Wooster welcomes new trustees for 2021-22
The College of Wooster welcomed several new members to its Board of Trustees for the 2021-22 academic year. Kenneth Aldridge ’90, Walter Bay ’85, Richard Bell ’63, Diane Jorkasky ’73, and Ronald Wilcox ’75 joined the board as standard trustees, Latrice Burks ’16 as a GOLD (Graduates of the Last Decade) Trustee. Margaux Day ’06 and Bernice Walker ’86 who also became members of the Alumni Board, were added as Alumni Trustees. Sandeep Bhatia ’89 who began his role as president of the Alumni Board last fall will also serve as Alumni Trustee.
Aldridge, who previously served the College as president of the Alumni Board from 2016-19, serves as head of Wilmington Friends School in Delaware. He earned his degree in chemistry at Wooster and received a Master of Chemistry Education from the University of Pennsylvania. Aldridge has served in a number of roles throughout his teaching and administrative career including science teacher, swimming and tennis coach, and dean of students at George School where he received the Price Teaching Chair Award for Young Faculty. He also served as middle school principal at Germantown Friends where he previously served as head of the science department and received the American Chemical Society’s (Philadelphia Section) Excellence in Teaching Award. He also serves a number of other boards and organizations and has previously served Wooster as an alumni board member, reunion ambassador, and a member of the Parent’s Leadership Council.
Bay is vice president, general counsel, and secretary at Arthur J. Gallagher, an international insurance broker, where he manages the global legal team and serves as advisor to senior management and the company’s Board of Directors on issues such as regulatory compliance, securities law, corporate governance, and mergers and acquisitions. Bay earned his degree at Wooster in economics and has previously served the College as a reunion ambassador. He completed his Juris Doctorate with honors from the George Washington University National Law Center. After attending law school, he joined Harter Secrest & Emery LLP, where he became a partner in the law firm’s corporate department. He later joined GE Capital Services first as mergers and acquisitions counsel and then as general counsel for GE Commercial Distribution Finance. He has more than 20 years of legal and business experience beginning his career at Chase Manhattan Bank.
Bell, who has previously served as a College of Wooster Trustee and received the Sara L. Patton Stewardship Award in 2015, co-founded Potomac in 1969 with the late David Schwartz ’63, a company that developed and managed commercial real estate in the Washington, D.C. area. He earned his degree in economics at Wooster and later received his MBA from the University of Chicago. He served in the United States Marine Corps in 1966, obtaining his commission as a second lieutenant in the summer of 1966 and serving in Viet Nam in 1968 reaching the rank of captain. He was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V upon return to the United States. Bell is on the Board of The Alexandria Seaport Foundation as well as Employee Navigator, a benefits firm in Bethesda, Maryland.
Jorkasky is an independent consultant for Diane Jorkasky Consulting after retiring from her role as executive vice president and chief medical officer at Complexa Therapeutics. A chemistry major at Wooster, she received a Distinguished Alumna Award in 2013. She earned her medical degree from University of Pennsylvania and is board certified in internal medicine, nephrology, and clinical pharmacology. Jorkasky has worked for 26 years for the pharmaceutical industry helping to ensure that drugs are safe and effective with a broad background across research and all phases of clinical development in multiple therapeutic areas. Her experience also includes executive positions with Pfizer as its vice president of Global Clinical Research Operations, where she was responsible for all exploratory development, clinical pharmacology and translational medicine. She is a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, on the faculties of University of California, San Francisco, and Uniformed Service of Health Sciences Medical Schools, with previous faculty appointments at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania Schools of Medicine.
Wilcox is a principal consultant for Media Development Consulting, providing consulting services for companies in the areas of new media, technology, and content acquisition and exploitation, after retiring from his role as executive counsel for Warner Music Group. He earned his degree at Wooster in history and has previously served as a College of Wooster Trustee, Alumni Board member, campaign volunteer, and leader in the New York area. He led the business affairs efforts on WMG’s major strategic and digital initiatives and worked closely with WMG’s digital legal team as well as the Company’s Digital Strategy and Business Development department. Wilcox also previously served as executive vice president, chief business and legal affairs officer for Sony BMG Music Entertainment and executive vice president, business affairs and new technology, for Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
Burks is working as a private practice attorney. She earned her degree in political science at Wooster and has previously served the college as part of the legal alumni group, reunion ambassador, young alumni volunteer, and a panelist in the 2021 Women in Philanthropy event series. She previously worked a judicial law clerk at the U.S. District Court of Connecticut and as a legal extern at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and a summer associate at Squire Patton Boggs. After graduating from Wooster she joined Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP as part of their Fellows Program for students of color pursuing careers in law, and later worked full-time at MTO as a Litigation Analyst. She was selected as a 2017 American Bar Association Legal Opportunity Scholar.
More information about Wooster’s full Board of Trustees can be found online at Wooster.edu/about/board-of-trustees.
Posted in News on October 28, 2021.
