News Archives

Oregon Supervisors Toolkit Aug 7-9, 2023

Supervisor’s Toolkit has been specifically designed to meet the needs of the facilities management professional. It is a structured, open-ended, and pragmatic approach to developing supervisors. It is not so much a teaching program as a development process, designed to help supervisors realize both personal and professional growth. The program has been newly designed as a full three days of training.

To register, click here

Welcome to the 2022-23 Board


Welcome to the new 2022-2023 Board of Directors! Learn more about them here.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Award

PCAPPA is excited to announce the launch of our very first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Award. Do you know a staff championing DEI initiatives and making a difference in the lives of facilities staff in our region? Share their stories of change with us. We are excited to know the DEI champions in our region and we want to honor and celebrate them. Please submit your nomination on the link below.

The deadline for nominations is no later than August 31, 2022. Winner(s) will be celebrated at the PCAPPA – RMA Conference, October 9-11, 2022, in Portland, Oregon.

For assistance or questions, please contact our Awards and Recognition Chair, Monique Villegas Rubalcaba, by email at: Monique.Rubalcaba@csun.edu.

Welcome to the 2021-22 Board

MAPPA to Partner with PCAPPA for a Joint 2021 Virtual Summit

Now more than ever we need to come together and share the solutions that keep us moving forward as leaders in educational facilities. PCAPPA & MAPPA are doing just that – joining forces for our October Virtual Summit. Save the date, October 12-13, 2021, for a two-day Summit filled with insightful content, new ideas, thought leadership and small group connections like never before. Visit the Virtual Summit website for more information.

Business Partner Spotlight

PCAPPA is recognizing our extraordinary Business Partner members and the innovative new things they are doing! Read more >

PCAPPA Launches Webinar Series

PCAPPA is proud to announce its Webinar Series, the ‘new normal’ knowledge and expertise-sharing platform. Join our monthly dialogue and share your ideas on the hottest topics in the education facilities industry. PCAPPA has a network of professionals, industry experts, leaders and education resources to support you. Get connected, lean in, share your creative solutions, ideas and successes, and recharge with ideas to lead your organization through these challenging times. Check out the PCAPPA Webinars page for upcoming webinars and events (additional content will be added all the time) for more information.

A message from President Pesiri

Nov 22, 2020

If you were one of the 260 participants in our very first Virtual Summit, you would agree with me that the event was exciting, enriching, and a great experience. Thank you for your participation. Thank you to our Business Partners, who sponsored this event. A big Shout Out to our Conference Team and Event Producers for such an outstanding event.

It would be customary for me to share my vision and goals for this upcoming year. I think that is hard to do. One of the things that the last eight months have taught us to do well is to pivot. Instead of stating my vision for the upcoming year, I would like to share what is essential.

It is essential that PCAPPA remains relevant. With all the challenges we face, you, PCAPPA, and APPA should be connected. That is how PCAPPA stays relevant. Whether you attend the weekly APPA Town Hall Meetings or a Virtual Summit, or other professional development opportunities, it is more important to stay connected today than we did in the past. PCAPPA’s mission is to provide you information that is appropriate to the times.

We must provide you value. In our support of facilities professionals, we need to continue to provide networking and professional development opportunities that offer you value. Knowledge acquired from PCAPPA and APPA should help make informed decisions. The information provided during the APPA COVID-19 town hall meetings enabled me to make informed decisions to keep my campuses safer while saving my school money. The accrued savings to my institution exceeds the cost of membership. Read more >>

Kim Case-Nichols’s Journey Down APPA/PCAPPA Lane

Nov 12, 2020

When asked how in the world I went from a flight attendant career to Executive Director of Space and Facilities Management in higher education, I easily explain it was my APPA experience. Through systematic planning, organizing, and adapting to constant change, I evolved into the perfect nontraditional career.

I began my facilities management career over 16 years ago in northern California and landed in Nevada in 2010. I was fortunate to start my Stanford University career who heavily participated in APPA professional development opportunities. I quickly realized the benefit of adopting APPA industry standards and practices that made Stanford a well-oiled facility management machine. My introduction to APPA as a young facilities professional was the Supervisor’s Toolkit. After completing this intensive course, it is fair to say I drank the APPA Kool-Aid.
Read more >>

TMCC: A Facilities Commitment to Environmental Sustainability

by Dr. Ayodele Akinola, DBA, MBA, LSSBB, NCBITL, NCTITL
TMCC Assistant Director, Facilities Operations and Capital Planning

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the commitment of Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) to environmental sustainably from architecture to infrastructure in the creation and responsible management of a healthy environment is firm. Practical aspects of sustainability initiatives are imperative issues with visible impacts and environmental relationships (Sheard, 2001).

Our sustainability efforts are delivered through the commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The commitments are crucial to the achievement of global climate goals in the mitigation of climate change.

They are deployed through various strategies that focuses on practices, partnerships, and initiatives, to confront the 21st century climatic challenges. These strategies are holistic and collaborative in scope, yet measurable, giving many benefits to students and the entire community. These sustainability efforts include:

Practices
Maintenance Department:
TMCC generates supplemental energy from solar arrays across three campus locations. Power generation from these solar arrays between July 2019 and June 2020 totaled 233,275 kWh. Renewable energy resources from solar is accompanied by economic and technical issues correlating with the integration of photovoltaic (PV) systems into the grid (Pazikadin, Rifai, Ali, Malik, Abdalla, & Faraj, 2020). Alleviating these technical concerns involves ensuring optimal grid control and power management from PV systems, necessitating frequent inspections. TMCC deploys periodic unmanned aircraft system (UAS) aerial infra-red (IR) thermographic scans to evaluate panel condition, efficiency losses, structural integrity, and system evaluation of our PV systems.
Read more >>

Nicole Sanderson’s APPA/PCAPPA Journey

Oct 7, 2020

Being recognized as an APPA Pacesetter this year 2020 was the culmination of over 10 years of involvement in APPA and PCAPPA. For me, figuring out how to get involved was the hardest part of my APPA/PCAPPA journey.

I hope you are reading this because you are interested in getting involved too – if so, you have come to the right place! I have a few suggestions for ways to get involved with APPA and PCAPPA.

1. Get involved locally: In my area, I started attending the Northwest APPA (NWAPPA) local workshops. It was a quick, easy, and local way to meet other facilities professionals in my immediate area and learn more about emerging facilities topics. I now service as the NWAPPA treasurer and help plan regional workshops.

2. Join a committee: In my home region of PCAPPA, our board has many committees you can join to get your feet wet in getting involved and expanding your facilities network. If you have an interest in research, professional development, and awards and recognition among others, joining a committee is a great way to start. Reach out to a board member to find out more about how to get involved.
Read more >>

Tony Ichsan’s APPA Journey

Sept. 28, 2020

With over 30 years of higher education experience in California, Oregon and Washington, Tony Ichsan has enjoyed a wide variety of responsibilities at various higher education institutions including independent (private) residential colleges, community colleges and a public research university. As an educational facility professional, PCAPPA and APPA have played an integral part of his journey.

Early on, Tony was fortunate to have had the support and encouragement of his then Director to attend PCAPPA local meetings and annual conferences. Soon came forays into regional engagements, and hosting an annual PCAPPA conference which led to his participation in APPA’s international conferences and contributions as researcher, author, faculty, conference presenter, and subject matter expert. Over the years, he reviewed and supported the launching of key initiatives: Credentialing, Emerging Professional, Sustainability, Code Advocacy, Awards for Excellence, and Community College Engagement. Tony credits this long-term APPA partnership for its direct benefit to his institutions and facilities teams by providing essential resources to implement best practices and continuous improvement.
Read more >>

Why take the APPA Supervisor’s Toolkit

by Erik Diaz
Landscape Supervisor
Facilities Management Services
University of Southern California
March 2, 2020

I have gone through the Supervisor’s Toolkit twice in the last 4 years. I can honestly say it is a necessity for every Supervisor who manages a team of people. Just as anyone needs to be trained to properly operate an equipment, the toolkit is the practical way to develop every supervisor. The toolkit improved my skills from the various standpoints of

a. Effective communication,
b. Engaging in the difficult conversation
c. Team motivation
d. Being an effective leader.

The Supervisor’s Toolkit gave me the opportunity to get out of my perceptive bubble and learn from other experiences, especially how things are done at other institutions.
The Supervisor’s Toolkit offered different perspectives from individuals dealing with similar issues at their institutions. Another great thing about the Supervisor’s Toolkit is that once you finish the course, you always have the material available to you. You have something to go back to as a reference as you practice and develop your skills. 

My Yelp rating of 5 to the APPA Supervisor’s Toolkit. I highly recommend all current supervisors and prospective supervisors take this course.

Message from President Johnson

October 2019

What a great conference! It was a great pleasure to connect and to share knowledge, experiences and to expand our professional network. I would like to thank everyone who made it successful, especially our PCAPPA Conference Committee Chair and our host institution, University of Nevada Las Vegas. I would also like to recognize our PCAPPA’s Business Partners for their continued support to make our conference a success. I look forward to this conference each year and hope you find it as valuable as I do.

We are committed to making PCAPPA an enriching resource for all educational institutions. At the conference, our 2019/2020 Strategic Action Plan was introduced. Goals were developed that focus on APPA’s 3 principles: Sharpening the Focus, Strengthening the Core, and Building Organizational Capacity.
Read more >>

Looking forward to seeing you in Las Vegas

It’s almost time for the PCAPPA 2019 Conference. Get ready for another enriching experience!

We are excited and looking forward to seeing you at the spectacular Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. Come experience the knowledge pool of diverse and cutting-edge ideas, best practices and more. Connect, inspire, be inspired, recharge your knowledge toolbox and build your leadership capacity to tackle the challenges in facilities today.

To get started, join us at 6pm, Sunday, Sept. 29 for a welcome reception in the PCAPPA Conference Hall of Resources. For first-timers, we have a very special PCAPPA welcome event at 5pm in the Wilshire Ballroom.

Our Opening Keynote Speaker on Monday September 30, is Patti Dobrowolski, an Author, Speaker, Strategic Illustrator and Change Agent who will incite your curiosity with her visual goal-setting tools.

Then join us for an array of insightful educational sessions to pique your curiosity throughout the conference.

We will celebrate our 2019 successes, our APPA awardees and we will share highlights of our new Strategic Action Plan.

This conference will invalidate the “Vegas Rule” of what happens at the PCAPPA conference, because our Closing Keynote Speaker, Motivational Improviser Avish Parashar, will dazzle you with stories and audience interaction and provoke you to share your stories to transform others and your organization.

So get ready, and safe travels to Vegas!

Winnie Kwofie
PCAPPA President

Visit the conference website to learn more!

Get ready for PCAPPA 2019

The deadline for scholarship applications for the 2019 PCAPPA conference has passed. Stay tuned for information about 2020 scholarships!

Message from President Kwofie

November 2018

The 2018 PCAPPA conference in Spokane, WA was exciting with the engagement of 280 attendees from 56 institutions and 46 business partners. Over 35% of our attendees were first timers and 8 past PCAPPA presidents spanning four decades were present. We also hosted our first “Women in Facilities” mixer, and based on comments…this event was fun and very inspiring! Finally, this educational conference would not have been a great success without all of YOU – our members, business partners and our host institution, University Washington, Bothell! Read more >>

Meet Kim Case-Nichols, PCAPPA Membership Chair

April 2019

For Kim, director of space and facilities management for the University of Nevada Las Vegas, School of Medicine, movement is the theme in her life. One thing Kim does not do is to sit still. For every space move, Kim’s dedication and commitment is to ensure patients are top priority and moves are cost effective. Read more >>

In honor of Women’s History Month, PCAPPA celebrates inspiring women in Facilities


Name and Institution: Kim Case-Nichols, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Women Leaders who inspire me: Joann Strobbe, Megyn Kelly, Lander Medlin

Key leadership words to describe these leaders: Passion, Decisive, Humility


Name and Institution: Jennifer Sorenson, CSU San Bernardino

Women Leaders who inspire me: Polly Pinney, Lander Medlin, Elvyra San Juan, Shari McMahan

Key Leadership words to describe these leaders: Fierce, Strategic, Passionate, Courageous


Name and Institution: Deborah Guillen-Aguilar, University of Southern California

Women Leaders who inspire me: Dr. Wanda Austin (Interim President, USC), and Ana Zavaleta (Director of Human Resources, USC Finance)

Key Leadership words to describe these leaders: Excellence, Trust, Respect, Accountability, Collaboration, Employee Empowerment, Courageous

Name and Institution: Laverne M. Livernoche, Portland State University

Women Leaders who inspire me: Laurel Brown

Key leadership words to describe these leaders: Compassionate, Integrity, Dedicated, Loyal, Resilient, Down to Earth, Fair, Trustworthy, Decent, Knowledgeable

Name and Institution: Liam Robinson, Director of Facilities Operations Stanford School of Medicine

Women Leaders who inspire me: Winne Kwofie

Key leadership words to describe these leaders: Passion, Energetic, Results, Integrity

Spotlight on the next generation

by Natalie Gunn, a student at Washington State University

If you asked me a year ago what the
Facilities Services department at my school did, I would tell you I didn’t know that our school had a facilities department, and I definitely didn’t know what they did. It’s crazy how all of that has changed in a year. Since learning about my university’s Facilities Services, not only have I been able to have an internship within the department, but have had many amazing opportunities outside of the school; opportunities like the PCAPPA Conference.

Read more >>

Congratulations to the 2018-2019 PCAPPA Board


Left to right: Nicole Sanderson, Kristin Witters, Moe Salem, Tony Ichsan, Winnie Kwofie, Bob Andrews, Steve Yeadons, Alvaro DeSousa, Tom Polansky, Eric Johnson, Kim Case-Nichols

To learn more about the board members, visit the Board Member page.