Dr. Dale Caldwell recently shared his thoughts to The State of New Jersey's Leadership on MPAC's viability.
The COVID-19 economic shutdown of businesses has devastated small businesses and the country’s economy. This crisis has demonstrated to federal and state leaders how important entrepreneurship is to both employment and the national economy. They are learning the hard way how important it is to establish and support programs that increase entrepreneurship throughout the United States. I predict that once the pandemic is contained there will be increased demand for programs that successfully develop, support and fund entrepreneurs. This focus will be especially acute in urban communities. One of the most innovative entrepreneurship development programs in New Jersey is the MPAC Institute in Newark. This groundbreaking program was founded by Harvard graduate and successful entrepreneur Michael Anderson. MPAC consists of an interactive curriculum uniquely designed to develop the next generation of world-class entrepreneurs. The program empowers students to think strategically and act creatively. By teaching students how to develop sustainable businesses, formulate & refine ideas, and empower teams that sustain functioning businesses, they are able to instill confidence and endow a spirit of excellence that enables transformational community change. MPAC is dedicated to catalyzing scalable businesses in urban communities. The program’s focus is on helping students learn to innovate systematically, and thus build wealth through implementing MPAC's Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). MPAC's SOPs are developed by leading diverse entrepreneurial scientists with a proven record of helping business executives become more successful leaders, and Governments create diverse inclusive wealth for Women, Minority, and Veteran-owner businesses.. These experts must also have extensive experience helping businesses generate capital, contracts and increase their profitability. MPAC teaches students to not only operate with fierce urgency but have a flexible mind-state, unapologetically laser-focused and tremendously agile. MPAC programmatically provides the
tools driving hyper-achievement in underserved communities with high concentrations of low and middle income residents. This year, MPAC began advising Brick City Strength Academy, the first tenant in Newark’s new MPAC Tower, a centerpiece of the Innovation District. Technological innovation is shaping every industry and sector of the global economy. It is extremely important for social impact startups that evolve into community pillars like Brick City Strength Academy to have a Live/Work/Play space to house staff, incubator concepts, and train the future workforce to create healthier, robust, anti- fragile communities. The support that MPAC is providing to Brick City Strength Academy is playing an important role in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. The demographic research on victims of the coronavirus indicate that the people that are suffer the most during the pandemic are people in economically challenged communities whose health is already compromised. People in these communities suffer, at higher rates than the general population, with illnesses such as heart disease, Type-2 Diabetes, cancer, autoimmune disease and mental illness. Tragically, these individuals do not have access to the health care they need to address their poor health. This has unfortunately been demonstrated all too clearly by the data indicating that the majority of people who have died from COVID-19 in New York and New Jersey have been African American and Latino. To address this disparity, Brick City Healthcare (BCH) Innovation Lab is focused on providing health education, not only to high school students through Brick City Strength Academy, but to the surrounding urban population that is starving for more information about healthcare and personal well-being. Jerry Andrews and Veronica Pagel at Brick City Strength, and Michael Anderson at MPAC Institute are teaming up with other healthcare professionals in fields including but not limited to nutrition, mental health, holistic therapies, allopathic medicine, and wellness. They are engaging the community through seminars, workshops and health improvement events, like the recent Inaugural Health Is Wealth Fair this past Martin Luther King Day. During this day they hosted free community health and wellness seminars & activities to bolster wellness in Newark. In addition, they are utilizing their facility located in the heart of Downtown Newark to
serve as a screening/testing facility for whatever markers are necessary for our community to hold themselves accountable for the improvement of their health. They are also creating support groups to enhance the ability of the community to modify their behavior. In addition, they are utilizing innovative ways to engage the community in counseling and other effective stress-reduction programs. Their mobile response units are designed to facilitate rapid testing for all in America’s most densely populated state. The MPAC Institute is a model of programs that urban communities can develop to develop entrepreneurs that can create jobs, community wealth and help in the fight to contain COVID-19.
Dr. Dale Caldwell Dr. Dale G. Caldwell is a professor and the executive director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University Rothman Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He teaches Family Business Management and is the host of the TV show Family Business World (www.FamilyBusinessWorld.com). Dr. Caldwell graduated from Princeton University, received an MBA from the Wharton School and a Doctorate from Seton Hall University. In 2019, he was named one of NJBIZ’s 50 Most Influential People in Higher Education. Dr. Caldwell can be reached by phone at (732) 208-9808 or by email at dcaldwell@fdu.edu.