Partner Spotlight: St. David’s Foundation

Workforce Champion Award

For over 25 years, Capital IDEA has forged strong partnerships across the public, private, and community sectors, collaborating to expand access to education and opportunities for our neighbors seeking good careers. At this year’s Celebration of Achievements, Capital IDEA bestowed the Workforce Champion Award to honor and celebrate an exceptional ally whose sustained investment in healthcare workforce pathways has helped more than 1,696 Capital IDEA students access life-changing careers across our five-county region.

ST. DAVID’S FOUNDATION — 2025 WORKFORCE CHAMPION

This past year, Capital IDEA sponsored 1,238 students — students who are passionately and purposefully working hard every semester, every class, every exam, every clinical — to walk across the graduation stage and accept their new job offer. We see the extraordinary effort they bring to their education while juggling real-life responsibilities, and walking alongside them requires a team deeply committed to our mission and our values of Inspiring Transformation, Caring Together, and Cultivating Innovation. It also requires partners who share that same conviction: partners who believe that when you invest in people, you change entire communities. St. David’s Foundation is exactly that kind of partner — and this year, they are our Workforce Champion.

For more than fifteen years, St. David’s Foundation has been a steadfast champion for workforce development across Central Texas, investing in pathways that help our neighbors enter high-demand, life-changing healthcare careers. Since 2009, their support has been a driving force behind Capital IDEA’s ability to grow, adapt, and reach more people. In 2012, their investment allowed Capital IDEA to expand services to residents in Hays, Williamson, Caldwell, and Bastrop counties — counties whose students now make up 41% of our total enrollment. That kind of long-range thinking is what sets a true workforce champion apart.

One of the most powerful examples of their regional workforce leadership came in 2021, when St. David’s Foundation funded a pilot expansion of the Dental Hygiene program at Austin Community College, adding eight additional seats for Capital IDEA students. The outcomes were a shining example of what strategic investment can produce.

That initial cohort achieved full retention, full completion, and 100% job placement at $50 per hour — and the Dental Hygiene expansion is now permanent at ACC Eastview. What began as a pilot is now a lasting pathway, a direct result of St. David’s Foundation’s willingness to take bold, targeted bets on our community’s workforce future.

Their commitment continued to deepen. Last year, Capital IDEA — in partnership with ACC — was awarded the Pathways to Economic Prosperity for the Healthcare Workforce grant, a significant investment designed to build collaborative, region-wide pipelines connecting individuals to financially sustainable healthcare careers. This work is grounded in St. David’s Foundation’s broader strategic framework, Pathways to Health Equity, which prioritizes supporting collaborative workforce pathways, improving healthcare access across Central Texas, and ensuring people can earn wages that meet their basic needs — particularly as the cost of living continues to rise across our five-county region.

St. David’s Foundation is a shining example of what true workforce championship looks like — sustained, strategic, and deeply rooted in the belief that everyone deserves a path to a good career. Their investments have opened doors for thousands of aspiring healthcare professionals and created lasting impact for families, employers, and our entire region. It is precisely this kind of partnership that the Workforce Champion Award was created to celebrate, and there is no more deserving recipient than our friends at St. David’s Foundation.

From Dr. Edward Burger

Our mission at St. David’s Foundation is to advance health equity – to do this, we must have a thriving, diverse, and locally rooted healthcare workforce. We are committed to investing in training and education pathways that open more doors to more people. We are honored by this recognition and appreciate the important work of Capital IDEA and our partners across the public, private and community sectors to expand access to education and opportunity.

– Dr. Edward Burger, President and CEO of St. David’s Foundation