Louisiana Talent Retention Through Career Alignment Focus of October Board of Regents Meeting

BATON ROUGE, La. – A month after announcing that Louisiana had reached its goal of awarding 85,000 postsecondary annual credentials four years early, the Board of Regents turned its attention to what comes next: ensuring that those credentials create meaningful opportunities for graduates and help build Louisiana’s future.

During Wednesday’s Board meeting on Southern University A&M’s campus, Regents previewed the new Louisiana Opportunity Index, a statewide framework designed to measure how effectively Louisiana’s postsecondary education system creates opportunities for graduates and meets the state’s workforce needs.

Developed with input from Louisiana leaders and informed by the Strada Education Foundation’s State Opportunity Index, the Louisiana Opportunity Index will examine five dimensions of postsecondary opportunity across the state, including alignment with workforce demand, return on investment, retention of graduates in Louisiana, participation in work-integrated learning, and access to quality career guidance.

During the Board’s October meeting Deputy Commissioner for Academic Affairs and Innovation Dr. Tristan Denley introduced the newly created Louisiana index, highlighting its role in linking educational attainment to workforce alignment, talent retention, and career-connected learning.

“Louisiana has proven that it can educate more of its people than ever before. Now we have to make sure those talented graduates see opportunity  here at home, and career alignment is how we do that,” said Commissioner of Higher Education Dr. Kim Hunter Reed. “When our postsecondary institutions, workforce partners, and economic developers are rowing in the same direction, Louisiana’s talent development and talent retention come together, which is critical for our state’s success.”

The presentation Wednesday was the culmination of two days of conversation that included panel discussions on career alignment in the Greater Baton Rouge and River Parishes areas and the future of the state’s agriculture workforce. Board members engaged with area leaders from Louisiana Works, LED, the Greater Baton Rouge Economic Partnership, Baton Rouge Community College, River Parishes Community College, LSU A&M, Southern A&M, LSU AgCenter, and Southern Ag Center.

Louisiana has announced more than $260B in economic investments in all corners of the state, with these future and ongoing capital projects tracking to secure more than 16,000 new direct jobs and tens of thousands of critical indirect positions across regional supply chains. To meet the burgeoning workforce demand, higher education institutions, such as River Parishes Community College, are delivering world-class training to create a direct pipeline to high-wage careers in the state.

In other action, the Board approved the establishment of the Board of Regents Support Fund Rapid Response Workforce Development Program, a program to award $2M in grant funding to support postsecondary institutions in responding immediately to urgent workforce needs in the highest-priority fields across the state. Competitive projects will be funded on a first-come, first-served basis, with proposals submitted beginning November 16.

“With more than $260B in announced economic investments across Louisiana, the demand for skilled talent has never been greater,” said Board Chair Misti S. Cordell. “The BoRSF Rapid Response Workforce Development Program will help our campuses build the training pipelines these projects need and prepares the people who call Louisiana home to fill the jobs being created here.”

During the meeting, Board members also approved the FY 2027–2028 budget request for public postsecondary education. Regents will transmit the approved higher education budget request to the Division of Administration by November 1, 2026, as required by state law.

The Board further approved the FY 2027–2028 Capital Outlay budget recommendation, which includes 71 continuing projects and two new project requests. This information will be submitted to the Division of Administration for consideration. Staff members from the national firm Gordian presented its facility assessment of the campuses across the state’s four public postsecondary institutions to inform the Board’s action.

Chair Cordell also named the Board’s nominating committee, assigned to recommend the 2027 slate of officers.

The Board of Regents will hold its final regularly scheduled meetings of 2026 on Wednesday, December 9, beginning with its biannual joint meeting with BESE, followed by its December Committee and Board meetings.