Board names Mark Dorman new chair, elects Amber Case and Peter Chang to membership

The Board of Trustees has elected Mark Dorman ’83 to become the new board chair and has elected Amber Case ’08 and Peter D. Chang ’74 to board membership.

Also at the February board meeting, the trustees approved a budget for 2013-14, approved a new master’s degree in environmental and natural resources law, and approved significant renovations to improve Fields Dining Hall on the undergraduate campus.

Dorman, managing director of the Portland-based private equity firm Endeavour Capital and a Lewis & Clark trustee since 2006, will succeed Jim Richardson ’70 as chair. Dorman’s term will begin at the conclusion of the May board meeting.

A Portland resident, Case becomes one of the youngest regularly elected trustees at any private college or university in the country and the youngest in Lewis & Clark history. Twenty-six-year-old Case has attracted growing regional and national acclaim as a top technologist and business innovator. Among other honors, she has recently been named to Inc. magazine’s 30 under 30 list of rising entrepreneurship stars. Although it is not unusual for young alumni to serve on private university boards as alumni representatives, Case is one of the youngest full-fledged trustees—if not the youngest—at any private institution in the country.

Chang, a Redmond, Wash., resident, returns to the board after serving from 2004 to 2010. An international business executive, Chang is executive vice president of marketing for Aircastle Advisor, a commercial aircraft leasing entity based in Stamford, Connecticut. He founded China Aviation Marketing Services, which has represented Gulfstream, FedEx, Thomson, and numerous other aviation-related companies in the China market. In addition, Chang is president of Chang Brothers Inc., which operates the Changs’ Mongolian Grill restaurant chain in Oregon and Washington. His wife, Alice Chang ’77, and one of his sons, Patrick Chang ’12, are Lewis & Clark graduates. 

Under the new budget approved by the board, salary pools are tentatively set at two percent for CAS faculty and staff; up to three percent for law school faculty and staff; one percent for graduate school faculty and exempt staff; two percent for graduate school non-exempt staff; and two percent for Common Services staff. (Compensation for union members is determined by separate processes.) As announced in previous communications, final determination of salary pools will not be made until enrollments are known at the beginning of the academic year.

In other action, the trustees

• approved a resolution establishing a master of environmental and natural resources law degree program in the law school;
• approved a resolution conferring an honorary degree to Dorothy Stafford, wife of the late poet and Lewis & Clark professor William Stafford and long time friend of the college;
• approved a resolution granting faculty emeritus status to retiring Associate Professor of Economics Harry Schleef;
• approved expenditure of $2.3 million for summer renovations to Fields Dining Hall and the Platt West residence hall. 

Among the reports and discussions at the committee level, Dean of Enrollment and Communication Lisa Meyer reported to the Finance Committee on tuition and discount rates and how they affect Lewis & Clark’s ability to enhance gender and ethnic diversity. Graduate School Dean Scott Fletcher reported to the Academic Affairs committee on the success of the new community counseling clinic, in particular the gambling treatment program.

At the plenary session, Hal Abrams, vice president for Institutional Advancement, updated trustees on fundraising progress and goals, and trustees discussed how they can best support fundraising efforts and promote Lewis & Clark.