Jordan named MPCC Distinguished Alum of the Year

Clay Jordan, of McCook, has been selected to receive the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award from Mid-Plains Community College.

Jordan was nominated by MPCC cabinet members based on his ongoing support to the institution. He was recently recognized during the Nebraska Community College Association’s annual meeting in Norfolk.  

About Jordan

When Clay Jordan signed up for an EMT class his senior year of high school, he had no idea it would change his life.

At 12 years-old he attended an auction class and was hooked. “I was just a country bumpkin kid that thought I was going to be an auctioneer the rest of my life,” Jordan said.

However, his experience with McCook Community College, a division of Mid-Plains Community College, took him on a journey he never imagined.

Jordan took advantage of the opportunity to take some agriculture classes in high school through MCC.

“The idea of going to a four-year school was never even a consideration,” Jordan said. “Mid-Plains was easy, approachable and not intimidating.”

On a whim he signed up for an EMT class his senior year.

“You only had to go to class a couple times a week in the afternoon and it looked like a lot of freedom to me,” said Jordan. “I had very little interest in being an EMT.”

That thought quickly changed, though, and one week after graduating from McCook High School, Jordan enrolled in the accelerated paramedic program.

“I fell in love with the career of EMS and what it was about. It was super interesting to me once I got into it, and the instructors were really inspiring to me.”

Instructors Bob Molcyk and Bob Allen were instrumental in Jordan’s decision to pursue a career in healthcare.

“They took me from never thinking I would ever do anything where I had to touch people, to completely changing my life choices in less than nine months.”

His first job as an EMT took him to Grand Island where he received his paramedic license and got married. He then moved to Holdrege for work before deciding to go back to nursing school which would afford him better hours and opportunities. 

Jordan enrolled in a paramedic to RN program at Hutchinson Community College. He was able to do his clinical rotation while traveling the state as an educator for an air medical transport based out of McCook, which brought his family back home.

He went on to get his bachelor's degree from Purdue Global and is pursuing his master’s degree from Western Governors University.

“Because of my paramedic background I fell into some opportunities as a nurse to get into leadership very early in my nursing career,” Jordan said.

Jordan’s career includes time as a trauma nurse specialist for the State of Nebraska and ER Education Coordinator at Tri Valley Health Systems, working up to be the Chief Nursing Officer in 2019.

In March of 2024 Jordan was named the Chief Executive Officer of Tri Valley Health System.

In his current role, Jordan continues his relationship with MPCC.  “It’s been very helpful to have staff trained through the nursing and nurse aide program in McCook,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to have the college available to those in our area.”

During his time at MCC Jordan said he learned good, relevant, appliable information. Today, he shares that information with other students as an MPCC adjunct EMS instructor.

“Mid-Plains is a very important part of why I am where I am at,” Jordan said. “I credit it all back to the first EMT class that I took.”