Vice Provost and Senior Vice President Donald Doucette
checks out the electric vehicle conversion process
with Ivy Tech Northwest automotive students.

Dr. Donald S. Doucette, Senior Vice President and Provost of Ivy Tech Community College, met with Ivy Tech Northwest staff and community leaders on April 1 and 2 to learn about the region and discuss future educational plans for the region. His visit to Ivy Tech Northwest was his first since he assumed his position March 1, 2008.

Doucette toured all four campuses of the northwest region – Gary, Valparaiso, Michigan City and East Chicago – and met with several legislators and community education partners.

“I spent a productive two days learning about the program offerings throughout the region. I also listened to issues and concerns related to expanding those offerings, increasing the number of faculty and improving facilities,” said Doucette.

As Senior Vice President and Provost, Doucette will provide vision, leadership and direction of Ivy Tech’s more than 150 academic programs and concentrations at its 23 campuses statewide. Doucette has served as Vice Chancellor for Education and Technology at Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in Kansas City, Missouri since 1993. At MCC, he managed academic programs, services and technological infrastructure for the multi-campus community college.

“I am looking forward to working with the administrators and staff as we move toward meeting their goals and at the same time expanding education opportunities in northwest Indiana” said Doucette.

“The experiences Dr. Doucette brings, and the eagerness to help further develop the comprehensive community college in Indiana is encouraging,” according to J. Guadalupe Valtierra, Chancellor of the Northwest region. “We’re excited that he sees the parallels between how we function as a multi-campus region and the complexities of our statewide system, both for the positives that result and the issues that arise when one strives for consistency across such a diverse environment.”

Throughout his 30-year career, Doucette has served as a faculty member and administrator for some of the nation’s top community college systems. While at MCC, Doucette led the College in achieving two successive ten-year re-accreditation recommendations from the Higher Learning Commission. He provided leadership for the transformation of affiliated individual colleges to a coordinated and sophisticated multi-college district. In 2007 he served as the Interim President for MCC-Blue River and from 2004-05 he served the same role for MCC-Penn Valley, both times while also maintaining his vice chancellor role.