Lisa Willenberg has worked at the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton for more than half her life, but her relationship with the school started when she was a child.
“My mother came to school here,” Willenberg said. “I remember driving down here to pick her up after class in the evening with my dad; that was in the early ’70s.”
Willenberg, 52, is the new chancellor of the two-year college. Starting her 28th year at the school, she’s served as vice chancellor for finance and operations since 2011.
She was the search committee’s top pick for chancellor out of 53 applicants, and she’s the first female chancellor and fourth leader of the school since it opened in 1963 as a vocational-technical school.
Willenberg said she doesn’t place a lot of emphasis on being the first female chancellor, although she’s “very happy about that and very proud.”
“I really think the most important part of that is to choose the right leader,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of positive remarks from other female leaders around the state who are really excited for me and happy for me to join their club.”
The St. Vincent resident, who describes herself as “a pretty detailed individual,” started as a general accountant at the school in 1992. That was a year after Petit Jean Vocational Technical School became Petit Jean Technical College. It was renamed Petit Jean College in 1997 and transitioned in 2001 to UACCM.
“I had been very fortunate to work very, very closely with Chancellor [Nathan] Crook, who retired in 2010, then Chancellor [Larry] Davis, who replaced Crook, the past nine years. I’ve worked so closely and have been a part of the upward administration, even before I was vice chancellor.
“I loved it; I thrived in it. There was something new every day, every hour, almost every minute on any given day,” she said. “I embraced it. I felt like I did a pretty good job at it.”
Her “institutional knowledge” was one of several reasons University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt cited as why he recommended her for the job. Willenberg said familiarity can be a drawback.
“I was very, very pleased when I threw my name in the hat over the support in the community and on campus. It’s often difficult to be an internal candidate for someone who has been around as long as I have. Especially coming from finance, unfortunately, we have to be the ‘no men’ a lot. If you have a group that doesn’t understand why they can’t do things, you’re seen as a no man and not progressive. I’ve always tried to explain all our positions and educate people on these things. It’s just my nature,” she said.
Willenberg said she remembers 25 years ago when she would hear business and industry leaders make presentations, she wondered, “How in the world do they know so much?”
“OK, 27 years later, I know a whole lot. … You just accumulate the knowledge over the years. I can talk endlessly about higher education and UACCM. I’m not sure who’s interested in hearing it all, but I do have that industry knowledge, that’s for sure,” she said, laughing.
Willenberg said it wasn’t a conscious effort to keep moving up in the ranks at the college; she just did her job the best she could.
She credits her parents, Mary and Norbert Burgener, who still live in St. Vincent, for giving her a strong work ethic. She said her dad is still farming at age 78, and her mother worked in state government for 30-plus years.
“It’s one of those things as a young adult, all I ever really knew was to work really hard and give everything 110 percent. Therefore, I was fortunate enough to be offered positions of increasing responsibility,” Willenberg said.
She said her father called her the day the press release went out about her being hired as chancellor.
“We only live a couple of miles apart, … so I see them relatively often enough, but he called me. I was in my office that morning. The phone rang, and Caller ID said ‘Daddy.’ I said, ‘Hello!’ He said, ‘Lisa, this is Daddy.’ … I’m just calling to congratulate you.’
“I said, ‘Well, thank you, Daddy.’ He said, ‘I’m very proud of you.’ He’s super sweet; a man of few words. He’s very special to me, and of course, my mother is probably my biggest fan, ever.”
Willenberg said she grew up with two older brothers, James and Willie.
“It was great. I was a little bit of a tomboy; I love all sports. My brothers dragged me fishing, hunting and four-wheeling. I still love the outdoors,” she said.
She also loved school, especially classes that involved numbers.
“I loved accounting from high school,” she said.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1989 from the University of Central Arkansas, and her first job was in the accounting office at the former Arrow Automotive in Morrilton.
Willenberg was hired when the school needed someone to produce financial statements. Before it was a college, that had been done by the Arkansas Legislative Audit.
“Of course, we’ve grown exponentially,” she said. Today, the finance office has 10 employees.
She later earned a master’s degree in education with an emphasis in adult education.
Although she’s only been chancellor since Nov. 1, Willenberg has been on campus long enough to know what she wants to accomplish.
“We’ve done a really great job at UACCM as far as our quality education and our quality faculty and our awesome students, as far as making them successful,” she said. “I want to continue that tradition, but we’re really basically at the point where we have to get creative in order to stay competitive and continue producing quality graduates.”
She said state funding recently began being based on productivity — graduation and retention rates.
“We have to really concentrate heavily on student success — retaining our students, graduating our students and ultimately, then, increasing our enrollment,” she said.
She said enrollment is 1,850 this semester, and about 40 percent of those come from Faulkner County.
“Faulkner County is a huge shot in UACCM’s arm,” she said.
“I think we have some areas where we can [increase enrollment]. We’ve never really done a lot with online learning, and I definitely want to tap into that. I think there are a lot of opportunities there that will help our students finish sooner.”
A new program that Willenberg said is the best-kept secret around is the Transfer Achievement Scholarship program. Students who graduate with an associate degree from any University of Arkansas two-year college, including UACCM, can transfer to the Fayetteville campus and pay the same tuition per credit hour they paid at the community college to earn a bachelor’s degree.
“It’s quite significant,” she said, “and almost sounds too good to be true. That’s something I really want to get out, market that and make sure everyone’s aware. The people we’ve talked to one on one say, ‘Just wait a minute? … Are you kidding me?’”
For students who graduate from UACCM and transfer to the U of A in Fayetteville, “it’s just under $10,000 they can save on the tuition over the two years, or 60 hours up to their bachelor’s program.
“I think it’s going to be a game-changer; I really do,” she said.
Willenberg said no conversation about UACCM is complete without mentioning the Workforce Training Center, a source of pride for the community college. She said securing funding for the $13 million Workforce Training Center, which opened in April 2018, is one of her accomplishments as vice chancellor.
The 53,843-square-foot training facility has classrooms and lab space for auto service technology, welding, HVAC, and industrial maintenance and mechanics technology, a conference room and a 5,000-square-foot conference center, Tyson Training Hall.
“The first year, we were trying to find our way through the building; it’s so massive. Now we just need to fill it up,” she said.
Word of mouth has helped Tyson Training Hall, she said. “It pretty much stays booked. When people get in there, it’s like, ‘Wow.’”
Although Tyson sponsored the training hall, there are naming opportunities for some of the labs, “and the whole building itself for that matter — if somebody who reads this wants to write us a $5 million check,” she said.
Willenberg said her higher-education mentor is Linda Beene Ballard of Conway, former director of the state Department of Higher Education.
“She was always very positive, always lending that insight and encouragement at every point along the way,” Willenberg said. “She really was very instrumental.”
Willenberg said she attended an annual higher-education leadership-development program for community college administrators, which Ballard facilitated.
Ballard said Willenberg is “a fine young woman” who is deserving of the opportunity to lead UACCM.
Ballard said she got to know Willenberg better at the leadership meetings.
“I was able to observe her natural ability to encourage and motivate others, her positive attitude and respect of her peers,” Ballard said.
“Through the years, her skills in financial management of higher education have been enhanced as a CPA, as well as her experience in program creation, legislative appropriation, construction and enrollment management. She has proven to be respected on the UACCM campus, as well as across the UA system and state. Lisa recently provided leadership for a system to manage human resources and financial functions across the multiple campuses of the UA, which will be operational next July.”
Ballard said that possibly the most valuable asset Willenberg brings to the chancellor position is “her service and stability in the community served by UACCM and the investment of the community in her. Why not turn to one of our own talented professionals for leading a jewel in Arkansas’ college system?”
Willenberg said she hasn’t had much of a learning curve in her new job; UACCM is like a second home.
She and her husband, Chris, have a blended family of five children, all of whom have attended or are attending UACCM.
“It’s a family affair, and they recruit all their friends to come here also, so it’s a special bond to so many successful and good-ending stories,” she said.
And even after almost three decades, Willenberg’s story is still unfolding.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-5671 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.