Crouse to step into new role at Cowley College

Serving as chairperson of Cowley College’s Career and Technical Education Department, Bruce Crouse has helped the department grow and prosper.

He will look to do the same thing in his new role as executive director of workforce development and CTE.
Crouse will work with business and industry as well as current organizations dedicated to retention and growth of businesses and the workforce to meet education and training needs.

He will continue working with the CTE department to explore new programs the college may want to implement. Development of funding streams such as grants and industry partnerships to support current and new programs that may be developed will also be a focus.

Another area of his job will include networking with other institutions in the state to discuss common issues in the career and technical areas.   

“Bruce has been a leader on campus and will take on this new challenge,” Cowley College president Dr. Patrick J. McAtee said.

Crouse is working on a series of grants to form additional training programs.

“One thing I have learned from working with grants is that to be successful the college must have the support from the businesses and the community,” Crouse said. “In the current series of grants we have had excellent support from the community. I believe it is not the funding stream that makes grants successful but it is the resulting partnerships between the college and businesses that grows not only the businesses, but the entire community.”

Crouse began working at Cowley in 1992. He started off developing courses for the Non-Destructive Testing program and went on to teach day and evening classes. He served as an instructor for five years before being moved to department chair with instructional duties. 

He is looking forward to working with business and industry fulltime.

“Over the years I have delivered the NDT and other classes to businesses and have always enjoyed working with them,” Crouse said. “This position will provide an opportunity to work with a variety of business and industries in our service area.”

Crouse will be working at the Winfield Technical Center; a facility that Dr. McAtee believes will flourish under Crouse’s leadership.

“The Winfield Technical Center is I believe going to grow into something really great for the county in terms of economic development in that center,” McAtee said. “Not only will it house the Cowley training arm in business and industry, but it will also house Cowley First and the economic development group along with having a small business development center in there.”

Crouse sees the Winfield Center growing to deliver programs similar to the Mechatronics program.
“I believe Mechatronics will be a springboard for other new and innovative programs as it can be the foundation of such industries as alternative energy for example,” Crouse said.

Plastics companies have expressed interest in expanding training at the Winfield Center, while Cowley is offering a psychology class in the afternoon at the center.

“I think the Winfield Technical Center will be a really vibrant economic development training center,” McAtee said.

Fall 2008