Mike Wolanin | The Republic Nancy Lollar is the new director of Purdue Polytechnic Columbus. She is pictured outside the Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence in in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022.
By Jana Wiersema | The Republic
In Nancy Lollar’s own words, she’s always had a passion for helping others.
For 16 years, she sought to fulfill that goal by serving in the Army. For the last four years, she has pursued it by working in higher education.
And today, Lollar continues that work in her latest role — the new director of the Purdue University Polytechnic Institute of Columbus.
She takes the place of previous director Joe Fuehne, who retired on May 31 after serving in the position for 10 years. Lollar’s first official day was Aug. 3, though she began taking on responsibilities prior to that date.
She previously served as an assistant professor for Ivy Tech Community College – Columbus’s logistics and supply chain management program.
Before entering the world of higher education, Lollar was in the military. She enlisted in the Army in 2004 and retired in 2020 after being medically discharged. During that time, she served in active duty from 2006 to 2012, then went back to traditional status in the Indiana Army National Guard. She retired as a master sergeant with the 76th Infantry Brigade.
After sustaining injuries, Lollar felt she had to make a career change. In 2018, she joined Enterprise State Community College as a financial aid specialist.
“I just fell in love with it, with the aspect for working with students, helping them to better themselves,” she said.
Then, when she and her husband moved to Indiana, she took a similar position at Ivy Tech Columbus in August of 2018. She later became a faculty member.
In time, Lollar saw that Purdue Polytechnic Columbus was looking for a new director.
“The leadership aspect is what really intrigued me,” she said. “Being a veteran, that was one of the things that I absolutely loved, was leading, mentoring, developing a team of soldiers. And so to be able to kind of do the same here, is lead and direct staff and faculty to reach a common goal, a common purpose.”
To Lollar, the most challenging part of her new job is raising awareness of the Columbus campus, which is intended to serve and recruit from 17 counties in central Indiana.
A recent employer roundtable showed that many businesses didn’t realize that the Columbus site is a satellite campus or a “direct entity” from West Lafayette. Lollar hopes to rectify this by sharing information about the campus and its programs with employers.
Another goal is to increase enrollment and work on marketing the institute’s offerings, especially a new electrical engineering program that will debut in 2023.
“That was been a big push from our local industries, because of moving forward in that EV development,” said Lollar.
She also hopes to revive the campus’s event calendar, which was stymied by COVID-19.
Lollar said that her favorite part of the job is interacting with students, learning more about them, and seeing what she can do to provide any needed help.
“The whole reason we’re here is because of them,” said Lollar. “And so I always want to keep that student-focused, student-centered mindset when I am leading the staff and faculty.”
