Elevate AZ | Fall 2022

From a healing horse ranch to a chef focused on feeding the future, community spirit is alive and well in Arizona

Blazing New Trails

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

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Health & Well-Being: A Priority at NB|AZ

OVER THE PAST few years, physical well-being and staying healthy have been at the forefront of our national consciousness. At National Bank of Arizona, we believe that mental health is just as important as physical health. Many things contribute to a positive and healthy mental state in which we can engage.

First, it is wise to develop reading as an enjoyable discipline. Reading can enrich your mind and give you a brief escape from reality. Reading can even help relax your body by lowering your heart rate and easing muscle tension.

We all have limits to our capabilities when it comes to exercising, but we can seek to exercise within those limits. For example, I can no longer run long distances, but I can walk and hike. You can also make exercise your hobby, like golfing, tennis, pickleball, and walking your dog.

That leads me to my last point. It is essential to have fun and be more social. Having regular fun in your life can help you feel less overwhelmed by the stressors you face. Laugh more. Connect with people. Volunteer to help where you can make a difference. Seek associations that build you up positively and seek to do the same with those in your sphere of influence. Volunteering can improve your mental health by helping you develop confidence and selfesteem and giving you a sense of pride and purpose.

Second, it’s vital to get sufficient rest. This doesn’t mean the number of hours you sleep at night, but unplugging from your busy life. Taking a break to breathe, meditate or take a walk can boost your creativity and increase productivity. Resting can be challenging for some. Being fully inactive and disengaged isn’t easy, but the results are well worth it.

Third, fuel your body with healthy foods. Eating well and exercising will not only help you keep your body fit, but also your mind. Research shows exercise is an effective but often underused treatment for mild to moderate depression. It can boost your mood, concentration and alertness.

As an organization, National Bank of Arizona’s parent company Zions Bancorporation recently introduced personalized mental healthcare for all employees facilitated by Modern Health. Zions leadership recognizes mental health is just as important as physical health and has adjusted our employee health benefits to include a strong focus on mental health. This new benefit speaks volumes about how the company cares about our employees across all the Zions affiliates.

Mark Young PRESIDENT AND CEO NATIONAL BANK OF ARIZONA

Taste of the Biltmore is Back!

AFTER A TWO-YEAR hiatus, Taste of the Biltmore, one of the premiere food and beverage events in the Valley, returns on Thursday, Oct. 6. NB|AZ has hosted the upscale block party for 14 years, raising $136,895 for local charities since 2007.

Held at the bank’s Corporate Center just north of the Biltmore Fashion Park, the event features bites and sips from 30-plus vendors from throughout the Valley. Taste of the Biltmore draws more than 1,200 attendees and this year, guests will be able to enjoy a variety of food

and beverage selections from event regulars including OHSO, Someburros, and the Wrigley Mansion, as well as event newcomers Crepe Bar, The Herb Box, and The Ainsworth. While Taste of the Biltmore first began as a client appreciation event, it’s evolved into a public culinary party that unites the community and supports a specific charity each year. This year’s beneficiary is Gabriel’s Angels, which inspires confidence, compassion and best behaviors in at-risk children through pet therapy.

“The event became more and more popular, and we were eventually able to open it up to the public,” says Kimberly Signorile, assistant vice president and marketing manager.

Residents from across the Valley are welcome to attend Taste of the Biltmore, according to Signorile. “After two years, we’re thrilled to be back. Come taste food and drink from some of the best restaurants around the Valley and help support Gabriel's Angels.”

COMMUNITY

As the manager of our Wickenburg branch, she understands the value of giving back to her local community. Jo'Ann frequently volunteers for the Wickenburg Area Habitat for Humanity, Rotary Club, and Humane Society. All in all, she will dedicate more than 250 hours of her time to support these nonprofits in 2022. Volunteer of the Continues Support for

EACH QUARTER, we celebrate the volunteerism efforts of our associates. Our volunteer of the quarter for 2Q22 is Jo'Ann Montoya.

FOR THE THIRD consecutive year, the employees at National Bank of Arizona have supported the efforts of the Military Assistance Mission in their Back2School supply drive, as well as other organizations and schools in our community markets. Over 50 employees helped to outfit nearly 400 kids statewide with the school supplies they need to start the year off right. N.

State of Arizona Childcare Record demand continues post-pandemic

AREPORT RELEASED BY Child Care Aware earlier this year ranked states by childcare affordability, with Arizona coming in 11th in the U.S. for single parents and 24th for married parents in the cost of full-time, center-based care for a 4-year-old.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story. The average cost of $8,719 a year would absorb 28.7% of a single person’s income, and 9.9% of the income of a married couple.

To help alleviate the financial pain, the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) Child Care Administration offers financial assistance to low-income working families and other qualifying individuals through a variety of grants. The American Rescue Plan of 2021 expanded the Child Tax Credit,

and also funded grants for childcare providers through DES’s Child Care Stabilization Grant Program. At the same time, organizations such as Child Care Resource are strategizing to improve the overall environment for families, childcare professionals, communities and policymakers.

For many working parents who are returning to the office part or full time in the wake of the pandemic, access to childcare is a major issue. Viewed from the perspective of childcare providers, the current situation is a dual challenge.

“There are two simultaneous things going on in childcare and, unfortunately, COVID made them both worse,” says Ivan Pemberton, owner of Arcadia Montessori in Phoenix and Spondeo Montessori in Gilbert. “The first is record

demand. We’re celebrating our 50th year at our Arcadia location, and we’ve always been fortunate to have a steady flow of interested parents, but it’s nothing like we’ve seen in the past two years.

“In addition to dozens of people on our waitlists, there are countless people who call in every day who are basically looking for childcare immediately. You really feel for these parents who don’t necessarily have any options.”

To address their capacity issues, Arcadia Montessori will be opening an extension campus that will eventually ramp up to 120 or 130 spaces, and the Gilbert location is adding 32-space classroom in August. In response to parent need, Arcadia is adding infant care, and Pemberton also notes increased usage of the extendedday option at both schools.

The second pressing issue is a staffing crisis within the industry, including an exodus of childcare workers, as well as difficulties getting new entrants into the field.

“In some locations we have a waitlist, and in others we have empty classrooms,” says Clark Peterson, CEO of Northstar Preschools, which has an operations office in Arizona and 11 centers in Utah and Texas that offer traditional daycare and private preschool. “There might be enough demand from parents to bring in another 20 or 30 kids, but the issue is attracting and retaining staff.”

While the overall economy has recovered to within 2% or 3% of

pre-pandemic employment levels, the childcare industry remains 11% or 12% below. In a competitive labor environment, new hires may not show up on the first day because they got a better offer— or they never return from lunch.

“Those who’ve been around for 20-plus years have never seen anything like this,” says Peterson. “The labor market has always been difficult in childcare, but it’s reached new levels and beyond.”

Competing with large employers like Walmart, Target, and Amazon has required Northstar to dramatically adjust their benefits and entry-level wages, including a 30% pay hike for teachers. In addition to rolling out additional benefits, Northstar has accommodated teachers with more flexibility in choosing time slots instead of having a set shift.

Despite the challenges, both Pemberton and Peterson are hopeful about the future. “Many of our core staff have been with us for 10 or 20 years, and that’s huge in early childhood education,” Pemberton says. “We’ve seen an uptick in applications in the past few months, and I’d like to think it’s related to changing our benefit structure, such as adding 401(k) plans and healthcare insurance. We’re continuing to look at different ways to attract and retain qualified staff, which is really the best way to meet the increasing demand from families.”

“We view the current situation as an opportunity,” Peterson says. “We’ve had to stretch to make it make it work, but overall, I think it’s going to lead to a better working environment, better learning outcomes for children, and happier parents.” Jake Poinier

Ivan Pemberton, Owner, Arcadia Montessori and Spondeo Montessori.

Clark Peterson, CEO, Northstar Preschools

The average child care cost of $8,719 a year would absorb 28.7% of a single person’s income, and 9.9% of the income of a married couple.

YOU MAY NOT HAVE heard of a blue watermelon before, but once you hear about the Blue Watermelon Project, it’s not something you’ll likely forget. It’s a program that teaches elementary, middle and high school kids about food and meal preparation in the context of lessons that may touch on chemistry, citrus, climate or culture. The Blue Watermelon Project has grown from reaching a single grade school in Scottsdale to educating students in 24 schools throughout Arizona.

feeding the future

The project informally began in 2010, when chef Charleen Badman, owner of FnB Restaurant in Scottsdale, was asked by Echo Canyon Elementary School to help students understand how the school’s expansive vegetable garden could produce delicious food.

“We had created a beautiful garden at the school, but to our dismay, the students were not interested in eating anything that grew there, especially vegetables,” says parent volunteer Ann Colleary, who, with her husband

Unique project teaches students the importance of fresh foods from the ground up

Lou Rodarte, a volunteer at Echo Canyon School, and Charleen Badman, founder of the Blue Watermelon Project, keep tabs on the vegetables growing at the school’s community garden.

Lou Rodarte, still volunteers at the Scottsdale school.

The very first “Chef in the Garden” demonstration 12 years ago was presented to a class of second-graders. Badman and fellow chef Sasha Levine helped the students pick herbs from the garden, as well as lemon verbena used to make a lemon panna cotta. The students were delighted.

In fact, the demonstration was such a hit that Badman returned to Echo Canyon four times that year. After that, Colleary and Rodarte took over scheduling the demonstrations for the future.

After seeing Badman’s (who is known as the “veggie whisperer”) presentations, they were inspired to make sure as many students as possible had an opportunity to learn from her.

Badman continued over the next several years with “Chef in the Garden” presentations. The school remodeled so that all the classrooms were adjacent to a garden. Today, the school has 26 vegetable and fruit garden areas.

“It’s essentially a school situated in a botanical garden,” says Rodarte, who is a master gardener specializing in school gardens in Arizona. Besides growing gardens,

the James Beard Foundation to educate them about school meal policy in Arizona. It was a friend of Badman’s who suggested the name Blue Watermelon Project for the formal outreach to more schools.

The project is supported by the Steele Foundation, a Phoenix-based grant-making organization committed to traditional and cultural educational programs, and is supported by Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation. Administrators at schools began to hear about the program and before Badman and her team knew it, they were reviewing applications from schools. “We look for a lot of diversity among the schools selected,” she says.

As of this fall, Blue Watermelon Project will present “Chef in the Garden” in 22 elementary and middle schools in the Phoenix area and at two in Tucson. In addition to Echo Canyon, schools include Encanto, Longview, and Rover elementary schools and Concordia Charter School.

At every presentation to a particular class at a school, students in that class watch the demonstration, participate in preparing a meal, and then get a kit to take home with a recipe card and ingredients needed to make the dish that was demonstrated.

“We try to incorporate a recipe into the class’s curriculum,” says Badman, who, in 2019, won the James Beard Best Chef: Southwest award. “We try to weave in some of the ‘five Cs’ of Arizona’s economy: citrus, climate, cattle, cotton and copper. We might teach the students that there are five kinds of basil, or we may teach them about the food of a different culture,” she explains. “The chef at each presentation will try to emphasize local food, seasonal food and a ‘farm to school’ experience.”

he educates teachers about using gardens to enhance hands-on curriculum.

In 2015, Badman was invited to a James Beard Foundation “chef boot camp” in Vermont. “Chefs were invited from all over the U.S. to learn to be better advocates for childhood nutrition,” she says. “I left that program feeling very motivated to help more kids appreciate how delicious healthy food can be.”

Badman knew she wanted to expand “Chef in the Garden” to more schools, so she recruited about 19 other chefs in the Valley and invited the vice president of advocacy from

In addition to “Chef in the Garden,” Blue Watermelon Project offers Feeding the Future, an event that unites top Phoenix chefs and school students from around the Valley to create a new vision for school food.

With guidance from professional chefs, eight teams of high school, middle and elementary students create meals that adhere to both the nutritional and budgetary restrictions of the National School Lunch Program. Each team spends months testing and pricing recipes with the help of Blue Watermelon Project chefs to better understand the challenge schools face every day: how to provide delicious, nutritious and affordable lunches to students.

“We’ve watched kids go from spitting out food to being willing to try anything,” Badman says. “Diversity with food is so important because it brings awareness that different people eat different things. And we try to encourage kids to have their own opinion about a food, not just take someone’s word for whether something tastes good or not.”

Debra Gelbart

“ We’ve watched kids go from spitting out food to being willing to try anything.”

Charleen Badman, Chef and Owner, FnB Restaurant

Memorial gardens honor the service members of the Pearl Harbor attack

PEARL HARBOR AND the Sonoran Desert don’t have much in common on the surface. But the two destinations are forever connected because of a priceless military artifact that made its way across the ocean and inspired the USS Arizona Memorial Gardens at Salt River in Scottsdale.

The memorial, which sits between Great Wolf Lodge and the Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, opened in February 2020 and honors those who were aboard the naval ship that was secretly attacked on December 7, 1941, at the naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu island in Hawaii.

When the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and its American Legion Post 114 were gifted a retired American flag from the USS Arizona in 2007, it set off a long-term conversation that led the tribal community to receive the framework of the ship’s original boat house, once part of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, in 2018. The salvaged steel relic weighs more than 1,500 pounds, the largest and only relic ever given to a tribe.

“Salt River has always had really strong ties to the military and that’s exactly how it all began,” says Maleena Deer, tourism manager for Discover Salt River. “When we received the relic, the community wanted to create a place around it to honor those onboard—a space for all veterans and anyone else to come and have a moment to reflect here in the community.”

Deer says that when they learned about the size and the weight of the relic, they asked themselves, “OK, how do we create a space to house and honor this piece?”

That task was left to Aaron Allan, vice president and principal landscape architect of J2 Design, the Phoenix firm hired to design the memorial around the relic. The challenge was to develop a concept that collectively honored those who served on the USS Arizona, but also to create an intimate public space that recognized every individual involved in one of most significant events in U.S. military history.

And because the attack on Pearl Harbor happened decades ago, it was an opportunity to tell the story in a completely different—and personal—way.

“We needed to relate something that happened so long ago, and bring it back to today. The best way to do that was to try to make an emotional connection to the event and to people, so that’s where the idea of the individual originated,” Allan explains.

“The military is made up of different people from all walks of life. At the end of the day, they’re all working towards one kind of goal: protecting all of our freedoms. The biggest thing for us was how to make those visual cues and connections to people to relate to the intensity of the event. We tried to do it in multiple ways.”

The 5-acre memorial is silhouetted by 1,500 varying-sized commemorative columns that form the shape of the exact width and length of the USS Arizona, an outline meant to give a sense of the battleship’s scale. The columns represent everyone aboard the USS Arizona, with the taller ones preserving the memory of those who died and the shorter ones recognizing survivors of the attack.

Every night, 1,177 columns are lit to honor the fallen, an illuminating visual that not only projects the magnitude of the actual vessel’s size, but also the depth of loss of life at Pearl Harbor.

The centerpiece of the memorial is the boat house relic, displayed in a viewing room with glass walls facing north and south, which allows complete transparency of the memorial from one side to the other at all times. It features a timeline of the attack and accounts from survivors, and is positioned exactly where it would have been located on the USS Arizona.

A walkthrough garden with recycled trees and a flag display are situated north of the relic to imitate the ship’s “stern.” The lake on the south side, adapted from a water supply used by the adjacent Salt River Fields, forms the ship’s “bow,” with submerged columns that replicate turrets still visible at Pearl Harbor.

What’s unique about the memorial is it provides two distinct visitor perspectives, according to Allan.

“The memorial really has two different looks and feels,” he says. “There’s the daytime feel, where the sunlight comes through and gives it one kind of glow. But then at night, when all the lights actually come on, you get the reflection off the really black water, and it has this other kind of ethereal feel.”

The design includes subtle nods to the military with signage and unique architectural elements to help retell the Pearl Harbor narrative. Stacked aluminum blocks, which hang next to the boat house relic, contain the name and rank of every individual who served on the ship.

“It was our interpretation of dog tags,” Allan says.

J2 Design also incorporated symbols of the tribal community into the memorial, using basketweave patterns on ground pavers and raised planters to acknowledge its influence on arts and culture. Plus, it repurposed the existing Veterans Circle into the design.

“We wanted to have different touch points for visitors,” Allan says of the memorial experience. “Whether you’re willing to just spend five minutes or five hours there, you can take in as much as you want and pay your respects.”

Sally J. Clasen

Book Smart

Literacy advocate helps kids realize a better future through reading

So, she launched Read Better, Be Better, which is mostly funded by school contributions and philanthropic donations. Its core program, which she designed, uses a reading comprehension curriculum that focuses on building reading skills and encourages kids to want to read. The program targets third-graders in low-income communities in Maricopa and Pinal counties, serving 11 school districts in 10-week sessions each semester.

Currently, Allen-Etchart projects 89 schools will participate in Read Better, Be Better this fall, and that number will increase to 99 schools by spring 2023, serving nearly 8,000 students.

WHEN CHILDREN ARE able to read—and understand the meaning behind the words—it sets them up for a brighter future. That’s the premise behind Read Better, Be Better, a nonprofit founded in 2014 by Sophie Allen-Etchart.

A native of the U.K., Allen-Etchart worked in the finance sector in London, but ultimately transitioned into the nonprofit world, consulting and eventually managing educational programming for a family agency in Peru, where she met her husband, who is from Arizona. When they relocated to Phoenix, she worked for a financial literacy nonprofit, but recognized more needed to be done to improve childhood reading comprehension equation here.

While Arizona is a remarkable place with unusual beauty and notable achievements, the childhood literacy rate, unfortunately, is not a point of pride—65 percent of all thirdgraders cannot read at grade level in the Grand Canyon State.

“When you don’t read at a grade level by the end of third grade, you’re four times less likely to graduate from high school,” says Allen-Etchart. “Lots of people were talking about what can we do to move that needle because it will have such a transformative effect on society. But there wasn’t a reading comprehension component of that continuum.”

She also felt the standard learning model for literacy lacked a critical feature: excitement for reading. “If you’re going to love reading, you’ve got to functionally understand what the text is, right,” she continues. “My passion is around that. How do you build that technical skill? How do you have kids be able to construct their own meaning from text? You’re only going to choose to read if you have ownership over that and enjoy it.”

After doing several months of research to find an organization that combined reading comprehension with the joy of reading, Allen-Etchart realized one didn’t exist.

One-one-one reading sessions are held after school for 90 minutes, twice a week from 3:30 to 5 p.m. During the hour-and-a-half lesson, the student and their volunteer teacher read selected books to each other and discuss the content. The exchange includes an element of storytelling, in which the third-graders express and make notes about their own interpretation of the text.

And when the reading tutor is a student from the same school district, it’s a winning literacy combination. The thirdgraders who participate in Read Better, Be Better are mentored by eighth-graders, a piece of the programming that not only improves literacy, but fosters leadership and volunteerism skills in the older kids, according to Allen-Etchart.

The curriculum is simple by design, but the value of respect and professionalism is mandatory. Tutors meet and walk the third-graders to the library for their reading session, take attendance, and also take a moment to send well wishes to students who are absent.

“It’s important that you build a space of magic like Disneyland so that you set the expectation from the outset of how I’m going to treat you and how we’re going to treat each other,” says Allen-Etchart.

Internal metrics suggest 89% of the readers believe they understand more what they’re reading as a result of participation in Read Better, Be Better—and therefore, probably will graduate high school per industry research.

“It has a tremendous impact on society. Those who graduate high school are more likely to be meaningfully employed and are less likely to be engaged in the criminal justice system or need additional support,” she says. “If you think you read better, you’re going to choose to read more often. And if you read more often, you’re going to get better.”

And that’s the fairytale arc Allen-Etchart believes occurs with Read Better, Be Better.

“There’s nothing more satisfying than a kid who goes through a program and says they now go to the library and choose their own books,” she says. “You don’t get to do that if you don’t have the skills. But it also takes fostering and time. There’s some magic in our program that makes that happen.” Sally J. Clasen

“There’s nothing more satisfying than a kid who goes through a program and says they now go to the library and choose their own books.”

Sophie Allen-Etchart, Founder, Read Better, Be Better

a place of healing

Reigning Grace Ranch ignites hope with horses

At Reigning Grace Ranch, students learn to train and ride horses, as well as benefit from therapeutic programs that help with such conditions as depression and sensory issues.

SPRAWLED ACROSS MORE than 15 acres of the desert, the sun warms patches of earth where horses heal. It’s a place of hope where all are welcomed with a simple benediction dangling from a metal sign that reads, “You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.”

Since 2009, Reigning Grace Ranch in Rio Verde has provided a sanctuary for Arizona youth, families, first responders and veterans through various mentor and rehabilitation programs primarily through the use of rescued horses. The faith-based ranch founded by Amanda and Christopher Moore.

“When you walk through the gates of the ranch, you feel like you’re transported somewhere else; it’s just a feeling you get,” Amanda Moore says. “Kids [especially] feel safe and not judged.”

But the ranch almost didn’t come to fruition. The duo, who met in their youth, were on the verge of ending their marriage due to several factors, Moore says, including a pending recession and trying to “keep up with the Joneses” where “stuff” took precedent over their relationship.

“It was like eating hollow chocolate bunnies,” she says. “they’re never filling.”

But a miracle, of sorts—or divine intervention—suddenly changed the trajectory when they adopted two horses and rescued a herd of wild horses.

“I asked Chris if we could rescue these horses. He said, ‘Sure, we’ll do that!’ What husband would do this?’” she laughs.

To make it even more challenging, Moore decided to take it one step further. “I woke up in the middle of the might with a vision of starting a ranch with broken horses and broken kids,” says Moore, who even had the perfect name for it. “Reign means to rule over. And if grace ruled, how much more beautiful would things be?”

Although the couple grew up with horses, they were admittedly out of their element. But they decided to take the reins and choose to live a simpler life while giving back. The decision ended up strengthening their union.

Since horses are very perceptive and intuitive, Moore says they could sense when one or the other wasn’t in a good mood—forcing each to work on their individual issues and prompting change in their relationship.

“They can hear our heart rate,” she says. “They’re lie detectors, and humans [can be] such good liars. But Patience (my horse) was like, ‘Listen up. If you’re scared, just fess up and tell me you’re scared. But when you cover it up, there’s something there you need to work on.’ ”

The couple apply that same approach at the ranch, which today consists of 85 horses—a few in their 40s—as well as chicken, cows, goats, pigs, sheep and a rooster. “If you want to learn about animals, get a lot,” Moore jokes.

The Moores, along with a handful of full-time staff members and more than 100 volunteers, oversee the ranch’s day-to-day operation and the various programs offered, which include the Junior Wrangler Beginner classes where kids learn to train, ride, and stay safe and confident around horses, as well as therapeutic riding lessons. Leaders also tailor one-onone mentorship sessions where activities include working with or riding a horse; and gardening designed to encourage healing, strength, hope, love and trust.

Many classes are free or nominally priced. There is little to no overhead due to generous donors, including the late William Edward Phipps, a World War II veteran and actor who was the voice of Prince Charming in Disney’s “Cinderella” film, among other Hollywood roles he held. His gift of $635,000 financed a covered arena with a classroom that launched the rescue and mentorship program, as well as being wheelchair accessible.

The ranch’s annual budget is $900,000. Hosted events on the ranch help offset costs. Future plans include a butterfly garden, as well as a two-story wrap-around house lovingly referred to as Jenny’s House. It will be in memory of Moore’s best friend, who passed away from cancer.

“I’m really proud and blown away by the kindness and generosity of the people, hands and feet of this ranch,” she says. “I had a volunteer say that it feels selfish to volunteer here because she gets more out of it than she gives. There’s so much love here.”

Allison Thompson is one of those volunteers and recent mentor. A former high school friend of Moore, she came to the ranch seeking help for her then 5-year-old daughter Ada, who struggled with depression, sensory issues and outbursts.

“Ada always felt things so big. Any change would be too much,” Thompson says.

Although the now 14-year-old still has struggles, she’s learned to calm herself through journaling, art and animals— especially Romeo, the horse she works with at the ranch and plans to own one day soon.

“Horses don’t judge,” Ada says. “I really like the relationships built around them. When no one is there, you still have horses. It’s unconditional love from [Romeo]. He’s just really cute. He’ll follow me around.”

Thompson says it’s also a safe haven where, at times, she’ll make the 40-minute trek from her Phoenix home on her own. “For all of us, it’s like family here,” she says. “You go there and feel refreshed. It’s something that replenishes your soul.”

Julia De Simone

Amanda and Christopher Moore, Founders, Reigning Grace Ranch.

banking on diversity

THE SMALL BUSINESS DIVERSITY BANKING PROGRAM at National Bank of Arizona launched at the end of last year as a complement to the bank’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategy.

“We created this program to improve equality and expand economic inclusion,” says Santiago Astengo, Vice President of Business Banking at NB|AZ. “Most importantly, we are committed to supporting underserved communities and ensuring that business loans are made available to business owners of all backgrounds through a special purpose credit program.”

The Special Purpose Credit Program is structured around the guidelines provided by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and “it was designed to empower women-, minority-, veteran- and LGBTQ-owned businesses by increasing access to the credit and financing they need to grow and thrive,” Astengo explains.

In many instances, he continues, minority-owned businesses have trouble accessing capital under the usual standards of creditworthiness because they may have

lower credit scores, weak business performance, insufficient collateral, highly leveraged, insufficient credit history or low liquidity.

The Small Business Diversity Banking program “expands our customary standards of creditworthiness,” says Astengo. “It allows new approaches to the decision-making, and its credit guidelines open the door to a wider universe of business owners so that they can access capital.”

Relaxed credit guidelines, he says, may include less rigid Small Business Scoring Service requirements, a higher BK Score allowance and other underwriting criteria adjustments. A BK Score is an algorithm that considers data points to analyze assets providing trustees and servicers with an immediate evaluation of a property’s probability for sale.

“I am proud to work for an organization that shares the same values I do,” Astengo says. “It feels great knowing there are very few banks offering this special purpose credit program with new underwriting techniques and approaches.”

To be eligible for the Small Business Diversity Banking Program, the business applicant must be a women-owned, minority-owned, veteranowned or an LGBTQ-owned business, says Astengo. “By certifying eligibility, the applicant also attests that artificial or temporary ownership/management changes were not made for the sole purpose of meeting the outlined program eligibility criteria.”

Astengo’s goal is “to continue spreading the word about our small business diversity program and help as many small business owners in our community as possible. Ultimately, we want to set an example to other institutions and be the leaders demonstrating that we can help these groups access capital and build solid, great relationships with them for many years to come.” Debra Gelbart

New NB |AZ program commits to underserved small businesses

Santiago Astengo, Vice President and Business Banker at NB|AZ

The numbers speak for themselves: minority-, women-, LGBTQ- and veteranowned businesses face significant challenges when it comes to accessing the capital they need to own and operate successful businesses. At National Bank of Arizona, we’re doing our part to close the gap with our Small Business Diversity Banking Program*, giving minorities, women, veterans and the LGBTQ community access to the capital they need to not just grow a business, but to see it thrive. MORE SERVE MINORITY, WOMEN, LGBTQ AND VETERAN BUSINESS OWNERS

STORY JAKE

SchoolS of ThoughT

ARIZONA’S PUBLIC FOUR-YEAR universities experienced undergraduate enrollment gains of 5.1% between spring 2021 and spring 2022, outpacing all but three other states. Here’s a brief overview of some of the latest news and innovations that hope to keep University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University on an enrollment roll heading into the new school year.

Arizona State University students prepare for a promising and successful semester ahead.

Arizon A StAte Univer S ity TEMPE

IN EARLY JUNE, Arizona State University announced its designation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education, joining the UA and NAU with the distinction of having at least a quarter of undergraduates identifying as Latino. The recognition positions the university to receive federal funding to increase programs, help more Latino students graduate, and foster cooperation with other higher-education institutions.

The U.S. Space Force and ASU have signed an agreement that makes ASU the newest member of the service’s University Partnership Program. Based on its reputation in space engineering, defense research and innovation—and as the home to the School of Earth and Space Exploration— ASU will collaborate with the Space Force in research and education, as well as by assembling partnerships and models. ASU’s participation in more than 20 space missions and extensive background in defense research will be a significant asset for creating future USSF programs.

A research team, led by an astrophysicist Sumner Starrfield in ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration and colleagues from University of Minnesota and The Ohio State University, published a study in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society about the fastest nova ever recorded: V1674 Hercules. In layman’s terms, a nova

results when a white dwarf heats the material from a nearby companion star, releasing an uncontrolled burst of energy that temporarily increases its brightness.

During its 75th anniversary global reunion week in April, the Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU celebrated the grand opening of its new state-of-the-art global headquarters in downtown Phoenix. The F. Francis & Dionne Najafi Global Headquarters was designed by Moore Ruble Yudell and Jones Studio, and spans 110,000 square feet on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus. The technologically advanced building features state-of-the-art flexible classrooms, 1,600 square feet of displays, and multiple studios to facilitate full immersive language learning and experiential activities.

Heading into the fall sports season, ASU received positive off-the-field news about its Academic Progress Rate (APR), which the NCAA uses to track eligibility, retention and graduation rates of student athletes. ASU’s 2020-21 APR score of 994 is the highest in the university’s history and marks the first time leading the Pac-12 conference—ahead of Stanford. Eleven of the 13 women’s teams notched perfect scores of 1000, while four men’s teams hit all-time APR highs.

Arizona State University University

Univer S ity of Arizon A TUCSON

IN JUNE, THE University of Arizona received recognition from global higher education analysis company Quacquarelli Symonds as one of the most impactful research universities in the world, moving up six spots from last year’s ranking to #262 globally and #25 among public U.S. institutions.

As a testimony to the university’s global impact, you can look back in time, out into space, or to the other side of the planet. A new study led by UA researchers and published in the journal Nature Geoscience unlocked two longstanding mysteries about the ice sheets that rapidly expanded in the Northern Hemisphere during the most recent ice age, 100,000 years ago. Meanwhile, UA astronomers identified five examples of a new class of stellar system that contains only young, blue stars, which appear as “blue blobs” when viewed through a telescope, while UA Health Sciences and the University of Western Australia Medical School in Perth formalized a framework for developing academic and cultural interchanges in teaching, research and other activities in health sciences.

The university is embarking on several important diversity initiatives, as well. UA and 19 other top U.S. research universities announced the formation of the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities, which

is geared towards increasing the number of Hispanic doctoral students and faculty members. Earlier this summer, the school announced a yearlong celebration of Juneteenth, focused on speakers, educational resources and virtual reality experiences to tell the story of Black people in the Southwest, and an announcement that it will be observed as a paid holiday beginning in 2023.

Other programs at the UA will specifically impact Arizona’s Native American tribes and tribal students, which is a vital part of the university’s strategic plan. The university has announced that undergraduate students from the state’s 22 federally recognized Native American tribes will be eligible for the Arizona Native Scholars Grant beginning in the fall. The first program of its kind in the state, it will mean that qualified students can attend the UA main campus in Tucson free of tuition and mandatory fees.

In the UA College of Education program, Native Student Outreach, Access and Resiliency provides mentorship and educational resources to Arizona’s Indigenous communities—and was recently given a boost from a $1.2 million grant from the Arizona Department of Education.

Better t ogether

While the rivalry is fierce between Arizona’s three public universities, they also come together to make our state a better place. In cooperation with Arizona Public Service Co., Salt River Project, Tucson Electric Power and Southwest Gas, the universities have formed a new, interdisciplinary coalition with the goal of attaining a carbon neutral economy in Arizona. The first initiative was the establishment of the Center for an Arizona Carbon-Neutral Economy at the ASU Tempe campus, which will pursue the creation of a regional clean hydrogen hub.

Researchers at the three universities, in collaboration with TGen and Arizona Department of Health Services, are also active partners in the Arizona COVID-19 Genomics Union (ACGU). Early this summer, ACGU reached a notable milestone in pandemic research, announcing the genomic sequencing of more than 100,000 samples of the COVID-19 virus.

University of Arizona Arizona

LIKE ASU AND UA, Northern Arizona University has connections to NASA—but appropriately for the Lumberjacks, the newest partnership involves the science of forests. A team of researchers led by NAU’s Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss) has received a $900,000 grant from NASA to learn more about what is causing some forests to reburn on a faster timeline.

Research for the project “Drivers and Impacts of Reburning in Boreal Forest Ecosystems” will involve matching satellite and LIDAR aerial images with measurements taken on the ground, in an effort to better understand how climate conditions, forest stand age and species composition, and other stress factors affect forest vulnerability and recovery.

While the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer the top headline every day, work is being done behind the scenes to improve disease modeling and public health decisionmaking. At NAU’s School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems (SICCS), assistant professor Joe Mihaljevic has been working with public health partners across Arizona and the U.S. to share computer models mapping the spread of the coronavirus.

A disease ecologist who applies epidemiological modeling techniques to wildlife and human diseases, Mihaljevic was awarded more than $3.5 million by the National Institutes for Health to create Epidemiological Modeling Resources for

In a high-tech world, encouraging students to go into STEM fields has never been more important, which means it’s outstanding news that NAU has been awarded $1.49 million in funding through the National Science Foundation’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program. The funding will support a new initiative, “Scholarship Opportunities for Student Retention and Degree Attainment in Undergraduate Engineering and Computer Science,” which is geared towards identifying, recruiting, mentoring and rewarding academically promising, underrepresented and financially disadvantaged students— particularly those from Navajo Nation.

At the end of the spring semester, NAU announced its Access2Excellence initiative, which will provide a tuitionfree college education for every Arizona resident with a household income of $65,000 or below. The program begins in fall 2023 for first-year and transfer students who attend NAU in Flagstaff or at one of the university’s sites throughout Arizona.

Northern Arizon A Univer S ity FLAGSTAFF

A team of NAU researchers has received a grant from NASA to learn more about what is causing some forests to reburn on a faster timeline.

Northern Arizona University

Northern Arizona University

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tapping the

Preserving Oro Valley’s natural beauty while building its business profile are keys to the community’s growth wide

STORY BRUCE FARR

PHOTOGRAPHY MARK LIPCZYNSKI spaces

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. So declares the timeless reminder of the three elements that make a community or residence attractive and successful. And that reminder couldn’t be more spot-on in describing one of the key reasons that Oro Valley can be counted among southern Arizona’s most prosperous and desirable places to live, work and play.

Situated just three miles north of the Tucson city limits, the town of Oro Valley is on a 35-square-mile plot neatly nestled between the striking Catalina and Tortolita mountain ranges. Dotted with native green scrub that clings to their craggy heights, these mountains frame the view in nearly any direction.

At roughly 2,600 feet above sea level, the area’s elevation affords it a slightly more temperate year-round climate than some of its neighboring cities and towns. But those views— to the northeast, the eye is inescapably drawn to majestic Mount Lemmon, the tallest peak in the Catalinas and a recreational magnet for locals and visitors alike.

GROWTH SPURT

Originally called “Palo Verde,” the Oro Valley township could claim just over 1,000 residents in the mid-1970s, when it was officially incorporated as an Arizona community. From that point, however, Oro Valley’s growth took

off, really hitting its stride around 1990, when the population reached nearly 30,000 residents.

Today, the town census counts around 47,000 residents. In that roughly 45-year time span, the influx of newcomers to the community has clearly swelled, drawing people from all across the U.S. who see in the Oro Valley something desirable and worth pursuing.

One of the many thousands of transplants to the Town of Oro Valley is Saurabh “Mintu” Saree, who owns and operates the popular Saffron Indian Bistro in town. He moved his wife and two children there from Tucson over a decade ago. Shortly after their move, he constructed the building that houses his 140-seat contemporary Indian restaurant, and opened it on little more than gut feel and some focused research. It was a risky move, as Saree points out.

“Fifteen years ago, when I moved here, Oro Valley was just sort of coming up and developing,” he states. “I had a kind of vision that this place was going to boom one day, and I was right—that vision paid off.”

As the population grew, so did Saree’s fortunes. “Our business has been steadily increasing,” he says. “In fact, this past year, 2021, turned out the be the best year with the most sales since we opened.”

“I had a kind of vision that this place was going to boom one day, and I was right—that vision paid off."

SAURABH “MINTU” SAREE, OWNER, SAFFRON INDIAN BISTRO

Saurabh “Mintu”

Saree, Owner, Saffron Indian Bistro.

HELPING HANDS

Saree credits a big part of his business success with the support the local Oro Valley community provides him and his fellow entrepreneurs.

“It’s the people in this community. They’re very easygoing and they’re mixed culturally, coming from all over the United States,” he says. “I have to say that even during the pandemic, when a lot of businesspeople didn’t know if they were going to survive, our customers were coming into our restaurant, buying gift cards, placing online and takeout orders. We struggled, but the business—the support from our clients—was there.”

Another critical means of business support that Saree cites is the commitment of the local government agencies to helping their retail partners in the community. “One of the things that’s really important about Oro Valley is that the town government helps us in many ways,” he continues. “They give us a voice and that voice is heard.”

In particular, Saree cites the local Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce and its president and CEO, Dave Perry, for having helped his and others’ businesses remain open during the pandemic. “Direct funding, some advertising, some free business counseling…they did all that and it helped a lot of us stay open during a very tough time.”

Saree’s restaurant is among many others that are promoted on the Oro Valley website as “OV Originals,” a 30-restaurant roster of local eateries that have their origins in Oro Valley. Paul Melcher, who heads up the local Community & Economic Development office for the town, says that the effort is just one aspect of Oro Valley’s commitment to supporting local retail.

“We highlight and promote them whenever we get a chance,” he says. “We’re not quite the city of gastronomy that Tucson is, but we’re developing our own brand here in Oro Valley and it’s been very successful.”

Melcher took the reins to his job just last year, at the height of the pandemic, when, he says, the challenges were substantial, but the opportunities were also significant.

“There are two primary reasons people are attracted to the Oro Valley,” he notes. “One is just the absolute beauty of the community— and the way that the planning for the town’s development has incorporated that natural beauty into our design.”

Melcher describes the immediate attraction as visitors approach the community. “When you enter Oro Valley, you can see that native trees and vegetation— the saguaros, the cholla and other cactus, for example—have been preserved. That’s been a hallmark of development here, taking advantage of the community’s natural assets and developing the community to complement rather than replace them.”

THE ORO VALLEY BRAND

The other reason, Melcher says, has to do with Oro Valley’s ironclad commitment to its economic growth. “When you have employers like Roche Tissue Diagnostics, Honeywell, and Leonardo Electronics US Inc., [the company has purchased 12 acres in Oro Valley’s Innovation Park and is planning the construction of a new state-of-the-art semiconductor laser manufacturing facility], I think it speaks very highly of the community and its opportunities,” he says. “The bottom line is that we have assets in place that underlie people’s decision for moving here—not only for the natural beauty and amenities, but also because it’s a great place to work.”

One key industry sector that’s helping brand Oro Valley’s economic identity is aerospace. Honeywell Aerospace and Meggitt—a worldwide leader in aerospace, defense and various energy markets—are just two of the largest companies located in the valley.

“Also, when you consider the addition of Leonardo Electronics US to the mix of aerospace, it gives us an additional boost,” Melcher notes. “With Leonardo’s laser guidance systems and military applications, I think it’s another great addition to the military/aerospace cluster that’s already in place here.”

Paul Melcher, Community & Economic Development, Oro Valley.

PAUL MELCHER, COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ORO VALLEY

Another aspect of Melcher’s team’s focus is on future growth in “clean industry” clusters. As he points out, there currently are 19 sites in development for what he terms are “light-tech uses.”

“We’re utilizing the University of Arizona Center for Innovation’s incubator that’s available to us here in Oro Valley,” he explains. “Currently, there are four tenants in the incubator that are working on creating new bioscience-oriented businesses. Once they’ve graduated from the incubation stage, we’re looking at transitioning those businesses, to keep them here in the Oro Valley. One of our roles is to help develop a soft landing for those businesses, and then recruit other businesses to fill their spots in the incubator.”

Of course, one of the most important factors in fostering the further growth and development of Oro Valley’s economic profile is the strength of the community’s “human” capital—its potential pool of residents who can fill these very specialized jobs. Melcher points to the area’s strong workforce demographics, with statistics that indicate a far higher than average percent of residents with bachelor’s and advanced degrees in tech-related fields.

“We know that we have a really solid foundation in bioscience, aerospace and the emerging tech clusters, especially when you look at high-tech and the very tech-skilled talent pool from which we can develop those clusters,” he points out.

WIDE-OPEN SPACES

Yet another major component of the Oro Valley development plan highlights the valley’s spacious

natural beauty, and all the forms of recreation that it spawns.

“Most of our [tourism-based] focus has been on wide-open spaces,” Melcher says. “It’s been a push that we’ve engaged along with the Visit Tucson campaign to feature some of our best attractions, like Catalina State Park, Honeybee Canyon, Big Wash and all the trails and other recreational opportunities that they offer.”

Nearer to town, Melcher describes recreational facilities such as Naranja Park, Riverfront Park and other settings that not only feature typical parkrelated amenities, but also have some connectivity to the popular Loop Trail and some of the other more outlying trails. “It’s really an integrated trails program,” he points out.

Melcher admits that, especially in the wake of the pandemic’s impact on Oro Valley, his Community & Economic Development team, the Chamber of Commerce and other factions of Oro Valley government have a lot on their plates. Nevertheless, he says, they work hand-in-hand to ensure that their prospering community gets all the support it might need to move the needle even further toward the town’s goals.

“We really want to keep our hand on the pulse of the community,” he says. “I think that’s what the pandemic taught everybody—that things can change so rapidly. Now, as we come out of the pandemic, we’re still addressing those challenges of getting businesses back up to full staff levels to handle all the pent-up demand for tourism and dining out in Oro Valley. I think we’re succeeding.”

“Most of our [tourismbased] focus has been on wide-open spaces. It’s been a push to feature our best attractions, and all the trails and other recreational opportunities that they offer."

Honeybee Park.

STORY BRUCE FARR

INFLATION

BITES

With an extraordinary set of economic circumstances afoot, what should Arizona investors do?

THERE’S NO SPINNING IT or getting around it. At present, a rapid rise in inflation is the single-most troubling aspect of the U.S. economy. The numbers don’t lie: A look at the annual rate of inflation for the U.S. is 8.6% for the 12 months that ended in May 2022, the largest annual increase since December 1981.

And there’s no denying that it’s a truly national problem. Fueled by policy responses at the federal level in the wake of the pandemic and the recessionary conditions it sparked, the U.S. has spiraled into a quagmire of economic woes that show few signs of easing—certainly not soon or even longer-term. In fact, new data indicate that inflation is expected to remain high into the latter part of this year, even as the economy shows signs of slowing and layoffs rise.

What’s worrying to many Americans is that federal policymakers are, themselves, engineering a country-wide economic slowdown, the rationale being that stubbornly high inflation can only be eased by inflicting some economic pain on the U.S. populace.

But what’s at issue is that there are increasing signs that even officials in the chambers of the Federal Reserve are questioning their inflationcombatting moves. They’re wondering aloud

whether their longstanding assumptions about beating inflation still apply, as prices continue to rise—and rapidly.

Challenges to the Fed Testifying before the Senate in late June, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell spelled out what his monetary committee and the country are facing: “The disinflationary forces of the last quarter-century have been replaced, at least temporarily, by a whole different set of forces,” he noted. “The real question is: How long will this new set of forces be sustained? We can’t know that. But in the meantime, our job is to find maximum employment and price stability in this new economy.”

Almost needless to say, Arizona has not been immune to the forces of inflation. Although the state has long demonstrated a level of economic strength and resiliency that rank above most others, the state is struggling to cope with the rising, rippling effects of a fraught national economy.

According to some of the most recent data, compiled in April by the Common Sense Institute Arizona, consumer prices here have continued to rise, registering an 8% hike over the past 12 months. (That’s among one of the highest CP rates in 40 years.) At the same time, price inflation in the Phoenix metro area hit 11%, which is well above the national average and, again, one of the highest levels ever recorded for the metro area.

What impact does that have on the average homeowner in Arizona? It means that since the end of 2020, a typical Arizona household has spent approximately $6,000 more on food, housing, transportation, medical care and other goods and services.

Sussing out the issues

Getting some perspective on the issues underlying our current economic challenges is the first step toward figuring out how to meet them. To help find that perspective, we reached out to Anthony Valeri.

Valeri is Executive Vice President and Director of Investment Management for Zions Bank Corporation, the parent organization of the National Bank of Arizona. One of the western U.S.’s leading authorities on investments and the economy, his professional grasp of what moves—or conversely stagnates—the U.S. economic engine is noteworthy.

“The U.S. economy, to me, is healthy…but it’s slowing,” Valeri says. “[As of late June] we’re starting to see signs that higher interest rates and higher inflation are beginning to bite. It’s still early—we get most economic data with a lag. But since the middle of May, we’ve seen signs that things are slowing. Even weekly jobless claims are trending higher, which, I’m sorry to say, indicates that the labor market is beginning to soften, as well.”

To make matters worse, Valeri points out that—as of this writing—even some stalwart technology companies have announced layoffs, a solid indicator that all segments of the economy are slowing.

“There aren’t a lot of bright spots,” he notes, “other than what remains a strong labor market. Even if we’re seeing some initial signs of weakening, at the end of the day, the job market is still tight.”

Among some other—but very few—positives, Valeri points to national household net worth numbers, which he says have never been higher. “Despite what we’re seeing in the national headlines, most consumers are still on very strong footing,” he notes. “People have a stock of savings due to stimulus and there’s a strong equity market and housing market.”

Hopeful signs in AZ?

“Despite some of these few positives in the outlook, I think the current situation still augurs for a slowdown in economic

Anthony Valeri, Executive VP and Director of Investment Management, Zions Bank Corporation

“DESPITE WHAT we’re seeing in the national headlines, most consumers are still on very strong footing. People have a stock of savings due to stimulus, and there’s a strong equity market and housing market.”

growth in the Arizona,” Valeri predicts. “I don’t think that Arizona is going to be insulated from the national trends. What I will say is that I’m a big believer in the impact of demographics and population growth as a very positive driver for future economic growth. So, I think that Arizona—with its higher-than-average population growth—probably is one of just a handful of states that are looking at some positives down the road.”

“Holding the course,” in an economic downturn is a timehonored strategy for investors, and that advice has particular relevancy in the current situation, Valerie continues.

“I think what investors need to focus on is the fact that it’s impossible to ‘time’ the market. If your economic horizon is three years or more, you should stick with an investment program, because we don’t know when the markets will turn around.”

And investors’ plans shouldn’t be entirely based on the performance of the economy, Valeri says. At some point, the decline in stock market prices is going to factor into the equation.

“In fact, as of today [June 16], the S&P is down 24% from its peak,” he notes. “That’s the average for a non-recessionary

bear market, and a recession average is in the neighborhood of 34%. So that’s where we are. But, I would say that if you don’t need the money right away, I would continue to stick with it, because we just don’t know when it will turn around— or if the markets will turn around before the economy does.”

While it’s hard to envision a near-term turnaround in the financial markets, Valeri says there’s still too much uncertainty about what inflation will do and what the Fed will do in response, and now, too much rising uncertainty about how much economic growth will slow. “So, I think we still have a volatile few months ahead,” he concedes.

All told, the Arizona picture is hardly a rosy one, but the situation does portend some light along the way. “I know this is tough given the state of this bear market. But once a bear market is underway, forward returns are fairly strong— typically, over a 12-month period, they average around 14%, which is a very good rate of return,” Valeri explains. “I don’t know if that’s what’s going to happen this time—I still think we have some stabilization to effect in financial markets— but, from a longer-term perspective, returns get a lot better. If you do have cash to put to work, it’s a good time to do that. That’s at least one bright spot looking forward.”

“I DON’T THINK that Arizona is going to be insulated from the national trends. What I will say is that I’m a big believer in the impact of demographics and population growth as a very positive driver for future economic growth.”

Anthony Valeri, Executive VP and Director of Investment Management, Zions Bank Corporation

Scottsdale, AZ

Home to world-renowned spas and golf courses, luxury resorts and fine dining, and signature events showcasing collector car auctions and the finest Arabian stallions and polo horses, Scottsdale is the go-to destination for the most discerning travelers. But at its core, Scottsdale is a city with deep roots and an engaged community invested in its economic growth and quality of life. Find out more about Scottsdale in the next issue of Elevate AZ.

PHOTO Mark Lipczynski