Itawamba Community College President named finalist for CEO of the year

‘When I first got here, I thought, this is the president of the college, I won’t ever see him, but he makes a point to make a connection with students,” said Will Hathcote, president of ICC’s Indian Delegation. He says Doctor Allen’s recognition as a finalist for the American Association of Community Colleges CEO of the year award comes as no surprise.

“He is very special to our college,” Hathcote said.

Doctor Allen was named the seventh president of ICC in 2017. Since then, he has strengthened academic programs, expanded workforce development programs, and emphasized student success.

Allen says while he is honored to be named among the top CEOS of community college presidents, he says it is not a one-man show.

“What is great is, we have people finding great things to do, and they are willing to try, and I am willing for them to try, and failure is an option, as long as we learn from the failure and improve and get better and try a different way again,” Dr. Allen said.

Doctor Allen says another measure of success is not only to make sure that students are ready for a career, but they are also prepared to lead in their communities.

” I know our students are going out there and they are making a difference, not only from an intellectual standpoint, but also from the service mindset, leadership and we want to grow them in all those categories,” Allen said.

Doctor Allen also says every department, teacher and staff member at ICC plays a key role in the college’s impact.

“Workforce development, our adult education, all is vitally important to communities and region we serve so we work towards that every day, because a student  for us not is just an 18 year old, they could be an adult student, working full time, but we are training for them, they are still a student for us. We want to get better at what we are doing for them everyday,” Dr. Allen said.