The Board of Trustees has appointed seven new members, choosing several prominent educational and industry leaders among over 100 applicants, the University announced Wednesday. The new members, who began their terms July 1, include noted civil rights attorney Julius Chambers, General Motors CEO Richard Wagoner and two professionals in medical fields. "[They are] very highly qualified," said Board Chair Harold "Spike" Yoh. "It's probably the best and heaviest group we've had... They're really qualified, and they're diverse."
The screening committee, headed by Trustee Robert Steel, faced an unusually large retiring class of Trustees, all seven of whom had expiring terms.
University Secretary Allison Haltom said the Board tried specifically to recruit two people with medical backgrounds, given the changing nature of health care. Those two members are health care policy specialist Uwe Reinhardt, a professor at Princeton University and current member of the Duke University Health System Board of Directors, and Dr. Lewis "Rusty" Williams, chief scientific officer of Chiron Corp., Graduate School '77 and Medicine '78.
Also among the new members are education technology expert Kimberly Jenkins, Trinity '76 and Graduate School '80; Duke Alumni Association President Gary Melchionni, Trinity '73 and Law '81; and former Duke Student Government president Jordan Bazinsky, Trinity '01. Both Bazinsky, who sits in the designated young trustee spot, and Melchionni, who represents the alumni association, will serve limited terms and serve as non-voting members for the first year.
Yoh said he thought Chambers, former chancellor of North Carolina Central University, would give the Board a needed perspective, given the departure of former University of North Carolina Chancellor Paul Hardin.
He added that Wagoner demonstrated a real commitment to Duke in addition to corporate expertise.
"We really seek out... someone who has a connection and a love for the school," Yoh said. "To be a trustee, you pay your own way. It's tough. He'll have to take time away from his business, and it really takes passion and dedication."
Each new trustee will serve a six-year term, with the possibility of serving another. Thirty-one of the 36 members of the Board are alumni.
Among the outgoing members of the Board are Hardin; Susan Bennett King, Woman's College '62; Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke, Woman's College '67; Morris Williams, Trinity '62 and Graduate School '63; young trustee Christopher Lam, Trinity '98; and alumni association representative Gwynne Young, Woman's College '71.
In addition to selecting new members, the Board re-elected five board members to six-year terms: Paula Phillips Burger, vice provost at the Johns Hopkins University, Woman's College '67 and Graduate School '74; Melinda French Gates, Trinity '86, Fuqua '87 and wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates; Dr. Rebecca Trent Kirkland, professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, Woman's College '64 and Medical School '68; Ernest Mario, chair and CEO of Alza Corp.; and the Rev. Charles Smith, Trinity '62 and Divinity '65.
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