MarAd Designation Lifts Corn Belt Ports

The U.S. inland waterways are one of the country’s most valuable pieces of transportation infrastructure, connecting farms, mines and manufacturers with domestic and international markets. But infrastructure alone does not move a bushel of grain or a ton of cargo.

People do.

That is the premise behind the U.S. Maritime Administration’s designation of the Corn Belt Ports Rural Maritime & Logistics Training & Education Consortium (CBPRMLTEC) as a 2026 Center of Excellence for Domestic Maritime Workforce Training and Education.

(See the full list at the end of this story).

The designation recognizes both the workforce challenges facing the Upper Mississippi River system and the broader importance of inland waterways to the national transportation network.

For Robert Sinkler, Executive Director of Corn Belt Ports, the workforce piece is directly connected to the region’s ability to compete globally.

“The Corn Belt Ports, or at least the reason our ag products are competitive on the global marketplace, is really because of the quality of our grain,” Sinkler said. The second advantage is consistency, he said, and the third is “our world-class redundant multimodal transportation system.”

“But what was missing,” he said, “is we have to have the best trained supply chain workforce in the world.”

The MARAD designation provides a framework for getting there.

An Inland Waterways Recognition

The Center of Excellence designation carries particular significance because inland ports and waterways have traditionally received less public attention than their coastal counterparts.

For Sinkler, it is an acknowledgement that the inland system needs to be treated as an integral part of the nation's maritime infrastructure.

“This is what’s been needed for a long time, recognition like this for our inland ports and waterways,” Sinkler said. “We are advocates for taking really a national approach to our ports and waterway system.”

That means looking beyond individual ports or employers and considering infrastructure and workforce requirements across the transportation system.

“Whether it’s ensuring we have the infrastructure in place or the trained workforce in place, we are better as a nation and our maritime system is in much better position if we take a national approach to our maritime infrastructure and economic needs,” he said.

The consortium itself reflects that approach. Western Illinois University is the lead institution in a partnership currently consisting of seven community colleges and three four-year institutions spread across Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri.

Dr. Honey Zimmerman, Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management at Western Illinois University, said the different institutions bring complementary capabilities. WIU has programs in supply chain management, cybersecurity, GIS and homeland security, among other disciplines.

Community colleges will focus more heavily on trades, while four-year institutions can address business administration, supply chain and related disciplines.

“It really is a very focused effort,” Zimmerman said of the MARAD designation. “WIU’s role in that is we are the lead institution and we have a lot of programs here that are going to really contribute to the maritime workforce.”

Corn Belt Ports wants to see freight volumes from the region grow 5% annually. Two of its largest port regions recently recorded 5% increases, and maintaining that trajectory will depend in part on having enough trained people to keep the transportation system operating efficiently.

- Robert Sinkler,
Executive Director of Corn Belt Ports

Defining the Inland Maritime Workforce

A central challenge is defining exactly what constitutes the inland maritime workforce.

For many people, “maritime” immediately suggests jobs aboard vessels. Those positions are important, but Zimmerman said the consortium is taking a much broader view.

Its first task is identifying workforce gaps along the Upper Mississippi River system. An industry survey is already underway, and the consortium has divided the workforce into three general categories.

The first encompasses afloat careers: vessel navigation, harbor and fleeting operations, deckhands and other traditional vessel positions.

The second covers shoreside occupations supporting port and terminal operations, multimodal logistics and cargo movement.

The third reaches further into the rural logistics network that feeds the waterways.

“In this rural area, those multimodal ports are really important because we’re getting the crops from the farm to the barge terminals to rail terminals,” Zimmerman said. That category includes trucking and CDL positions, warehousing, agricultural commodity handling and storage.

“All of that contributes to the maritime industry.”

The immediate need is evident. Sinkler said more than 90% of the terminals in the Corn Belt Ports region are privately owned and operated, and feedback from those companies indicates persistent difficulty retaining workers and attracting new talent.

The problem extends to public infrastructure. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needs lock and dam operators, welders and other skilled tradespeople.

“We are working hard to make sure that we have a pipeline in place that’s producing the needs that we have and will have in the future,” Sinkler said.

WIU’s role [in the MarAd award] in that is we are the lead institution and we have a lot of programs here that are going to really contribute to the maritime workforce.”

- Dr. Honey Zimmerman,
Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management at Western Illinois University

Training for the Job That Exists

The consortium's ambition is to create what it describes as the best-trained rural supply chain workforce in the world. Zimmerman is quick to define what that means in practical terms.

“Best trained is according to industry needs,” she said. “We’re not saying that everyone needs a four-year degree.”

Instead, an employer hiring someone trained in the region should expect that person to possess the appropriate technical skills and practical experience, be productive quickly and have the ability to continue learning as the industry changes.

That places significant emphasis on credentials, certifications, apprenticeships and experiential learning.

It also means preparing workers for jobs that are becoming more technologically sophisticated.

A decade ago, Zimmerman said, many supply chain and maritime jobs centered largely on operating equipment, moving freight and managing inventory. Those skills remain essential, but they are increasingly being combined with automation, AI-enabled decision tools, sensors and data systems.

Cybersecurity and regulatory compliance will become more important. So will the ability to understand and interpret data.

At the same time, the inland waterways still need people capable of operating and maintaining machinery, safely moving agricultural and industrial products and running terminals and warehouses.

“Technology doesn’t eliminate the needs for those skills, but it does change how those jobs are performed,” Zimmerman said.

For her, the best-trained workforce combines “strong hands-on technical skills,” an understanding of modern supply chain technology and the ability to adapt as that technology evolves.

Education That Can Change with Industry

Building a curriculum around future requirements presents another challenge: many of the jobs and technologies workers will encounter in five or 10 years are still evolving.

Zimmerman said the answer is not to attempt to predict everything today. Instead, the consortium wants to establish a workforce development system capable of changing with industry.

Employers are central to that process.

“We need the industry continually talking to us and communicating, here’s the positions we can’t fill today, here’s the skills that we’re having trouble finding today, but then also here’s what we’re seeing and what we’re anticipating our operations are going to look like in five, 10 years,” she said.

Educational institutions can then translate those needs into curricula, credentials, apprenticeships and degree programs.

Another priority is “stackable education.” Rather than requiring experienced workers to leave their jobs for extended periods every time technology changes, shorter credentials and targeted training could allow them to return periodically to learn a new technology or add a specific competency.

Direct industry participation will be critical. Zimmerman describes employers, somewhat unusually for an academic, as her customers.

“My job as an educator is to help create the best employee candidate I can for them,” she said. “And the best way to do that is get customer feedback.”

One of the consortium's first objectives is therefore to establish a maritime workforce industry council that can provide continuous two-way communication between educators and employers.

Building the Pipeline Earlier

Training people for maritime jobs does little good if prospective workers never know those careers exist. “Young people don’t know what they don’t know,” Zimmerman said. The consortium plans to address that awareness gap well before students reach college. One initiative under consideration is hosting industry days modeled on We Work the Waterways events, putting maritime employers directly in front of junior high and high school students.

Longer term, the group hopes to develop maritime-themed material that K-12 teachers could incorporate into science and math classes. Consortium members also plan greater participation in high school career events and classroom presentations.

Zimmerman sees the challenge through the lens of her own discipline.

“I’m a supply chain person, so I think about where our students are going to come from is going to be the high school, so that’s my supplier,” she said. “And then my customer is really the employers that are hiring them. And so that’s a supply chain in itself.”

The ultimate ambition extends beyond the four-state region. Sinkler wants the consortium eventually supplying trained workers throughout the inland waterways and potentially into coastal maritime markets.

“A lot of the talent that we will be producing will fit anywhere in the Inland Waterway system,” he said.

Success should be measurable. Zimmerman points to enrollment, certifications, completed apprenticeships and, most importantly, graduates actually entering maritime and logistics jobs. Five years from now, she wants employers to report that workforce gaps are narrowing and young people to recognize maritime as a viable career option.

Sinkler adds another metric: freight.

Corn Belt Ports wants to see freight volumes from the region grow 5% annually. Two of its largest port regions recently recorded 5% increases, he said, and maintaining that trajectory will depend in part on having enough trained people to keep the transportation system operating efficiently.

“At the end of the day, this entire workforce is really an enabler for us to reach our global markets, expand our ag products being exported out of the heart of the Corn Belt to all over the world,” Sinkler said.

The MARAD designation does not by itself solve the region’s labor challenge. What it does is formally connect workforce development with the competitiveness of the inland waterways and provide a structure for ports, private employers, educators and government to work on the problem together.

“This is an important piece of the machine, having the workforce in place and a world-class workforce,” Sinkler said. “We think we’re well on our way.”