legislature that talking about
economic development, and as much as I love the gaming
industry, and I really do, I recognize that we have to
diversify our economy, bring in hype good, high paying jobs for
our people. And me started going there were a group of us started
throughout California, in trying to encourage businesses to
relocate to Nevada, and these were fledgling tech businesses
at that job sure don't exist anymore. And they've been bought
up by the big guys. But they said back then, and this is
1983. They said, You know, we love your climate. We love your
location. We love this that. But we don't love your education
system.
You've got to have good education system for all
businesses. I don't. It's not just tech, all businesses,
finance, okay. engine manufacturers, all businesses
require and look for good education systems. And I think
you're right, I think that's one of the reasons Nevada has had
trouble doing economic
development. And you know, I'm a member of the board of the Las
Vegas Global Economic Alliance, our mission is to encourage
businesses to come here, and we're still battling with the
education factor. And until we recognize that it's an
investment in ourselves in our future, that and our future
economy. Nevada is still going to be struggling. And that's
unfortunate.
Once again, it's short sightedness, right. It's kind of
like health care. It's like, well, we're not going to spend
the money on this. Because whatever. Not realizing or not
recognize or just simply ignoring the fact that you
invest now.
You pay now pay later, and you're gonna pay more later, or
later. Yes, indeed. That's
right, Shelly. It's been wonderful. Unless it's great to
see you. My pleasure. My pleasure. And thank you again,
you're very
welcome.