Emporia State announced Jan. 3 that 11 new trustees joined the Emporia State University Foundation’s Board of Trustees.

According to the announcement sent out by ESU, the new members are “professionals with an array of experience in higher education, business, banking, public service and law enforcement” from across the nation, including psychology professor and retired dean of the ESU Teachers College Ken Weaver and former Mayor of Emporia Rob Gilligan.

“These incoming trustees bring a wealth of knowledge and a broad range of skills and experience to their roles as trustees,” said Shane Shively, President and CEO of the ESU Foundation and Vice President of University Advancement. 

The ESU Foundation Board of Trustees is a group of volunteers from across the nation that governs the ESU Foundation. The board serves as a way for the Foundation and ESU to make sure they are maximizing their efforts in education, career-preparedness, present and future challenges, and more. 

“They bring a wealth of knowledge (and) diversity of thought,” Shively said in an interview with The Bulletin. “They bring a healthy challenge process to decisions that are made and directionally we are always aligned to the strategic plan of university, but they also bring all of their backgrounds to the table to say ‘hey this is what we’re seeing out in the industry, this is what we’re seeing as it relates to today’s challenges or tomorrow’s challenges’ and seizing those opportunities.” 

In this past round of nominations, there were over 70 nominees nominated to the board. This number includes some self-nominees, something which Shively said has been a recurring theme in recent years. 

“(It is) incredible to think that not only do we have volunteers interested in our work, but are raising their hand and saying ‘yes I would be interested in joining your team by way of a volunteer,” he said. 

Volunteers are not required to be ESU alumni in order to serve on the Foundation Board of Trustees, something Shively says is worth noting. 

“We’ve got a couple of those individuals who care enough about our university and where we’re going,” Shively said. “Like I say, they’re volunteers because they care, but they’re not attached with a degree.” 

Currently, the Foundation’s Board of Trustees is a national one but its aim is for the board to become international in the future. For now, the community can look forward to the board and its new members helping ESU evolve as higher education continues to grow and change. 

“Emporia State exists solely for our students,” Shively said. “And so to have those volunteers and the team that we have in place to be there for this evolution and to be a head of the uber competitive industry of higher ed is where Emporia State aims to be.”