Leading Through Change: Evolving College for the Modern Learner

What happens when a college stops asking students to fit its schedule and starts building around their lives? In this episode of Leading Through Change: Evolving College for the Modern Learner, Trellis President and CEO Dr. Debra Chromy talks with Eric Bing, Chancellor and CEO of The College of Health Care Professions (CHCP), the largest allied health training provider in Texas.

Eric walks through the four-part model CHCP built for working adults, most of whom are women, first-generation students, or returning after stopping out: short-term stackable credentials, flexible but structured programs, work-integrated learning through employer externships, and continuous support. He explains how offering programs with just one day a week on campus helped solve for child care, why a nine-month certificate that lifts a student from $2,600 a year to a $34,000 career can be more life-changing than a later jump to six figures, and how CHCP is launching one-year associate degrees without cutting credits. He also shares how AI and student data help his team spot problems early, and why stackable programs keep pace with a fast-changing healthcare workforce.

The conversation closes with Eric’s advice for campus leaders, listen to your students and your employers, and his hope that more institutions will adopt practices already proven to work for modern learners.

Music licensed through Soundstripe.
Code: AXL6LTYGHXSPAGVI

What would it take to build a college where no student has to be brave just to walk through the door? In the first episode of Leading Through Change: Evolving College for the Modern Learner, Trellis President and CEO Dr. Debra Chromy talks with Dr. Amy Bosley, president of Northwest Vista College in San Antonio, about redesigning an institution around the students it serves today.

Dr. Bosley explains why serving students living in poverty requires a fundamentally different kind of college, and how NVC is getting there. She describes her decision to stop canceling on-site classes once students enroll, a move that built faculty trust and made room for a new 14-week schedule reserved for students who arrive just before the term starts. She also shares how her team condensed the curriculum approval process to take a land surveying program from first industry conversations to launch in under a year, why the classroom is the next frontier for change, and why durable human skills will matter more as AI reshapes work.

The conversation closes on what keeps Dr. Bosley up at night: the students for whom college is their only shot, and the urgency to serve them better, faster.