A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff
To the University Community:
UMW’s governing body, the Board of Visitors, met last Thursday and Friday. In addition to hearing updates from the University Faculty Council President Marcel Rotter, Student Government Association President Sarah Karwowski, and Honor Council President Joshua Hunt, board members set the agenda for their meetings this year, heard reports on a variety of topics, and passed several resolutions. Of particular importance, the Board authorized funding for the renovation of Willard Hall (to be completed by Fall 2019), signed off on the Master of Science in Nursing degree program (to start in Spring 2019), approved the creation of six scholarship or endowments, and affirmed my priorities for the academic year.
Troy Paino
President
Gov. Terry McAuliffe has appointed Carlos Del Toro of Stafford, Va., to the University of Mary Washington Board of Visitors.
Del Toro, known for his leadership and innovation, is founder, CEO and president of SBG Technology Solutions Inc.,
Carlos Del Toro
a Washington-based engineering services and consulting firm. Four years ago, he was recognized by the Small Business Administration as the Small Business Person of the Year in Region III, encompassing Virginia, Maryland and D.C.
A former naval officer and White House Fellow, Del Toro is a native of Havana, Cuba. He graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy and earned advanced degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School, George Washington University, and the Naval War College.
He is a director on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Council on Small Business and past president of the board of the Capital Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Also, Del Toro serves as a director on the Rappahannock Goodwill Industries Board of Directors and has served on numerous gubernatorial boards in Virginia.
Del Toro will fill the unexpired term of Tabitha Geary Tate, who has resigned from the Board. His term on the Mary Washington Board of Visitors will expire in 2017.
The Virginia Governor’s Office today announced the appointment of former Virginia Senator Edd Houck and Fred Rankin, president and chief executive officer of Mary Washington Healthcare, to the Board of Visitors at the University of Mary Washington. Houck and Rankin will serve four-year terms, which expire June 30, 2018. They succeed Joseph Wilson and Xavier Richardson, whose terms will end on June 30, 2014. Holly Cuellar ’89, current rector of the board, has been reappointed for an additional four-year term, which will extend through June 30, 2018.
Holly T. Cuellar
Holly Cuellar
Cuellar, a 1989 graduate of Mary Washington, has served on the UMW Board of Visitors since 2010, and as rector since 2013. Currently a resident of the San Diego area, she is membership director for The IABM, a trade association that represents the broadcast supply industry. Cuellar previously served in the Office of the Virginia Attorney General as deputy scheduler and as the Hampton Roads community outreach coordinator, maintaining and supporting the Class Action program for Virginia school children. She also served on the City of Virginia Beach’s Gang Task Force, was a regional manager for the Keeping Virginia Safe and Strong programs, and helped develop programs to promote internet safety and senior advocacy.
Edd Houck
Photo courtesy of Edd Houck
Edd Houck
A longtime legislator and educator, Houck represented the 17th District in the Virginia Senate from 1984 to 2012. In addition to his legislative duties, Houck worked in the public schools for 34 years, including as a middle school science teacher, guidance counselor, assistant principal, and the director of student services for Fredericksburg City Public Schools. He retired in 2007. He then served until last year as director of community and corporate programs for Mary Washington Healthcare.
Houck received a bachelor’s in education from Concord College (Athens, W.Va.), and a master’s in education from the University of Virginia.
Fred Rankin
Fred Rankin
Rankin has served as president and CEO of Mary Washington Healthcare since 1995. Mary Washington Healthcare is a private not-for-profit regional system of healthcare facilities and wellness centers, including Mary Washington Hospital and Stafford Hospital, which serves the greater Rappahannock region.
Rankin is a past president of the Rappahannock Area United Way and continues to serve on the United Way’s Board of Directors. He also has served on the Board of Directors of the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce and on the Board of Directors of the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance, a public-private partnership. He co-chairs, along with UMW President Richard V. Hurley, an ongoing regional economic development initiative. Rankin also is a member of the UMW Foundation Board of Directors.
Rankin received a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health.
Full-time Virginia residents living on campus will pay $19,682, including tuition, fees, room and board. This amount represents an increase of $900 or 4.8 percent over 2013-14 rates. Similarly, full-time out-of-state students living on campus will pay $32,968, a 4.2 percent increase over last year’s rate.
“What we’re offering is a competitive, reasonable and necessary rate,” said President Richard V. Hurley.
Holly Cuellar, rector for the Board of Visitors, agreed. “The increase will allow UMW to continue its standard of excellence that has been a hallmark of the University,” she said.
“While the General Assembly’s failure to adopt a budget continues to create uncertainty, the Board felt an obligation to move forward in establishing costs for next year,” Cuellar said.
The university, with a total enrollment of more than 5,000 students, features colleges of business, education and arts and sciences, and three campuses, including a residential campus in Fredericksburg, a second one in nearby Stafford and a third in Dahlgren, which serves as a center of development of educational and research partnerships between the Navy, higher education institutions and the region’s employers.
“It’s only fitting that the outdoor facility bear Ed Hegmann’s name,” said Ken Tyler, who took over as UMW’s athletic director after Hegmann’s retirement in 2012. “Dr. Hegmann has left a strong and lasting legacy at UMW.”
Hegmann was instrumental in the design and construction of the multi-venue outdoor Battleground Athletic Complex, which includes the 12-court tennis complex and the indoor University Tennis Center. Completed in 1999, the outdoor tennis complex consists of 12 lighted hard-surface courts with seating for 600 spectators. UMW has hosted the men’s 2006 NCAA national championship, the 2005 and 2010 women’s national championships as well as 10 regional competitions.
During Hegmann’s 36-year tenure, he also oversaw the expansion of the athletic program from six to 23 sports and was a major catalyst in the development of the university’s state-of-the-art facilities, including the William M. Anderson Center multi-use convocation center completed in 2011. Under Hegmann’s direction, 22 sports advanced to the national championships with five different teams competing in the Final Four.
Hegmann directed the women’s tennis team for 23 years and led the Eagles to three national championships, including the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national title in 1982 and the NCAA Division III titles in 1988 and 1991. He gained eight Capital Athletic Conference Coach of the Year awards and captured nine straight CAC championships. He was named the NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year in 1988 and again in 1999. In addition, he was inducted into the MWC/UMW Athletic Hall of Fame, and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Women’s Collegiate Tennis National Hall of Fame. In 2012, the Board of Visitors awarded Hegmann one of the university’s most prestigious awards, the Washington Medallion, given for extraordinary service.
“Dr. Hegmann’s contributions to this university are significant in number and impact,” said President Richard V. Hurley. “He will always be remembered for the transformative role he played here.”Georgia State Sen. Nan Orrock ’65 today received one of the University of Mary Washington’s most prestigious awards, the Monroe Medal. Orrock was honored by President Richard V. Hurley and the Board of Visitors during a dedication ceremony for the James Farmer Lecture Hall.
This distinction marks only the third time the medal has been presented at UMW.
Sen. Nan Orrock was recognized for a lifetime of activism.
The award recognizes individuals who in some extraordinary way have provided service to humanity and society that is lasting.
Orrock has served in the Georgia state legislature since 1987, including as House Majority Whip and committee chair. Her engagement with public policy dates back to her participation in the 1963 March on Washington while a student, an experience that has led to a lifetime of activism.
“My life was changed and touched by [civil rights leader James Farmer],” she said. “He was part of the groundbreaking leadership of those stood up when in some of areas of the country it meant taking your life into your hands to stand up.”
In 1966, only one year after graduating from Mary Washington with a degree in English, Orrock helped organize and lead a 600-mile walk from Whitesville, N.C., to Wilmington, N.C., for striking textile workers. She went on to work for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Atlanta, Ga., and Mississippi, and led a community rights project in Virginia.
Orrock is a founder of both the Georgia Legislative Women’s Caucus and the Working Families Caucus, and is the president of the Women Legislators’ Lobby.
The Monroe Medal, established in 2001, recognizes those who keep with the tradition of service of President James Monroe, for whom the award is named. Carlisle M. Williams, Jr., received the award in 2003 and William H. Leighty ’77 received the award in 2004.
During the ceremony, Rector Holly Cuellar ’89 unveiled a plaque dedicating the space to James Farmer, who taught the history of the civil rights movement to Mary Washington students for about a dozen years before his retirement in 1998.
Professor Timothy O’Donnell recounted Farmer’s influence on hundreds of Mary Washington students who witnessed the civil rights leader’s firsthand accounts.
“On this day of dedication we pause yet again to honor a great American whose life in service to our nation is well documented, even if not widely celebrated,” O’Donnell said.
Several UMW entities bear Farmer’s name, including the James Farmer Multicultural Center and the James Farmer Scholars Program. In 2012, students in Professor Jeffrey McClurken’s digital history seminar created a publicly accessible digital archive of Farmer’s lectures.
McClurken, who is chair of the Department of History and American Studies, recalled his time as a student of Farmer 20 years ago.
“It is indeed right and appropriate that we designate, that we consecrate, this place where the civil rights movement came to life through the resonant voice, the wry humor, the deep intelligence and the raw emotion of a man who had lived through the movement, had changed the movement and had been changed by it,” McClurken said.
The University of Mary Washington will dedicate a lecture hall in honor of civil rights leader James L. Farmer, Jr. during a ceremony on Friday, Nov. 15. The ceremony, which will begin at 4 p.m. in Monroe Hall, Room 116, is open to the public.
The bust of civil rights leader James Farmer overlooks Campus Walk. Farmer taught at Mary Washington for about a dozen years until his retirement in 1998.
Farmer, founder of the Congress of Racial Equality and one of the “Big Four,” worked closely with Martin Luther King, Jr. on nonviolent protests to eliminate racial inequality. Farmer taught the history of the civil rights movement to Mary Washington students for about a dozen years before his retirement in 1998. That year, President Bill Clinton awarded Farmer the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Several UMW entities bear Farmer’s name, including the James Farmer Multicultural Center and the James Farmer Scholars Program.
“Our dedication of the lecture hall is to honor a man who changed our nation, our way of life, and in his later years our understanding of the civil rights movement,” said Leah Cox, special assistant for diversity and inclusion.
Georgia State Sen. Nan Orrock ’65 will deliver a keynote address for the occasion. Orrock has served in the Georgia state legislature since 1987, including as House Majority Whip and committee chair. Her engagement with public policy dates back to her participation in the 1963 March on Washington, an experience that has led to a lifetime of activism.
President Richard V. Hurley and the Board of Visitors also will be on-hand for the commemoration.
The Virginia Governor’s Office today announced the appointment of Tabitha Geary, Kenneth Lopez and Lisa Taylor to the Board of Visitors at the University of Mary Washington. They will serve four-year terms, which expire June 30, 2017. They succeed Daniel K. Steen, Mary J. Berry and the Honorable Pamela J. White, whose terms have ended.
White, departing rector of the UMW Board of Visitors, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to serve her alma mater. She added, “I am particularly proud to have played a role in naming and supporting Rick Hurley as UMW’s ninth President.” White also applauded the contributions of Berry and Steen, whom she succeeded as rector.
Tabitha Geary, Richmond
Tabitha Geary
Geary, a 1992 graduate of Mary Washington, is vice president of marketing strategy and analytics for SapientNitro, an integrated marketing and technology services firm in New York. Her career in marketing and consulting has spanned 20 years, including four years as co-founder and managing partner of Create Digital, a Richmond-based digital media company, and nearly seven years as president of a marketing agency in Richmond. As CEO of Tabitha Geary Co., a memory archiving business, she has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and Martha Stewart Living.
Geary has served on the board of directors of Comfort Zone Camp, the largest national nonprofit bereavement camp dedicated to children ages 7 to 17 who have lost an immediate family member.
Kenneth Lopez, Alexandria
Ken Lopez
Lopez, a 1992 graduate of Mary Washington and a lifelong Virginia resident, is the founder and CEO of A2L Consulting, a leading provider of jury consulting, litigation graphics and courtroom support to all of the nation’s largest law firms. He founded the company in 1995 after receiving a law degree from the Widener University School of Law.
Lopez serves on the advisory board of UMW’s College of Business and on the Dean’s National Advisory Council at Widener. He was UMW’s Junior Executive-in-Residence in 2008 and is a frequent guest speaker for classes and student organizations.
Lisa Taylor, Chantilly
Lisa Taylor
Taylor, a 1985 graduate of Mary Washington, is director of contracts for integrated intelligence systems at Northrop Grumman Information Systems, a leading global provider of solutions for military, intelligence, civilian, state and local, and commercial customers. Previously, she spent more than 20 years in contracts administration and management positions, including as senior manager of contracts at General Dynamics. She received the Northrop Grumman Corporate Contracts and Pricing Award in 2010.
In addition, Taylor has operated a Jazzercise franchise since 2006, where she also works as an instructor.