Indiana – After nearly three decades of dedication, Chef Jeff Bricker is stepping away from the kitchen and classroom at Ivy Tech Community College. This summer, Bricker will retire after 28 years of service that reshaped the school’s culinary program and inspired countless students to chase excellence in the food world and beyond. From his beginnings as a student to becoming a department chair and visionary leader, his story is one of personal evolution, quiet ambition, and passionate mentorship.
Bricker’s journey began in a modest family restaurant. Raised in a working-class household where college wasn’t part of the conversation, he learned the basics of the culinary trade through long days in the kitchen. “I was one of five boys growing up, and my parents never went to college,” Bricker recalled. “It really wasn’t part of our conversation at home. I just worked in restaurants after school every day and never really thought about college.”
That all changed with a simple but unfamiliar catering request that left Bricker unsure of how to proceed. It was a moment of realization. “I didn’t know how to go about that, and I was kind of challenged,” he said. “All I knew were the menus I’d been exposed to, and I realized there was so much more to learn.”
He enrolled at Ivy Tech in the 1990s, intending to take just one class. But the faculty saw something in him he hadn’t seen in himself. Slowly, class by class, Bricker found himself immersed. “The program chair said to me, ‘You’re almost done with your degree,’” he laughed. “I said, ‘What do you mean? I didn’t come here for a degree!’”
His time at Ivy Tech was transformative. A study-abroad trip to France opened his eyes to a new side of food. “Taking your time with a multi-course meal—that was transformational,” he said. He later brought this love for classical French cuisine back home, opening a fine-dining and catering business in Greenwood with his wife. The couple served thousands of weddings and events, but as their family grew, the demands of the business became too much. “My wife and I realized it wasn’t sustainable with three young kids,” Bricker said. “When the chance to go full-time at Ivy Tech came, we sold the business, and I took the job. I never looked back.”
In 2002, Bricker returned to Ivy Tech as a full-time instructor, bringing real-world experience and a heart for teaching. He never stopped learning either, earning a bachelor’s degree from Indiana Wesleyan and a master’s from Ball State. But even as he climbed the academic ladder, he struggled to adjust to the pace of institutional systems. “I ran my own business for years, so I was my own business office, my own human resources, my marketing—all that stuff,” he said. “And so when I first came here, I really had to adapt to more of a bureaucracy.”
His entrepreneurial mindset soon found new life as program chair. By 2004, Bricker was leading the charge to modernize and expand the culinary offerings. “Suddenly, I wasn’t only teaching sauces and butchery,” he said. “I had to rethink everything – facilities, community partnerships, even how we defined success.”
One of his biggest undertakings was spearheading the move to a new facility. The culinary program had outgrown its aging kitchens in the North Meridian Center. After years of proposals and setbacks, an opportunity emerged: the old Stouffer’s Hotel became available nearby, and with the help of a $23 million Lilly Endowment grant, Ivy Tech was able to transform the space.
“We spent five months with a kitchen design consultant, planning what would be the dream kitchens of the future,” Bricker said. By 2012, Ivy Tech unveiled the new Conference Center and Culinary Institute, a game-changer for the college. The facility featured nine modern kitchens, a bakery cafe, a fine-dining restaurant, and event space for both internal and public use.
More than the equipment or space, Bricker saw the psychological shift. “When students walk into a professional-grade kitchen every day, they start carrying themselves like professionals,” he said.
This transformation went beyond bricks and mortar. The new space helped cement Ivy Tech’s culinary identity, laying the groundwork for something bigger. That dream became reality this year when the program was elevated to the School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management, a standalone school within Ivy Tech. “It took years of advocacy,” Bricker said. “But now Indiana has a culinary school that’s fully accredited and world-class.”
Through it all, Bricker remained focused on what mattered most: the students. He often said, “Our lives are changed in the process of changing others’ lives.” For Bricker, teaching wasn’t a one-way street. It was about listening, evolving, and seeing potential where others might not.
That belief came to life in stories like Jody May’s, a visually impaired student who stunned her peers with her precision and skill. “She butchered that fish cleaner than most others,” Bricker recalled. When asked how she knew the steak was done without seeing a thermometer, she replied simply, “The sizzle tells me.”
Moments like those defined his career. “It stretched me as an educator. We’d been so focused on teaching the ‘right’ way, we’d missed all the other ways brilliance manifests.”
Bricker also forged pathways for nontraditional students, especially through partnerships like Second Helpings, a nonprofit offering culinary job training. “Many Second Helpings students have not even graduated high school or have their GED. When they complete their certificate there, that measure of success lets them think, ‘I can do this,’” he said.
He also fought hard to make study-abroad opportunities possible for students who never imagined leaving their home state. He took six trips himself and watched each time as students found a new confidence. “There’s a student going this May—never flown, never left Indiana. First-gen, like I was. When he realizes, ‘I can navigate this,’ it’ll knock me sideways all over again.”
His leadership didn’t end in the classroom. He brought Ivy Tech closer to the culinary industry through partnerships with the American Culinary Federation and other organizations, always pushing to keep the curriculum modern and connected to the real world.
One of the chefs Bricker mentored, Joe Miller, went from Ivy Tech student to executive chef at a country club, and now runs one of America’s top restaurants. Miller also gives back, mentoring current students. “He won gold as a student representing Ivy Tech in the 1990s,” Bricker said. “Now, he mentors our students today through an externship program.”
Throughout it all, Bricker pushed against the assumption that limited resources meant limited opportunity. He insisted Ivy Tech could be excellent, even without the big budgets of elite culinary schools. “We don’t receive the same kind of funding as the big colleges and universities. We have limited resources. How could we have a culture of excellence when you have limited resources? That mindset can really mitigate efforts for success,” he said.
Instead of lowering expectations, Bricker raised the bar. “A culture of excellence leads to student success,” he said. “How do you create a culture of excellence with scarce resources? You go above and beyond anyway.”
As he prepares to retire, Bricker leaves behind not just a school, but a standard. He plans to continue teaching part-time online and spend more time with his eight grandchildren, including a newborn expected soon. He also looks forward to visiting family in San Diego.
But first, one more trip to France. His final act as an Ivy Tech educator will be chaperoning a student trip to the place that changed his life. “It’s poetic,” he said. “I went as a student, now I’ll leave as a teacher.”
When asked what legacy he hopes to leave, Bricker was humble. “That we kept striving for excellence, even when it wasn’t easy,” he said. “Ivy Tech gave me a purpose I never expected. If I helped a few students find theirs, that’s enough.”
For those whose lives were touched by him—students, colleagues, and fellow educators—”enough” barely scratches the surface.
