SMC welcomes new faces to Board of Trustees
by MOLLY McVOY
The Saint Mary's Board of Trustees has a new makeup this year, thanks to the addition of three new members.
Sister Barbara Spears, Shirley Lewis and C.C. Nessinger are all new to the board. Deborah Schwiebert starts her first elected term this year, after two years as an appointed member of the board and alumnae board president.
"We see [Schwiebert] bringing her knowledge of Saint Mary's as a former student and her strong background in business," Bill Schmuhl, chairman of the board, said.
The changeover in the board comes as a result of three long-time board members' retirement. Phillip Faccenda, Joseph Tuohy, and Darwin Wiekamp left the board this year.
Schweibert is the manager of Deere.com, the on-line marketing site for Deere & Company. She is also a member of the Friends of the People of Haiti, the Holocaust Remembrance Committee and the Rock Island County Bar Auxiliary.
"The board is very diverse this year, and that is exciting," Schwiebert said. "We have women, men, religious, unmarried and married people. We are diverse in terms of religion and ethnic background as well."
Lewis and Spears are totally new to the Board of Trustees.
Spears holds degrees from Howard University, Trinity College and Xavier University. She won the Martin Luther King Award and served as president of the National Black Sisters Conference. She is a member of the National Catholic Education Association and the National Association of Female Executives.
"Two of our new board members have strong backgrounds in education," Schmuhl said. "We hope to take advantage of their experience in education."
Lewis was the first woman president at Paine College and served as assistant general secretary of the Black College Fund of the General Board of Higher Education. She graduated from the University of California at Berkley, and received her Ph.D. in education from Stanford University.
Nessinger replaces Schweibert as president of the alumnae board and appointed trustee.
"[Nessinger] will bring the voice of the alumni to the board," Schwiebert said. "I also hope to bring my personal voice as an alumnae."
Nessinger graduated from Saint Mary's in 1956 and now primarily does volunteer work at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona.
"I'm really looking forward to sitting on the Board of Trustees," Nessinger said. "This is going to be a really busy time for Saint Mary's."
Nessinger and her husband, a former member of the Saint Mary's Board of Trustees, are from Chicago.
"My goal as alumnae president is to create a more active alumnae," Nessinger said. "Especially with this Master Plan starting, the alumnae have to be active and involved."
As a part of the Master Plan, the college has been drawing on alumnae support, financial in particular. The College is still raising funds for many parts of the Master Plan, and Nessinger believes alumnae will prove an important resource for the College.
"The alumnae are really the best financial basis the College has," she said.
Schmuhl agrees that the Master Plan will top the list of priorities for the board this year.
"Our focus is really going be on the Master Plan implementation, which will primarily have to focus on fund raising," he said. "We've already started building some parts of the plan, and if we're going to do anymore on the Master Plan, we're going to have to pay for it."
Both Schmuhl and Schwiebert agree that in order to find donors for the Master Plan, Saint Mary's administrators must promote the College and find individuals who believe in its mission.
"We want to make certain that we're telling the Saint Mary's story and bringing in new donors," Schwiebert said.
The College is also beginning a strategic plan for many of the departments and, according to Schmuhl, support and implementation of the College's strategic planning will also be a focus of the board this year.
All News Stories for Monday, August 28, 2000
