Larissa Littleton-Steib is chancellor of Delgado Community College, but she calls herself “the chancellor of crisis management.”
“We’ve had one hit after another, but we have managed to rebound. We are resilient, and I am just so proud of what Delgado Community College has been able to do in spite of what we faced this past year.”
Littleton-Steib has many reasons to be proud. Hired in 2019, she’s had to endure the COVID-19 pandemic for most of her term. As the virus seemed to wane this summer, Hurricane Ida struck. Still, 2021 was a banner year for the school, which is celebrating its centennial. In March, education research firm Intelligent.com named Delgado one of Top 50 Community Colleges in the nation. That same month, the school broke ground on the Ochsner Center for Nursing and Allied Health. In July, Delgado reached a credit transfer agreement with University of Holy Cross, meaning its students can now transfer their Delgado credits to every public and private school in the state. To top it off, the $9.3 million Advanced Technology Center on Delgado’s Westbank Campus opened in August.
“I’m the chancellor of the institution, so I get the interviews and quotes, but this could not have been done without the dedicated group of individuals that I have working along with me in our faculty and staff,” Littleton-Steib said. “Our faculty flipped 100% of our classes that were face-to-face to virtual. Our staff worked virtually nonstop. We never closed our doors. We were constantly open, and that is why we were named No. 37. There are 1,187 community colleges in the United States, so for us to be No. 37, that’s saying a lot.”
In March, the school received the largest gift in its 100-year history. Ochsner Health gave $20 million with a stipulation that $10 million be used to establish the Ochsner Center for Nursing and Allied Health at the City Park Campus, expected to open for the spring semester in 2023, and the other $10 million to fund the Ochsner Scholars program.
“Delgado produces 1,200 nursing and allied health professionals each year who remain in New Orleans and the surrounding metropolitan area,” she said. “This facility will allow our students to train in a setting as if they worked in a hospital. It will be state of the art with the latest equipment. The school of nursing is going to be a tremendous game-changer.
“There are many exciting things on the horizon for Delgado Community College.”
