WCU Stories      March 22, 2019

The University of North Carolina Board of Governors appointed two new members to the Western Carolina University Board of Trustees and reappointed two current board members to serve another term.

Newly appointed trustees are Kathryn Crisp Greeley of Waynesville and Kenneth Hughes of Asheville. They will be joining reappointed board members J. Bryant Kinney of Denver, who currently serves as vice chair of the WCU board, and Rebecca Schlosser of Greensboro. All four were appointed to serve four-year terms that will begin July 1.

The action came as part of the Board of Governors meeting Friday, March 22, on the campus of Appalachian State University in Boone.

Greeley is owner of Kathryn Greeley Designs, a full-service interior design firm in Waynesville, where she has been in business for 36 years. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in interior design from WCU, where she has served as an adjunct faculty member and has provided internship opportunities through her business for WCU students for more than 25 years.

A professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers and past president of the North and South Carolina Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers, Greeley has served as president of the Haywood County Arts Council and Waynesville Altrusa Club. She is an active supporter of the arts at WCU.

A graduate of WCU’s accountancy program, Hughes retired as chairman and chief executive officer of Dixon Hughes Goodman, which ranks among the top 20 public accounting firms in the nation and employs more than 2,000 people across 13 states. The university renamed its accountancy program as the Dixon Hughes Goodman Accountancy Program in 2015 in recognition of gifts and pledges totaling $1 million from Hughes and his firm’s partners.

The 2006 recipient of the WCU Alumni Association’s Professional Achievement Award, Hughes was formerly a member and chair of the WCU Foundation Board of Directors. He is serving on the committee conducting the search for WCU’s next chancellor and on the steering committee for its “Lead the Way” comprehensive fundraising campaign.

Among the reappointments, Kinney is principal of Kinney Public Strategies in Charlotte and serves as senior counselor for the Hawthorn Group, an international public affairs firm headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. He retired from Duke Energy Corp. following a career that spanned two decades, most recently serving as vice president of regulatory and government affairs for the company’s Carolinas operations. He formerly served as manager of power generation communications for the Tennessee Valley Authority, director of emergency management for Cherokee County and emergency response planner for the N.C. Division of Emergency Management.

In addition to his role of vice chair of the Board of Trustees, Kinney is currently serving as vice chair of the WCU chancellor search committee. A graduate of WCU, he was originally appointed to the board in 2015 by then-Gov. Pat McCrory.

Schlosser received her bachelor’s degree in education at WCU. She served on the university’s Board of Visitors for two years before joining WCU’s Foundation Board of Directors in 2016. A former high school teacher, Schlosser is currently a community volunteer.

Originally appointed to the Board of Trustees in 2017, Schlosser is a member of the university’s “Lead the Way” campaign steering committee. She and her husband, Michael, established the David E.W. Schlosser Endowed Scholarship Fund for the Honors College in memory of their son.

Two additional actions regarding WCU’s Board of Trustees are expected to come later by the General Assembly.

The Western Carolina University Board of Trustees is composed of 13 members. Eight are elected by the UNC Board of Governors, four are appointed by the General Assembly, and the president of the Student Government Association serves in an ex-officio capacity.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the board is set for June 6-7.