Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Andrew Lattanner to lead PCC’s Training Center, part of regional Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center

Photos and Story by Kate Chester

As Portland Community College gets closer to finalizing a property purchase in Columbia County, it has selected Andrew Lattanner as the director of the college’s Workforce Training Center, part of the regional Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center (OMIC) in Scappoose. He will begin his work with PCC on July 15.

The OMIC effort is a collaboration of industry, higher education and government focused on creating a world-class innovation center. It seeks to combine applied research and development and workforce training to serve the region’s advanced manufacturers, specifically the metals manufacturing industry. R&D projects are led by industry and university partners, while the Training Center will be led by PCC and shaped around a novel apprenticeship model.

“Andrew’s vast public policy and community engagement expertise will add great value to this key leadership position for PCC,” said Marc Goldberg, associate vice president for Workforce Development and Continuing Education at the college, whose division includes the OMIC Training Center.

“Our goal is to build a pipeline of talent for regional manufacturers through OMIC, to meet their future workforce needs,” he said. “At the same time, we’re striving to create economic mobility for area residents to access living wage careers in a key industry sector that is growing in Oregon.”

In late October 2018, PCC began the process of negotiating a purchase and sale agreement on a parcel of land – just over 17 acres – earmarked for the OMIC Training Center. Located just north of Wagner Court and east of West Lane Road, in Scappoose, the property offers easy access for students and the local community, and is close to the OMIC R&D operations center.

As the director, Lattanner will oversee a center whose stable of programs includes Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) Operations, Machine Manufacturing, Industrial Fabrication, and Mechatronics. The center will offer training that combines work-based experience with classroom and lab instruction, in an apprenticeship format that enables students to “earn while they learn.” Additionally, he will be responsible for connecting regional manufacturers with OMIC training, to ensure the apprenticeship model meets their priority workforce needs.

Lattanner is a transplant to Oregon from Washington, DC, where for the past 12 years he has been charged with bringing diverse stakeholders together to address pressing challenges faced by communities, states and regions. Workforce development has been at the top of Lattanner’s priority list, in part because of his role to support a U.S. Senator and Representative from Indiana, the most manufacturing-intensive state in the country.

Most recently, from 2013 until this year, he has served as the legislative director, then as deputy chief of staff, for Sen. Joe Donnelly. In this capacity, Lattanner was Donnelly’s top legislative advisor with responsibility for legislative planning, strategic communications, and constituent and stakeholder outreach. Prior to this role, he was the chief of staff for then-Congresswoman Kathy Hochul.

Lattanner is a graduate of Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, where he earned his Master of Public Administration degree. He completed his undergraduate work at Mount Union College in Alliance, OH, graduating Summa Cum Laude.

PCC’s OMIC Training Center is slated to open in fall 2020, with construction beginning this summer after the property sale closes.