Introducing NIC Academy! Ray Braun, NIC’s President and CEO, shares about the new certification course focusing on the fundamentals of underwriting senior housing properties, and explains how this integrative capstone experience is perfect for both students and senior living professionals.

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Welcome to season six of Bridge The Gap, a podcast dedicated to informing, educating, and influencing the future of housing and services for seniors. Powered by sponsors Accushield, Aline, Procare HR, Hamilton CapTel, Service Master, Patriot Angels, The Bridge Group Construction and Solinity. And produced by Solinity Marketing.

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Lucas 00:48

Welcome to Bridge The Gap podcast, the senior living podcast with Josh and Lucas, a great program on today. We want to talk to you about a brand new educational initiative coming to the senior living industry with a great guest today. We want to welcome Ray Braun, he's the President and CEO at NIC, the NIC Organization. Welcome to the show.

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Ray 1:10

Thank you very much. Happy to be here.

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Lucas 1:12

We're coming off a recent trip to Seattle where we got to talk about all things important to the industry. One thing in particular is the NIC Academy that is being launched. Ray, you are the new President and CEO. I say new, it's not yesterday, but it's been a few months now. You have a deep background in education coming from being a dean at the university level. We'd love to hear more about your background and how you moved from your involvement with NIC, I believe as a board member and now coming in as president and CEO and then we'll get into the details of the NIC Academy.

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Ray 1:53

I previously served as a volunteer leader on the NIC Board of Directors in the late nineties and early two thousands, including serving as chairman of the board. During my tenure on the board, we recognized the opportunity to provide better data for investment decisions. I co-chaired the task force that created NIC MAP, the first ever data service providing market data on the performance of senior housing and care properties. NIC MAP has since become the standard data set for the sector and in 2021, NIC MAP and Vision LTC combined to form NIC MAP Vision, a single source platform that enables stakeholders to make better informed decisions. My experience with NIC MAP provided a roadmap for what we're doing with NIC Academy. In 2012, I left the healthcare real estate industry and assumed the role of Dean of the Schmidt Horse College of Business at Bowling Green State University.

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Ray 2:52

During my ten year tenure, online education was emerging and we created a very successful online MBA program, which became the largest graduate program at the university with students enrolling from around the world. My experience in academia also provided valuable background for NIC Academy. When I arrived at NIC in October 2022, I observed that NIC had a history of selling out boot camps and one day immersive experiences for underwriting and investing in senior housing and care. This was an indicator of demand for professional education. After performing some market research, our team learned that the training of analysts and managers in the sector was primarily done OTJ, meaning on the job, and that the industry lacked a provider of professional education for investment and finance professionals. OTJ training has some inherent limitations. The content is limited to the types of projects the organization is working on at any point in time.

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Ray 3:57

So it's not comprehensive. The quality of the training is dependent upon the mentorship ability of the trainer, which can vary greatly. Additionally, OTJ training is very expensive with experienced highly compensated executives typically providing the instruction. So given the success of NIC boot camps and the inherent limitations of OTJ training, we believe there was an opportunity to capitalize on a market need. Similar to the strategy with NIC MAP, by creating an educational and training platform for investment professionals in the senior housing and care industry. We named the initiative NIC Academy to emphasize the educational purpose.

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Josh 4:39

That is extremely exciting. And obviously with your background leading the charge on this, it's no surprise what NIC is doing through the academy. I'm really curious what specific types of programs, if you could share with us. Obviously you had the great experience and success of the boot camps. What is on the horizon that would be offered through the academy to professionals?

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Ray 5:02

That's a great question and we'll continue to offer the boot camps, but we're also going to add certificate programs and specialized courses. Boot camps will continue as an in-person immersive experience for professionals desiring narrow targeted training. Certificate programs are designed for professionals seeking a more thorough understanding of a subject matter and will be offered online for the convenience of busy professionals. Specialized courses are designed to provide education on a specific topic and will also be offered online. We are using recognized successful industry leaders to develop and teach the curriculum. This will ensure the quality of the program and provide a gold standard experience for the students. Our goal is for NIC Academy to be the go-to best in class resource for educating and training in the senior housing and care industry, similar to the stature of NIC MAP vision for quality data.

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Josh 6:01

There have been throughout the years that I've been in the industry, some programs popping up here and there for different, specific certifications. Do you view this as potentially becoming kind of an industry standard where people look for this, it's very recognizable across the country?

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Ray 6:25

So that would be the goal. The fundamentals of the underwriting certificate program will include six courses, overview of seniors, housing and care industry, fundamentals of operations, market analysis, capital markets and transactions with the program culminating with an integrative capstone experience. Each course will be offered asynchronously online for the convenience of the students. After completing the certificate program, students will be equipped to make data informed investment and asset management recommendations. As evidence of their achievement, successful students will receive the designation of SHCP one standing for senior housing certified professional one, which can be displayed on their resume or LinkedIn profile. Over time, we hope the SHCP designation will become a coveted symbol of professional qualification.

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Josh 7:21

Ray, I'm curious, one of the things I've heard from those that are wanting to come into our industry or maybe wanting to just explore that are younger students maybe in university that they have not gone into some of the university based programs because there's such a large commitment to going through years of coursework when they're not sure if they want to be in the industry yet they're just beginning their career search. Will this program have prerequisites or will this be open to people that want to potentially explore and find out if the industry is right for them to pursue and expose them to the industry? Or is this more for the professional that's already in the industry?

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Ray 8:09

The program would work for either target audience, assuming that the students only understand basics of Excel and financial modeling. So any student with that background would be eligible to participate in the program and they could currently be students or active working professionals.

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Josh 8:29

So outside of just getting an awesome education, which I'm sure having that recognized credential. NIC is very well known and kind of the gold standard of industry events and the boot camp has been so popular. Will this be something that also offers the successful completion for other benefits surrounding NIC and the community that gathers around NiIC every two or three times a year? Are there other benefits for these students?

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Ray 9:02

So we are contemplating that the SHCP designation can be made active annually and if it's active you'll be entitled to discounts at NIC conferences, other NIC Academy programs and the information that only academy graduates will receive, such as chart packs. We've provided mechanisms for the students to keep it active after they have graduated.

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Josh 9:28

So Lucas, this is pretty exciting. I know you've been sharing some of this because you've been on a little bit of the inner circle with the FLC and different programs at NIC and working on some committees. How exciting is this and what are the younger leaders thinking about this at NIC as you're hearing about it?

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Lucas 9:47

Ray has been so gracious to involve the Future Leader Council as a part of the discussion, and I've been able to kind of listen in a little bit as I roll off to my alumni status for FLC, but I think that this is a really important next step for the industry. NIC has so much great content, so much great data, and to essentially turn this into a program where people can virtually online be able to expand their knowledge and their career and get these certificates, I think it's going be a really important next step, not just for NIC, but really for the industry. The industry's growing. It's changing. It is not the same industry that it was just years ago, and there's a lot of newcomers coming into this space. And then also, particularly on the financial side, we all know that senior housing, it's not just real estate, it's way more complicated than just a building that was built in whatever asset that may be on a spreadsheet.

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Lucas 10:46

There's a lot more involved and I think NIC can really be a catalyst into really being an educational source for these items. I can personally attest to the power of the networking and the information that NIC can provide, and I love the fact, Ray, that people are going to be able to leverage this onto the LinkedIn platform, which is, in my opinion, the biggest social media channel for networking and information for the seniors housing industry. Seven, eight years ago when Bridge The Gap started, there really wasn't a big conversation on LinkedIn or really on social media about seniors housing. And of course that's evolved over time and we've been honored to be a part of that conversation. And so I'm really excited about these certificates and how it can impact the culture of the industry, the knowledge of the industry, and then the social aspect of networking.

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Ray 11:40

We think it's a much needed product and anticipate robust success with it. In addition to the certificate program though, we're going to be offering specialized topic courses. So for example, we have our data and analytics conference coming up on September 27th and 28th in Minneapolis. And a session there will be on using AI in the senior housing industry. Immediately after that conference, we're going to release a course on using AI for the senior housing and care industry so students can log in and see how to use the most current technology in their business.

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Josh 12:19

Our listeners right now, many of whom, maybe this is the first time they've heard anything about the NIC Academy and you have piqued their interest. We obviously are going to connect our listeners to you, but if someone is interested at this moment, where do they go to find out all about the NIC Academy?

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Ray 12:45

So academy.nic.org is the website that contains information about NIC Academy. We are still in the process of building out that website, but would anticipate having it completed soon.

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Josh 12:59

New resource from our favorite event, actually the event where we started that organization now rolling out training programs for the industry to have nationally recognized credentials through our ever-changing industry and growing and expanding awesome opportunities for anyone out there that's listening, whether you're in the industry or considering coming into it. This is evidence of the growth of our industry and a wonderful partner in NIC and now the academy.

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Ray 13:30

We have about 10,000 Americans turning 65 every day. So we're expecting rapid growth in the senior housing and care industry, and we think this will evolve to be the premier educational platform for industry professionals.

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Lucas 13:45

And that's a great way to round out the program today. Ray, thank you for spending time with us and we will be sure to connect with you and nic.org into our show notes. Ray, thank you so much for your time today.

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Ray 14:01

Thank you. It's been a pleasure and I hope to see many of your listeners at our data and analytics conference.

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Lucas 14:09

Absolutely. And for our listeners, you can go to btgvoice.com, listen to this episode and connect in our content on our other episodes as well. We talked about LinkedIn today. It's a great way for you to engage in this platform and in this conversation we'd love to hear from you. Thanks for listening to another great episode of Bridge The Gap.

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14:29

Thanks for listening to Bridge The Gap podcast with Josh and Lucas. Connect with the BTG network team and use your voice to influence the industry by connecting with us at btgvoice.com.