Dale Zevenbergen Named Director of the K&K Dooyema Center

Dale Zevenbergen has been named director of the K&K Dooyema Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and will assume the role in June.

Zevenbergen has worked at Dordt University for 23 years. For 9 years, he served as an adjunct instructor of business administration; for 13 years, he worked in a full-time capacity at Dordt in roles such as special gifts officer, interim executive director of enrollment, business administration instructor, and internship coordinator. He previously worked at Pella Corporation in a variety of roles and at Primerica in financial planning.

As director of the K&K Dooyema Center, Zevenbergen looks forward to providing students and alumni best business practices and guidance rooted in a reformed Christian context.

“The Dooyema Center plays a key role in providing a rich learning experience for our students who want to lead in new and small organizations,” says Zevenbergen. “We believe that all our students can benefit from a lens of entrepreneurial and innovative thinking so that they can become skilled problem-solvers.”

Through the Dooyema Center, Dordt students can expand their entrepreneurial knowledge by choosing an entrepreneurship minor (for non-business majors) or emphasis (for business majors).

“We also believe that providing experiences through our academic context as well as real-life applications through Project Elevate will help our students to become ‘intrapreneurial’ in their thinking and help existing businesses and / or services thrive and grow in relevance and impact.”

Project Elevate provides services to area organizations in order to help them initiate, innovate, and culminate. From researching viability of an idea to providing marketing support to aligning with existing third-party resources, Project Elevate can be a helpful resource for local businesses.

Dr. Leah Zuidema, vice president for academic affairs, looks forward to working with Zevenbergen in his role as K&K Dooyema Center director.

“He is an outstanding networker who is eager to connect students with external partners for mutual benefit by enabling them to work together through projects, internships, classes, and the like,” says Zuidema. “We are committed to expanding and leveraging Dordt’s networks in order to create new opportunities that mutually benefit students and partners among our alumni and broader community.”

Zevenbergen says it is important for Christians to engage in entrepreneurship and innovation to glorify God through service to the community.

“Service is at the heart of why any organization exists—one group of people serving another group of people,” adds Zevenbergen. “God also created us to be creative, commanding us in Genesis 1:28 to develop his creation. We do that by developing innovative products and services that meet the needs of others. And of course, sin stains all those efforts, so we join him in seeking to reform and redeem culture and societies, as he is making all things new!”

About Dordt University

As an institution of higher education committed to the Reformed Christian perspective, Dordt University equips students, faculty, alumni, and the broader community to work toward Christ-centered renewal in all aspects of contemporary life. Dordt, located in Sioux Center, Iowa, is a comprehensive university named to the best college lists by U.S. News and World Report, Forbes.com, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Monthly, and Princeton Review. To learn more, visit dordt.edu.