Heicher selected to lead Ivy Tech Kokomo
New chancellor hopes to leave community better than he found it
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When Ethan Heicher and his wife moved to Kokomo in 2009, his focus was on teaching freshman composition to hundreds of new students created by the Great Recession. Leadership was the last thing on his mind. It was all about making a difference in that moment.
Thirteen years later, the teacher turned administrator has another opportunity to make a difference in the community. But this time he does so as the newly confirmed chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College’s Kokomo campus.
“It feels good, natural,” said Heicher. “I’m very excited. This was my hope when I become interim chancellor, but if I had to be honest, this was not the career track I had envisioned when I came to Kokomo. I’ve been given a lot of different opportunities to move into different positions.
“I started out on the faculty here and just moved into leadership positions over the years I have worked here. Ultimately, I think everyone is here because they want what is in the best interests of the campus. That is what allows us to serve our students best. If that means I am in this position, I am very enthusiastic about it.”
Heicher, who has served as Ivy Tech Kokomo’s Interim Chancellor since January, was previously the campus’s Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. He has been with the College since 2009, where he began as a professor of English and chair of the Humanities program.
“Ethan’s leadership will be crucial in supporting the community’s economic and workforce development initiatives,” said Dr. Sue Ellspermann, President of Ivy Tech. “I look forward to supporting Ethan as he leads the Kokomo service area and seeing his leadership spur more growth and innovation that translates into high-wage, high-demand careers for our students.”
Heicher explained that his mission and that of Ivy Tech in Kokomo hasn’t changed since 2009. It’s about providing education and opportunity to the community. He believes the community college is poised to make an impact just as it did in the middle of one of the worst economic periods in the nation’s history.
“We did an enormous service at that time,” said Heicher. “A lot of people did a lot of great work to turn the city around. I think Ivy Tech contributed in a big way in helping that turnaround. The campus and the community look different now than they did then, but the mission is the same.
“It takes connecting to high school students who may be on the fence about pursuing a college education. It may be an employee who needs one more thing to move onto the next position. It may be someone sitting at home wondering what options they have. We can do a lot of good work with all of them. That is the Ivy Tech Kokomo I came to work for and the Ivy Tech I want to continue work for.”
Heicher explained that the college is faced with several priorities. Chief among them is the task of handling advanced training for future employees of the $2.5 billion EV battery production facility being developed by Stellantis and Samsung SDI.
“I think they chose to put their joint venture here, in part, because of the educational and training options and the great partnership we have had with Stellantis,” said Heicher. “Continuing that tradition of good training and educational work with 1,400 employees who will work at that facility will be a huge task for the campus. That has to be the big focus for us.”
Conversations with the employer have been taking place ever since the announcement of the investment in May. Heicher said the campus is putting together trainers and curriculum in anticipation of the needs that will emerge.
But who will these future workers be? Heicher is looking to two areas where he believes they can be found. The first is at the high school level. In the past year Ivy Tech’s Kokomo campus issued a college credential to nearly 200 high school students.
“There are hundreds of students in our six-county service area that we could connect to,” said Heicher. “We know most students earning college credit in high school transition on to college. But just a little under 50 percent of the state’s high school students don’t go on to connect to higher education. They can continue their higher education here.”
Heicher is particularly proud of the partnership the campus has with the Lewis Cass Polytechnic Academy. Among the educational options offered through their partnership is a pathway in early childhood education.
“They have an early learning center at their polytechnic academy,” said Heicher. “We have placed a college faculty member at the academy, teaching high school students college coursework. They are using the early learning center at the academy as their work-based learning experience leading into their Child Development Associate’s certification.
“They are earning a college credential that they can take directly to work, and some of them have. Or they can move on with us or a four-year institution for primary education or early childhood education. There are so many tracks.
“It is a perfect example of identifying a community need and understanding the ripple impact that meeting the need is going to have. If one-quarter of those students end up working in an early learning center, they are going to have an enormous impact on what is a daycare desert in northern Howard and eastern Cass counties.”
Heicher explained that Ivy Tech also added a pre-health care licensure program at Lewis Cass this year, allowing students to obtain their Certified Nursing Assistant licensure and earn credits in coursework that is a prerequisite for all of Ivy Tech’s healthcare programming.
The other area where Heicher believes future students can be found is among those who have been disconnected from opportunities to improve themselves and better provide for themselves and their families.
“We’ve been doing really good work with employers and with high schools, but there is a population of unemployed and under-employed individuals who could benefit from our work,” said Heicher. “They are a much more difficult population to connect with. They aren’t concentrated at a point where we can optimally connect with them.
“One of the biggest tasks for this campus is figuring out a way to connect with that population. There is an enormous need. Talk about a ripple effect. Allowing someone upward mobility through a career when they have been disconnected from opportunities is why we are here; to give people the freedom to go in a direction because they want to, not because they have to. Education allows people to have a choice for themselves.”
High-tech training, giving high school students a head start on higher education, finding the people who have been disconnected from education and the opportunities it provides: Heicher has some big tasks ahead of him. But Kokomo is his home. He wants to leave it better than he found it. That is the legacy he hopes to create by meeting those goals.
“When you leave something better than you found it, you leave it more resilient,” said Heicher. “This is my home in all the definitions the word has. I am really committed to the community. It is a very giving community and has a lot to offer. I’m excited for all the good things to come.”