Serving in various leadership roles at LCCC since 1991, Dr. Ballinger’s impact on LCCC’s transformation from a “college ready” to a “student ready” institution can be linked back to her deep engagement and leadership in the student completion movement, providing leadership advancing the Completion by Design project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation at LCCC. She played a critical role developing and launching LCCC’s University Partnership in the 1990s to provide opportunities for bachelor and master degree attainment in the county. Since 2000 the University Partnership has helped to increase bachelor’s degree attainment in Lorain County by 77%.
Dr. Ballinger is passionate about empowering a thriving community. She helped lead the establishment of OhioTech Net, a consortium of Ohio’s community colleges and five public universities collaborating to advance Ohio’s manufacturing workforce strategies. Under Dr. Ballinger’s leadership, hallmarks of the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem were developed and thriving today, such as: GLIDE, a regional technology incubator and the Innovation Fund, the region’s earliest pre-seed fund for start-up technology companies.
Equipped with the strategic foresight examining trends impacting the future of work, LCCC launched degree pathways in microelectronic technology as early as 2013. In 2018, LCCC became the first community college in Ohio authorized to offer Bachelor of Applied Science Degree, MEMS (Microelectronic Mechanical Systems). Expanding pathways in advanced manufacturing, LCCC has launched a second Bachelor’s degree pathway in
Smart Industrial Automated Systems Engineering Technology in 2022.
When Intel announced the construction of a semiconductor mega fab in Ohio in 2022, LCCC and Dr. Ballinger jumped into action because LCCC was ready for this moment. Due to Dr. Ballinger’s strategic foresight and nimble response, LCCC is now at the forefront of the burgeoning semiconductor industry in Ohio as a key player leading talent development initiatives for Intel and the semiconductor industry fueling Ohio as the Silicon Heartland. LCCC also led the establishment of the Midwest Regional Network to Address National Needs in Semiconductor and Microelectronics and hosted the inaugural conference in 2023.