Chair of the Newman University Board of Trustees Linda S. Davison is set to complete her third and final term of service in September 2017. At this time, current Vice-Chair Teresa Hall Bartels will assume the role as chair at the beginning of the next term.
Davison, formerly the vice-chair, took on the role of chair due to the untimely illness and eventual passing of the previous chair Doug Stanley. In the wake of this interim period, Davison was then elected to a full two-year term as Chair in 2013 and re-elected for her final term in 2015.
Having served as a Board of Trustees member since September 2007, Davison has been a veteran service contributor to Newman University. She has played a vital role in a number of efforts which have forged university growth and establishment.
These efforts include the oversight of a five-year strategic plan designed to not only expand the outreach of university relations with Wichita area organizations such as the Diocese of Wichita, but to also enrich the academic programs, and network of campus activities within the university itself.
Davison has also supported Newman University President Noreen M. Carrocci, Ph.D., alongside other executive members, as a reaffirmation of accreditation has been sought from the Higher Learning Commission over the course of the past two years.
However, arguably the biggest contribution Davison has made to Newman University during her ten-year run with the Board of Trustees, is the guidance and push she has given to the Facing Forward campaign. Intended to raise funds to update Eck Hall and build the new Bishop Gerber Science Center, the Facing Forward campaign has made its historic mark as the largest and most successful fundraiser on campus to date.
In a letter written to the Newman University Magazine, Davison describes the collaborative efforts by saying, “Thanks to the generous contributions of individuals and organizations too numerous to list here, Newman will have first-rate science and health science facilities that will serve students and the community for many years to come.”
Carrocci commends Davison, saying that few people are capable of offering the perspective she has brought to university developments, and describing her as being “an invaluable resource to the operations committee and the board through [the] construction project.”
Shining a brighter light on the depths of dedication Davison has shown to Newman University, Carrocci said that “there are very few who have given as much as she has given, of her time and her talent.”
