Bay County’s Assets for Economic Growth – Interview with Dr. Randy Hanna, Dean of Florida State University Panama City

BY VAL SCHOGER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE FENDER

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]lorida State University has recently climbed up in the ranks of the top 25 public universities. In the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings, it soared to number 18. Ever since the beginnings of its Panama City Campus in 1982, FSU has brought higher education along with international recognition to Bay County.

This recognition is beneficial when companies evaluate Bay County for their expansion plans. Dr. Randy Hanna, dean of Florida State University’s Panama City Campus, works closely with the Bay Economic Development Agency when new prospective companies assess Bay County’s advantages.

“When a new company is looking at our location, or when an existing company is looking to expand, one of the large discussions will be about their workforce needs,” says Dr. Hanna. He mentions that his schedule for the beginning of 2020 includes several meetings with potential newcomers.

FSU Panama City has around 1,000 students, he explains. 3,000 students are taught each year. Online classes account for the other 2,000 students. In recent years, several new courses were introduced following an evaluation of skill gaps and workforce needs.

“We have introduced several new educational programs as a result of discussing the workforce needs with existing businesses and the Navy base in Panama City,” Dr. Hanna states. “As a result of the discussion with the Navy lab, we have significantly expanded our engineering programs. The Navy base asked us to evaluate and see if we could offer the engineering degree and we worked with our colleagues in Tallahassee and the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. It took a while, but we will graduate our first engineering students in spring.” Implementing the new course, from inception to start of enrollment, took two years, he explains. Both, a mechanical engineering degree and a masters in systems engineering degree, are offered at FSU-PC and students will also be able to enroll for a computer programming degree in 2020.

Several non-credit courses will begin in the spring of 2020, teaching cybersecurity, blockchain, and artificial intelligence.

“In everything we do, we look at every question and ask what is best for student success,” Dr. Hanna reiterates. Just like the engineering degrees, the newly introduced hospitality management course and the entrepreneurship degree program also reflect the workforce needs of Northwest Florida. The innovative entrepreneurial degree is particularly interesting with its goal of self-employment. The program started two years ago in coordination with the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship at FSU Tallahassee. Students learn how to launch and run their own company within the first semester. “We are in the early stages of the program but we had the first graduates now and they are successfully running their own businesses,” Dr. Hanna says.

FSU Panama City has other growth plans in the future, which will include the completion of student housing by the fall of 2021.