New Board of Trustees Chairperson, Member, and Officers
CINCINNATI – Union Institute & University (UI&U), a private, non-profit university headquartered in Cincinnati announced that Mr. Donald Feldmann, Esq., has been elected Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, Ms. Juana Bordas has been elected to serve on the board, Mr. Roger Allbee has been elected Vice Chairperson, and Ms. Sandra L. Lobert has been elected treasurer.
Union Institute & University’s Board of Trustees members are selected for their commitment to the University’s purpose and mission. Members are active and involved participants in the governance of the institution, and committed to its growth and development. The University Board of Trustees meets four times each year in January, April, July, and October.
“Electing these four stellar individuals to various leadership positions on the board of trustees allows the university to partake of varied and expert knowledge across a wide spectrum,” said Union President Roger H. Sublett. “Their contributions, and those of all our trustees, are pivotal as we celebrate the university’s 50th anniversary.”
Donald Feldmann, Esq. is president and CEO of Rippe & Kingston Capital Advisors, Inc. (formerly Winton Associates, Inc.), the broker-dealer affiliate of Rippe & Kingston Certified Public Accountants and Consultants, a regional CPA firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is responsible for advising clients on capital market transactions, including arranging acquisitions, financing acquisitions and growth, mezzanine financing, valuations, and negotiations support. For the past twenty-five years Feldmann has been involved in the money and capital markets, advising clients on M&A transactions and raising capital. This work has involved Fortune 500 companies to companies with less than $5 million in revenues. In 2013, Feldmann was awarded the prestigious Silver Beaver award, given by The Boy Scouts of America. The Silver Beaver Award is the council-level distinguished service award of the Boy Scouts of America. Recipients of this award are registered adult leaders who have made an impact on the lives of youth through service given to the council. The Silver Beaver is an award given to those who implement the Scouting program and perform community service through hard work, self-sacrifice, dedication, and many years of service. It is the highest honor the council can confer on a volunteer and it is the ultimate in local service. Feldmann earned his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, his MBA from Xavier University, and his Juris Doctor from the Chase College of Law.
Juana Bordas, M.A. is president of Mestiza Leadership International, a company that focuses on leadership, diversity, and organizational change.
As founding President/ CEO of the National Hispana Leadership Institute, the only program in America that prepares Latinas for national leadership, Bordas forged partnerships with Harvard’s JFK School of Government and Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) to provide training for Hispanic women. She served as advisor to Harvard’s Hispanic Journal on Public Policy and the Kellogg National Fellows Program.
Her twenty-five years of experience managing nonprofit corporations and building partnerships with the private sector to support innovative programs have earned her many awards and accolades including selection as one of 50 leaders chosen by the Colorado Legislature to design the state’s future plan and the title of one of most 100 influential persons in the state by Colorado Business Magazine. The Denver Post and the Colorado Women’s Foundation recognized her as The 2009 Colorado Unique Woman of the Year. In addition, she was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame. The Denver Business Journal selected her for their 2003 Outstanding Women in Business Award.
In 2006, she received the Leadership Legacy award from Spellman College’s Center for Leadership. In 2008, she was honored with the 2008 Martin Luther King Jr. Business Responsibility Award.
In 1977, she was a founder of Denver’s Mi Casa Women’s Center and served as executive director until 1986. Today, Mi Casa is recognized as a national model for women’s empowerment. In 2001, she founded the Circle of Latina Leadership whose mission is to train the next generation of Latina Leaders in Colorado. Currently 130 young women have completed the program.
Bordas is the author of two award-winning books, Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age, winner of the prestigious International Latino Book Award for best leadership book and her new release, The Power of Latino Leadership, winner of the coveted 2013 Nautilus Book Award, Gold Winner in the Multicultural Indigenous category.
In addition, Bordas has written many publications including “Passion and Power: Finding Personal Purpose” an essay in Reflections on Leadership published by John Wiley & Sons. She is a contributing author to Leadership in the 21st Century in “Rethinking Leadership” published by Sage Publications. Her essay, “Latino Leadership: Building a Diverse and Humane Society” was published by the Journal for Leadership Studies.
A dynamic national speaker and trainer, Bordas weaves leadership, diversity, and community building into a multicultural tapestry. She utilizes music, movement, and leadership practices to illustrate the richness and wisdom diversity brings.
A former Peace Corps volunteer, she received the Franklin Williams Award from the US Peace Corps for her commitment to advancing communities of color.
She holds a M.S. in social work from the University of Wisconsin, a B.A. in social sciences from the University of Florida, and a Honorary Doctorate from Union Institute & University.
Roger Allbee, M.A. is a former Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets for the state of Vermont. He has served in numerous roles in both the private and public sectors in agriculture and food systems. These have included Executive Director of the USDA Farm Service Agency for Vermont, a member of the Senior Management Team for the former Farm Credit Banks for the Northeast, a staff member of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, and chair of the animal and animal products advisory committee on trade to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and the U.S. Trade Ambassador.
At the state level, he is the chair of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Advisory Committee and an advisor to the president of Vermont Technical College where he also serves as a Senior Scholar in Residence. Allbee is a past chair of the working landscape council of the Vermont Council on Rural Development.
Allbee is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a master’s in Agricultural Economics, University of Vermont with a B.S. in Agricultural Economics, Cornell University Agricultural Executives program, and Harvard University Agribusiness seminars. He is the founder of AgTech, a company that develops markets for U.S. Specialty food products in foreign markets.
Sandra L. Lobert, is president and CEO of Hospice of Cincinnati, Southwest Ohio’s first and largest provider of comfort-oriented end-of-life care. Since its founding in 1977, Hospice of Cincinnati has provided care to over 25,000 patients and more than 100,000 family members. It has locations in Blue Ash, Anderson Township, Western Hills, and Hamilton, yet a majority of patients are cared for in their homes or in nearly 150 area nursing homes located in five counties.
Under Lobert’s leadership, Hospice wants to help sufferers of chronic disease stay in their homes longer and avoid hospital readmissions. In an effort to change care for the terminally ill, she is leading an innovative project uniting eight local hospitals and health-care providers with Hospice of Cincinnati to form an “End-of-Life Partnership.”
Before joining Hospice of Cincinnati, Lobert enjoyed an extensive 25-year career with Fifth Third Bank serving in a variety of roles including senior vice president of Institutional Trust and vice president and team leader of Metropolitan Lending. She was responsible for institutional trust asset management, retirement plans, foundations, grant-making, commercial lending, retail banking, and branch bank management.
Throughout her career, Lobert has also been a leader in community service. She became familiar with Hospice of Cincinnati as a trustee, board chair, and as a leader of its outreach to various ethnic groups. In addition, she has served on boards and committees with Drake Center, Fine Arts Fund/Artswave, Junior Achievement of Greater Cincinnati, Ohio Valley Goodwill Industries, Ohio Valley Foundation, Greater Cincinnati Foundation, and United Way of Greater Cincinnati.
In 2011, Lobert was named one of Cincinnati Enquirer’s 20 Professional Women to Watch. She is also an alumna of Leadership Cincinnati and Leadership Northern Kentucky and a recipient of the YWCA Career Woman of Achievement.
Board of Trustee members Dr. Virginia Wiltse, former chairperson and Dr. Gladys Hankins were reelected to four-year terms.
About Union Institute & University
The year 2014 marks a milestone in the history of Union Institute & University. The university is celebrating its 50th year of educating adults who seek academic programs that transform lives and communities. The university is a nonprofit, accredited, private university specializing in adult and distance education since 1964. Union strives to engage, enlighten, and empower students in a lifetime of learning and service. The university’s transformational and socially relevant programs promote creative and critical thinking, and connect scholarship with real-world practice. Flexible online classes, brief residencies, classroom experiences, and hybrid models of instruction lead to undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degrees. Union graduates, including 13 college presidents, leaders in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, members of the United States Congress, and the first female prime minister of Jamaica, promote Union’s legacy of utilizing education to transform lives and communities. For more information about Union Institute & University, visit www.myunion.edu or call: 888-828-8575.