ABOVE: DACC Vice-President of Academic Affairs Dr. Carl Bridges poses with retiring Vice-President of Student Services Stacy Ehmen. Upon Ehmen’s retirement at the end of September, Dr. Bridges will be in charge of both academic affairs and student services as the new DACC Provost.
After 32 years at Danville Area Community College, Vice-President of Student Services Stacy Ehmen will be retiring at the end of September. After being recognized during Thursday evening’s (Aug 17th) DACC Board of Trustees meeting, Ehmen said it’s great to be able to look back on decades of student services improvements.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: We some amazing energy and programs in place right now. All the resources; everything’s kind of moving in the same direction to support students. And that’s the one sad thing about that I won’t be directly seeing that after I retire. But I will look for it, because there will be some great news for you to report.
With Ehmen’s retirement, DACC Vice-President of Academic Affairs Dr. Carl Bridges will now be taking on the new DACC Provost position, placing him in charge of both academic affairs and student services. After the position was approved during Thursday’s meeting, Dr. Bridges said he will be ready when it becomes official at the start of October, right after Ehmen’s retirement.
DACC Vice-President of Academic Affairs (now Provost also in charge of Student Services) prepares to recognize retiring Vice-President of Student Services Stacy Ehmen, who posed with the Board of Trustees during their meeting.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: The idea that academic and student services works together as one unit. I had a great relationship with Stacy, so we worked well together. So, his ended up being a nice transition to continue that legacy of partnership between academic affairs and student services.
In addition to being recognized for her retirement, Ehmen was also recognized for being one of three DACC faculty members honored with a NISOD award for extraordinary work. Receiving National Institute for State and Organizational Development recognition in addition to Ehmen were Rena Pate in the TRIO office, helping first generation college students; and Jaime Moreland in the Imaging Program in Health Professionals. All three were nominated for this recognition by Dr. Bridges; who was very proud to see all of them named
Audio PlayerAUDIO: Jaime was our winner of Faculty of the Year, and she’s amazing with the students. And Rena has a great reputation, she’s been dedicated to the institution for a while. And then of course Stacy, 32 years of service. It’s an honor to nominate individuals who have consistently shown their commitment to the institution.
In addition, the proposed $19.7 million budget for the new fiscal year was officially placed on display by the DACC Board of Trustees. Dr. Bridges says everyone cooperated very well.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: We not only work together internally as a team here, but we also work very closely with the board; so no surprise, certainly, with the work and effort that was put in to make sure that it was balanced.
The budget will now be on display for more that the required 30 days, and then scheduled for final approval at the September 28th meeting, which will include a public hearing on the budget.
THE FOLLOWING IS DANVILLE AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE’S RELEASE ON DR. BRIDGES’ NEW POSITION
DACC Promotes Dr. Carl Bridges to Provost
DANVILLE – Though the title is common among the nation’s colleges and universities, for the first time in Danville Area Community College’s 77-year history, DACC has a provost.
During the Aug. 18, Board meeting, DACC Trustees approved the promotion of Vice President Dr. Carl Bridges to provost. As such, he oversees both student services and academic affairs at the College.
Dr. Bridges’ expanded role follows the decision of Student Services Vice President Stacy Ehmen to retire on Sept. 30 after 32 years of service at DACC. President Stephen Nacco explains, “Rather than immediately going out and trying to find a replacement for Vice President Ehmen—which would be next to impossible given all she has done at DACC—we saw this as an opportunity for the College to capitalize on Dr. Bridges’ considerable skills in order to merge our student-services division with academic affairs.”
Since joining DACC in November 2021, Dr. Bridges has been responsible for overseeing teaching and learning on the DACC campus, at the Hoopeston Center, and online. As provost, he will oversee the staff that provides admissions, registration, counseling, financial aid, recruitment, veterans’ affairs, career services, testing, disability services, TRIO, and athletics. In his new role, he will manage a division with 200 employees and an annual operating budget of more than $11 million.
Dr. Bridges sees the value of closely aligning student services with instruction. He says, “One of the first priorities will be to continue Stacy’s work to improve the way we ‘onboard’ students. By that I mean to say, for students to be successful and to graduate on time, we need to support them throughout every step of the process. This process will begin with looking at how we prepare students in orientation and our ‘success in college’ classes.”
Dr. Bridges considers the College’s recent introduction of a customer-relationship-management system to be an important tool for improving student service. He says, “CRM will enable faculty and staff to have real-time information whenever a student needs our help. We’ll be able to make our first connection with students when they apply and register for classes and then continue to support them every step of the way after that, right through graduation—and even beyond that, if need be.”
In the DACC trustees’ unanimous vote to approve the promotion of Dr. Bridges to provost, Board Vice Chair Greg Wolfe said, “Dr. Bridges has done a tremendous amount of good work since arriving at DACC two years ago. I really think he has earned this opportunity to do even more in the role as provost.”
Dr. Bridges’ accomplishments include his expansion of dual-credit classes in high schools as well as the implementation of new academic programs like barbering, CCMSI claims representative, cancer registry, computer programing, and engineering. He also strengthened academic leadership at DACC with the recent hiring of Dr. Manny Rodriguez as the dean of Math, Science, & Health Professions, Terry Goodwin as the dean of Adult Education & Middle College, and Dr. Derek Watson as dean of nursing.
Prior to joining DACC, Dr. Bridges held top positions in academic affairs and student services for more than 20 years at both public colleges and for-profit colleges, primarily in Illinois. His educational background includes a doctorate in business education from Northern Illinois University, a master’s degree from Bradley University, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois in Champaign.
