As the president of both Bryan College of Health Sciences and Hastings College, Lloyd has bounced between the Capital City and Hastings routinely over the last four years.

But starting on Monday, Lloyd will shift his focus to leading the liberal arts college in Hastings while also embarking on a new position with Bryan as director of workforce partnerships focused on central Nebraska.

Lloyd’s last day as president of Bryan College of Health Sciences, which he has led since 2016, is Sunday.

“It just finally felt to everyone that the time was right to make the transition,” Lloyd said.

On Monday, Kelsi Anderson will transition from provost, a position the Lincoln native has held since 2018, to president of BCHS, which trains nurses, sonographers and other health professionals.

While the name outside the president’s office will change, both Lloyd and Anderson said Bryan’s focus on forging new pathways for Nebraskans to launch careers in health care won’t.

“We are really proud of the work we’ve done together all these years,” Lloyd said, “especially in some of those key, community-based initiatives.”

The concerted effort to build connections beyond the college’s location at Bryan East Campus have culminated in recent successes at both the K-12 and postsecondary levels, both administrators said.

This spring, for example, the first cohort of students graduated from a medical sciences focus program at Lincoln Northwest High School that was the result of a partnership between Bryan Health and Lincoln Public Schools.

Although the first cohort was small, half of the eight graduates plan to matriculate at BCHS this fall, Anderson said, while the classes coming in behind the first cohort show there’s growing interest.

There will be 30 seniors, 45 juniors and 90 sophomores in the program this fall, Anderson said.

“Our growth has been based on the excellent work of the program director (Jason States), who was in the school five days a week making connections with students and really building that community,” Anderson said.

As Bryan has begun to build a pipeline at Lincoln Northwest and cultivated relationships with focus programs in other towns where the hospital has a presence, it has also sought to expand its postsecondary offerings across the state.

Lloyd’s unique role as president of both BCHS and Hastings College resulted in Bryan opening a second location at Mary Lanning Healthcare in Hastings last fall, creating new opportunities for aspiring nurses.

Unlike Bryan’s Lincoln campus, where students live independently off campus, the Hastings location allows students to integrate into a liberal arts college campus while still learning in state-of-the-art classrooms, skills laboratories and simulation centers.

The successful partnerships at both levels have led to more high schools, businesses and communities asking how they can partner with Bryan to build the future health care workforce, Lloyd said.

“We’re not going to be able to achieve the outcomes we desire just on our own,” he said. “Who are the partners? How do we bring them to the table? And what resources are needed to make that happen?”

Lloyd will remain the leader of Hastings College — his alma mater — as he seeks to begin answering those questions for Bryan Health in central Nebraska.

His new role gives Anderson the chance to take the reins of the college she has often led as Lloyd has attended to his duties in Hastings in recent years.

It also gives Anderson the chance to begin thinking about and pushing initiatives designed to grow Bryan College of Health Sciences into the future as it moves into its 99th year, she said, reconnecting with students, alumni and donors, as well as the community at large.

Those conversations will help inform a strategic plan charting BCHS’ future set to be unveiled next year, she said.

A big focus in the coming years will be growing Bryan’s enrollment. The number of students pursuing a bachelor of science in nursing peaked at nearly 800 students during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Anderson said enrollment has since leveled off.

“We would love to see our enrollment numbers go back up to where they were four years ago,” she said. “Finding those highly qualified students who want to get high-quality education here at Bryan is really important to all of us.”

That will mean leaning into the partnerships the college has built with LPS and other school districts in terms of focus programs, health science camps, career exploration days and other offerings.

Anderson said college leaders are also working with donors to make a Bryan education more accessible and affordable through more and larger scholarships.

The college is also working on what it calls the “Finish Strong Campaign” to financially support students nearing graduation in order to help them complete their degrees and move into the workforce.

The outgoing and incoming president of Bryan said the health sciences college will also continue making connections with young Nebraskans, whether that be in high school focus programs, job shadow opportunities or career exploration camps.

“It will be fun to watch Bryan College continue to grow,” Lloyd said.