Des Moines Area Community College President Rob Denson is retiring today, closing out 22 years leading Iowa’s largest community college.
Denson says success comes down to effort and showing up. During a recent appearance on Iowa Press on Iowa PBS, he told students hard work makes its own luck and emphasized the importance of basic employability skills, like being on time and being present.
Under Denson’s leadership, DMACC enrollment grew significantly, and the college now has the lowest tuition of any college or university in Iowa. Last spring, more than 17,000 high school students took DMACC courses for college credit, while over 55,000 students enrolled in continuing education or credit-bearing classes.
Denson has also been a strong advocate for Iowa’s community college funding model, which distributes state dollars to help smaller colleges remain viable. DMACC receives about $2,300 per student, compared to roughly $6,000 per student at some smaller institutions.
Today, DMACC offers 220 degrees, diplomas, and certificates and recently launched coursework in artificial intelligence. Denson says AI education will soon be essential for all college students, emphasizing the importance of ethical and effective use of the technology.
More than half of DMACC students are the first in their family to attend college, and about 35 percent come from low-income households. To help those students succeed, Denson helped establish an Opportunity Scholarship fund to cover expenses like books or car repairs. The fund was seeded with $50,000 from his mother, a former one-room schoolteacher, and has grown into a $350,000 endowment.
Denson grew up on a farm near Homestead and graduated from Marengo High School. He earned degrees from Iowa State University and a law degree from the University of Florida before becoming a community college administrator. He served as president of Northeast Iowa Community College before coming to DMACC in 2003.
Known for promoting commercial driver training, Denson has driven semi-trucks in more than 400 parades across Iowa — and says he’s keeping his CDL, even in retirement.
Denson and his wife, Pat, will continue to live in Ankeny but plan to spend more time traveling to visit their children and grandchildren in Alabama and Washington.
