Beyond Buildings: Exploring Facilities Management

Brian Gregory [00:00:01]:

Hi, everybody. This is your host, Brian for the Beyond Buildings podcast, where we meet innovative and inspiring facilities leaders from across the country. In this episode, I chat with Dr. Gabriella Blakey, who is the Chief Operations Officer at Albuquerque Public Schools. She's actually the first female COO the district has had. In this episode, we cover the importance of advocating for yourself in addition to others. We also dive into the journey Gabby faced during her rise to the COO position. Also, we find out how she became a die-hard Bengals fan without ever visiting Ohio.

Brian Gregory [00:00:32]:

I promise you won't want to miss this one. Let's dive in. Hi, Gabby. Thank you so much for joining us today for the podcast. Just to kick things off, tell us a little bit about yourself. What are you doing now?

Gabriella Blakey [00:00:42]:

How'd you get kind of started? I grew up in Albuquerque most of my life, and I attended a school that was kind of an inner city middle school and high school. And when I was in middle school, my parents were very adamant that I go to the neighborhood school. It was a little bit further from my house, and it was this really diverse school. So a lot of my friends in the neighborhood transferred out to other schools, but my parents were very adamant that I go to the neighborhood school and that I would have a good experience, full experience there. So while I was in school, when I was in middle school, I was friends with my friend Diana, and we were doing like, a honor society food drive for the holidays, like, collecting gifts and food and presents and all of those things. During that time, we collected it. We all went to go deliver the presents and the food to the homes of the families that we collected it for. So we went to this apartment that was pretty close to the school that I went to.

Gabriella Blakey [00:01:45]:

It was kind of across the street in the very high poverty neighborhood. And we go upstairs to deliver these gifts, and my friend Diana comes out from the back of the apartment. And I didn't know that she lived in the apartment. I didn't know that those were presents and food that we were collecting were for her family. She had, like, six brothers and sisters. And it was kind of an eye opening experience for me that there were people growing up in my school that had such different experiences than I did and that I had very early on, like, an obligation to make sure that they had everything to be successful, that I was provided. And it was really clear to me how important it was to make sure that we support everybody else, because she was in all of my classes with me, and I had no idea that her home life was so different than mine, yet the expectations we had in our classes were the same. And so it kind of was an eye opening experience.

Gabriella Blakey [00:02:42]:

And I think it started kind of my path of being an advocate for other people, along with feeling very comfortable in situations where people are not like me. So because I grew up in such a diverse community, I actually thrive in meeting new people, being around different perspectives. My family looks like the UN to being around people that are different than me and valuing that as part of society and what makes us better. So it wasn't surprising, I think, that I went into education as a profession just in that I changed my major like seven times in college. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. I don't have the story that I always wanted to be a teacher. I played teacher when I was little. That wasn't my path.

Gabriella Blakey [00:03:30]:

I just knew that I wanted to do something where I could help other people and advocate for others. And I found that education was the place that I could do that. So I went into education. I started my teaching career outside of Seattle, Washington. Actually, like I said, I like to be around people that are different. I like different experiences. So I went like 2000 miles away from the desert into the rain, and I started teaching a newcomers program for students who didn't speak English, that were new to the country. And so I started that outside of Seattle for a couple of years before I came back to AlbUquerque because I felt really connected to give back to my community.

Gabriella Blakey [00:04:08]:

So I came back to Albuquerque. So in that I just kind of moved through the system as a teacher. And then I still had that fire in me that I wanted to advocate for other people or I'd see things that weren't right in the schools. And I felt like in the classroom I couldn't change it as much as I wanted to. So then I went into school administration to become a principal, hoping that then I could change more of the policies that were not advocating for other kids. Then after a few years, I got frustrated there.

Brian Gregory [00:04:41]:

How was the change from being a teacher to a principal? Are there any surprises?

Gabriella Blakey [00:04:45]:

Yeah, the biggest surprise is the difference in working with adults. So I think that that was like my biggest Aha. And I always tell people, I teach classes for the university now for future principals, and I always tell them my hard lesson was don't jump over the teachers to get to the students. And so that's my principal Aha. Is that to get to the kids, you have to invest in the adults. And so your role as principal, and even now as a district leader, you have to invest in the adults, and you have to kind of feed them in order to. Even though it's all about the kids, you can't just jump over the adults to get to the kids. There's a book called if you don't feed the teachers, they'll eat the students.

Gabriella Blakey [00:05:32]:

Very similar to that. The job of a principal really shifted my work to working with adults, which is really weird, because now most of my career, I've been in situations where I'm working with adults more than directly with students. But I still see myself as working with students because that's what the work is about. So then I went into district administration. I was on the academic side for a long time, several years. And then I just kind of wanted a challenge in something different. And I actually saw that a lot of men in upper administration were coming from the operations side to the superintendency. And even though in education, the majority of the teachers and educators are female, the higher you go in education, the less women are there and more men are.

Gabriella Blakey [00:06:23]:

Know. I go back to kind of my Diana story and being an advocate. That has kind of shifted in the recent years to being an advocate for women in leadership positions in the district because I saw that we were treated a little bit different and very pinholed into being on the academic side. And then operations, it was always men, but then operations was seen as, like, the leaders and kind of like, that's the go to department is operations. So in 2020, right in the height of the pandemic, I thought was a good idea to ask our superintendent if I could go into operations. He was the former chief operations officer. He was promoted to superintendent, so his position was left open. So I asked if I could move into that position.

Gabriella Blakey [00:07:10]:

I think he was really shocked because it typically is in Albuquerque public schools, it's always been a man who's been in that position. So being a female in that position, I think was like, well, why would you want to do that? And I think I'm pretty respected on the academic side, too, for my knowledge. I just said, I really want to have that opportunity to work through a pandemic. So I learned really quickly about air quality. And I feel like in my role now that I kind of translate, I tell people a lot, like, I translate the academic and the operation side to each other because a lot of the academic side, especially during the pandemic, teachers didn't feel comfortable in the classrooms. And then the operations side was like, the air is fine. That's not how they're going to sick. And I was like, but we need to show them because I can see what they don't know, that they haven't read the articles.

Gabriella Blakey [00:07:57]:

People don't know each other's world. And I felt like since I had a foot in each of those, I can help kind of translate to both sides the learning environment and then the practical education, like, teaching side of it and connect those two.

Brian Gregory [00:08:10]:

Interesting. Yes. You're able to use the skills you had Built through the academic side. Man, what a time to join operations. That's the biggest trial by fire ever.

Gabriella Blakey [00:08:20]:

Yeah. I could say I didn't have a lot of competition in getting the role.

Brian Gregory [00:08:24]:

Because nobody else wanted to in the right mind would want to do that.

Gabriella Blakey [00:08:27]:

Right? Yeah, I don't have a story of, oh, I had to go through five interviews, and it was really competitive. It was more like, I think it was May of 2020 and nobody wanted to do operations at that time.

Brian Gregory [00:08:40]:

Yeah. Well, thankfully, you stepped up and took that on. Were you the first female COO for Albuquerque?

Gabriella Blakey [00:08:46]:

I am, yeah.

Brian Gregory [00:08:47]:

Wow.

Gabriella Blakey [00:08:48]:

I talk about that a lot. It's great. Sometimes you feel, like, a lot of pressure because you don't want to be mess it up that they're like, we never want. You represent so many people.

Brian Gregory [00:08:58]:

Right. That's a lot of pressure. You don't want to reinforce a bias.

Gabriella Blakey [00:09:02]:

Exactly. So you have to really be careful about it. Yeah, and I struggle a lot. One of the hard parts about it that I've told people is you have to kind of check whether your check mark that you're the first female COO. But then operating wise, people are deferring to the men for making decisions. And so that's been really hard, too, that you don't want to be used as kind of like a token checkmark. Like, oh, Albuquerque has the first female COO, but then you're not included in meetings where the COO would be included. First of all, they'll go to men in your department first before, like, you have to kind of check that, because I'm not just a check mark on a box to say, like, oh, great, they did this.

Gabriella Blakey [00:09:44]:

But I want to be respected in the profession the same way that men are.

Brian Gregory [00:09:48]:

Have you had situations where you've had to really assert yourself to get in the right spot?

Gabriella Blakey [00:09:53]:

Yeah, I have to do it a lot. Most of the people in my department are males that I supervise. And, like, one time I was doing a site visit in a building, and I was walking around and I was with John, who works with me, and he's our director of operations. And we were walking around the building to check some things, and these people come out of the back. They're like, who are those people? What are they doing? And they're like, oh, I think it's John and his secretary.

Brian Gregory [00:10:22]:

Oh, no.

Gabriella Blakey [00:10:25]:

And actually, I was taken aback, but he was more like, uh oh. Because he already knows how I feel about it. And so I think for him to experience somebody saying that, I think was kind of an eye opening to him as a man that with a female boss in operations, that, oh, nobody would have ever said that if he was walking with the former COO around a building. And his response to it, he's like, well, that's so strange, because that was another woman that said that. And I said, I know, but biases and stereotypes, it doesn't matter if you're male or female. Everybody has them. But ever since then, I'm very clear. When I do site visits, I'm like, hold my clipboard, hold my purse.

Gabriella Blakey [00:11:09]:

I wouldn't make it known that I'm the one that's the boss, so to say. But I have to assert myself more often than I want. And being included in meetings sometimes, especially with other males in the same role, that will go to other people, like, other males that are under me before they'll come to me. And so I've had to kind of assert myself a bit, and I'm not a person that's like that. So it's like, something really uncomfortable for me because I'm not like, you're not.

Brian Gregory [00:11:39]:

A high ego person?

Gabriella Blakey [00:11:40]:

Yeah, I'm not like that at all. But I've learned that if you don't advocate for yourself and assert yourself, then what good am I doing advocating for other women if they're going to be kind of seen in the same way, too? So I kind of have to push myself out of my comfort zone in some situations where I wouldn't normally say, like, well, I need to be there, too, but I do it because I feel like I'm helping change the trajectory for future women in high positions.

Brian Gregory [00:12:07]:

Yeah, it's completely not the same thing, but the closest parallel I have is maybe around age similar. I've been in situations where I have a teammate, and also, I'm not trying to drive ego or anything, but people are, like, addressing this older teammate. It's like, when I introduce myself, it's like, okay, now I know who you are.

Gabriella Blakey [00:12:26]:

I think it is because it's, like, based on appearance, right. So then they're like, wait, the older person must be the person in charge. Are you the CEO or is the other? They'll defer to whoever is older. And it's done by appearance? I think so. I think there are similarities in age and in gender.

Brian Gregory [00:12:43]:

Yeah. Wow. So coming into facilities during a pandemic and then also dealing with that piece of it, that's crazy. Here we are in 2023. You still look like you're healthy, so you've made it through. What's the biggest problem you guys are facing now?

Gabriella Blakey [00:12:58]:

I think the biggest problem that we're facing is a workforce in operations. I think that that's the biggest issue is we have aging facilities and we have less of a workforce in our trades. And I think that that's been really difficult, and it's really hard because there's like, generations are kind of coming together in operations where in the use of technology now or trades being more connected to technology, it's really hard to adapt some of our people who have been around a long time to think differently about how to do things. So there's like a weird dichotomy of new people coming in and the people that have been there for a long time in fixing things. A lot of the new technologies in our infrastructure require more technology than they did in the past. Some of our HVAC units are different than repairing HVAC units 2030 years ago compared to repairing them now. And so that knowledge base of the veteran staff training new staff is really interesting to watch because they aren't training them in the same way, because sometimes newer staff understands how to fix newer equipment, but then if they're fixing older equipment, they have no idea. Then the newer staff have no idea how to fix it.

Gabriella Blakey [00:14:21]:

And the older staff are like, this is how you fix. I've been working on this same unit for 30 years. I can tell you exactly how to fix it. So that's kind of a really interesting shift. So I think our biggest challenge in operations, at least, is in the workforce and addressing aging facilities.

Brian Gregory [00:14:37]:

Yeah, you guys are not alone in answering that way. And I don't know that I've heard any sort of silver bullet fixes. It's also interesting, you kind of mentioned we grew up as a really diverse community and all of that, you got, like, a diverse facilities infrastructure, which is challenging. There are some areas where being homogeneous would be helpful, and I think when it comes to equipment and controls and all that, that's certainly one area where that would be welcome. So the staffing challenges you're facing, have you guys tried any? Have you had any breakthroughs or what are some things you're trying to mitigate that problem?

Gabriella Blakey [00:15:12]:

We've had to contract out a lot of our work where we used to do a lot in house, and that's been a little bit different for us over the years. We've created an apprenticeship council through our Education foundation and some of our biggest contractors that we use for our schools. And they have been meeting to kind of design a workforce of getting kids interested in the trades. We actually put on a big trades fair for kids to get them to see the hands on opportunities. And I think what's good about it is that we collaborate with our partners and contractors that are able to kind of be the cool ones that show the kids not just how much money they can make, but how hands on some of the careers paths that they can choose that the kids didn't really know about. I think that that's going well. It's just that we're skipping. That will be good in probably eight years.

Gabriella Blakey [00:16:07]:

So what do we do once those kids get through school and do apprenticeships? I think building that workforce from, I mean, we're an education institution and we're seeing a problem with workforce. So I'm always kind of like OD that. Whether the problem in workforce be in teachers or in operations, we have all the future workers. So it is something we kind of have control over, which is.

Brian Gregory [00:16:32]:

One of the things we've heard too, is just so hard to pay competitive wages. As much as folks love the mission of serving kids if they can't put food on their table, it's hard.

Gabriella Blakey [00:16:42]:

Yeah.

Brian Gregory [00:16:42]:

Have you guys had situations where you've had to true up compensation to match private sector or do you guys have that ability?

Gabriella Blakey [00:16:48]:

We don't have the amount of money that it would take to be able to do that. That's why we contract so much out. But we're spending probably two to three times the amount in contracting it out than when we used to do things in house. So right now we kind of are upping the amount of money we have for managers and supervisors because they're basically now managing the contracts for the workers that we're contracting with to be able to do the work. Unfortunately, we have people that leave us to go work for the contractor we use because they can go make more money and still do the same work.

Brian Gregory [00:17:24]:

I make twice as much. It's kind of like retiring and becoming a consultant.

Gabriella Blakey [00:17:27]:

Exactly. They're still doing, they're working in the same schools, they're just making more and it's in all of know, I oversee police, transportation, food services. All of those departments were struggling to be able to fill the positions well.

Brian Gregory [00:17:45]:

And we've heard too, like this recent conference we just got back from a district in Indiana, was able to do some true ups for food service staff and transport like bus drivers. Those were the two biggest problems for them, but then started causing some challenges with the academic staff wanting increases as well. It's a challenging situation. When we think about the mission of a K twelve school district, the mission is so important. I mean, it literally is our future. But when we think about the funding that goes behind that, it's falling short and at some point it has to change, but I don't know when that's going to happen.

Gabriella Blakey [00:18:21]:

Yeah, and like I said earlier, my investment is in the human capital, in people. So I argue with our departments all the time with HR and Finance, just advocating for compensation for employees because I just feel like that's where you're going to get the most return on investment is in how you compensate employees and the more that we can invest in them. I just think that that's where the biggest value is because I think our work is all about investing in people and then they would feel valued. And I was talking to one of our plumbers, he's a supervisor the other day, and he's just like, yeah, I could make more in private, but I just really love being able to see how I fix stuff for the classroom, for kids. And it's like, how do we get that feeling in other people that he has so much value in seeing what he does, that he is one of our top employees, just in how he serves other people. I worked in the private, but you go from home to home, you're working super hard because he said, the private is not that great either. He's like, you're working on commissions, you have to finish a certain number. We are a little bit calmer as far as getting work done and school.

Brian Gregory [00:19:34]:

Is going to always need to be there. Like a recession is not going to knock us.

Gabriella Blakey [00:19:37]:

And he just said, I feel like fixing a waterline break for a school to be able to function gives him value of what he just did to help all of those students get back into the classroom. And I don't know how we continue to kind of tell those stories to make sure people see that. If you're looking for value in your work beyond putting food on the table, but also feeling rewarded in what you do, then I think in working for the schools, you do get that and providing the environment for the kids.

Brian Gregory [00:20:09]:

Right. Yeah. It's worth a lot to the right person, but that being said, it's only worth so much. The pay gap has to be manageable and probably impacts you as well and your staff. Right. Your like, what is the budget for Albuquerque?

Gabriella Blakey [00:20:25]:

We have like a billion dollar budget.

Brian Gregory [00:20:28]:

Right. A COO of a billion dollar company. We have to get into the details of what you make or what they would make, but I'm sure there's a gap, but there's also the mission of what you're doing and that's why it drives you.

Gabriella Blakey [00:20:41]:

Exactly.

Brian Gregory [00:20:41]:

It's just a matter of trying to mitigate that a little bit.

Gabriella Blakey [00:20:44]:

Right. Yeah. If I was like the COO of our electric company that's in the city down the street, I would be making.

Brian Gregory [00:20:52]:

A lot more millions of dollars a year. It's crazy. Like I said, there's certainly value and I'm glad that we have folks like you and plumber you mentioned and every other K twelve facilities leader out there. But it's harder and harder to get the next generation to come this direction because it's getting harder to make a living. So I don't really fault them. Like, they don't have a heart. It's like if you want to get a house or whatever, you got to have to make income to do that.

Gabriella Blakey [00:21:19]:

Yeah. It's really hard because I think the next generation, they're not as going into careers, so they job hunt a little bit more. They do like three years doing this, three years doing that, and not in the, oh, well, you can be an apprentice and then you work your way up through until then. They don't see that right now. They're a little bit more, feel like I'm aging myself. In my generation, I'm like, the kids these days are different woofer staffers. They just think differently as far as work and we have to adapt to it.

Brian Gregory [00:21:56]:

Exactly. Yeah. Just the same way you have to handle diverse equipment and diverse student population. Like the workforce.

Gabriella Blakey [00:22:03]:

Yeah.

Brian Gregory [00:22:04]:

All right, well, we got a little bit deep there. I want to lighten it up a little bit. So I do know that you are a Bengals fan in Albuquerque, and to my knowledge, you've never been to did. How did that happen?

Gabriella Blakey [00:22:17]:

I don't know if that's lightening it.

Brian Gregory [00:22:18]:

Up because it's pretty, it's a dark.

Gabriella Blakey [00:22:21]:

Time of my life. I even have little Bengals, like, in my office.

Brian Gregory [00:22:25]:

Oh, nice.

Gabriella Blakey [00:22:27]:

I haven't been to Cincinnati. I've never been to Ohio. Actually, on my 13th birthday, my dad my sister and my brother are all really big 49 ER fans, and as a 13 year old, I really hated sports, and I was a musician for whatever a 13 year old musician can be. And it was my 13th birthday, and the 49 ers were playing the Bengals, and I woke up kind of like the 16 candles birthday where everybody forgot it was My birthday, and the whole house was decorated with 49 ers everywhere. It was like Little Jerry Rices and Joe Montana. And I was like, well, who's the team they're playing? They said the Bengals. So I looked, I was like, okay, they're orange and black, and there's this guy named Boomer. So I changed all my clothes into, like, orange and black clothes because I had a little keyboard.

Gabriella Blakey [00:23:22]:

I wrote songs about Boomer and about the Bengals and how they're the best team, and I was, like, trying to ruin their day by cheering for the Bengals. And I put so much energy into that day of the Bengals winning, and they lost at the very end of the game. But I have been a Bengals fan ever since I decorated myself in Bengals gear in 1989.

Brian Gregory [00:23:52]:

I love it.

Gabriella Blakey [00:23:53]:

And even now, I think it's like, in two weeks, I think the Bengals are playing the 49. They don't play a lot against each other, but they're playing, and my whole family is like, uhoh, just coming back.

Brian Gregory [00:24:06]:

Got to bust out that I would ask you to. I have my song, bust up with the song.

Gabriella Blakey [00:24:12]:

I have my little Boomer Icky songs about Tigers and Cincinnati, which I've never been to, but I have nice little 13 year old keyboard songs about them. So I'm like, the one Cincinnati Bengals fan in Albuquerque, New Mexico. So I went to my first game last week and saw other Bengals fans. I didn't know there were other weirdos.

Brian Gregory [00:24:36]:

Out there that could suffer for so long.

Gabriella Blakey [00:24:39]:

Yeah, I've liked him ever since, and everybody in my family could verify that. I didn't just become a fan in the past couple years, but all through the dark time is basically all the time in Albuquerque, I would say I'm a Bengals fan. They were like, we don't even know what team is like the Browns. And I was like, no, it's different.

Brian Gregory [00:25:05]:

That's funny.

Gabriella Blakey [00:25:06]:

It's this place called Ohio.

Brian Gregory [00:25:08]:

Yeah, well, that was the immediate connection between you and I. It's funny.

Gabriella Blakey [00:25:11]:

Yeah. I was like, wow, I actually met somebody from, yeah, yeah, well, I've been.

Brian Gregory [00:25:17]:

To Albuquerque, so now you have to come to Ohio.

Gabriella Blakey [00:25:19]:

I know. I'm like, wow, it's one step closer to the pickles now, I know someone from Ohio, right?

Brian Gregory [00:25:26]:

So you kind of lighten it up. That was kind of a sad start. Yeah. So typically, we wrap up these podcasts by just thinking about advice for the next generation, like another leader that's looking to get into operations. You've learned a lot during your time so far. What advice would you give?

Gabriella Blakey [00:25:45]:

I would give advice to other people to advocate for yourself and for other people to get into operations. It took me, like, getting out of my comfort zone and actually going to my boss and saying, can I do this? I'd like to do this job. Otherwise, nobody would have ever probably thought that that was an opportunity for me. So even though I am an advocate for other people, I've learned that you have to advocate for yourself, too. And I would give advice to people that don't sit back and wait for people to notice you or notice the work you're doing, but actually put yourself out there. Try to challenge yourself in uncomfortable situations, because you grow from it and opportunities open up that wouldn't have been there before. So my advice to people is always, like, advocate for yourself and push yourself out of your comfort zone so that you can be. You have a first female COO and not for my work was bad on the academic side, I think I have a good track record, but nobody would have thought about me if I didn't think about myself first.

Gabriella Blakey [00:26:47]:

So I really suggest to people that you advocate for yourself and put yourself out into areas where you're a little uncomfortable.

Brian Gregory [00:26:56]:

That's great.

Gabriella Blakey [00:26:57]:

And take a trip to Cincinnati and you're.

Brian Gregory [00:26:59]:

There you go. Yeah, you got to do that, too. Gabby, thank you so much for your time. I know have to be incredibly busy this time of year, but I think the whole community will love hearing from you and look forward to linking up again in the future.

Gabriella Blakey [00:27:10]:

Sounds good. Thank you.