Six Finalists Chosen for Board of Higher Education

(North Dakota Department of Public Instruction image)

(KNOX) – State School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler said that a nominating committee has recommended candidates for two future openings on the Board of Higher Education.

The committee endorsed Levi Bachmeier, Russel Crary, and Rich Wardner as finalists for the board seat now held by Casey Ryan, a Grand Forks physician. Ryan is finishing his second four-year term on the board, which is the maximum allowed by the North Dakota Constitution. He was not eligible for reappointment.

Incumbent board member Jeffry Volk, a retired Fargo consulting engineer, was recommended for the seat he already holds, along with Beverly Johnson and Patrick Sogard. Volk is finishing his first term and is eligible for a second.

The six names will be forwarded to new Gov. Kelly Armstrong, who will choose from among them to make his first appointments to the Board of Higher Education. The four-year terms of the two appointees begin July 1. Armstrong’s choices require confirmation by the North Dakota Senate.

Bachmeier is the business manager of the West Fargo school district. He served as an education adviser to former Gov. Doug Burgum. Crary is a Grand Forks real estate developer. Wardner, of Dickinson, is a former North Dakota Senate Republican majority leader and retired K-12 teacher and coach.

Johnson, a Grand Forks resident, is a retired physical therapy professor and clinical education director at the University of North Dakota’s medical school. Sogard is owner and chairman of American State Bank & Trust Co. of Williston.

Baesler is chairwoman of the nominating committee, which met late Tuesday to review a dozen applicants for the two openings. The committee’s other members are Jon Jensen, the chief justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court; Nick Archuleta, president of North Dakota United, which represents schoolteachers and state employees; House Speaker Robin Weisz, R-Hurdsfield; and Senate President Pro Tempore Brad Bekkedahl, R-Williston.

The Board of Higher Education oversees the 11 colleges and universities in the North Dakota University System. It has eight voting members and two nonvoting members who represent the system’s staff and faculty.

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