Phil Fogg says baby boomers are changing the way we look at long-term care. “I’m thinking they’ll prefer the Rolling Stones to Frank Sinatra, piped into the dining room” he chuckles. “Seriously, we do need to be ready to respond with the services they’ll want for independent, assisted, and nursing care,” says Fogg, a fourth-generation senior care professional and founder of Marquis Companies, which manages 19 care facilities in four states. That response will take a new generation of health care leaders like those being trained in a partnership with Marquis and the college’s Department of Public Health. “OSU health care administration students are well trained in the classroom,” says Fogg, who notes that he currently employs more than 20 OSU alumni. “We give them internships, expose them to long-term care, and discover if they’ll make good leaders. And they in turn decide if this is the field for them. Finding young people with vitality and passion for providing these services will definitely improve the quality of care and the quality of life for our clients.”
To strengthen his commitment to the partnership, earlier this year, Fogg established the Marquis Fund for Leadership in the Field of Long-Term Care in the College of Health and Human Sciences. “I appreciate the collaboration with Len Friedman — he takes our needs to heart, and it shows in the students he sends to us,” says Fogg.
“This is an ideal joint venture where students translate skills learned in the classroom into practice and have the potential to impact this emerging and expanding field,” says Marie Harvey, chair of the Department of Public Health. Fogg, a member of the Governor’s Oregon Health Care Workforce Institute, says, “I often site this as a great example of work between OSU and private industry.”