Meet Darcy Schnuth

From student worker to vice president, Darcy Schnuth has built a career around learning, service, and making complex systems work better for students.

Look closely at Darcy Schnuth's office, and you might catch a glimpse of Star Wars memorabilia nestled alongside recognitions from national education organizations. It's fitting for someone whose career is defined by precision, dedication, and an unwavering commitment to helping students navigate their journeys.

Today, Darcy serves as IEC's Vice President of Student Finance & Records Management, overseeing a portfolio that includes student finance, financial aid compliance, agency billing, veterans’ education benefits, registrars, and student records. Her work connects her with every department across the organization.

Even after roughly 25 years in education, she still finds something new to learn.

"There's always a new challenge," Darcy says. "Every single time something comes up and I think, 'I've never done that before,' I get to learn something new."

Finding a Calling

Darcy's path into education wasn't the one she planned. She entered college pursuing an associate degree in travel and tourism, with her sights set on hotel management. Then, just three months before graduation, the September 11 attacks upended the travel industry overnight.

At the time, Darcy was working as a student employee at the school she attended. A chance conversation at a campus career fair changed everything: the admissions office needed a coordinator, and she was offered the job.

She took it. And found her calling.

After several years in admissions, she moved into financial aid, steadily advancing into roles of greater responsibility, eventually becoming a financial aid director and later a regional director overseeing as many as 16 locations. She spent 12 years there in total, including time helping launch a new campus in Milwaukee, before her career took her to Texas and eventually, brought her to California in 2016.

When she later considered leaving education for another industry, the fit never felt right.

"I couldn't imagine doing something that didn't have the same impact as helping students,” she said. “You have to believe in the mission. That’s what it’s about."

That belief, paired with her appetite for lifelong learning, has shaped both her career and her life outside it. Darcy holds four degrees, including studies in database administration and networking, an associate degree in accounting, a bachelor's in business, and an MBA.

Growing Alongside IEC

Darcy joined IEC in April 2016 as Corporate Director of Student Finance. From there, her responsibilities steadily expanded to include fiscal operations, student records, and, in 2019, the registrar function, before she advanced into her current vice president role.

Taking on registrars marked one of the most significant shifts in her IEC career. At the time, many records-related processes were highly manual, and Darcy led a Herculean, multi-year effort to streamline and automate them.

“The goals was not simply to modernize the technology, but to free up the team's time to focus on students instead of repetitive data entry,” she said. "We have leveraged digital automation to prevent compliance errors, strengthen accuracy, and allow us to focus more on the needs of the students.”

That same drive for continuous improvement runs through everything she does. "We're always striving to do better and to be better," she said. "The work is never done. Even when something is working, the question is, how can we make it better?"

Today, her teams support financial aid packaging, Title IV, credit balance reviews, agency billing, and federal student aid audits, along with veterans benefit applications, audits, and certifications, plus the full scope of student records. Because that work touches nearly every part of a student's experience, collaboration is constant.

"I pretty much partner with every team," she said. "I'm always interacting with somebody."

Serving Those Who Serve Veterans

Darcy's commitment to education extends well beyond IEC through her volunteer leadership with the Western Association of Veterans Education Specialists, known as WAVES.

She began working with veterans’ education benefits in 2007 and, for years, attended WAVES conferences simply as a member. That changed in 2018, when a federal regulator she'd worked with encouraged her to raise her hand for an open board position during an election.

She did, and what began as an unplanned opportunity grew into years of leadership. Darcy served two terms as member-at-large, followed by a term as Second Vice President, and has since been elected to her second term as First Vice President, a fully volunteer role in which she builds the agenda for WAVES' annual conference. That means coordinating directly with federal and state regulators, the VA's national training team, and agency leadership to bring together hundreds of attendees each year.

“Online training can deliver technical information,” Darcy explained, “but it can't replicate what happens in person when attendees get to ask regulators direct questions and walk away with real-time answers or compare notes with peers at other institutions facing the same challenges.”

"We always say we serve the ones who serve veterans," Darcy said. "Providing high-quality training and real-time answers for the people assisting our student veterans is what makes the work so meaningful."

In recognition of her volunteer leadership, the WAVES Board of Directors selected Darcy for its 2026 Presidential Award for Excellence.

"Darcy is the glue that holds so much of IEC together. She has an incredible ability to see the big picture while still getting the details right, and that's rare,” said Shoukry Tiab, President and CEO. “Her work on our records and finance operations has made us more accurate, more compliant, and more focused on students. Her volunteer leadership with WAVES reflects the same values she brings to IEC every day. We're proud to have her on our team. Please join me in congratulating her for receiving the 2026 WAVE President’s Award for Excellence."

Finding Community in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Outside of work, Darcy's life takes a cinematic turn.

She and her husband Michael, married 21 years and together for 27, are devoted Star Wars fans and active members of the Mandalorian Mercs Costuming Club. Members build their own screen-accurate armor, submit it for official approval, and appear in costume at charity and community events.

"In my free time, I am a mercenary," Darcy jokes.

Her husband built his first Mandalorian kit during the pandemic, then built one for her. He's since become the couple's in-house armorer, an artist by hobby with six or seven kits of his own, and a third one in progress for Darcy.

Through the club, they've appeared at Toys for Tots drives, Race for the Cure events in Orange County, community events at the USS Iowa, and even red-carpet premieres in Hollywood.

But Darcy says it's the smaller community events that mean the most, watching kids light up when they meet the costumed characters, though she's noticed the parents sometimes get just as excited.

The club has become a social community as much as a volunteer one. Members gather regularly for "armor parties," where experienced builders help newcomers construct and refine their own kits. It has brought Darcy and her husband lasting friendships, and another way to give back.

Mandalorian Mercs Costuming Club at a fundraising event in Orange County.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Darcy and Michael have also called Milwaukee, and San Antonio home before moving to California. Their household includes a four-year-old Pug-A-Mo named Finneas, whose story started at the animal rescue where Micheal works.

"While others kept overlooking him because he was born blind, me and my husband saw what was really there: a powerhouse of pure joy," Darcy said. "We adopted him, brought him home, and never looked back."

Don't let his lack of sight fool you, she said. Finneas doesn't consider himself disabled for a single second, navigating life with absolute confidence, endless sweetness, and zero hesitation. He has complete command of the neighborhood, where he's practically a local celebrity.

"If you see a tiny, unstoppable force strutting down the sidewalk," Darcy said, "that's just Finneas living his best life."

Purpose in Every Challenge

Darcy's career has taken her from a student worker position to executive leadership, across several states, through changing regulations, and into roles she never could have imagined when she first started. The common thread has been service, whether that means improving an internal process, keeping IEC compliant, supporting the people who serve veterans, or bringing a favorite fictional universe to life for a good cause.

"I never come into work thinking, 'I'm going to be bored today,' " Darcy said. "I like that I'm always striving to tackle challenges, get more done, and never stop learning."

That mindset has made her a lifelong member of the education community, and a valued colleague at IEC.