Who Are the New Members on UD’s Board of Trustees?
Grace James
Contributing Writer
UD elected 10 new members to its Board of Trustees for the 2018-19 year, bringing the total number of board members to 34.
According to the UD Board Handbook, “the Board’s role is meant to be an oversight one, at a high, policy-overview level while, in contrast, the University administration is engaged in the day-to-day operations.”
There are many characteristics that the university looks for in new board members. They consider a variety of demographic attributes such as gender, race and age, as well as other characteristics such as faith tradition, geographic location and professional background.
“And for new trustees joining the Board under Dr. Spina’s leadership, their commitment to helping realize UD’s strategic vision as ‘the University for the Common Good’ is also very important,” said Lisa Rismiller, liaison for the Committee on Trustees.
The selection process for new members is lengthy, taking anywhere from one to five years.
The new members come from a range of fields and were inducted into their positions on Oct. 17. Bryan Borodkin, president of the Student Government Association, was one of the speakers at the ceremony.
“I loved getting to meet [the trustees] and discussing their plans to improve our university,” Borodkin said. “I loved learning why the university means so much to them and what they are passionate about individually.”
Three of the new members are Marianists, including Brother Dennis Bautista, Brother Timothy Driscoll and Father Oscar Vasquez.
Bautista serves as a communication professor at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. Driscoll is a Provincial of the Marianist Province of Meribah in Mineola, NY, and Vasquez began a five-year term this year as Provincial of the Marianist Province of the U.S.
Representing the media industry, Denise Eder Palmer (’77) worked for 34 years in news media. She served as president and publisher of The Tampa Tribune and vice president of news for the Tampa market of Media General Inc. She was an accounting major at UD.
The majority of the new members came from the business world. John Beran (’74, ’79) is managing director of the Beran Group and senior advisor of banking solutions for The Clearing House, which is headquartered in New York City. Beran received a bachelor’s degree in industrial and systems engineering and a master’s in management science from UD.
Ray Blakeney (’93) is a director of talent acquisition at Microsoft. He graduated with a political science degree and was an admission counselor for UD. He’s president of the UD Alumni Association.
Debra Plousha Moore (’89) is principal of Plousha Moore Group in San Francisco. She received a master’s degree in education from the university.
Joe Weidenbach (’89, ’92) leads U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management in Illinois. He received his bachelor’s degree and juris doctor from the university.
Darlene Gutmann Marlowe is returning to the board after serving from 2008-2017. According to a UD press release, “She and her late husband, Max, were leaders in the Dayton business and philanthropic community.”
The final new member is George Hanley (’77), president of the Hanley Foundation. He and his wife, Amanda, established the Hanley Sustainability Institute at UD in 2014. He graduated with a degree in business management.
The ten members will each serve a three-year term.
A video of the induction ceremonycan be watched on UD’s Facebook page.