About the Board

Board Chair

Paul Nicholson is executive director emeritus of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, having held the position of executive director from November 1995 until his retirement in December 2012. As OSF’s executive director he was responsible for all management aspects of one of the largest and most complex professional theatres in the United States, including strategic planning, budgeting, fundraising, public relations, marketing, education programs, human resources, and board relations. From 1980 until 1995, Paul was General Manager of the Festival.

Board Vice Chair

After more than two decades of service to four Oregon governors, SOU alumnus Daniel P. Santos most recently served as associate dean for student affairs and administration at Willamette University College of Law. He oversaw student recruitment, student services, placement activities, and administrative duties at the law school.

Jon Bullock is the executive director of the Redmond Proficiency Academy, a proficiency-based charter school that he helped found. He is a Redmond city councilor and a major proponent of personalized learning and educational innovations.

For nearly 25 years, Jon has worked with young people as a teacher, coach, and administrator. As a community leader, he has developed a deep connection to the people in Redmond. Jon has combined his passion and skills as an educator with private sector and non-profit experience to develop one of the largest and most successful charter schools in Oregon.

Sheila Clough is the chief executive officer of Asante Ashland Community Hospital (AACH). Since her hiring in 2013, Clough led the development of a strategic plan for AACH and the significant financial turnaround of the hospital’s operations.

Prior to joining Asante, Clough served in a progression of leadership roles from 1998 through 2013 with Ministry Howard Young Health Care in Woodruff, Wisconsin, eventually rising to the role of president and chief operating officer.

Shaun Franks graduated from SOU in 2014; he studied business, environmental studies, and corporate sustainability. In 2011, through the SOU School of Business, he studied renewable energy in Germany. In 2012, while director of sustainability for student government, he led the establishment of the SOU Green Fund to invest student dollars in local energy, water, and campus sustainability projects. The fund has helped establish three new solar installations on campus, purchase water offsets, and launch The Farm at SOU. Currently, Shaun is a professional working in the renewable energy industry.

Lyn Hennion is a retired financial advisor who spent nearly 25 years with Umpqua Investments (formerly Strand Atkinson Williams & York) in Medford. Previously, she was a vice president and senior regional manager for the Franklin Templeton mutual funds, based first in Oregon and later in Philadelphia and Washington, DC. A graduate of Stanford University, Lyn also completed the Securities Industry Institute at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and holds the Certified Financial Planner designation.

Debra Fee Jing Lee was born in Toisan, China. She immigrated with her family to Providence, RI in 1956. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rhode Island and a juris doctorate from Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C.

Since 1989, Debra has served as the Executive Director of the Center for NonProfit Legal Services in Medford, OR. Prior to this, she practiced as a legal aid attorney in West Tennessee, Central Arkansas, and Jackson County. She has contributed innovative ideas to critical poverty issues, supported diversity, and increased access to justice.

Mimi Pieper is a sophomore in the SOU Honors College. Her major is computer science with a minor in rhetoric and reason. She enjoys learning about everything she possibly can.

Ms. Pieper co-founded a nonprofit school, Mountain Scholars Tutorial, focused on providing rigorous rhetorical education to rural students in Northern California. Ms. Pieper is most proud of her volunteer work at Mountain Scholars, providing tutoring in a variety of subjects, and working to promote community theater.

Most recently, Ms. Pieper worked as a marketing, user experience, and user interface intern at Prelio, a remote tech startup company. In the future, she hopes to continue working in the technology field in the areas of law, artificial intelligence, or other emerging technologies.

Deborah Rosenberg is a professor of costume design and has been a member of the Theatre Arts faculty at Southern Oregon University since 1999. Deborah designed the current costume curriculum and currently teaches a six-term costume design sequence as well as classes in stage makeup and costume crafts. Deborah previously served as department chair of  SOU’s Theatre Arts Department and as co-chair of the Creative Arts Department. Deborah is a founding faculty member of the theatre summer program, which offers a master of  theatre studies degree over three summers.

SOU President

President Schott is a specialist in intellectual history and the history of women in the United States. She has published several articles on women in Texas and in the peace movement and is also the author of “Reconstructing Women’s Thoughts: The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, 1915-1941,” published by Stanford University Press in 1997.

Barry Thalden and his wife, Kathryn, moved to Ashland to retire in 2012. Almost immediately, they became immersed in making good things happen in the community. The Thaldens previously lived in Las Vegas where Barry was CEO of the architectural firm he founded in 1971 and guided for 43 years. Thalden Boyd Emery Architects, with offices in St. Louis, Tulsa, Phoenix and Las Vegas, specialized in designing large-scale projects, including resorts and casinos, throughout the United States.

Bill Thorndike operates his family business, Medford Fabrication, a custom steel fabrication company that has been in operation for 78 years. Thorndike currently serves on the boards of Southern Oregon University, Oregon Business Council, Crater Lake National Park Trust, Jackson County Economic Development Advisory Committee, Jefferson Regional Health Alliance, and the Northwest Health Foundation. He has served on a number of other boards and commissions, including the Port of Portland, Oregon Community Foundation, Asante Health System, Northwest Area Foundation, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, the Portland Branch of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, and Philanthropy Northwest.

Steve Vincent is the Oregon regional business manager for Avista Utilities. He’s responsible for public relations, corporate philanthropy, community interface, and local government relations across eight counties in eastern and southern Oregon.

Prior to this position, he was Avista’s Oregon economic development manager and before that its corporate lobbyist in Salem. While in the state Capitol he was loaned to represent Southern Oregon University, Rogue Community College, the Medford Chamber, Southern Oregon Economic Development Inc., the Southern Oregon Historical Society and the Oregon Economic Development Association.