December 3, 2008 - The Board of Trustees of North Central State College has chosen Donald L. Plotts to become the fourth President of the College. Mr. Plotts has been serving the institution as Interim President since January of this year, when Ronald Abrams left the position to become the Executive Director of the Ohio Association of Community Colleges.

He will officially begin his duties as President on January 1, 2009. When asked about his appointment, Don stated, “I am both excited and humbled to serve as President of North Central State. We have many challenges in this community, in our region, and across our state, and I believe NC State has an important role to play in the economic recovery. We will help retrain our workforce. We will provide access for our young men and women to enter higher education affordably. And we will be a partner with any business, institution or government agency working to turn our economy around.”

When asked about his goals as President, Mr. Plotts added, “My goals remain much as they have been since being named interim President; to promote teambuilding, and shared governance throughout the institution; to work with our community partners to assure that the programs we offer our students match the needs of businesses in our region; and to look for ways to control costs and increase efficiencies without affecting the quality of the education we provide.”

Don joined the College in 2006 as Special Assistant to the President promoting government relations and collaborations. After a year, he continued those efforts and took on the role of Interim Dean of Technology and Workforce.
Don has extensive experience developing community partnerships and high school collaborations. He has served in various local, regional, and state leadership roles in K-12 and higher education systems. When he was the President of the Ohio Superintendents Association of Career and Technical Schools he promoted a higher level of funding and rigor for the schools in the state of Ohio. Don received his Bachelors in Education degree from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio and his Masters in Education degree from The University of Toledo with graduate/postgraduate work at a variety of other institutions.

Before coming to the college Don retired as the Superintendent of the sixth largest career technical and adult education center in the state of Ohio, the Pioneer Career and Technology Center located in Shelby, Ohio. The school was recognized as one of the top 20 schools in the nation for academic improvement. Pioneer CTC offered a full range of technical and general academic study areas with several gold medal technical contest winners and a high number of students entering post secondary programs (mostly community college) following graduation. The Pioneer Career and Technology Adult Workforce Center, being ISO 9001 Certified, was responsive to industry needs through a variety of programs and customized services.

Don has worked with the North Central State College to foster several new collaborations in economic development, high school relationships, and has nurtured new programming with the community to provide better student access to education. He has developed community outreach centers in Willard, Bucyrus, and Ashland and has coordinated the efforts of community leaders in Ashland, Richland, and Crawford Counties to create “SPARC” (Succeed and Prosper in Ashland Richland Crawford). SPARC serves as a network of leaders interested in finding education best practices and working to change an attitude in our region about the importance of all education.

For more information, or to arrange a time for an interview, please contact the Office of the President at 419-755-4811.