Many promotion recipients would be quick to unpack into a new office, but new associate vice president for Academic Affairs Bonnie Campbell has yet to completely settle in. She was previously the dean of Health Professions and director of Nursing before she was hired into this new position last fall.
The Utica native explained that when she was in high school, women typically became either a teacher or a nurse. Campbell enjoys both those fields, and she had the chance to combine the two here at IVCC.
Originally, Bonnie went to school to be a nurse. She obtained her bachelor’s from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. Then studied for her master’s degree at Loyola Medical Center as she worked there. At that time, she and her husband decided to move back to Utica.
“I was lucky enough [to find] a position open for teaching faculty here at the college and I immediately moved and started teaching nursing,” she said. She quickly progressed to the director of Nursing, then the dean of Health Professions, before she left to run a garden center.
Campbell said that her previous positions have helped prepare her for her new position.
“Being a nurse has always been my first and most wonderful passion. I love the idea of helping people,” she said. She was excited to take her compassion, problem-solving skills and ability to seek compromise and transfer it into her teaching and now administrative position.
“I like the opportunity that I’m hoping to have in this position as Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs that I’ll be able to affect change at a larger level.”
Deborah Anderson, Campbell’s coworker as the vice-president for Academic Affairs, added, “[Campbell’s] previous experiences as a clinical nurse and small business owner give her a rounded perspective about the type of leadership that is necessary to build strong organizations.” Anderson praises Campbell’s ability to serve others and her loyalty to IVCC through her twenty years at the college.
One of the issues that Campbell has had to deal with is the lack of state budget. She said that it has made thing “much more challenging. Without a state budget… it’s just very difficult to do what you want to do when you don’t have the money that’s been committed to do what you want to do.”
Bonnie acknowledged the challenges faced by everyone in the institution, but also commended IVCC’s ability to make changes financially while still having the students and community in mind.
In addition to being the associate vice president of Academic Affairs, Bonnie is also the dean of Workforce Development. She hopes that one day she can drop that title and focus solely on Academic Affairs.
“I would love to have one hat as opposed to two,” she said, but that depends on the state budget. “Then I could focus in on the things that I really want to focus in on and make positive change.”
Congratulations, Bonnie.