Last week, the Alabama Senate approved two members of the Alabama Board of Trustees. Incumbent trustee Vanessa Leonard and newcomer Kenneth Luckie Vandervoort were confirmed by a vote of 28-0 and 30-0, respectively. Leonard’s term will end in 2017, and Vandervoort’s will end in 2018.
Vandervoort was elected to the board in February of this year and is a 1978 graduate of Alabama. He was an active student at the Capstone, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, Mortar Board and the prestigious Anderson Society.
He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of science then attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, where he left with an M.D. in 1982. Vandervoort has been a partner with Anniston Orthopedic Associates since 1987 and received his board certification from the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery in 1989.
The Board of Trustees is comprised of fifteen elected members and two ex-officio members, the governor and the state superintendent of education. Of the elected members, 11 are men and four are women.
“Of the 15 elected, we have three African Americans and four females,” Kellee Reinhart, vice chancellor for system relations, said. “So, we feel like, in comparison, we are doing a good job in that regard.”
Leonard, who was redistricted and therefore needed Senate approval again, went to Alabama for undergrad and law school. While at Alabama, she was a member of the Anderson Society and won many awards, including the Outstanding Health Care Management Award, Afro American Association Outstanding Junior and Outstanding Senior Awards and Black Law Student Association Outstanding Service Award.
After Alabama, Leonard received an MBA from The University of Mississippi.
She is now a practicing attorney from Rockford, Ala. Her work focuses on “probate, property, and juvenile matters,” according to the Board’s website.
State Democratic Senator Rodger Smitherman expressed some concerns over the amount of minorities and women on the various boards of state universities, especially Auburn’s.
During the same session that confirmed Vandervoort and Leonard, the senate confirmed three Auburn trustees.
All three were male and also white.
The Auburn board of trustees consists of 12 members, only one of whom is not white.
“We shouldn’t be here in 2012 dealing with this,” Smitherman said. “Sensitivity shouldn’t be done here. It should be done by the appointing authorities.”
Reinhart did not believe that Smitherman’s comments were directed to the Alabama system.
“In his remarks, and I wasn’t in the room; the issue of diversity did come up, and it’s my understanding that Rodger Smitherman actually complemented the University of Alabama board,” she said. “I think those comments were directed at other institutions.”
Smitherman represents the Birmingham area in the senate and is also black.
“The Board of Trustees is very proud with our record of diversity, both in race and by gender. There is a very commitment to diversity that will continue in the years to come,” Reinhart said.
