The office of incoming Cal State Long Beach President Loren Blanchard overlooks the courtyard of Brotman Hall, where thousands of students, faculty and staff – now under his leadership – stroll each day.
While still settling into the space — and his new role — Blanchard has set out to connect with the campus community, help students complete their higher education and continue the university’s mission, among other priorities.
The California State University Board of Trustees announced Blanchard’s appointment as the next president of CSULB earlier this year. He has succeeded Jane Close Conoley, who announced her retirement in November 2024 after a decade in charge.
Blanchard assumed the presidency this month — just in time for commencement. , he said during an interview on Monday, May 11.
In a Monday, May 11, interview, Blanchard, who has more than 35 years in higher education, said it has been exciting to see how much has changed during his long career when it comes to supporting students. Providing such support matters to him on a personal and professional level, he said. As a first-generation college graduate, he has devoted his career to expanding student opportunity and success.
“A lot of the environments where I’ve worked have been in places that educate a disproportionate number of first-generation students,” Blanchard said. “My parents did not have the benefit of a higher education, but the reality is that didn’t mean they didn’t believe in higher education; they believed wholeheartedly that education was the pathway to advancement.”
His parents did everything possible and made many sacrifices to ensure that he and his sister would have the benefit of the highest quality education, he said.
Blanchard has a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology education from Xavier University, in Louisiana, a master’s degree in education from McNeese State University in his hometown of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Georgia.
“For me, I see myself in so many students, and it’s my hope that students can see images of themselves in me as well,” Blanchard said. “I tell my story as often as I possibly can to students, so that they really can see that all things are possible, especially with a high-quality education that you have in front of you, such as what California State University, Long Beach, offers.”
An institution that believes in high expectations and providing authentic support allows students to get what they need in order to benefit from an education, Blanchard said. Student success and high expectations are what he’s seen in the work that CSULB has done for its students for many years.
Cal State Long Beach President Loren Blanchard is interviewed by a reporter on Monday, May 11, 2026, in his office on the Long Beach campus. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Cal State Long Beach President Loren Blanchard is interviewed by a reporter on Monday, May 11, 2026, in his office on the Long Beach campus. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
California State University Long Beach President Loren Blanchard on Monday, May 11, 2026, in his office on the Long Beach campus. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
California State University Long Beach President Loren Blanchard on Monday, May 11, 2026, in his office on the Long Beach campus. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
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Cal State Long Beach President Loren Blanchard is interviewed by a reporter on Monday, May 11, 2026, in his office on the Long Beach campus. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
“One of the things that really attracted me here is how consequential this university has been,” he said, “not only in terms of making sure that students get exactly what they need in order to be ready for the workforce, ready for graduate and professional school, ready to become leaders in their professions, as well as in their communities, but that more importantly, that there is more value added as it relates to the mission.”
CSULB’s mission is to enrich “the lives of its students and its surrounding community through globally informed, high impact educational experiences with superior teaching, research, creative activity and action for the public good,” according to the university’s website.
For Blanchard, this means that students walk away with confidence and know they are well prepared for what lies ahead. It also means that CSULB is aware of barriers that can stand in the way of students getting their degrees, especially those who are first-generation or come from financially challenging backgrounds, among other obstacles.
“The reality is that the awareness of what students bring to us here at California State University Long Beach, and recognizing the importance of helping the students to address those barriers,” Blanchard said, “is really the linchpin in understanding why student success has been so effective here at this university for so many years.”
Before joining CSULB, Blanchard served as president of the University of Houston-Downtown for the past five years. He led that university through a comprehensive strategic plan implementation and tracking process; increased institutional funding through grants, foundation gifts and legislative appropriations at both the state and federal levels; secured support expanding the campus; strengthened community relations; and built strategic alliances, among other accomplishments.
“It really mattered in terms of the work that we were doing to get students to degree completion, because we knew that it was going to make them socially mobile, not only to be able to help themselves,” he said, “but more importantly to be able to help their families as well. That became really important for us, and we were really excited about the progress that we were making over the five-year period that I served as president there.”
CSULB, like UHD, acts as an anchor for its city and region, Blanchard said. At the University of Houston-Downtown, Blanchard helped lead work that morphed and grew into significant initiatives designed to improve the quality of life for Houston residents.
Blanchard, for example, worked with the city to provide support through the university’s social work and psychology programs to address homelessness in downtown Houston.
“That’s just one example of the work that anchor institutions do, and not sit on the sideline,” Blanchard said, “but to see what role (we can play with) all the vast amount of resources that a university has, in the capital that we’ve got – intellectual capital, cultural, social. All of those pieces that matter so much can be used to really help a city to move forward.”
Similarly, Blanchard said, he is excited to work with the city of Long Beach. Many local leaders, who are also CSULB alumni, understand the power of partnership, he said. There have already been conversations about housing, including the role CSULB has in identifying ways housing could be improved for students and families in the area.
CSULB is also playing a role in providing the future workforce for the local aerospace industry, he added, as well as preparing for the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympic Games.
Blanchard is no stranger to Long Beach. He previously served for six years as the CSU’s executive vice chancellor for academic and student affairs, and lived in the city. In that role, he led the development of the Graduation Initiative 2025, the CSU’s 10-year student success effort that resulted in improved educational outcomes across the system, according to the CSU website.
“Focusing on high-impact strategies as well as practices that were designed to get students to the finish line, to get them to degree completion in a timely manner, a lot of those strategies were actually developed and implemented right here at California State University, Long Beach,” Blanchard said. “This place has been a model for so many universities.”
Other leadership positions that Blanchard has held include provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at Xavier University, associate vice chancellor for academic and multicultural affairs at LSU’s Health Sciences Center, and two roles within the University of Louisiana system – provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, and associate vice president for accreditation, leadership and accountability — according to his biography.
Throughout his career, Blanchard has emphasized the transformative power of higher education, the importance of student-centered institutions and the responsibility of universities to serve the public good.
Top priorities that Blanchard has as the new CSULB president include hosting listening sessions with students, staff, faculty and the Long Beach community. He said he also wants to learn where the university is with its Beach 2030 Strategic Plan, and see if an updated strategic plan is needed to continue the university’s mission.
Blanchard said he has already been connecting with student leaders and has been impressed with how they see the university continuing to escalate and grow — and the role they can play in terms of making that happen,
“The beauty about this place is that it is about academic preparation,” he said, “but it’s also about leadership development.”
Blanchard said he also plans to connect with staff and faculty as much as possible.
“I think it’s important for people to realize just how powerful a network of people we’ve got working at this university, and they’re not just doing things that really improve conditions for us here and keeping us superior here at California State University, Long Beach, but to see the kind of work that they’re doing within our local community, nationally and internationally,” Blanchard said. “It’s pretty phenomenal, and we want to make sure that everyone gets a chance to learn more about that.”
CSULB is a diverse campus, with more than 38,700 students enrolled. There are many people from different walks of life, with various racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and political backgrounds, he said.
“People bring all different kinds of viewpoints, which higher education is made for,” Blanchard said. “It’s what we’re built for.
“Civility and respect matter a whole lot, and I know that is something that this university has pushed forward within the realm of understanding that we are designed and built to make sure that students, faculty and staff, that we’re all aware of the varying viewpoints that are here on this campus,” he added. “And that we celebrate the diversity of those viewpoints, because it makes us all better in terms of knowing how to not only deal with all different kinds of issues, but also dealing with different kinds of people.”
Many community members, meanwhile, engage with the Long Beach campus in myriad ways, such as attending musical performances or sporting events, Blanchard said. As the new president of the university, Blanchard said, he wants to ensure that the community continues to have opportunities to connect with the campus.
“We’re going to be opening up more and more of those opportunities so that the local community can come in and not only see and experience the great, rich talent that we’ve got here,” he said, “but also to understand better how this place can serve not only as an educational resource, but certainly a cultural resource, a social resource, and all of the other myriad ways that the work here is designed to make people feel that their lives are better.”