Five in Connecticut Reach Forbes List of America’s Best Employers for Diversity

Studies published by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Business Review, and numerous others during the past decade have consistently concluded that diverse teams – and diverse companies - have stronger financial performance.   With that backdrop, Forbes worked with research firm Statista to compile a list of the best employers for diversity in America. Two Connecticut-based companies, ESPN and Stanley Black and Decker made the top 100 list; ESPN at number 36, Stanley Black & Decker at number 67.  They were the only Connecticut companies to do so. The LEGO Group, with U.S. headquarters in Enfield, was ranked number 169.  Starwood Hotels and Resorts, headquartered in Stamford, was number 197 in the rankings.  Yale New Haven Health was just outside the top 200, at number 208.  Yale University also made the Forbes ranking, at number 242.

Statista surveyed 30,000 U.S. employees in August 2017 to inform the list, asking questions about diversity, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age and disability, according to Forbes. Responses among underrepresented ethnic minorities, women and people aged 50 and older received greater weight in the ranking.

Bristol-based ESPN, the Worldwide Leader in Sports, launched in 1979 as 30,000 viewers tuned in to watch the premier episode of SportsCenter. ESPN aired its 50,000th episode of SportsCenter in 2012 and the channel is has been the main attraction for sports coverage despite challenges through the years.  A 2013 study by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports concluded that when it comes to diversity, the Worldwide Leader is leading the way.

Reporting on the study, the publication Think Progress indicated that “ESPN has a strong diversity hiring policy outlined on its web site and it has won numerous awards for hiring a diverse cast writers, editors, and columnists. It regularly features minority and female hosts, analysts, announcers, and journalists on both its scheduled programming and its live broadcasts. ESPN is proof that there are qualified minority and female reporters and editors out there, and it is also proof that the rest of the sports world needs to do a better job finding them.”

Other factors Statista incorporated, according to Forbes, were the gender split of companies’ management teams and boards, and whether a company proactively communicates about diversity. It also looked at the gap in diversity perceptions at a given organization. For example, if women, older employees and underrepresented minorities rated an employer poorly on diversity, but everyone else rated it highly, Statista considered that a negative indicator and adjusted the score downward. Only companies with 1,000 or more workers were eligible to qualify for the list.

Last summer, Stanley Black & Decker held its first-ever Global Diversity & Inclusion conference, joining together established affinity networks from around the company.  Affinity networks – voluntary, employee-driven groups – have been established throughout the company’s business and regions to “provide an environment where employees can engage around a particular shared interest or experience,” the company’s website explains.

“The objective of the groups is to engage, enable, and empower by providing networking opportunities, improve representation across the business and promote career advancement.  We embrace and respect differences – and diversity and inclusion are embedded into our company values and purpose,” the website points out.

The top 10 included:

1. Northern Trust, Chicago
2. The Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
3. Levy, Chicago
4. Intuit, Mountain View, California
5. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
6. Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, Iowa
7. Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
8. Wegmans Food Markets, Austin, Texas
9. Keller Williams Realty, Austin, Texas
10. AbbVie, North Chicago

In addition to the Connecticut-based organizations named in the top 250, New York City-based NBC Universal Media, with a strong presence in Stamford, placed at number 42.  TIAA-CREF, which coordinates the state’s college savings program for the State Treasurer’s Office, was ranked at number 59.  GE, which departed Fairfield for Boston, also made the top 100 at number 85.

Harp Stands Out as Number of Big-City Black Mayors Diminishes Nationally

Last April, New Haven Mayor Toni Harp was sworn in as the first woman selected as president of the African American Mayors Association (AAMA).  In November, she was elected to a third two-year term leading the Elm City, earning more than 70 percent of the vote. In doing so, she ran counter to an apparent national trend – fewer African American Mayors in the nation’s largest cities.  According to an analysis by Governing magazine, in 2000, 19 of the largest cities in the country by population either had, or would soon have, black mayors.  By 2017, that number had fallen to six. Today, the Wall Street Journal recently reported, that number is four.

African Americans, and African American women, continue to be elected to City Hall.  Charlotte and New Orleans both elected their first black women mayors in November.  St. Paul and a number of smaller cities elected their first black mayors ever, the publication reported.

Among Connecticut’s largest cities, the mayors of Bridgeport, Hartford, Stamford, Waterbury, and Danbury are white males.  Hartford, which elected Thirman Milner and Carrie Saxon-Perry decades ago, hasn’t elected an African American since, but has seen two Latino men hold the office.

Carrie Saxon Perry was the first black woman to be elected mayor of a major New England city – in 1987. Milner was the first black mayor in all of New England, elected in Hartford in 1981. There hasn’t been a black mayor leading the Capitol City since Saxon-Perry’s term ended in 1993.

Were the current office-holder, Luke Bronin, to resign the office (a scenario that could result if he decides to run for Governor and if he is elected later this year) the newly elected City Council President, Glendowlyn Thames, could change that, if she succeeds to the office.

New Haven’s first black Mayor was John Daniels, who served from 1990 to 1993.  Like Harp, he previously served in the State Senate.

Across the country, Jacksonville, Memphis, Philadelphia and San Antonia had black mayors until recently, Governing reported.  Detroit elected its first white mayor in 40 years in 2013. The nation’s largest cities – New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – have each has one black mayor, years ago. Atlanta elected a black female as mayor in a run-off election, winning with just over 50 percent of the vote.

Harp is the only member of the AAMA from Connecticut.  The organization was formed in 2014.  Fifty years ago, the election of Carl Stokes in Cleveland in 1967 put him on the cover of TIME magazine as the first black elected mayor of a major U.S. city. Richard Hatcher, also African American, was elected mayor of Gary, Indiana that same year.

Planning Underway for Nation’s Next Decade of Public Health Goals, to be Unveiled in 2020

In fiscal year 2017, the State of Connecticut received $373,921 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for childhood lead poisoning prevention programmatic activities. The funding arrived, at least in part, because one of the goals of the federal government’s Healthy People 2020 initiative, launched in 2010, is the elimination of childhood lead poisoning as a public health problem.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other agencies have developed a federal interagency strategy to achieve this goal by 2020.   The key elements of this interagency strategy include:

• Identification and control of lead paint hazards;
• Identification and care for children with elevated blood lead levels;
• Surveillance of elevated blood lead levels in children to monitor progress; and
• Research to further improve childhood lead poisoning prevention methods.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services unveiled Healthy People 2020 in December 2010, laying out the nation’s new 10-year goals and objectives for health promotion and disease prevention. Healthy People provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans, according to the program’s website.

Childhood lead poisoning prevention was one item on a lengthy list of national priorities.   Chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, are responsible for seven out of every 10 deaths among Americans each year and account for 75 percent of the nation’s health spending, officials said as the agenda was announced.  Topics added in 2010 included Dementia’s, including Alzheimer’s Disease; Early and Middle Childhood; Sleep Health; Social determinants of Health; and Adolescent Health.

For three decades, since 1979, Healthy People has established benchmarks and monitored progress over time in order to encourage collaborations across communities and sectors, empower individuals toward making informed health decisions and measure the impact of prevention activities.  The initiative is housed in the federal office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Approximately three-quarters of the goals of the previous decade-long Healthy People agenda had been achieved, officials said in 2010.

Even as federal and state authorities work to achieve the 2020 goals, work has begun on the next set of national objectives.

The planning process for Healthy People 2030, the fifth edition of Healthy People, is already underway.  Federal agencies sought comments from the public last fall on a proposed framework, which “aims at new challenges and builds on lessons learned from its first four decades.”  In December, officials indicated that “The foundational principles and overarching goals of the proposed framework for 2030 include a call to attain health literacy, achieve health equity and eliminate health disparities, improve the health and well-being of all populations.”

Once the framework is finalized, the agency “will begin the development and selection process for Healthy People 2030 objectives. We anticipate that the public will be invited to comment on proposed objectives as part of this process.”  It is expected that four regional “listening” sessions will be held.  Connecticut is included in the New England region, one of 10 regions across the country.  A session held in Atlanta in November was attended by 77 people.

The imperative to improve public health has not lessened over time.

“The United States lags behind other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries on key measures of health and well-being, including life expectancy, infant mortality, and obesity, despite having the highest percentage of GDP spent on health,” the website points out.

Hartford Rail Line May Bring Jobs, Opportunity for Key Populations, Study of Public Transit Suggests

As Connecticut moves closer to a significant increase in rail service connecting communities from New Haven to Springfield, MA, with the introduction of the Hartford line, anticipated in May, a report by Demos underscores the potential impact on economic opportunity and segments of the state’s population. The report, “To Move is to Thrive:  Public Transit and Economic Opportunity for People of Color,” which looked at public transportation in metropolitan areas across the country, presents a series of findings on the use of public transit by people of color and on the potential jobs benefits that people of color can gain from investments in public transit.

Its key findings on the use of public transit are:

• Racial, ethnic, and class inequities in the access to and funding of public transit continue today.
• Latino and Asian-American workers are twice as likely as white workers not to have a vehicle at home. African American workers are three times as likely. These disparities are heightened in certain metropolitan areas; Latino and black workers lack a private vehicle at as much as six times the rate of white workers in some areas.
• Asian-American and African-American workers commute by public transit at nearly four times the rate of white workers. Latino workers commute by public transit at nearly three times the white rate.
• Workers of color are overrepresented among public transit commuters with “long commutes”—one-way commutes of 60 minutes or longer.

The key findings on the jobs benefits from investment in public transit are:

• America’s employment rates are still low relative to 2000, and there is a strong racial hierarchy in employment rates.
• The majority of the jobs created from infrastructure investments can be non-construction jobs.
• All racial and ethnic groups gain jobs from large infrastructure investments and, generally, the larger the investment, the more jobs for each group.
• Investments in public transit show good returns in terms of the shares of the total jobs going to workers of color.

The report also noted that “growing numbers of Americans rely on public transit in their daily lives. In 2015, passengers took 10.5 billion trips on transit systems, up 33 percent from 20 years ago. Public transit ridership has grown faster than the population. But our public transit infrastructure, like much of our infrastructure generally, is old and decrepit. And many of our transit systems were not designed to handle such heavy use.”

While Connecticut’s cities are not as large as many of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, they do have populations with larger numbers of people of color than mnay surrounding suburbs.  Providing greater ease of mobility to station stops along the Hartford line could offer impacts suggested by the study.

The Hartford line, which is focused on increasing the frequency of station stops from Springfield to New Haven, will also see additional stations constructed in the coming years.  When the CTrail Hartford Line service launches in May, it will consist of both expanded Amtrak service and new regional trains operated by the Connecticut Department of Transportation and will offer more frequent, convenient and faster passenger rail service between New Haven, Hartford and Springfield.

Plans call for an increase in the number of round trip trains from six daily Amtrak intercity and regional trains to a total of 17 round trip trains a day to Hartford, and 12 trains per day to Springfield. In addition, trains will operate at speeds up to 110 mph, reducing travel time between Springfield and New Haven. Stops are to include rail stations in Windsor Locks, Windsor, Hartford, Berlin, Meriden, Wallingford and New Haven.   New stations are to be added, refurbished or relocated in North Haven, Newington, West Hartford, Windsor, Windsor Locks and Enfield by 2020.

Projections include more than 4,500 construction related jobs and over 8,000 total jobs, including both direct and indirect jobs.  Transit-oriented development, including housing is also anticipated along the route. Recently, plans to convert a long-vacant factory into housing was announced in Windsor Locks.

The national data indicates that workers of color are roughly 2 to 3 times as likely as white workers not to have a private vehicle at home: only 2.8 percent of white workers do not have a vehicle at home, but 6.9 percent of Asian-American workers, 7 percent of Latino workers, and 9.5 percent of African-American workers do not have a vehicle at home.

Nationally, 3.1 percent of white workers use public transit, while 7.8 percent of Latino workers, 11 percent of Asian-American workers, and 11.1 percent of African-American workers commute using public transit. In other words, Latino workers are almost 3 times as likely, and Asian-American and African-American workers are almost 4 times as likely as white workers to commute by public transit, the report indicated.

Based in New York, Boston and Washington D.C., Demos is a public policy organization “working for an America where we all have an equal say in our democracy and an equal chance in our economy.”

Hartford, New Haven See Diminishing Car Ownership Among Households; Hartford Ranks 8th in U.S. in Percentage Without Cars

Owning a car isn’t what it used to be – at least it isn’t as necessary as it used to be.  Demographics, fuel prices and where people live also play a role in whether a household goes car-free, according to a recent analysis by Governing magazine. Research also suggests younger families and one-person households are more likely to not own a car. The publication reports that several mid-sized cities recorded notable increases in shares of car-free households when averages from the 2015 and 2016 American Community Surveys are compared with those for 2009 and 2010. Those cities include New Haven.

According to the Census Bureau estimates, only 8.7 percent of U.S. households reported not having any vehicles available in 2016, about the same level as before the Great Recession.

In New Haven, the trend is stronger.  About 30 percent of New Haven households are without access to vehicles, an increase from about 27 percent in 2009-2010, Governing points out.  Part of the reason so many residents can go car-free stems from the city’s fairly residential downtown and pedestrian-friendly street grid layout, the publication explains, adding that New Haven’s high poverty rate is also a likely contributing factor, with many families unable to afford cars.

Other cities earning a spot on the list of for rapidly dropping car ownership are Paterson, N.J.; Davenport, Iowa; Elizabeth, N.J.; and Peoria, Ill.

Hartford has a presence in the top 10 cities that already have among the highest share of households without a car, at a 31.5 percent two-year average.  Hartford ranks 8th.  The list is led by New York City at 54.4 percent, with Newark, Jersey City, Washington, Boston, Cambridge and Paterson in between.  San Francisco and Philadelphia round out the top 10 after Hartford.  Hartford increased from 30.3% in 2015 to 32.6% in 2016.

Among other Connecticut cities, Stamford’s households without vehicles is at 10 percent; Waterbury at 20.5 percent; and Bridgeport at 21.1 percent.

Data was calculated using two-year averages from 2015 and 2016 Census survey estimates.

Electing More Women to Legislature in 2018 Would Reverse Trend in CT

Among the political questions of the new year is whether the events of 2016 and 2017 will lead to more women running for legislative seats in 2018 and to more being elected.  That’s on the mind of political obervers in Connecticut as elsewhere around the nation.  If that were to happen in Connecticut, it would reverse a near decade-long decline in the number of women serving at the State Capitol, which has seen the state fall from 7th to 19th since 2011 in the percentage of women serving in the legislature. When the current legislature was elected, the make-up of Connecticut’s General Assembly was 27.8 percent women.  That ranked Connecticut 19th among the states, slightly above the states average of 24.9 percent, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The Connecticut legislature has 187 members, including 151 in the House and 36 in the Senate.  The number of seats in other states varies.  Of the 151 House members, 43 are women as 2018 begins. In the Senate, nine of the 36 members are women.

Higher percentages of women were elected to serve in state legislatures in the New England states of Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, as well as Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington.

The percentage in Massachusetts was 25.5 and in New York 27.7, just behind Connecticut.  Arizona’s 40 percent, Nevada’s 39.7 percent, Vermont’s 39.4 percent, and Colorado’s 38 percent lead the nation.

Compared with other states, the percentage of women in Connecticut’s legislature has been dropping, in real numbers and as compared with other states.  In 2015, the percentage was 28.3 percent; in 2013 it was 29.4 percent; in 2011 Connecticut’s legislature was 29.9 percent women.  In 2009, Connecticut’s legislature included 31.6 percent women, which was the seventh highest in the nation.

Currently, the highest ranking woman in the legislature is House Minority Leader Rep. Themis Klarides (R-Derby).  During 2017, in  handful of legislative Special Elections to fill vacant seats, the only woman to run, Democrat Dorinda Keenan Borer, was elected to represent West Haven’s 115th Assembly District in February.

In Virginia’s election this past November, pending final certification of results, there will be 28 women in the Virginia House next year. Including the 10 women serving in the Senate, which did not have elections, the 38 women will make up 27 percent of Virginia’s legislators. NCSL reports “this is a significant increase from the pre-election numbers, of 27 women, or 19 percent of the legislature, and the most women ever to serve in Virginia.”  One of the races has yet to be decided, and is currently considered to be a tie.  One of the two candidates is a woman.

The data, compiled at the start of legislative terms, is subject to change during legislative terms due to resignations, appointments and special elections, in Connecticut and other states.

Climate Change, Children and Pollutants: Recipe for Health Concerns

The environmental damage caused by continuing to burn fossil fuels affects children most, with one study indicating that an estimated that about 88 percent of the disease from climate change afflicts children. In an article this month in the web-based science publication Massive, Renee Salas, an academic emergency medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University Medical School, says that while studies on climate change are still emerging, there has been enough research to result in a broad scientific agreement that climate change is negatively affecting children’s health.

The article points out that Frederica P. Perera, a professor of environmental health sciences and director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health, recently released a review article “showing yet again how air pollution and climate change interact to multiply the negative health effects children face.”  The combination of air pollutants and warmer temperatures creates a perfect storm where chemicals emitted into the atmosphere interact to multiply the effects that each would have alone, the article states.

“People of all ages are exposed to this myriad of air pollutants in the changing climate, but children are more at risk of a wide spectrum of negative health effects because their developing bodies can suffer permanent damage from interference with their growth, Salas explains.

Investigators at the Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology (CPPEE) at the Yale School of Public Health are engaged in a number of population-based studies in the U.S. and China intended to give us a better understanding of the health risks associated with exposure to relatively low and high levels of air pollution in childhood and during pregnancy.

The Center’s website points out that environmental factors are estimated to account for 24 percent of global diseases (WHO – Preventing Disease through Healthy Environments). In terms of the environmental contribution to disease, respiratory infections are ranked second, perinatal conditions seventh, and asthma fifteenth.  Air pollution is a major environmental risk factor in all three diseases.

Asthma is a major chronic disease in the US, accounting for more than two million emergency room visits and $14 billion in health care costs and lost productivity per year, the website indicates. Asthma is the most common chronic illness of childhood, accounting for more absenteeism (14 million missed school days per year) than any other chronic disease.  Absenteeism impacts academic performance, participation in extracurricular activities, and peer acceptance.

The Yale School of Public Health also points out that “underserved populations are especially affected by asthma.” In Connecticut, for example, asthma prevalence of 9.9 percent is among the highest in the U.S., they report. The rate among children enrolled in Connecticut’s HUSKY program (health insurance program for uninsured children) is 19.5 %. Increases in asthma and allergy are likely due to a combination of factors--genetic, environmental, socioeconomic, lack of access to care, and differential treatment.

The Massive article goes on explain that the potential harm starts early.  Once a child is born, the brain, lungs, and immune system aren’t fully formed until the age of six, the article states. “Even their air and food exposure in proportion to their size is much higher than adults – the amount they eat in relation to their body weight is three to four times greater than that of adults.”

She goes on to state the “Children also have an increased risk for being developmentally delayed, having lower intelligence scores, and less of a certain part of the brain called white matter, the stuff that helps you walk and talk. Their mental health is also at risk as children exposed to air pollution have higher rates of anxiety, depression, and difficulty paying attention.”

Salas notes that in addition to caring for patients who have negative health impacts from climate change, she uses her masters in Clinical Research and masters in Public Health in Environmental Health for research, education, and advocacy in this field. Says Salas, “I believe that climate change is the biggest public health issue facing our globe and am dedicating my career to making any positive difference I can.”

New England Colleges Prepare Report on Employability of Students; Draft Recommendations Outlined

December 22 is the deadline for those seeking to comment on the draft report and recommendations of the Commission on Higher Education & Employability, established earlier this year by the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE).  The Commission, which includes nine representatives of institutions and organizations in Connecticut, released its preliminary findings at a day-long Summit in Boston. “Despite the region’s strength in postsecondary institutions, employers remain concerned about a lack of qualified, skilled workers, particularly in technology-intensive and growth-oriented industries,” the draft report notes. “The Commission has proposed a draft action agenda, policy recommendations, strategies and next steps to align institutions, policymakers and industry behind increasing the career readiness of graduates of New England colleges and universities—and facilitate their transitions to work and sustained contributions to the well-being and competitiveness of the region.”

In addition to five strategic priorities,  the draft report includes specific recommendations are being considered in five areas:  Labor Market Data & Intelligence; Planning, Advising & Career Services; Higher Education-Industry Partnerships; Work-Integrated Learning; Digital Skills; and Emerging Credentials.

Among the recommendations being considered are a call for higher education institutions to incorporate employability into their strategic plans/priorities; determine their effectiveness in embedding and measuring employability across the institution; and develop a regional partnership for shared purchasing and contracting of labor market data, information and intelligence services.

The proposed recommendations also call on the New England states to “collaborate to launch multistate, industry-specific partnerships beginning with three of the top growth-oriented sectors, including: healthcare, life and biosciences and financial services.” It further urges the states to explore “implementing policies (public and institutional) that incentivize businesses (through tax credits or other means) to expand paid internships.”  The draft report also calls for the establishment of a New England Planning, Advising and Career Service Network.

The draft report calls on the states to “confront notable college-attainment gaps and the related personal and societal costs,” and “consider specific employability strategies to target and benefit students who are at risk of not completing postsecondary credentials, including underrepresented populations.”

Eastern Connecticut State University President Elsa Núñez led a session at the Summit about the Commission's “Equity Imperative.” Officials indicate that Commission's workforce vision serves all New Englanders ... “as a matter of social justice, but also as a matter of sound economics in the slow-growing region.”  Núñez highlighted her internship work with students who may not have cars or other resources to capitalize on off-campus work-integrated learning.

In addition to Núñez, the nine members of the Commission from Connecticut are:

• Andrea Comer, Vice President, Workforce Strategies, Connecticut Business & Industry Association Education and Workforce Partnership
• Freddy Cruz, Student, Eastern Connecticut State University
• Maura Dunn, Vice President of Human Resources & Administration, General Dynamics Electric Boat
• Mae Flexer, State Senator
• Tyler Mack, Student Government Association President, Eastern Connecticut State University
• Mark Ojakian, President, Connecticut State Colleges & Universities
• Jen Widness, President, Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges
• Jeffrey Wihbey, Interim Superintendent, Connecticut Technical High School System

The commission also includes six members from Vermont, seven members from New Hampshire and Maine, 11 from Massachusetts, 12 from Rhode Island, as well as two regional members and six representatives of NEBHE. The Commission's Chair is Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo.  The proposed recommendations, developed during the past six months, have broad implications, according to officials, “critical to building a foundation for moving forward the Commission's efforts toward strengthening the employability of New England's graduates.”

At Eastern Connecticut State University—which is about 30% students of color—lower-income, minority and first-generation students often had no cars, so had difficulty traveling off campus to internships. White students got most of the internships, President Elsa Núñez told the NEHBE Journal earlier this year.

The Journal reported that Eastern’s Work Hub eliminates that need, allowing students to develop practical skills doing real-time work assignments without having to travel off campus, and providing the insurance company Cigna with a computer network and facility where its staff could provide on-site guidance and support to Eastern student interns.

The draft report’s strategic priority recommendations include:

• New England state higher education systems, governing and coordinating boards, together with New England’s employers, should make increased employability of graduates a strategic priority—linked to the strategic plans, key outcomes, performance indicators and accountability measures for the higher education institutions under their stewardship.
• New England higher education institutions should incorporate employability into their strategic plans/ priorities supported by efforts to define, prioritize and embed employability across the institution and in multiple dimensions of learning and the student experience—both curricular and extracurricular.
• New England should make strategic efforts and investments—at the state, system and institution level— to expand research, data gathering, assessment capacity and longitudinal data systems to enable more effective understanding and documentation of key employability-related measures and outcomes.
• New England higher education institutions should undertake formal employability audits to review the strategic, operational and assessment-oriented activities related to employability–and their effectiveness in embedding and measuring employability across the institution.
• To confront notable college-attainment gaps and the related personal and societal costs, states must consider specific employability strategies to target and benefit students who are at risk of not completing postsecondary credentials, including underrepresented populations.

The Boston-based New England Board of Higher Education promotes greater educational opportunities and services for the residents of New England. Comments on the recommendations are accepted on-line through Dec. 22.

Senior Citizens Less Diverse, Growing in Percentage of State’s Population

Over 575,000 Connecticut residents are age 65 and older, making up an estimated 16 percent of the state’s total population of 3.6 million, according to U.S. Census data updated through 2016.  Those numbers are expected to grow – steadily and rapidly – during the next two decades, experts anticipate. Among Connecticut’s eight counties, the largest percentage of seniors is in Litchfield County, 19.7 percent, followed by Middlesex County, 18.8 percent, and New London County, 17.1 percent.  New Haven (16.3%) and Hartford (16.2%) counties are next, followed by Fairfield and Tolland Counties, both at 14.8 percent.

The data, highlighted by the Connecticut Office of Legislative Research (OLR)  in a recent report, also shows that “Connecticut’s senior population is less ethnically and racially diverse than the state as a whole.”

Just over 89 percent of the state’s seniors (age 65+) are white, compared with 77 percent of the state’s population as a whole.  While 10 percent of the state’s population are Black or African American, that is true of only 6.4 percent of seniors.  The state’s Asian population is 4.2 percent of the total; among seniors, less than half that, only 2 percent, are of Asian heritage.

While the total state population is almost evenly split between male (49%) and female (51%) residents, the senior population has a larger percentage of females (57%) compared to males (43%), the analysis found.  Connecticut seniors are more likely to be veterans (20% vs. 7% of all residents) and more likely to have a disability (32% vs. 11% of residents).

According to a recent report by the state’s Commission on Women, Children and Seniors, Connecticut is the 7th oldest state in the nation.  Roughly one-third of the state’s population are baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964.  The state also has nearly 1,000 people over the age of 100.  As has been previously projected, the number of Connecticut towns with at least 20 percent of residents age 65 or older will dramatically increase between 2010 and 2020 (see maps below).  The 65 and older population is expected to grow by 56 percent in Connecticut between 2010 and 2040, compared with  1.5 percent growth in the population between ages 20 and 64.

Approximately 7 percent of Connecticut seniors had incomes which fell below the census poverty level, with an additional 8 percent of seniors having incomes between 100 percent to 149 percent of the threshold, the OLR report indicated. The most common source of income for Connecticut seniors is Social Security, with an average benefit of $20,591 per year, as of 2015. An estimated 90 percent of senior homeowners and renters receive Social Security benefits. The second most common source (50.7%) is personal retirement income, averaging $27,240 per year in 2015.

Of the more than 330,000 senior households, an estimated 76 percent are homeowners and 24 percent are renters. This represents higher home ownership rates than the state as a whole (67% of 1.35 million households).

The most common source of income for Connecticut seniors, the report indicated, is Social Security, with an average benefit of $20,591 per year in 2015. An estimated 90 percent of senior homeowners and renters receive Social Security benefits. The second most common source (50.7%) is personal retirement income, averaging $27,240 per year in 2015.

The demographic characteristics of Connecticut’s senior population (e.g. residents age 65 years and older) used by OLR were largely based on the 2011-2015 American Community Survey 5-Year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Better Outcomes from Female Surgeons, Study Finds; Local Hospital Highlights Their Own

In a study that has gained international attention and peaked interest locally, the patients of female surgeons tended to have lower death rates, fewer complications and lower readmissions to the hospital a month after their procedure, compared to the patients of male surgeons. The study, published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal), and highlighted in TIME magazine, was conducted in Ontario, Canada, and included all of the people in the province who had operations between 2007 and 2015.  The results are bringing some attention to female surgeons, and Connecticut Children’s Medical Center is shining a spotlight on their surgical staff in the aftermath of the study’s publication.

Connecticut Children’s which has nine female surgeons, including the surgeon-in-chief, is stressing not only that they are “leaders in this field,” but they are also “moms at home.”  They’re using the two roles to launch a social media campaign called #momsurgeons, and will be profiling each of the surgeons on social media, website and billboards in greater Hartford this week.

“We wanted to bring attention to the fact that we are moms too. We truly understand what our patient families are experiencing when their child is heading into surgery,” said Christine Finck, Surgeon-In-Chief at Connecticut Children’s. “We also understand the daily struggles many moms face trying to find that work-life balance.  It’s hard.  We get it.”

Finck, appointed surgeon-in-chief in 2016, previously served as Chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery since 2007 and is an associate professor of pediatrics and surgery at UConn Health.  In announcing her appointment, Connecticut Children’s pointed out that through her research, Finck “revolutionized outcomes of pediatric and neonatal diseases, most specifically leading efforts focused on identifying and treating those that affect the lungs, esophagus and brain.” She was honored by The Group on Women in Medicine and Science, who awarded her the Outstanding Clinical Scientist Woman Faculty Award, last year.

After accounting for patient, surgeon, and hospital characteristics, the study concluded that “patients treated by female surgeons had a small but statistically significant” decrease in 30 day mortality and similar surgical outcomes (length of stay, complications, and readmission), compared with those treated by male surgeons.

The study’s authors noted that the findings “support the need for further examination of the surgical outcomes and mechanisms related to physicians and the underlying processes and patterns of care to improve mortality, complications, and readmissions for all patients.”

By drawing attention to this profession, officials said, “our #momsurgeons hope they can serve as role models for aspiring young ladies who also hope to one day enter the field.”

“Every time I operate, I stop and think about how I would want the operation to go if it my own child was in front of me,” said Meghna Misra, pediatric surgeon at Connecticut Children’s.

Surgery has long been a male-dominated occupation, TIME reported, “first because few women enrolled in medical school, and then because they weren’t perceived (by male surgeons, no less) to have the temperament needed to make the life-and-death decisions required in an OR.”

In the study, 104,630 patients were treated by 3,314 surgeons, 774 female and 2,540 male. Dr. Raj Satkunasivam, assistant professor of urology at Houston Methodist Hospital was leader of the study.

Connecticut Children’s Medical Center is the only hospital in Connecticut dedicated exclusively to the care of children and is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best children’s hospitals in the nation, with a medical staff of more than 1,000.