The Oregon Institute of Technology (Oregon Tech) Board of Trustees announced Aug. 24 the selection of John Davis as its next chair and Vince Jones as vice chair. Their terms began at conclusion of the board meeting.
Davis succeeds Jessica Gomez, who served as chair since 2020 and Jones, who served as acting chair since July. Davis was confirmed to the Board in March. He works as a business, nonprofit, and estate planning attorney at Lynch Murphy McLane, LLP, practicing in Portland and Bend.
Davis served as a member of the Oregon House of Representatives, representing District 26, from 2013 until 2017. He was also a member of the Oregon Tech Foundation Board and recently served as vice president.
Accepting the appointment, Davis said, “I am honored and humbled by this appointment by my colleagues. We have so much to be proud of at Oregon Tech and our future is bright. I am so thankful for our faculty, students, staff, and administration. The next decade in higher education will see just as much change as the last decade – we’ll need to work together. I am committed to working closely with our university community to ensure the Board of Trustees works in concert with our faculty, students, staff, and administration to ensure continued success as Oregon’s Polytechnic University. Our focus will remain our students’ success and faculty development which produce real-world results: 96 percent of our students are either employed or enrolled in graduate school within 6 months of graduation, with average starting salaries of $60,000 per year. These are figures to be proud of, because they directly improve the lives of our graduates and the communities in which they serve.”
Jones was nominated to continue his role as Board vice chair and chair of the Finance and Facilities Committee and the Audit Committee. Jones is a retired civil engineer and Oregon Tech alumnus who has served on the Board since 2016.
“I would like to congratulate Chair Davis, and thank him for accepting the leadership responsibility of Oregon Tech Board of Trustees chair,” said Jones. “I would also like to thank Chair Davis and the entire Board of Trustees for their confidence in me serving as Board vice chair. I look forward to continuing our very important work to help Oregon Tech continue to achieve our mission. Oregon Tech is doing great things.”
Additional meeting discussion items were a succession plan for board trustees, the process for early notice for academic programs, ad hoc work groups on the AGB Consulting report and shared governance, and discussion of the campus climate assessment report.
Meeting recordings are available at www.oit.edu/trustees/meetings-events/recordings.
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