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Last updated on Thursday, May 19, 2016
(INDIANAPOLIS) - Ferdinand native and former Indiana Lieutenant Governor Sue Ellspermann has been selected as the new president of Ivy Tech Community College.
Ellspermann, 56, will replace outgoing President Thomas Snyder, who has led Ivy Tech since 2007 and plans to retire this summer. Ivy Tech has 32 campuses across the state with an enrollment of more than 173,000 students last school year.
More than 30 people applied for the position, Ivy Tech officials said. The presidential search committee of Ivy Tech's board selected nine people for interviews. Then the pool was narrowed again to three finalists, who were interviewed privately by board members earlier this month.
The committee unanimously selected Ellspermann who will assume the role July 1.
Ellspermann has a bachelor's degree from Purdue University and master's and doctorate degrees from the University of Louisville; all three degrees are in industrial engineering. She is a Forest Park High School graduate and a graduate of Dick Lugar's Excellence in Public Service Series.
She owned her own consulting business, Ellspermann and Associates, for 20 years before becoming the founding director of the University of Southern Indiana's Center for Applied Research in 2006. In 2012, she joined the Huntingburg-based Transformation Team as director of strategic engagement.
Ellspermann got into the political arena in 2011, becoming state representative of District 74, which includes Cass, Ferdinand, Jackson, Jefferson and Patoka townships in Dubois County, portions of Spencer and Orange counties and all of Perry and Crawford counties. She became lieutenant governor in 2013.
She applied for the position of president of Ivy Tech Community College after a few of Ivy Tech's trustees asked Ellspermann in December to consider applying for the job. She told Gov. Mike Pence of her interest in December. Six weeks later, at a Feb. 9 press conference, Pence announced that former state Republican Party Chairman and U.S. Senate candidate Eric Holcomb would replace Ellspermann in the statewide position.
Ellsperman officially resigned as Indiana's lieutenant governor on Wednesday, March 2.
Ellspermann has maintained her Ferdinand residence with her husband, Forest Park Junior-Senior High School Principal Jim Mehling. Mehling, also a Ferdinand native, is retiring after this school year.
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