For Immediate Release

Contact: Daniel Wackershauser, Marketing and PR Specialist
Phone: 608.822.2303
Mail: 1800 Bronson Blvd., Fennimore, WI 53809
Date of Release: September 22, 2026

Cooley Leaving Legacy of Community Impact

Fennimore -

After more than eight years of helping connect students, donors, businesses and communities, Dennis Cooley is retiring from Southwest Wisconsin Technical College. Cooley, executive director of advancement, is concluding a career that includes approximately 26 years in higher education. His work at Southwest Tech has included fundraising, building community partnerships and developing leadership training opportunities throughout the region.

For Cooley, the decision to work at Southwest Tech was deeply connected to his belief in southwest Wisconsin. After working outside the region, including a position in Madison, he wanted to return to the place where he grew up and where his family and friends remained.

“We didn’t just choose southwest Wisconsin. We believe in it,” he said. “I like what the communities are grounded in; hard work, honesty, dependability, accountability, and responsibility.”

Throughout his time at Southwest Tech, Cooley worked to connect donors with opportunities that matched their interests. He said advancement work was never simply about asking for money. “It’s never about money,” he said. “It’s about matching up people who want to help with projects that need help.”

One initiative Cooley is particularly proud of is the Raising Chargers Fund, which provided wraparound support to help single parents overcome barriers and complete their education. He also points to scholarships, facilities, workforce training and other donor-supported initiatives as examples of how community generosity can directly affect students.

Leadership development became another significant part of Cooley’s Southwest Tech career. During the past eight years, more than 200 iterations of the college’s leadership academy were conducted. The program continued during the COVID-19 pandemic by shifting from in-person instruction to virtual delivery.

Although retiring from his position, Cooley said he plans to remain active and explore opportunities to continue leadership training and fundraising work. “The great thing about working at Southwest Tech, I was able to do everything I love to do in one spot,” he said. “Raise money, raise support, get people involved, leadership training. I always wanted to be a teacher, and this gave me a chance to do that.”

As he closes this chapter, Cooley said Southwest Tech’s reach throughout the region is what makes the college special. “What’s the one organization that represents southwest Wisconsin more than any other? That’s Southwest Tech,” he said. “It’s all corners of our district, all walks of life, training, retraining, getting a degree, a certificate, whatever it is.”

For Cooley, that opportunity to serve the region made his years at Southwest Tech among the most rewarding of his career.