Presidential Assistants from more than half of Ohio's 23 community and technical colleges gathered in Columbus on March 28 for the OACCPA Briefing Day. The event was held at the OACC Offices. Nancy Vandeman, Executive Assistant to President Erickson, and Jestinah McDonald, Executive Assistant to the Board of Trustees, attended.

The professionals who work in the president's offices and with the boards of trustees got a chance to discuss issues of mutual impact and learn more about the inner workings of state government from Neil Clark, Managing Partner of Grant Street Consultants, and Jeff Ortega, Director of Public Affairs at the OACC.

Presidential Assistants also visited the historic Ohio Statehouse and received tours of the chambers of both the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate.

In the picture, the group is standing in front of the House of Representatives Speaker's chair, or the "Lincoln chair." Although President Lincoln never sat in the chair, in 1861 he did stand and address a joint session of the Ohio Legislature from that spot. Of the tour, Vandeman said, "The time invested in our tour and the access we were given at the Statehouse made for an incredible experience."