James L. Steck was named Chancellor Emeritus of Ivy Tech Community College Richmond upon his retirement in 2012. Ivy Tech Richmond includes Wayne, Rush, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties. He previously held the positions of Executive Dean, Dean of Instructional Affairs, and Division Chair for Technology for the College.

Prior to joining Ivy Tech in 1985, Steck worked for TRW Inc., Aerospace and Defense Systems Division, in Dayton, Ohio, where he held the position of project manager and was responsible for the engineering and development of an electromagnetic simulation system utilized by the United States Air Force to test integrated communication, navigation, and identification avionics Systems for a variety of military platforms.

Before joining TRW, Steck worked for The Dayton Power & Light Company in Dayton, Ohio, where over a seven year period he managed the Production Fuels division, the IT/Data Processing Center, the Process Computer Systems department, and the Management Information Systems department. From 1976 through 1983, he also managed several real-time computer system projects in operations and production areas of the Company.

Steck holds an MS in Computer and Information Science and a BS in Computer Engineering, both from The Ohio State University. He taught undergraduate and graduate courses for the College of Engineering, the Mathematics department, and the Computer Science department at OSU.

Steck served on the Richmond/Wayne County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Richmond/Wayne County Chamber Center for Excellence Board of Directors, Richmond Council on Economic Vitality, IU East Board of Advisors, and Reid Hospital and Health Care Audit and Compliance Committee.

He also served on the Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and the Chamber’s Business Education Liaison Committee, the Indiana Campus Compact Board of Directors, Eastern Indiana Economic Growth Region 6 Strategic Skills Initiative Executive Team, the Wayne County Partnership for Youth Structure Team, and the Whitewater Valley Life Science Initiative.

He served on the Wayne County Vision Advisory Board, the Main Street Board of Directors, the Greater Richmond Progress Committee, the Workforce Development Committee, the Greater Connersville Progress Committee, the Palladium-Item Reader’s Advisory Board, and the Wayne County Emergency Management and Response Committee.

He served on the Fayette County Education Coalition, the Project 21 Education Committee, the Legislative Affairs Committee, the Edison Electric Institute Engineering and Technical Systems Computer Committee, the Certified Technology Park Advisory Board, the Learning Corporation Board of Directors.

Steck is the recipient of the National 1997 Shirley B. Gordon Award of Distinction for College Administrators (Phi Theta Kappa National Honor Society), the 2005 NAACP President’s Award, the 2005 Wayne County Vision Economic Vitality Award, and the Richmond/Wayne County Chamber of Commerce 2005 Art Vivian Distinguished Community Leader Award.

Chancellor Emeritus Steck’s wife Dianne is a retired Speech Language Pathologist from the Brookville Local Schools in Brookville, Ohio.

He has two children: Erin and (Jeff) Johnson, Groton, Conn, and Jarrod and (Cassie) Steck, Charlotte, NC and two young grandchildren Devin and Madelyn Johnson.