RICH Announces New Board of Directors Members

RICH welcomes five new members to its Board of Directors and looks to benefit from their expertise in academia, finance, and management.

Recently the RICH Board of Directors voted in its newest members. Please join us in welcoming them:

Daniel Egan is the president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island (AICU Rhode Island is an alliance representing the eight independent institutions of higher learning within the State of Rhode Island designed to address common interests and concerns of independent collegs and universities within the state). Only the fourth president in the 30-year history of the Association, he leads AICU Rhode Island efforts in the area of advocacy and consortium activities. Dan also has extensive experience in government relations and communications. He graduated from Providence College with a degree in history and from Boston College with a master's degree in higher education administration. Dan and his family live in Bristol.

E. Rae Ferguson. Ph.D., is associate professor of history and African-American studies at the University of Rhode Island and lives in Narragansett. Rae's research interests include African-American history, black women, and African diaspora in the Americas. She is the recipient of several honors and awards, including an NEH Summer Seminar Fellowship at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at harvard University in 2003 and the Doug Ramos Faculty Sabbatical Fellowship from the URI Center for the Humanities for 2006-2007.

Larson Gunness is the owner and managing director of Gunness Financial Services, and he is also a writer, musician, and storyteller. He is currently pursuing an MFA in interdisciplinary arts through Goddard College (writings that evolve into storytelling via musical, aural, and visual genres). Before starting his own consulting practice, Larson worked as a financial consultant with Smith Barney and as vice president for strategic market development at the Rhode Island Economic Development  Corporation. He received his education at Kenyon College and the MIT Sloan School of Management, and he and his family live in Barrington.

Paula Krebs, Ph.D., is a professor of English at Wheaton College and lives in Providence. She founded SILCS (the Summer Institute for Literary and Cultural Studies is a Mellon Foundation-funded national program that is aimed at helping to increase diversity in the professoriate in English by encouraging a broader range of undergraduates to pursue doctorates in English), and she edits Academe, the magazine of the American Association of University Professors. 

Lynne M. Malone is the chief financial officer at Meeting Street whose responsibilities include overseeing the finance, technology, and facilities departments of the agency. Before her current position she was the director of finance at The Providence Center for many years. Lynne is a certified public accountant with more than 25 years of experience with not-for-profit organizations. She is a 2007 graduate of Leadership Rhode Island's core program and a member of the Not for Profit Committee of the Rhode Island Society of Certified Public Accountants. Her interests include arts, education, and history. Lynne lives in Seekonk, Massachusetts.

Click here to read more RICH Board of Directors' bios and see their photos.