Leadership

Dennis C. Rittle is a highly skilled transformational servant-leader who practices leadership as both an art (i.e. soft skills) and a science (i.e. hard skills). His well-rounded leadership attributes are evidenced by his ability to be an effective leader regardless of the organizational structure or business model. Dennis has exhibited progressive leadership roles and responsibilities throughout his career. He has served in public, non-profit, for-profit, and government sectors of higher education, which has rounded him in the best-practices of student success, workforce development, community engagement, strategic partnerships, and organizational health.

Dennis' career in higher education began in 1995. The instructional portion of his career entails service as a full-time faculty member, department chair and curriculum writer for Air University, and as a part-time faculty member or guest lecturer for Butler Community College, Lancaster Bible College and Graduate School, Regent University, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Baker University, Harvard University, and Kansas State University. His administrative roles in higher education include: (a) director, (b) dean, (c) vice president, (d) provost & executive vice president, and (e) president.

Some of the most noteworthy innovative practices during Dennis' career in higher education include:

• Developed innovative practices to become the state-leader in developing articulation agreements with secondary partners.

• Collaborated with leaders of industry, higher education, and state legislation to align curriculum and industry credentials for more than 15 technical programs to reduce student cost and time to completion, thereby, benefiting more than 50,000 learners across the state of Kansas each year.

• Designed and initiated innovative student success and enrollment management strategies to raise student persistence and graduation rates to record highs while serving as the Dean of Academic Affairs.

• Developed one-of-a-kind programs in the areas such as aviation, milling, and construction trails to address workforce needs and partnered with international corporations.

• Transformed a regionally accredited two-year college into a four-year college.

• Championed the process to raise awareness and the subsequent support of a neighboring county to approve a sales tax to fully fund the construction and equipping of a new comprehensive college campus to advance student access to quality and affordable higher education as well as to stimulate the economic development of the region. This event was the first of its kind in Kansas history.

• Worked with State legislators to author a revolutionary bill to add a trustee from the neighboring county to the local Board of Trustees.

• First in the State to offer four-year degrees under $15K through a unique partnership with a regional university.

• First in the State to be authorized to offer Pell Grants to high school students.

• First in the State to launch and fund collegian athletics without use of state or local tax dollars.
• Achieved record enrollment growth.
• Became an emerging Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) by modeling cutting edge strategies to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Successfully led inistitution through major crises such as the Pandemic, tornado recovery, and a cyber attack.

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Consulting

For almost 20 years, Dennis has provided customized and general consultation services and thought leadership to assess, improve and optimize organizational health and effectiveness (e.g. student success, organizational restructuring, employee morale and productivity, economic development, and micro-mobility, etc.) for educational, private security, and mental health organizations employing more than 750 employees and hundreds of volunteers.