Woodbury University Announces Appointment of Five Local Leaders to Board of Trustees

    LOS ANGELES, CA, July 03, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Drawing on Southern California leaders from diverse professional backgrounds, Woodbury University today announced the appointment of five new members to its Board of Trustees.

The Woodbury University Board of Trustees functions as the institution's primary governing body, overseeing the policy, academics and appointments. Each new member will serve for a minimum term of three years. Addition of the newly-appointed members brings the Board to 28 active members plus seven trustees emeriti. David St. Amant serves as board chair, Lawrence Hurwitz as vice chair.

"Each new member of the Board embraces the pillars around which our university is organized -- design thinking, entrepreneurship, civic engagement and transdisciplinarity," said St. Amant. "Since I joined the Woodbury community as a parent nearly a decade ago, I have been honored to work with leaders from across Southern California who are excited about participating in the governance of this institution."

"The university will be extremely well served by the new additions to our Board," said David Dauwalder, PhD., Interim President, Woodbury University. "To a man and woman, these new members are all committed to the pursuit of excellence. The eclectic blend of talents and experience they bring to the Board will be a source of strength for students, faculty, staff and, indeed, the community at large."

Joining the Board of Trustees are:

o Ronald A. Altoon, founder of the award-winning architectural firm Altoon + Porter. Enjoying success both in the United States and around the world, the firm is especially strong in Asia and Europe. Altoon + Porter provides master planning, urban design, interiors, environmental consulting, project visioning and management and sustainable design. Altoon has served as national president of the American Institute of Architects, was honored as a Fellow of the AIA, and led a group of professionals to Armenia several years ago when that country needed rebuilding after a devastating earthquake.

o David S. Blitz, President of Nebo Capital, Inc., a mortgage banking and advisory company with a focus on equity and structured debt for all types of real estate assets. Prior to forming Mount Nebo Capital in 2001, Blitz served as a director at Belgravia Capital and its successor firm as well as a partner in a private real estate investment banking firm and as an SVP of Imperial Bank. His 28 years of real estate experience includes acquisitions and dispositions, capital markets, asset management, development, and financing. Blitz earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from Cooper Union and, prior to entering banking, served for five years as an architectural project manager in Santa Monica, Calif.

o Jan Hanssen, Origination Manager for US Bank's Commercial Bank, based in downtown Los Angeles and Encino. Hanssen joined US Bank in 2009 after working almost 25 years in the financial industry in Los Angeles. He began his career at LTCB, a large Japanese corporate bank, where he focused on media and entertainment, financing such films as True Lies and Basic Instinct. Hanssen has also worked at General Electric, Finova Capital and Temple-Inland.

o Grace Kim, Director of Strategy & Partnerships and founding leader of GOODcorps. Over the past six years, GOODcorps has advised organizations such as AT&T, Levi Strauss & Co., the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Girl Scouts of the USA on how to simultaneously advance ambitious organizational and social impact goals. Her marketing and branding experience includes campaigns for such clients as HBO, Maverick Records, Symantec, Yahoo and LA Fashion Week. A UCLA Anderson Riordan Fellow, Kim has managed poverty housing awareness programs for Habitat for Humanity International and served on the Board of Directors for Zocalo Public Square, among other posts.

o Kieran P. Nolan, a Vice President at AT&T, with responsibility for 13 states in the West and Southwest. He is also a former adjunct faculty member at Woodbury. For more than 30 years, Nolan has been a leader in energy, engineering and marketing. A graduate of USC's Management Development Program in Health Care, he has led teams of 5,000+ people during the course of his career. Nolan has served on UCLA's continuing education advisory board and was previously on the board of directors of St. Vincent's Medical Center in Los Angeles.

About Woodbury University
Founded in 1884, Woodbury University is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Southern California. It offers bachelor's degrees from the School of Architecture, School of Business, School of Media, Culture & Design, and College of Transdisciplinarity, along with a Master of Arts in Media for Social Justice, Master of Architecture (MArch), Master of Interior Architecture (MIA), Master of Science in Architecture (MSArch), and Master of Leadership. The San Diego campus offers Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture degrees, as well as an MSArch degree with concentrations in Real Estate Development and Landscape + Urbanism. Woodbury ranks 15th among the nation's "25 Colleges That Add the Most Value," according to Money Magazine. Visit woodbury.edu for more information.

Media Contact
Ken Greenberg
Edge Communications, Inc.
(323) 469-3397
[email protected]

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