Grant Kirby

Background

About Grant Kirby

My career has been a series of amazing adventures of exploring how technology changes how we navigate the planet. While I had the privilege to work with network technologies in my early career, I had the most fun on the product marketing side of networking technology. I love the idea of taking a product concept from the back of the napkin, through maturity and on to end of life. This work gave plenty of room to nourish my inquisitive nature and the need to have some creative control of my career. I have always been in the role of teaching and sharing the technology with others. I take great pleasure in sharing the learning experience with others.That lead me from the high tech world to the college classroom, where I was able to help develop and IT program at Oregon Tech. I have now taken that love of learning to a new role at OMIC as Workforce Development Manager. This is an amazing opportunity for me to help solve the wicked problem of how we train up an adequate workforce for the struggling metals manufacturing industry. I have been able to incorporate mixed reality technologies with competency-based, problem solving strategies to make that training available to the growing number of underserved populations in our region. My primary role at OMIC is to be a Connector of the Collaborative Dots by forming coalitions of capable agencies in the pursuit of education that is free to the learners and very cost effective for the hiring employers. Standing up the OMIC Academy to bridge the gap in the manufacturing employee pipeline is definitely the best gig ever.