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Partners in Progress UCLA and Johnson & Johnson create an expansive set of training programs to promote health literacy in underserved communities and empower disadvantaged families. by Tricia Bisoux forces, it's most often with a specific goal in mind—to enhance the business cur- riculum, promote an area of research, advance faculty experience, develop execu- tive training programs, or create positive change in the community. It's certainly an accomplishment for such a collaboration to achieve one of these goals, but it's quite another for it to achieve all of them. But that's what has hap- W pened with the 18-year partnership between the Anderson School of Man- agement at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Johnson & Johnson, says Al Osborne, senior associate dean and director of UCLA's Price Center for Entrepre- neurial Studies. Since its inception in 1991, the hen business schools and corporations join partnership has generated key research into childhood diseases, established three community-based train- ing programs for nonprofit managers, provided students and faculty with educational and research opportunities, and launched a nation- wide program dedicated to promoting health literacy among low-income families. Birth of a Partnership When Johnson & Johnson first approached the Ander- son School, the company was particularly interested in helping economically disad- vantaged children and their families, explains Osborne. With that in mind, Anderson faculty and company execu- tives soon focused their attentions on Head Start, one of the most comprehen- sive childhood development organizations in the world. In 1991, the partners launched the UCLA/ Johnson & Johnson Head Start Management Fellows Program, which Osborne now directs. Through the program, Head Start admin- istrators from across the U.S. come to UCLA to learn management and leadership skills. A central feature of the intensive two-week Fellows program is the MIP—Man- agement Improvement Proj- ect—which is a step-by-step strategic approach that helps Fellows plan and execute projects, improve operations, and solve problems. This year, the Fellows program graduated its 29th class and its 1,200th student. Mernell King had been a Head Start director for 15 years when she attended the Fellows program. At the time, she says, she had no idea just how much she didn't know. "I had been to all kinds of courses on fiscal management for Head Start, but I'd never been trained in strategic planning, cost benefit analysis, or improve- ment projects," she says. King applied what she Families and medical residents participate in a Head Start health literacy training session in Seattle, Washington. 24 BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2009 learned to turn the Head Start agency she was man- aging at the time in Hanni- bal, Missouri, from ineffi- cient to high-performing. She now directs early childhood programs for Central Mis- souri Community Action in Columbia, Missouri—last year, she also sent two mem- bers of her staff to attend the Fellows program. "We 'MIP' everything! If we have a systems issue, we MIP it. If we have a ser- vices issue, we MIP it," King says. "The Fellows program teaches us that there is a big difference between manag- ing a project and leading a project. MIPs are now at the core of our planning process." Wassy Tesfa directs the Head Start program at the Center for Community and Family Services in Altadena, California. She notes that most Head Start administra- tors come to the Fellows program with educational backgrounds: They know how to teach, not necessarily how to run an organization. The Fellows program teaches participants about the finer points of negotiat- ing, budgeting, and strategic planning. Fellows also can return to UCLA each Janu- ary to attend the Advanced Management Institute where they network, refresh their skills, and update themselves on legislation and trends affecting Head Start. In her continuing training, Tesfa hopes to learn more about branding and marketing, so that her agency can attract more funding and support from the community. "We become higher level executives and directors," Tesfa says. "We now have higher expectations of ourselves." Promoting Health Literacy In 2000, Anderson and Johnson & Johnson wanted