At its May meetings, the Ithaca College Board of Trustees elected new faculty, staff, and student trustees. The three community trustees serve as full participating and voting members of the board, and are expected to share the perspectives of their respective constituencies.
Baruch Whitehead
Joining the board for a four-year term as faculty trustee is Baruch Whitehead, associate professor of music education, who has served on a number of key committees critical to the concerns of both faculty and students.
Whitehead co-chaired the 2020 School of Music dean search, chairs the school’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group, and is a member of Faculty Council and of the Committee for College-Wide Requirements. A scholar and teacher on the topics of diversity in music education, the preservation of gospel music within mainstream musical settings, African-American music, and the music of the Civil Rights Movement, he is the founding director of the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers. His other projects include organizing the Biennial High School Gospel Festival and directing the annual MLK Concert at Ithaca College, co-founding the Community Unity Music Education Project, and advising several student clubs and organizations. In recognition of his work, Whitehead was recently honored with the President Shirley M. Collado Faculty Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Ithaca College Community.
Casey Kendall
The executive director of applications and infrastructure in Information Technology, Casey Kendall was elected to a four-year term as staff trustee. In her current role, she provides leadership and direction in the development and implementation of a digital strategy and oversees the planning, implementation, and operation of the technology infrastructure.
Kendall joined IC in 2016 after working for five years in information systems and security at Keuka College. Prior to that she spent nearly a decade in the U.S. Navy, supporting Department of Defense classified communication systems in the Office of Naval Intelligence and Naval Information Operations Command. Her professional affiliations have included the NorthEast Regional Computing Program planning committee and Educause’s Enterprise IT committee. Kendall has served on key committees crucial to supporting the college’s plans for the future, including the Steering Committee that led to the development of the strategic plan, Ithaca Forever.
Kalena Yearwood ’23
Politics major and MLK Scholar Kalena Yearwood, a rising sophomore, will serve for the next two years as the student trustee. She is currently the civic engagement and outreach liaison for IC Ujima Black Student Union, helping to establish connections between Ithaca College students and the greater Ithaca community.
A graduate of Ithaca High School and TST BOCES Career and Tech Center, Yearwood already has many years of experience participating in and leading a variety of community endeavors. She has previously served as an Achievement Coach with the Village at Ithaca tutoring students, interned with My Brother’s Keeper Ithaca, served as a junior counselor with the Community Unity Music Education Program, and has been involved in other local organizations and initiatives within the Ithaca community. A licensed cosmetologist, Yearwood is also a thrower on the college’s women’s track and field team.
The board recognized the contributions made by Julie Dorsey ’01, M.S. ’03, Sybil Conrad, and Yetunde Smalls ’21 during their term serving as faculty, staff, and student trustee, respectively.
Also honored by the board were departing trustees Michael Battle ’77 and Ellen Staurowsky, M.S. ’78. Battle joined the board in 2010 and has most recently served on the Audit and Governance & Compensation/Assessment Committees, and was a member of the Presidential Search Committee. Staurowsky was elected for a three-year term in 2018 and has served on the Academic & Student Affairs and Audit Committees. She is leaving her seat a year early since this fall she will be rejoining the faculty as a professor in the Department of Media Arts, Sciences, and Studies..
Finally, the board reelected three trustees to a second, three-year term: David Fleisher ’91, Mary Opperman, and Peter Taffae ’82.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20200519141436562