Michael Bileca: Leading education efforts from a philosophical framework

Since taking on the position of chair of the Miami Dade College Foundation in 2019, Michael Bileca has played a crucial role in building the college’s leadership and establishing leading degree programs in teaching and nursing. 

With his vast experience in Florida’s education legislation, Mr. Bileca said he has seen and helped lead a stronger relationship between the Miami-Dade County school system and Miami Dade College. 

“Because of the strong partnership between Superintendent Jose Dotres and our President Madeline Pumariega, we have established dual enrollment, a teacher program and many other degrees and certifications in AI and nursing,” he said. 

Mr. Bileca has been a long-time healthcare entrepreneur who in 2005 founded a Miami-based Dental Service Organization (DSO), Towncare Dental Partnership. Mr. Bileca grew the organization from start-up to 55 locations with 100 affiliated doctors supported by 1,000 employees. The organization then merged in 2013 with Dental Care Alliance, and he is currently an executive at Dental Care Alliance, which supports over 400 affiliated practices throughout the United States.

In the public sector, he served in various capacities from 2010 to 2018 in the Florida House of Representatives, where he maintained a focus on education. In his last term, he served as chairman of the state’s education committee, and sponsored and passed major education reform legislation in Florida.

Mr. Bileca is now the executive director of the Dennis Bileca Institute for Character and Excellence, a foundation that primarily funds schools focusing on virtue-based education with an emphasis on a classical liberal arts curriculum. Under that foundation, he founded the True North Classical Academy and now has six locations serving more than 4,000 students throughout the county. 

Mr. Bileca said he has been blessed to serve on the boards of several public and private sector institutions. He was on the board of the Public Health Trust (PHT) Financial Recovery Board when it was instituted in 2011 to help turn around the struggling Jackson Health System. During his first year on the board of the PHT, and under the leadership of CEO Carlos Migoya, the system went from an $82 million loss to a surplus. In all the subsequent years that Mr. Bileca served as a board member, the PHT/Jackson earned a financial surplus while maintaining its distinction as a world-class provider of quality medical care.

As MDC Foundation’s chairman, Mr. Bileca said he is committed in taking on the challenge that most colleges face today, which is to continue to offer accessible and affordable higher education to first-time college generations and reach the underserved community with the message that a college education can be achieved no matter one’s background or upbringing.

Mr. Bileca spoke with Miami Today reporter Abraham Galvan.

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