Vice Chancellor Val Eakins retires after 40 years at Ivy Tech Fort Wayne

After 40 years, Val Eakins is saying goodbye. But this goodbye isn’t a sad one, it’s a loaded one, filled with bittersweet memories and hope for the future.

Ivy Tech Community College Fort Wayne’s Vice Chancellor of Finance is ready for her next chapter: retirement. But before she fuels up the motorhome that will whisk her and her husband away to national parks, she’s packing up her office and preparing a smooth transition for her successor, Sandra Odisho.

Tucked away were papers that spanned from three College name changes, three College presidents, and four Fort Wayne chancellors.

“I came across some old budget books from when I started in ’88. Our budget was $17 million dollars back then, which is a big difference from where it is today.”

She’s leaving on a high note—a healthy budget and growing enrollment.

“I kinda feel like I grew up here. I was in my 20’s straight out of college when I started. It’s been my whole life.”

The beginning

That “life” started with a slew of job offers flooding in on the same day. Overwhelmed but eager with a new business degree in hand, Eakins chose to begin her career with Ivy Tech’s newly reformed internal auditing department in 1984.

“It was a ball. They were trying to rebrand internal audit, so it was more supportive, and we looked for internal issues before outside auditors came in.”

As a staff internal auditor, Eakins would hop from campus to campus across northeast Indiana carrying her green bar paper, then later, her giant portable computer. She’d assess different departments to see where problems lay, then helped find ways to stop them before they got bigger.

“People still didn’t like to see me coming, but I made a lot of friends.”

One of these friends, Ivy Tech Fort Wayne's Director of Finance and Business Services Robin Bertsch, reminisces on Eakins' time as an auditor.

"She was our auditor before coming to the Fort Wayne campus," says Bertsch. "If you were being audited, you certainly wanted to make sure all your t's were crossed and i's dotted.  If not, Val would find it!  She was quite the auditing detective!"

From enrollment to admissions to facilities, Eakins had a hand in observing all departments and gaining a deeper understanding of how they operated—something that would prove useful throughout her career.

Ultimately, after advancing her way through the auditing department, she wanted to find a role that allowed her to settle down and start a family. In 1988, she joined Ivy Tech Fort Wayne’s Business Operations department, where she’d stay for the rest of her career.

Lasting connections

“Being able to have that broad knowledge and historic knowledge has been really helpful to me. I think it's helped to me connect the dots strategically and to help take it all in.”

Eakins quickly became known as the person to turn to with any question about the College. A person who would help out during heavy enrollment periods and through community events. This is something she prides herself on.

“I’ve made some lifelong friendships here. That’s the one part I’m going to miss when I retire is all the people.”

When Eakins first started her career, she was invited to a luncheon at the wood-paneled, official Ivy Tech boardroom in Indianapolis. That’s where she met President Gerald I. Lamkin.

“President Lamkin was just the sweetest, kindest man, and I didn’t see him very often, but he always called me by name.”

Eakins recalls the kindness of each person in leadership she’s come across. Leadership notably stands out to her as being welcoming, another aspect she’s carried into her own career.

In the moments where she participated in student-facing events, she enjoyed talking to students about their classes and future goals. Even in the community, she’s gotten to talk to former students about their experiences.

“Seeing those students graduate and having it make a difference in their lives and in their families, it’s very meaningful and very rewarding.”

But the job didn’t come without challenges.

“When the money was good, and we were able to carry forward, I was everyone’s best friend.”

The most challenging experience Eakins recalls is one that led to people’s jobs being on the line. She oversaw deciding which ones stayed.

Enter: the 2008 recession

“Enrollment started going down which led to budget cuts, and we had to eliminate some positions. We tried to do it as much as possible through vacancies, but that was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to be involved with.”

Unfortunately, the most significant impacts to a budget come from people. As the stock market crashed, Eakins had to perform what she calls a “giant balancing act”.

“My preference is to say, ‘we can’t do this but maybe we can do this instead.’ My philosophy is to try to find creative ways to do things.”

The recession forced her to stray from that philosophy because sacrifices had to be made for the good of the College. Luckily, she didn’t have to make these decisions alone.

“I had great people on the cabinet team that participated and helped make those really, really tough decisions, and I couldn’t have done it without them.”

After a few years of decline, the College once again began to flourish leading to big projects and more flexibility for Eakins. It also led to more ideas.

Embracing changes

As an auditor, Eakins says her job was very “black and white”. It was a set structure that rarely deviated from the path. She says former-Chancellor Jerilee Mosier pushed those limits.

“Mosier was a visionary, very creative, and she challenged cabinet to do some things that were outside the box. I had to learn to see the gray.”

She considers this one of the most beneficial lessons as she transitioned further into her leadership role. Learning to be flexible and ask for exceptions helped her become more comfortable with the flow of the campus.

More changes came when campus went virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. There was so much uncertainty, but she was inspired by the way staff and faculty made the most of it.

One of Eakins’ favorite things to do at her job is attend commencement. It served as the reminder of why she came into work every day. Right after pandemic, commencement ceremonies were put on hold or changed. In 2021, the College put together a drive through commencement that serves as one of her favorite memories.

“It was neat to see the faculty and staff all come together and make that happen for our students.”

A lasting legacy

“When I started in Fort Wayne, we were one building on Coliseum Campus. Then the state gifted us the former State Developmental Center property, and we started the process of getting the Tech Center.”

Eakins has sat through and helped coordinate three big building projects throughout her career: the expansion of Coliseum Campus, the Steel Dynamics Inc. Keith E. Busse Technology Center, and currently, the $60+ million capital campaign project.

“It’s so much work. I was involved [in the capital campaign] with the facilities team that worked on countless iterations of the projects. But I’m so grateful.”

Each project was one more way of giving students more opportunities. The current capital campaign, which was announced in December 2023 calls for a brand-new nursing and health sciences building, campuswide renovations, and the demolition of Harshman and Carroll Halls.

“I want to come back and swing the hammer for one of the first bricks of Harshman.”

The building dedications mark huge milestones in Eakins’ career, finally getting to see all the hard work coming to fruition.

With this chapter coming to a close, she’s looking forward. She’s looking forward to traveling with her husband and spending more time with her grandchildren, children, and parents. But she’s also looking forward to the College’s continued growth—something she hopes she’ll be remembered as having played a part in.

But most of all:

“I just hope that my legacy was that I cared. That my team strove for excellence and shows up for our students.”