Carol Silva Moralez was named president and CEO of Upskill NWA in October 2021. The organization provides free education and training tools to candidates for high-paying jobs in the health care industry. Silva Moralez, 50, attended two years of college in San Antonio before taking a job at Walmart Inc. She worked her way up to executive positions before becoming a partner with Serve2Perform.
Why does this program work so well?
It’s a sectoral-based workforce development model that has been in place and used by Project Quest in San Antonio for 30 years and at its sister organization, Capital Idea, which has been serving Austin for 25 years. Upskill NWA is a jobs-driven strategy informed by our employer partners, in this case, five local hospital systems: Mercy Northwest, Washington Regional Medical Center, Northwest, Mana Health and Arkansas Children’s Northwest. They inform us of the most critical, in-demand jobs/careers, and we work with our education partners — Northwest Arkansas Community College, Northwest Technical Institute, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the University of Arkansas Eleanor Mann School of Nursing — to upskill the existing population to fill high-demand, high-wage jobs.
What is the importance of improving access to education?
Studies show that education leads to multiple benefits to society, to the economy and to the cities where society lives and works. At an individual level, the seemingly impossible is now possible and even accessible so that the individual is now able to realize life-changing benefits for themselves and their families, such as qualifying for high-demand, high-wage jobs at employers that offer career pathways and other worker benefits that can lead to upward mobility. At Upskill NWA we see the direct impact of having access to education in the examples of hardworking Arkansans who are part of our program.
What have you learned during your own personal journey that makes you more effective as the leader of Upskill NWA?
A firm belief that each of us can rise above our circumstances. Like our Upskill NWA participants, I can share multiple examples of adversity. I like to call these my phoenix moments, moments and situations that were so difficult I felt like I burned into the ashes and yet I rose, not through my own efforts, but with the love and support of my faith, family and friends. The ability to rise and overcome adversity is an important attribute we look for in all of our participants and is a significant factor in their success. I grew up in rural Texas as a young Latina who only spoke Spanish, which exposed me to an inequitable education system and difficult learning experiences, but also introduced me to loving and patient teachers who invested in me and believed in my potential to be more than what was statistically expected of someone of my ethnicity and socioeconomic status.
What’s the best advice you received in your life? People can be what they can see.
I believe this for myself just as much as I believe in the importance of this for my children. When I received the job offer to be president and CEO, I immediately called my sister, and I happened to be in the car line picking up my 7-year-old daughter. As I hung up the phone, Ava called out to me from the back seat, “Mama, did you just say you are the president of CEOs?” I straightened up in the front seat and replied that I was, in fact, the president of CEOs. Gleefully and doing the “raising the roof” move with her hands, she said, “Yay! Mama is the president of CEOs. I’m going to be the president of CEOs.” It doesn’t matter what organization I am the president or CEO of; what matters is that Ava can envision herself as the president of CEOs.
Your first group of graduates just entered the workforce. What’s your assessment of that first cohort and the roles they were able to fill?
Personally I am inspired by them. Perhaps most importantly is what the employer is saying. These are excellent employees. We didn’t make them excellent. They already had the attributes. We helped provide access to education and service-minded career navigators who helped them overcome obstacles so each Upskill NWA participant could have an equitable chance at succeeding and working in our NWA hospitals.
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