Information provided by DACC
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
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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.
