Treymane Simpson oversees 19 departments at ECC including technology and business, provides information on new manufacturing buildings being built, and offers advice to students.

Q: Tell me a little bit about yourself and your background and how it led you here at ECC.

A: I’ve always wanted to be in education. My Family has worked in education. My Mother has been a Chicago Public School teacher for like 40 years, and my aunts and uncles have all worked in K-12 education. But I’ve always considered higher education as something that was an interest for me. So I actually started out in the for profit higher education, so I worked at smaller career colleges, with a focus on career and technology. And you know, just three years ago I made the transition over to community college. I’ve worked in my current role where I get to work with faculty and students. So that’s really kind of my niche of what I enjoy. But overall, I’ve been working in education for, you know, at least 20 years now.

Q: What about higher education appealed to you the most?

A: I really, really like the idea of working with and teaching adults, it’s just a different perspective. And I actually started out by teaching, so before administration, it was about teaching, and serving as a teaching in communications

Q: What exactly are all of your roles here at ECC?

A: I am the Associate Dean of Sustainability in business and career technologies. So in my associate dean role, I assist the dean with overseeing 19 different areas. We have manufacturing; we have criminal justice; we have culinary, fire, science, law and paralegal, and business. Several different aspects of the college fall within our particular division, including the new manufacturing and technology center that is the big building that they’re building on campus, that actually falls within our division, as well as our new truck driving building. So, we’ve got a lot going on here. So in my role, I primarily work directly with faculty to make sure that they’re
supported, and work with students to make sure that we meet their needs and that they’re getting the best quality within the classroom.

Q: Do you have anything more you can say on the new buildings?

A: Yes, we’re very excited. So, the new manufacturing and technology center is 150,000 square feet, and it’s basically going to be this current building that you’re in which is our building O, which represents our manufacturing program. What it was is that we are running out of space, and this is something that we noticed probably eight years ago, and that running out of space means we need more opportunities to bring students in. So the new building will obviously be state of the art with technology to support all of the programs we have, but also new programs. So we’ll be moving over every program that’s in that building that includes manufacturing, welding, H back and in maintenance technology as well. We’ll be moving to the new building. So there’s also going to be a new focus on energy management, where we’ll have an aspect of EV so electronic vehicles will be a big part of it as well. So we’re really looking forward to what the new building brings and some of the future prospects there.

Q:You said there was a truck driving building?

A: Yes, we actually have another building. So truck driving is one of the programs represented within our division, and there’s currently construction near building H, and that’s where our new truck driving building will be. So our truck driving program will move to that side of the campus, over between building h and k, that parking lot they’re doing construction right now, and that’s going to give us an opportunity to provide even better training for our truck drivers. So we have 14 trailers that will be moving over there as well.

Q: So, how long have you been here exactly?

A: I just made my three year anniversary.

Q: So what has kept you here for these three years?

A: It’s really the people. The environment of ECC is a really, really good environment of working with colleagues that look for the best in students. So there is a mission of improving lives and learning, and I see that every day with our approach to work, we go the extra mile to make sure that the learning experience is top notch and of the best quality for the students. So we really listen to the community, and we provide the training that’s needed to support this community. And so being in an environment that lives by its mission is really the reason why I’m still here, and I continue to be here. I think there are some great things for the future, and it’s just exciting to be a part of a growing environment. You know, when we’re talking about building new buildings and creating new programming, that sounds like a place that is looking towards the future, and that’s something I want to be a part of.

Q: Yeah, I mean, I’ve seen, I feel like more people are coming to ECC now, because I feel like it used to be, like kind of frowned upon, at least in where I came from, like my school was a bit of predominantly a higher, wealthier school, high school, and they kind of frowned upon going to ECC instead of a university. So why is why ECC such a good option compared to university?

A: A university experience? I won’t knock that that’s good as well. But ECC gives you an opportunity to learn in an environment that is more community focused, so you still get some of the essence and foundations of your educational journey. And there’s so many different opportunities for students to kind of learn and develop skills and understand where they want to go. And there’s still that, that opportunity to transfer to the next institution. So you can still transfer to the university after doing your first two years here, but we have state of the art equipment that even rivals that of what you will see at a university. So when you’re here, it’s not something that you would say is more of a limiting experience, but it’s a way to expand. And so this is a great opportunity for students to learn more in a short amount of time, and they can still figure out what they want to do after that.

Q: Yeah, so, so it seems like, obviously you do a multitude of things here. So what keeps you going to do all these things for these three years, and what keeps that drive to be able to get through all these things?

A: Well, first, it’s my passion. I love working in higher education. It’s not just my experience, but my research as well. I’ve got my doctorate degree in higher education leadership, so my focus, my whole life and background, is based on improving learning at the higher ed level. So being able to do that on a day to day basis is a big reason why I’m here, but also working in a division like this, where every day things are different, and we’re pushing the envelope on creating new opportunities, you know, as we look at doing all of that. It’s exciting, you know. So it gives me, you know, a focus of doing things that are different, making more efficiencies within the division, but division being more innovative. I think, in this role, it gives me that opportunity. And, you know, for someone like me, you know, from an ambitious, you know, my ambition to do things even differently than what I’ve done before. This gives me the opportunity to do it so I like it. So there’s never a boring day.

Q: Have you seen growth in not only like yourself, but in your division?

A: You know, just in this division alone, as I mentioned, we’ve added more programs, but we’re adding these buildings, I’ve seen growth in myself because, you know, I have never worked with some of the programs that I’m working with now. So being an administrator who, you know, oversees the program for welding or manufacturing, I’ve never worked with those particular programs, so now I get to learn about the aspects of why it’s important to purchase certain types of equipment, and why that equipment is so important to delivering that class. So every day is a learning experience, because I learned from our faculty who have served in the industry, and I can learn about, you know, what it takes to be a good manufacturer, what it takes to be viable in the business industry, what it takes to work in criminal justice. So just in the course of a day, I learned from all of the people I work for and that’s outstanding when you can go through day to day, and you can learn from those you interact with every day.

Q: Yeah, totally. So lastly, I just wanted to ask you if you can give advice. Obviously, you’re in the education department and the technology department for future people, anyone, I mean, for any aspect for students or we want to go into the same thing you are in right now.

A: My advice to any student, especially if they’re not quite sure what they want to do, first of all, that’s okay. If you’re not quite sure what you want to do, I would say, take advantage of whatever you know, experiences that can move you forward. Take advantage of those. If it’s a study abroad opportunity, if it’s an internship, if it’s an opportunity to take a class that may be outside of your area of interest, take advantage of those opportunities, because you never know where it may lead you to. So sometimes I think we get a little too restricted into the areas that we think we would like, and we don’t give ourselves the opportunity to move a little bit outside of that, but you never know, you could be missing out on an opportunity of a lifetime. So, and this is something I would tell students, but also, if I were to tell my younger self, it would be to take more advantage of some opportunities, because you’re always building that experience toolkit. So anything you do is a way to build that toolkit. So as you grow in your career, you can always

draw upon things that you’ve done in the past.