2021 40 Under Forty Awards
Mike Raia | 38 | Vice President of Strategic Communications, Johnson & Wales University
How do you think COVID-19 will change your industry going forward? In higher ed, the pandemic accelerated a rapid evolution that was already taking shape. The demand for a college or university experience will still be there, but students now expect more flexibility in instructional models and more direct connections to business, industry and employers beyond traditional career fairs.
What is the best advice you have ever received? A mentor of mine early in my career said that a professional devotion to passions is a pathway to burnout. It’s easy to read cynicism into a statement like that, but I’ve always interpreted it as a call to pursue interesting professional work that aligns with my talents and protect personal time to explore and develop passions outside of work.
Where do you see yourself in five years? I hope that in five years I’m still in Rhode Island, still in higher education and that my professional peer network is filled with more xennials and millennials holding leadership, executive and board positions in the local civic and business communities.
What is your favorite Rhode Island food or drink? Blount’s clam chowder.
Fox or MSNBC? The Public’s Radio.
What is your favorite song? I’m a cliché geriatric millennial, apparently: my Spotify playlists are exclusively 1990s pop punk and Lin Manuel Miranda musicals.
THE PROP: Mike Raia poses with a baseball cap and hiking boots. He spends lots of time with his children coaching baseball and hiking each summer.
