DMACC Planning
Changing lives. Empowering communities.
A Message from Leadership
The College is committed to communication and collaboration in all of our planning activities. With President Denson’s recent announcement of his retirement, we feel it is an appropriate time to sunset the current strategic plan. Much has been accomplished under that plan. We want to celebrate those accomplishments and share them with all DMACC stakeholders. This page will house information on all current planning activities as well as our successes through the years and from our current strategic plan. Please check back often as we chart this course towards DMACC’s future.
Our Story
What is the DMACC story? It’s a story that began on March 18, 1966 when the college was founded in a former supermarket building in West Des Moines and launched its first vocational training program to 28 students. Over six decades the college expanded both its footprint and its offerings. DMACC’s district now spans 6,560 square miles and the college now offers education and training at thirteen college-owned campuses and sites, in numerous high schools, at two correctional facilities and online to tens of thousands of students annually. Our story, from its humble beginnings to today, is our foundation.
DMACC HistoryDMACC Strategic Pillars
DMACC's Strategic Pillars represent key focus areas that align with the College's mission and vision. They are designed to support a broad range of initiatives that are all focused on success.
DMACC Strategic Plan: Moving from Planning to Action
The College’s Strategic Plan has been approved by the Board of Directors.
Over the past year and a half, the College engaged in a deliberate, multi-phase planning process that emphasized broad participation, shared governance, and data-informed decision-making. That work is now complete. Our focus now shifts from developing the plan to executing it with clarity, defined ownership, and measurable results.
Our Focus Now: Implementation and Results
DMACC’s strategic priorities are active commitments to student success. Execution of the Strategic Plan will be guided by the following principles:
- Implementation: Each targeted objective is supported by a task force responsible for planning, coordinating, and executing the actions needed to achieve the goal, ensuring sustained focus and progress toward desired outcomes.
- Measurable Progress: Each objective includes defined outcomes, timelines, and key performance indicators to track progress.
- Transparency: Progress updates will be shared regularly with the college community.
From Strategic Plan to Collegewide Action
The strategic plan lays out the College’s annual goals, initiatives, and measurable targets.
- Strategic pillars establish a stable, long-term direction
- Targeted objectives define short-term, medium-term and long-term outcomes
- The Strategic Plan defines what will be executed each year
What This Means for DMACC Employees
Execution of the strategic plan is a shared responsibility across the institution:
- Executive Leadership adjusts priorities as necessary, allocates resources, and monitors progress
- Deans, Directors, and Unit Leaders are responsible for aligning operational plans and advancing assigned objectives
- Faculty and Staff contribute through their work, committee or task force participation, program improvements, and service to students. See the bottom of the page for more information on how to get involved.
- Institutional Effectiveness supports implementation through data, reporting, and continuous improvement processes
This structure ensures that strategy is not separate from daily operations. It is embedded in how the College functions.
Monitoring Progress and Continuous Improvement
Implementation of the plan is not static. DMACC will use an ongoing cycle of:
- Data collection and analysis
- Progress monitoring using the KPIs
- Regular reporting to the Board of Directors
- Adjustments to strategies and resource allocation led by the President and the Executive Committee
This approach ensures the plan remains responsive to emerging needs, environmental changes, and student success outcomes.
Looking Back: Plan Development Process
The development of the 2025–2026 Strategic Plan included:
Development of New Collegewide Strategic Plan
From January 2025 to June 2026 DMACC undertook a deliberate, multi-phase process to develop the College’s Strategic Pillars and its new annual Strategic Plan. This process was intentionally designed to balance strategic leadership, broad institutional engagement, and formal shared-governance review, ensuring that the final plan is both aspirational and operationally grounded.
1. Sunset the Old Plan and Create Strategic Pillars – January-July 2025
The previous strategic plan was intentionally sunset starting in January 2025 by compiling completed goals, documenting evidence, and publishing a final summary book. The Strategic Pillars were created with input from across the College during the first half of 2025. The Pillars were created to serve as stable, long-term guides designed to provide consistent direction while enabling flexible annual planning.
2. Initial Draft Development and Executive Review – August 2025-March 2026
The process began with the development Strategic Pillars. Following that, the process included an initial draft of the strategic goals and targeted objectives aligned to DMACC’s Strategic Pillars and informed by the college’s mission, environmental trends, and prior strategic goals. This draft was a product of multiple discussions among the Executive Committee members, with the explicit intent of establishing a set of SMART goals before circulating the plan broadly for collaborative input.
3. Strategic Planning Committee Engagement – March 10, 2026
Following initial executive agreement, the draft plan was presented to the Strategic Planning Committee for a first formal consultative review. The committee is made up of 20 people from across the college including a member of the Board of Directors, and faculty, staff and administrators from across the college. Committee members were asked to focus on strengths, gaps, and potential implementation barriers, both during a scheduled meeting and through a follow-up feedback survey.
4. Deans, Directors, and Union Representatives – March 11-12, 2026
After seeking feedback from the Strategic Planning Committee, the plan was distributed to Deans, Directors, and the leadership of both collective bargaining groups across the institution for a second, broader review. A draft was sent by email inviting leaders to collaborate with peers and direct reports to discuss how the proposed goals and objectives aligned with their work and the College’s mission. This stage was intentionally framed as collaborative and exploratory rather than evaluative, encouraging dialogue within divisions and across functional areas. Feedback is currently being gathered through an online form.
5. College Council and Shared Governance Review – March 13, 2026
The plan was then sent for review by College Council, consistent with DMACC’s shared governance processes. Council co-chairs were asked to share with their members and seek feedback, ensuring that employee voice and governance perspectives are formally integrated into the planning process.
6. External Stakeholders – March 23-April 15, 2026
The next step of the review process was to share the draft with a group of external stakeholders including area superintendents, business owners, and advisory board members. They too were encouraged to provide feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the plan.
7. Students – April 2026
A group of Phi Theta Kappa students was recruited by two faculty members on the Strategic Planning Committee. The students were asked to provide their feedback on the initial draft to the faculty who will present their findings to the Strategic Planning Committee.
8. Final Approval - Institutional Review and Board Consideration
Throughout May, the plan underwent revisions using input from stakeholders. The plan itself will be a living document that the college, with input from all stakeholders, will update annually as goals are met and new directions are charted. A final revised FY 27 Collegewide Plan was presented to the Board of Directors at the June 2026 meeting with a recommendation for adoption. The Board unanimously approved the plan.
The current annual plan reflects the collective input of hundreds of stakeholders in the DMACC community.
Stay Informed and Get Involved
This page will now serve as the central location for strategic plan resources and documents, annual division and department plans and progress updates and performance reporting.
If you are interested in volunteering for one of the Task Forces that will advance the Targeted Objectives, please send an email with your request to institutionaleffectiveness@dmacc.edu
Please check back regularly for updates as the College advances its strategic priorities.
The 2022-2025 Strategic Plan was sunset. Here are the results.