Technology Center of DuPage, DAOES name new director
Starting July 1, Technology Center of DuPage and the DuPage Area Occupational Education System will welcome Michael D. Zimmerman of Crown Point, Indiana, as the new executive director.
Technology Center of DuPage is the elective high school career and technical education campus for 24 DuPage County and Lyons Township high schools. Representatives of 14 member school districts comprise the DAOES Board, which is the governing body for TCD and other CTE delivery sites in the DuPage area.
Zimmerman will take over the position from Alf Logan, who has served as interim director for DAOES/TCD since the departure of Jim Thorne last summer.
"Mike Zimmerman has a strong background in administration, teaching and partnership development in a CTE setting," said DAOES Board President Douglas Domeracki, superintendent for West Chicago Community High School District 94. "We believe his passion for quality career and technical education will greatly serve Technology Center of DuPage and the DAOES school communities."
Zimmerman comes to DAOES/TCD with more than 20 years of teaching and administrative experience in Indiana. He has a bachelor's degree in business education from the University of Indianapolis and a master's degree in educational administration and supervision through Ball State University. He has taught business education at three high schools, and for eleven years he worked at Area 31 Career Programs in Indianapolis, one of the largest career centers in Indiana. During his time at Area 31 Career Programs, he served as the career pathway specialist and was involved in the career center's expansion that led to almost doubling the number of CTE programs offered.
In 2011, Zimmerman was appointed the principal of the area career center in Hammond, Indiana, and director of area career and technical education for District 2. While there he implemented, with postsecondary partner Vincennes University, one of Indiana's first early college programs in a career center. Early college is an initiative through which high school students in specific career paths can earn one to two years of college credit with the ultimate goal of earning an associate degree at the same time they graduate from high school.
Under Zimmerman's leadership and collaboration with local school districts and business partners, enrollment in area district high schools' CTE classes more than doubled in two years. At the career center, he has added new programs, updated existing programs and increased enrollment, and was appointed by the governor of Indiana to serve on the Indiana Region 1 Works Council.
"I am very impressed with what TCD has to offer high school students and the community. It has high-quality programs, an extensive offering of college credits, and many industry certifications already in place," Zimmerman said. "I look forward to working with the 14 member school districts to collaborate on the delivery of career and technical education at TCD and throughout the DAOES region."