In accordance with WCR 1278, the Graceland University Corporate Body (First Presidency, Presiding Bishopric, and president of the Council of Twelve) have consulted with other church leaders, the Board of Trustees, the Alumni Association, and Graceland student government to determine the existing and needed strengths of the board in filling expiring terms.

The following criteria were applied. No candidate was expected to be strong in each criteria, but these strengths should be represented in the nominations.

• Proven experience in an executive position in higher education.
• Solid understanding of operational issues of related organizations the size of Graceland.
• Entrepreneurial focus that will challenge Graceland to compete in the higher education marketplace.
• Human resources focus that can help candidate think strategically about organizational culture and change.
• Skills and background relevant to serving as chair of the auditing committee.

The following names are now placed in nomination as indicated, and additional nominations may be received from the delegates. The term of office for these vacancies is six years, expiring April 2013.

Vacancy No. 1 Cherry M. Hartnett (elected)

Vacancy No. 2 William H. Pennington (elected)

Vacancy No. 3 Ronald E. Gillilan (elected)

Cherry Hartnett is a Graceland University graduate (1973) with a degree in economics and business administration. She and her husband, Kelly, also a Graceland University graduate (1973), live in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia.

Cherry is a CPA and began her business career in Texas working as an auditor for a national accounting firm. Her work and life experience over the last twenty-five years includes living and working both inside the United States and abroad in Curaçao (Netherlands Antilles) and Bermuda. It has given her an opportunity for a very diverse work experience including auditor, manager of accounting departments, responsible for SEC and compliance, and various positions in treasury, investment, and trust operations. These experiences have been compiled while working in profit and not-for-profit entities. Industries she has worked in include finance, manufacturing of oil field products, convenience store retail, distribution, and municipal governments.

While working in Texas, Cherry and Kelly had the opportunity to move to Curaçao. There she was granted a special work permit, and they were the first couple to whom two work permits had ever been granted. She worked for a bank and was responsible for the accounting and administration of the off-shore corporate trust division. This international experience provided her the opportunity for personal and professional growth. There she developed deep friendships but also saw much poverty and inequity, especially when traveling in South America.

Through contacts made in Curaçao and upon returning to the U.S., she worked for a group hired to manage and turn around a failing banking institution in New York City. Here she worked in the investment division and designed and implemented controls for the trading operations.

After successfully completing the turnaround and aiding in the sale of the bank ,she took time off to enjoy the additions of a boy and girl to the family while living in Connecticut. In 1992 the Hartnett family moved to Bermuda and Cherry reentered the work force as a business analyst in the treasury division with a bank. As with Curaçao, Bermuda was a gratifying experience for Cherry. Part of the bank’s workforce and a very close friend were Muslim, and through these relationships she gained insight and perspective on this culture.

Upon returning to the States, Cherry and Kelly came full circle back to Texas, where they had begun early married life. Cherry’s career path there also completed a circle because she returned to internal audit at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas. Her responsibility there was as the primary auditor for the treasury department. The quasi-public nature of the bank, required that the audit process ensure full transparency for transactions, evaluate risks and controls, and analyze and report on the quality of the business environment.

A corporate merger resulted in Cherry and Kelly moving to the Philadelphia area. Here Cherry continued her career in internal audit with a financial institution in Delaware. At the bank, her audit responsibilities in the corporate trust division increased to include SEC compliance, evaluation/reporting on the risk and control environment and its documentation as designated by Sarbanes Oxley, and compliance with anti-terrorism laws enacted after 911.

Most recently she has worked for an independent internal auditing consulting firm. On an assignment, she was recruited to join an audit team in for a company with 550 convenience stores. Here she was the lead auditor working with two different companies’ management teams to set up and run a state-of-the art distribution center. The challenge has been very rewarding and she is pleased that the skill set developed over many years can be transferred and utilized efficiently and effectively in other industries.

Cherry Hartnett is also a board member of Outreach International, and as chair of the Business Affairs Committee, acts as treasurer of the organization. Her term expires in September 2008. She is also a life-long member of the Community of Christ, participating in congregations where she has lived.

Bill Pennington currently serves as pastor of the Dundalk Maryland, congregation and as a counselor to the Chesapeake Bay Mission Center president, Dave Anderson. The Dundalk Maryland congregation’s ground-breaking outreach ministry to its community provided more than 3,000 home-cooked meals to homeless and hard-living people last year. The ministry includes family fellowship nights, Sunday morning worship services, youth programming, and bus transportation. The much-needed ministry continues to expand and will serve even more people this year.

Bill retired from AT&T, where he was the general manager of network operations in the nation’s capital, which includes customers in Maryland and Virginia. Bill was responsible for the provision and maintenance of telecommunications services for many of the nation’s most sensitive customer, including the embassies of other countries, the Pentagon, and most government agencies in the nation’s capital area. In his last years at AT&T, Bill served the company as national director of education and training for the thousands of employees across the United States. This included overseeing technical training, management development, and development of soft skills, including the handling of customer contacts for the company.

After leaving AT&T, Bill created KWP & Associates, LLC, a training and development company, where he serves as one of three managing partners. Bill and his business, during the past twelve years, have secured many large corporations among their customers including SBC/AT&T, Ameritech, BellSouth, Qwest, PacBell, Verizon, SNET, and Cincinnati Bell. Eventually, the company entered the international market, where they developed and delivered training to Bell Canada and Aliant Telecom in Canada. Recently, his company has established training programs for cable companies. Overall, the company serves every large-scale telecommunications company in North America, and has more than 90,000 graduates of one or more of their training modules. KWP & Associates has had significant impact on the training and development of telecommunications professionals, especially in areas of new technologies.

Bill has served the church as an ordained minister for fifty-one years. Now a high priest, he served as a member of the Seventy for ten years. Bill has served as a district president, as counselor to three district presidents and to a metropole president, and on the local board of directors of Camp Opportunity.

Bill is an outstanding teacher with years of experience in the development of leaders and managers. He has developed high-performance teams at work and in the church, has a keen interest in training and development, and has been a long-time supporter of Graceland University. He lives in Baldwin, Maryland, with his wife, Mary, who is an elder. The Penningtons have two children and two grandchildren.

With many years in the world of business and management, and extensive experience in business-related training development and delivery, Bill Pennington is a strong candidate for membership on the board of trustees for Graceland University. Graceland is a place where young people can learn to connect with jobs and business, and Bill is anxious to help them succeed. He will be honored to serve on this board, if it is the will of the Conference.

Dr. Ronald Gillilan, a physician, is an evangelist in Chesapeake Bay Mission Center. Ron and his wife, Carol, who is congregational financial officer at Towson Community of Christ, reside in Reisterstown, Maryland. Ron and Carol have two sons, Dr. Richard Gillilan, a research scientist at Cornell University, who serves as an elder in Johnson City, New York, and Steven Gillilan, an independent film maker in Baltimore, who is producing a series for television based on Ron’s annual “Medical Science and Healing of Spirit” workshop.

Ron’s service to the church, for more than forty years, has given him a wide range of ministry opportunities in the Mid-Atlantic States region and in the Midwest. His work includes an inner-city outreach, from its inception, at our Power House congregation in Baltimore, which now sends students to Graceland University. Ron has served as pastor, directed youth camps and retreats, and provided counseling, blessing, preaching, teaching, and healing ministries for numerous congregations, reunions, and retreats.

Ron received his bachelor of science degree from Ohio University and his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Cincinnati. He did his internal medicine residency in Philadelphia and his cardiology training in Baltimore. Dr. Gillilan’s distinguished career as a board-certified cardiologist spans more than thirty-five years of practice, teaching, research, and administrative experience. As a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, he had assignments in the Bureau of Prisons, Food and Drug Administration and the Division of Hospitals. His research and publications include a wide range of clinical, psychosocial, and spiritual projects, including the recent “Hospital Based Spirituality Initiative,” and a soon-to-be published chapter on “Spiritual Support for Heart Failure Patients” in a textbook of medicine. He was recently interviewed on CNN, regarding prayer research. As medical director of preventive cardiology at Baltimore’s St. Agnes Hospital, Dr. Gillilan has introduced into the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program (which he started twenty-five years ago) a spirituality segment known as “INSPIRE.”

Dr. Gillilan’s keen interest in continuing education makes him a popular teacher with physicians in training, and he has served as an instructor in medicine at both the University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins medical schools. While Chief of Cardiology, he played a major role in developing Cardiology Fellowship programs at two Baltimore hospitals. Over the years, he has taught students, physicians, and nurses, and has instituted much-needed training programs to teach the skills of competent, compassionate medical care. His desire to teach spirituality to physicians and medical insights to religious leaders led to the development of the Medical Science and Healing of Spirit Workshops in Baltimore. The workshops, over the years, have brought together spiritual leaders of many denominations and faiths and medical experts from a variety of specialties, from across the USA and from other countries. Ron is currently a student, with particular interests in theology, health, disease, and spirituality, at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore.

Dr. Gillilan would consider it an honor to serve on the Graceland University Board of Trustees. He brings to that appointment the same innovative spirit for excellence in education and spiritual direction that has characterized his career.