Between starting his new job on Monday and fall classes beginning today, Rick Carpenter, new director of the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) Perry VanKirk Career Academy, had to get up to speed in a hurry.
With wall-to-wall phone calls and a line of students waiting to see him Thursday morning, Carpenter looks like he is right on top of things.
A Missouri native with 25 years experience in higher education, Carpenter has been in the DMACC system 10 years. Before that, he was dean of students, department chair and athletic director at AIB College of Business in Des Moines, which was recently absorbed into the University of Iowa system.
“I haven’t been here long,” carpenter said Thursday in a one-minute gap between phone calls and students, “but from what I’ve seen so far, Perry looks like a nice place and a perfect location for the career academy.”
In a curious example of academic musical chairs, Carpenter comes to the VanKirk Career Academy campus from his most recent position as director of DMACC Southridge, and Hollie Coon, the former Perry director whom Carpenter is replacing, is in turn replacing him in the directorship at Southridge.
“I’m looking to get connected with the community here in Perry,” Carpenter said, “and to continue to provide a good quality education for the community and extend our partnerships with the high school and local businesses.”
Carpenter praised Coon’s work at the Perry DMACC and said he wants to keep growing enrollment.
“We’re looking to develop more adult basic education programs,” he said, “and are always open to more growth opportunities.”
He said he is looking for housing for his family here in the Perry area, particularly a place in the country.
