Lori Suddick, who has led a community college in Lake County, Ill., for the past eight years, will become Des Moines Area Community College’s fifth president and CEO on June 15.

DMACC’s board of directors announced the appointment after a special meeting Monday morning.

Suddick’s “expertise in building skilled workforce pipelines and her commitment to teaching and learning excellence make her the ideal person to strengthen DMACC’s mission,” Kevin Halterman, president of the DMACC board, said in a prepared statement. Halterman was also chairperson of the search committee. Halterman described Suddick as “a strategic, thoughtful leader with a proven track record of enhancing student momentum and deepening her institution’s impact across the area it serves.”

Suddick, who will be paid an annual salary of $381,000, replaces Rob Denson, who retired in December 2025 after serving 22 years in the role. Denson was DMACC’s longest-serving leader.

The search for Denson’s replacement, which began in the summer of 2025, originally resulted in three candidates. However, when two of the candidates dropped out, the DMACC board extended the search. In early March, four finalists visited the campus, where they spoke with students and faculty and met privately with the board.

DMACC, the largest of Iowa’s 15 community colleges, has six campuses: Ankeny, Boone, Carroll, Newton, Urban/Des Moines and West Des Moines. The community college employs about 1,000 faculty and 2,000 staff. DMACC serves over 34,000 credit students, 21,000 continuing education students and 17,000 high school students.

The College of Lake County, where Suddick has worked, serves more than 23,000 students at its three campuses. The community college has over 850 full-time faculty and staff and over 700 adjunct faculty. It offers 48 liberal arts and career-focused associate degrees and 125 short-term certificates. The college was recently named an Aspen Prize Top 200 U.S. Community College, the nation’s premier recognition of high achievement and performance among two-year colleges. DMACC also received the honor.

Suddick received her undergraduate degree in 1990 from Eastern Michigan University, located in Ypsilanti, Mich. She also received her master’s degree from the university. In 2017, she received her doctorate of education from the University of Wisconsin-Stout, in Menomonie, Wis.

Suddick began her career in education as a speech-language pathologist, a position she held for seven years, according to her curriculum vitae. She’s held several other positions during her career, including vice president of learning/chief academic officer at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay, Wis.

During her tenure at College of Lake County, the school’s enrollment increased by 272% and its number of dual enrollment credits increased 258%, according to Suddick’s curriculum vitae. Three-year graduation rates at the college also increased by 10 percentage points.

“DMACC is a cornerstone of Iowa’s economic and social vitality,” Suddick said in a prepared statement. “We’re going to help every student succeed, every employee thrive, so every business achieves and every community grows. That is my aim every day. It’s what I live and breathe.”