Ivy Tech Lawrenceburg Unveils Names Manufacturing Tech Center After Retiring President

A special unveiling ceremony took place on Monday at the Lakefront Campus.

Photo by Miranda Chase, Eagle Country 99.3.

(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) - Ivy Tech Community College President Dr. Sue Ellspermann received quite the surprise on Monday. 

While visiting the Ivy Tech Lawrenceburg Lakefront Campus, Chancellor Mark Graver, the Board of Trustees, faculty, staff and administration unveiled the new naming of the Manufacturing Technology Center as the Sue Ellspermann Manufacturing Technology Center. 

The naming comes with an overhead hallway sign (seen above) and a wall plaque. 

Ellspermann joined Ivy Tech in 2016 after serving as Indiana’s fiftieth Lieutenant Governor. She is the 9th president in Ivy Tech history and the first female president.

Ellspermann graduated from Purdue University in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering. At the time, she was one of 1,000 women in the Engineering school. Before finding her way to Ivy Tech, she became the founding director of the Center for Applied Research at the University of Southern Indiana. 

She eventually went through the Lugar Series, a Political Leadership Development program for Republican women who might want to engage in politics. In 2010, Ellpsermann decided to run for the Indiana House of Representatives 74th District seat, where she would serve from 2010 to 2012. She would stay in politics in 2013 when she was sworn-in as the 50th Lt. Governor of Indiana under Governor Mike Pence. 

After nine years as Ivy Tech President, Ellspermann announced her retirement plans last June. She is set to retire on June 30. 

At Monday's special event, Dr. Ellspermann went on to say how Ivy Tech is an incredible institution because of all of you (the attendees of the new naming yesterday, 4/14/25) and Chancellor Mark Graver who was most gracious at teaching her. She added how proud she for what the college has accomplished and how the Lawrenceburg and Batesville campuses are always at the top of the measurements.