Great Plains College announces new board member appointments

Written by Tara Garcia

At the beginning of this month, Great Plains College announced two new board member appointments.

CEO and President of Great Plains College, David Keast details why the appointments were necessary at this time.

"There's only a limited number of reasons why there would be such appointments. One would be the renewal of terms and the other would be vacancies and these two appointments that was true in both cases."

Cindy Lowe will be taking on the role of Board Chair and has been serving on the board since 2018 while Jeremy Roberts will be embarking on his first year as a board member.

Keast says that Lowe is a high school teacher in town and a former college employee where she was an instructor in the business program. Her background in both K-12 as well as post-secondary education will be beneficial and value-added as a member of the board according to Keast. 

Roberts is young and doesn't have a lot of board experience, however, he is a former student of the college and comes to the board with a finance background. Once again, Keast says this will be value-added to the board's overall skill set. 

Keast provides some insight into the role of the board within the college.

"The board for a publically funded regional college generally provides governance, oversight, policy guidance, and approval and guidance and approval on the strategic priorities and directions of the college."

Keast adds that overall the board should be governance and policy-oriented rather than operational-oriented.