CEO Podcast: Katie Scott, Washtenaw County

Paul Krutko: Welcome to Ann Arbor SPARK’s CEO Podcast…Conversations on Economic Opportunity. My name is Paul Krutko, and I’m the President and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK.

My guest today is Katie Scott, Chair of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners and Commissioner for District 9, which includes the west side of Ann Arbor and part of Scio Township. First elected in 2018, Katie brings a unique perspective as both a public servant and a critical care nurse. She’s been a strong advocate for public health, mental health access, and inclusive policies that support families and marginalized communities. As a longtime equity advocate and the only LGBTQ member currently serving on the Board, Katie continues to lead with purpose and compassion.

Katie, welcome to the podcast!

Katie Scott: Well, thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Paul: Great. Well, we’re really happy to have you actually. So we’ve really increased our volume and we want to make sure we’re getting to have the community here from as many leaders as we possibly can. So thank you for making the time. 

You represented district 9 since 2019. What are the biggest challenges and most exciting opportunities facing your district today? I’m sure we’ll talk about the county later, but housing and access affordability seemed to be something that’s most upfront and personal to you. So tell me a little bit about what’s important in the district and what you’re trying to do there.

Katie: I think about my district, and I’m also thinking about the kind of community as a whole because I am the chair of the board of commissioners, and so in my district, I think a lot of the issues that I’m facing are talking about housing affordability. That’s particularly important for the entire county as well, thinking about issues about transportation and I’m also thinking a lot about how we are talking about addressing equity across the county. Even in my own district, I think that you see some of that in my district, in the county is where we have the most units of affordable housing provided by Avalon. So I think that that’s definitely a focus that I have going forward here.

Paul: And so sometimes we do this for the audience: talk a little bit about, because I often mention this, and as your role is chair, that we have sort of different economic conditions in different parts of the county, right? So is there a particular difference in sort of the west side of Ann Arbor and Scio from some of your colleagues’ districts?

Katie: Yeah, I mean I think that Ann Arbor has its own set of issues that are different than other places. You have somebody that I’m working with like Commissioner Beman who works in the most rural district and that also, she has a different set of challenges but is just important to think about for people in Washtenaw County because she talks a lot about supporting the farmers. She’s brought that issue to the table in addition to the fact that we’re probably facing some cuts in the next coming months and years at the government level. And what that will do to areas like in 48197 and 48198 that are our lowest opportunity indexes right now will hurt the differences say with districts like those is that they still have access to certain things they do not have access to in the rural parts of our county.

And so one of the things I anticipate is that even though we’ll see issues impact those low opportunity index areas, my guess is that we might see those issues impact some of the rural western parts of our county first, just because they don’t have the access that 197 and 198 have. And so I think just thinking about all aspects of the county is really important. And it’s challenging because we are so varied. We go from really wealthy areas in Ann Arbor and around Ann Arbor to some areas where the poverty and the opportunity index just is low. And so we have this ginormous divide and plug in agriculture and we’ve got it all, which is part of what makes us fabulous and part of what makes it challenging.

Paul: Yeah, I mean one of the things that I share with people in other settings, in fact I did this at a meeting at the university the other day, people don’t realize that Michigan is the second most significant agricultural state only to California. And there’s this image of cars, automotive, all that. But no, and working with Shannon, just one of the things we’ve been working on is trying to get some resources to have a processing plant in Manchester. And what are those things about being an agricultural state like that in jobs is what we’ve noticed is lots of the processing of our agricultural products happens outside the state. So if we can bring that back into our state, that creates jobs. 

And then the other thing just to share with you, because I really understand your point, my son-in-law was looking to buy a house and they were looking on the west side, and it’s difficult to find them in Manchester and anywhere right now. So the need for more housing supply is really, really critical. And I think because it’s tight, that’s why we’re seeing the high prices, right? It’s a real issue. 

So everyone in the community kind of relates to the fact that SPARK works on tech startups and innovation. And so I’m curious about, from your perspective as a county commissioner, what do you think about the role that local government should play in helping the entrepreneurial ecosystem survive? Making sure that development is balanced, but it benefits the broader community?

Katie: I mean that’s sort of in a crux, that’s part of my answer. I mean, I think for sure local governments should play a role in creating the conditions for innovation to thrive. And that’s through investments, it’s through infrastructure, it’s through access to affordable commercial space. And also supporting workforce development, which is a huge part of that, too. But then as you said, we also have a responsibility there to ensure that the benefits of that growth are shared across the community. I, so I think that that’s what I would say, one of my positions as a county commissioner is to think about that we’re not concentrating that growth in a few sectors or in a few zip codes, but we’re working towards equitable access towards opportunity that we’re working to support entrepreneurs from historically underrepresented communities and that we’re mindful that there’s pressures that rapid growth puts on housing, on infrastructure, on public services.

And so I think we have to set expectations around living wages, about sustainability, about inclusion, community reinvestment. That’s a huge thing to me. And so I think if we were talking about in particular tech startups, they don’t exist in a vacuum. They depend on a strong public system. And we have to make sure we continue our investments in them to strengthen rather than to widen the gaps that we already see in our community. And I think that if we keep planning smartly so that growth doesn’t unintentionally drive up housing costs or displace a long-time residents, which I think people are very worried about, overwhelm public systems, I think that’s important. And I also think that that collaboration with SPARK in particular here is essential. So that collaboration with community organizations, with schools, with housing advocates, remains there to make sure that development remains sustainable and it remains inclusive.

Paul: Well, one of the things that the county, your board has provided leadership on, and you’re continuing that in terms of your being on our board is your predecessor Sue Shink, we did our strategic plan. She brought the county’s perspective to that and we added a fourth pillar to our strategic plan, which was community. And the point being is really echoing what you are saying, growth in jobs in a company doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and it’s what the community is around it. And having come from Silicon Valley here now 15 years ago, but still coming from Silicon Valley, you can see how if you don’t attend to community needs, you can have this divide in incomes and you can have all kinds of other issues. That’s one of the reasons we’re very pleased that you’re on the board and that the county kind of brings that into the conversation.

Katie: I think that you’re right. I mean, I think that one, supporting entrepreneurs is vital, but I think that it’s also supporting the people who make up our community is just as vital. And to me, a thriving economy and a healthy community are hand in hand. That’s the way it has to happen.

Paul: Well, another place where the county has provided leadership, Washtenaw County has been a founding partner of SPARK at the very beginning and has been a part of the partnership for 21 years. But in addition, the board said, Hey, we want to make a specific emphasis, and you mentioned the two zip codes, Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township, and provided us some additional resources for a program called Innovate Ypsi. And it was intended to say to people, this is a good place to locate to. We’ll provide a little bit of resources to help you make that choice. And so that’s been a very successful and important program is like now we’re seeing the development of the MI-HQ facility in downtown Ypsilanti, which was the [EMU] business school but’s now being converted and going to be a Michigan Medicine location in addition to supporting early stage companies. So yeah, I mean the county, I just want to give some props. The county has, you and your colleagues over time have been very thoughtful about how to try to make the growth that we’re having benefit everyone. 

So I’m going to move to a question maybe more about you personally. You have a background as an ICU nurse and in your advocacy for workforce place democracy and income equity bring, as I said, we’ve talked a little bit already, about a unique perspective to the SPARK Board. Maybe take a little more time to how your experience shaped how you think about opportunity and community wellbeing.

Katie: I think that being an ICU nurse, it really teaches you how quickly life can change. I mean, I’ve worked my entire professional career as a nurse in the ICU and also I think it also shows me how critical it is to have a strong system support in place before the crisis hits. Because when the crisis hits, it gets really hard. And so I think about bringing that same urgency to issues like economic development because real opportunity means more than just jobs. It means that you have people who earn a living wage, that you have workplaces that respect people’s voices. It means you have communities that people can afford to live in. And so I really think economic health and human health are inseparable in my point of view. So when workers have a voice in their workplace through strong protections, through fair wages, through transparent decision making, businesses themselves get stronger and then communities get stronger. And I think that my nursing work, my nursing background, my advocacy work, remind me on the daily that opportunities not just about individual achievement, but it’s about a system. It’s about building systems that give everyone a fair shot and not just a privileged few. When you were talking just now about the county trying to look at spreading this development and the work that is going to happen now with MI-HQ and Ypsi Health Center, good ideas don’t just come out of a few zip codes. Good ideas come from everywhere. And so it’s making sure that we’re building systems that give people everywhere that fair shot. And additionally, I’ll tell you that even though I’ve worked in the ICU, I really look at things with a public health lens. And I think that through that public health lens, I can see how income inequality directly affects health outcomes. It affects educational success, it affects community stability. And if we want long-term economic vitality, we need to build pathways to opportunity that close gaps and not widen them, not make them bigger. And so my experience makes me pretty passionate about supporting entrepreneurship that lifts up diverse voices and about pushing for policies that build real equity into our local economy. And so to me, economic opportunity and community wellbeing are two sides of the same coin, and they both require intentional investment.

Paul:. Yeah, I mean, one of the things that’s been interesting in SPARK’s journey in working with the county is that at a certain point here, maybe three years ago, the state had some resources that came through the Biden administration and the COVID support. And they said to organizations like SPARK, would you be willing, we see how successful you are working with entrepreneurs in the tech space, can you use the same kinds of techniques to help local business? And so one of the things that we’ve been pleased to be able to structure as the small business hub out of Ypsi, and we’ve been able to help hundreds of local businesses. I mean, the tech businesses are always thinking about how do I sell to the rest of the country? How do I sell to the world? But local businesses are about how do these successful locally? Iin every sort of high-tech business job that creates economic opportunity for lots of other small businesses as those people live in the community. So that has been good. 

And then we started this new thing called SizeUp in which people can on their own, at their own time, because when you’re running a local small business, you’re busy all day long, busy, you might have to put your kids to bed, and that’s when you start thinking about your business. We created a very robust data-driven program that’s free for anybody in the county. And we’ve seen, again, partnering with your team and the Department of Community Development, have really seen a lot of uptake in that. So I think that there’s a lot of hunger among people to try to better themselves and think about entrepreneurship as a way. And when we think about entrepreneurship, it’s not just those tech companies, it’s about, Hey, I’m thinking about opening on a coffee shop. I think I want to create a lawn care company or something like that.

And so that helps everybody because when we look at our mission, it’s about helping families have good lives. That’s really what it is at the end of the day. 

One of the things that I think you bring is a great perspective, and that’s why we’re very happy that you’ve joined the board, is I think a lot of times the ask to the private sector isn’t necessarily being made. And when the ask is made, many times they can step forward. And where I’m going with this is, we’ve had some conversations about employer-developed housing. We have a number of employers that have large campus properties. They’re worried about retaining employees. And so we’ve been talking to a number of employers about the state’s customer resources to support that. So that’s one area. And the other one that the employers can really be helpful in is our whole childcare crisis that we have here. The local government can’t do it alone. The philanthropic community can’t do it alone. It’s got to be all those two with the private sector to help families with that issue. So the surrounding issues to economic development are important and drivers.

Katie: Agreed. Absolutely.

Paul: So as you joined the board, it’s been since the first of the year, what’s your perspective on joining SPARK, and are there particular things we’re working on that you’re excited about being a part of?

Katie: When I joined the board, I think I had an idea, you all provided a really fantastic kind of onboarding for me, and so that made me even more excited about SPARK. And I see the model SPARK has as a model that could go in so many other areas like I talked about even thinking about taking a model like SPARK and using it for how you think about nonprofit funding, stuff like that. So that’s kind of an interesting concept that noodles around in the back of my head, but I am excited about the momentum that is building and that I see huge opportunities for SPARK to lead in a few key areas I would say. I don’t know that we’ve talked about this at SPARK, but there’s been some rumblings about professional and semi-professional sports teams coming to the region. And I think that’s an incredibly exciting direction because I think that’s not just about entertainment and driving people in, that’s about building vibrancy. It’s about boosting local businesses. It’s about creating a magnetic quality of life that attracts talent and investment both. I am excited, energized about thinking about putting Washtenaw County and the broader region at the forefront of emerging industries. Things like clean tech and bioengineering and AI driven healthcare solutions. I think the numbers are showing right now that tech related job growth nationality is projected to grow about 15%. I mean people like, 15%, it doesn’t sound very big. That’s a big growth number. That’s a really big growth number. So to grow about 15% if those industries grow over the next decade, I think that here in Washtenaw County, we’re particularly well positioned to capture a real share of that if we stay bold and we stay forward looking. And finally, and maybe the most personally, I have an 18-year-old recently graduated. He’s graduated early from high school, and will graduate officially in a few months, next month, I guess. And he’s pretty passionate about business and entrepreneurship. And I think that that has impacted me to have this deep commitment to making sure young people see this region as a place where they can stay, where they can grow, where they can lead. And I would like to see SPARK double down on programs that create real accessible opportunities for young entrepreneurs for mentorship networks, which I think is something we already do for startup resources. Again, something we do internships, seed funding opportunities. I think that our economy here, our future economy in Washington County, it depends on investing in those dreams that those young kids have today. So that’s, that’s kind of a personal type of thing. I think that’s something I think about that I think SPARK really can do.

Paul: Yeah, it is interesting with the sort of broad array of people that we have on the board, but also involved with SPARK. I hear that from a number of folks who their children are reaching that age and we have been pretty aggressive over the years and try to find more resources on the internship side because what we find is many times young people think they have to go to the coast for this kind of job, and these jobs are actually here. And having been in California for quite some time, you can have a very high quality of life working for a tech company here. You might have a great job in California, but you may not have the quality of life that you can have here or get started on the things that we all want to do, starting a family, buying a house, those kinds of things are much more difficult on the coast. And so I think we have a distinct advantage and we just need to take advantage of it for sure. It’s sort of the controversies that are going on now as with the new administration, how valuable the University of Michigan is and what it does in terms of creating companies and then what it does in healthcare and new therapeutics in your world. So I am very convinced that regional solutions, the public-private partner-academic partnership that we have is the right model. Not only prosper in good times, but also when we’re faced with some of these challenges we’re faced with right now.

Katie: Paul, I think it’s like it’s the time now when say the universities are facing some of these cuts and what’s happening with research to talk about, I think it’s been floated and talked about before, is creating a kind of R&D area that works in conjunction with the university so that public private, and I don’t know if that was incentivized a lot before, but now with these cuts, I think about thinking about how we can incentivize that more and get that going now because that is also huge. Other universities have done things like that. I think that the president of the University of Michigan is interested in something like that. And so this might be the moment, you know what I mean? It’s a difficult time in government funding world, but you have to be able to think about how can we leverage this and what can we do? And that’s one way. 

And I’ll just say something else too about the young people. This is a young county. We have all these students that come in and they’re just getting younger. I like to say that rather than I’m just getting older and kids like young adults, like my son, these Gen Z people, I think 62% of them say that they would rather start their own business than work for somebody. I mean, a little bit pie in the sky. You’ve got to work for somebody at some point, but they’re really interested in thinking about what it means to create business and what to do. And that’s something we need to foster. That’s driven American economy for generations. And so we can’t just say, yeah, go to work for so-and-so. We have to be like, you have a dream about something that’s going to make people’s lives better. Let’s figure out how we foster that.

Paul: Yep, absolutely. Well, great, Katie, thanks for talking to us. I appreciate it. We will be back, talk with you in maybe a year or so to see how your perspectives are on where we are at that point and what we could be working on. So really, thanks for taking the time.

Katie: Fantastic. Thanks for having me.

Paul: You’re welcome. So as we close out, I want to thank our audience for listening and learning more about those leaders and organizations working hard to create the Ann Arbor Region’s economic future. These conversations are brought to you by Ann Arbor SPARK. For more information about Ann Arbor SPARK, you can find us on the web at annarborusa.org. We’re also on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.