Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

DOWAGIAC — Less than a week after Southwestern Michigan College’s eighth president, Dr. Joseph Odenwald, left office to assume the same role at Alma College, the college is publicly launching a search for its next leader.

At its regular meeting on Wednesday, May 14, SMC’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved the creation of an ad-hoc search committee to hire a permanent president.

Chairman Tom Jerdon proposed the five-member panel consisting of himself, Vice Chairman Tracy Hertsel and Trustee Dr. Elaine Foster, as well as former faculty association president Professor Dr. Jeff Dennis and SMC Foundation Vice Chairman Tom Ellspermann, a two-time cross country national champion and retired Whirlpool executive.

“That blend of higher ed experience, K-12 experience and business experience makes for a robust ad hoc committee,” Jerdon said. “We would look to advertise for a three-week period this summer. Finalist interviews with the Board of Trustees would be conducted at a public meeting for transparency.”

Jerdon said the search for Odenwald’s successor was able to move forward now that Nicole Lehman has been promoted to Director of Human Resources and Dr. Jeff Freels has been hired as the college’s first Chief Assurance Officer effective June 16. He said the CAO will serve as architect for a culture of academic quality, access, success and efficiency.

“The ad hoc committee will work with the HR Department to post advertisements and to receive applications with an external search,” Jerdon said, “probably conduct a first round of interviews and suggest a group of finalists for the Board of Trustees to interview face to face in the fall. This would probably occur in October or November.”

Prior to the announcement, community members called on the board to conduct a nationwide search to find the next Southwestern Michigan College president during the public comment portion of the meeting and were opposed to hiring Interim President Brent Brewer as the new president, citing concerns regarding Brewer’s qualifications.

Brewer, who is also the college’s Chief Strategy Officer, has worked for over 16 years at the college. He earned an Associate in Arts from SMC, then a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Management and a Master of Business Administration from Bethel University in Mishawaka, Indiana.

Brewer joined SMC and has served as Director of Enrollment Management, Community Outreach Coordinator, Director of Niles Campus, Associate Vice President for the Niles Campus, Chief of Staff, Vice President of Enrollment Management and Campus Life and Special Assistant to the President for Strategic Initiatives.

SMC pins Carew

In other business, Hertsel presented Director of Choral Activities David Carew of Buchanan with his 20-year service pin. He leads four ensembles, oversees applied voice instruction and teaches courses in aural skills and music history.

Carew previously taught middle and high school choral music in the Dowagiac and Edwardsburg school districts. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from Western Michigan University (1998) and a master’s degree in choral conducting from Michigan State University (2006). He founded and directs Chorllennium, a professional-level choral collective composed of experienced performers and area music educators.

Carew has sung with the St. Joseph Valley Camerata for 10 seasons, including a performance at the 2008 American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Central Division Conference in Grand Rapids.

He is also the founding conductor of the Southwest Michigan Symphony Chorus, the principal choral ensemble for the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra.

Additionally, he has prepared choruses for the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, notably for a performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana during Maestro Tsung Yeh’s final 2016 concert as artistic director. Since 2018, he has served as the Chancel Choir director at First United Methodist Church in Mishawaka.

Carew co-founded the Southwest Michigan Chorale with the Rev. James Kraus and serves as its principal conductor. This international touring ensemble has performed in Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Italy and France.

In addition to his work as a conductor and educator, he has appeared in numerous community theater productions with Beckwith Theatre, including Death of a Salesman, The Taming of the Shrew, Evita, Children of Eden, Forever Plaid, Little Shop of Horrors, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and, most recently, The Outgoing Tide. 

In his first report to the Board, Brewer noted that “Summer enrollment is tracking ahead of where we were at this time last year — 39 more students and up 4 percent in contact hours as of Monday. We still have some time to grow these numbers with classes beginning the first week in June. It will be about June 24 when we have a better sense of fall enrollment, but it looks promising.”

Trustees also named SMC’s very first student, Dr. Bruce Watson, to the foundation board, accepted three gifts to the college totaling $300 and acknowledged 28 donations to the SMC Foundation totaling $13,971.

The annual budget hearing was scheduled in conjunction with the next board meeting, which will take place June 11.