After spending the past year in Orange County, Larry McLaughlin is back in the Inland Empire/Desert Region as the ATL Regional Director.
He hopes to bring a focus on clean energy and carbon reduction to sector-related programs in the region.
McLaughlin returned to the Inland Empire Region because he felt he could make the most impact in the transportation and logistics sector and build on the momentum being generated around alternative-fuel vehicles of all types. Doing so can benefit community college students by giving them that edge in the job market and, in the process, help mitigate problems associated with climate change.
“It’s important that students in transportation-related programs have the knowledge and skills they need to make a contribution within their occupations to solving the climate problem. We all need to look for ways to make a contribution. Approximately 40% of carbon emissions in California come from the transportation sector. Having the right skill-set in a state that has such ambitious climate goals will make our students more competitive in the job market,” McLaughlin said.
Another priority for McLaughlin is making sure that career pathways are setting students up for long-term success in the workplace, particularly when it comes to logistics and operations.
“We are not preparing students for low wage, low skill jobs in warehouses. Instead, we should be preparing them to service and manage the automated systems that run the logistics operations in supply chains, and looking at autonomous vehicles in the movement of goods,” McLaughlin said. “These advanced technologies require a higher skill set, and we need to make sure that we’re accounting for them, so students are prepared when they enter the job market.”
McLaughlin holds a Master of Arts degree in Technology Education from West Virginia University and a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. He has worked in higher education at both university and community college levels for more than 30 years, overseeing technical education, research dissemination, and professional development programs related to advanced technologies.
