Five new members were recently appointed to the Saint Mary’s Board of Trustees and two recent graduates were elected to seats on the Notre Dame board.
Senior Manuela Hernandez was appointed to the College’s Board of Trustees as Saint Mary’s Student Trustee.
Hernandez, a psychology major, is currently vice president of the Saint Mary’s Psi Chi chapter. She has earned the designations of Presidential Scholar and Distinguished Scholar and is a member of the National Honor Society.
She won the “Realizing Your Dreams” award, the Outstanding Hispanic Student award, the Tri Kappa award and the Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays Educational Excellence Award.
Father David Tyson, president of the University of Portland since 1990, was appointed in June.
During his presidency, Tyson has doubled the University of Portland’s endowment, built four new halls in five years, established five endowed chairs, earned national awards for teaching and advising and expanded the school by 26 acres. The implementation of Saint Mary’s College Master Plan to expand the campus will dovetail with Tyson’s three-year term of service on the Board of Trustees.
Tyson served as the vice president for student affairs at Notre Dame for six years, where he was a faculty member in COBA and executive assistant to Father Hesburgh. He is also a professor in the Pamplin School of Business Administration.
Susan Pichler, a Saint Mary’s College alumna, Class of ‘61, was also appointed to the board in June.
Pichler devoted several years of service to non-profit organizations’ boards and as a Junior Great Books leader and librarian at inner-city schools. She is a member of the Board of Trustees and National Advisory Board for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
Pichler graduated from Saint Mary’s with a bachelor of arts in English. She then began teaching English at St. Joseph High School in South Bend and also taught at St. Thomas the Apostle High School, an inner-city Catholic all girls school, in Chicago.
Jeffery Trumper, president and chief executive of Trumper Communications, began his three-year term in June.
Trumper is the former president and general manager of WLS-AM in Chicago.
Trumper was a member of the Madeleva Society from 1994 until 1997, and has been a member of the Parents Council since 1994.
Carmen Murphy also began a three-year term on the board.
Murphy, a lifelong resident of South Bend, has volunteered in several local organizations for 20 years.
Angela Smith, and Gregory Butrus, both 1993 Notre Dame graduates, were elected to the three-year terms for young alumni on the Board.
Smith is a second-year master’s degree candidate at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. She received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Notre Dame.
She is a member of the College of Business Administration’s advisory council and has served as a member of the board of directors of the Black Alumni of Notre Dame.
Butrus graduated with a degree in history, worked for former Alabama Senator Howell Heflin until 1995 and then returned to Notre Dame for law school, graduating in 1998. He is an attorney in the utility, legislative and regulatory section of the law firm of Balch & Bingham in Birmingham, Ala.
The Notre Dame Board of Trustees now numbers 54.
