Search Committee

Amy R. Goldman, Chair

Amy Rauenhorst Goldman is CEO and Chair of GHR Foundation, a hope-fueled global funder of service to people and their limitless potential for good.

Goldman steers the foundation’s direction with optimism and a background in diplomacy and social investment that has inspired new approaches to philanthropy. Under her leadership, GHR elevates powerful movements of faith and inter-faith actors for community-led development; implements systems change strategies across public, private and faith sectors to keep children in families; unlocks significant funding from industry and government to prevent Alzheimer’s dementia and is launching new collaborations with Black, Indigenous and people of color-led organizations to address racial inequities.

Goldman serves on Georgetown University’s board of directors and is a trustee and vice chair of the board for the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is also a member of Opus Holding board of directors, Visitation School board of trustees (chair), Jesuit Refugee Service International Development Group, Mayo Clinic Leadership Council, and Council on Foreign Relations.

Goldman previously served as a lead consultant for Washington D.C.-based International Trade Services, where she conducted trade negotiations and crafted investment strategies for global corporate clients. She holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of California at Berkeley, a master's degree in law and diplomacy from Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and bachelor's degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.

The Reverend Edward A. Malloy (Monk), Vice Chair

The Reverend Edward “Monk” Malloy served as president of the University of Notre Dame from 1987 to 2005. He has been affiliated with Notre Dame for 40 years as a student, seminarian, faculty member and administrator and continues to live in a student residence hall on campus. Notre Dame awarded him an honorary doctorate when he retired in 2005.

Malloy earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1963, his Master of Arts degree in English in 1967 and his Master of Theology degree in 1969 – all from Notre Dame. In 1975, he earned a Ph.D. degree in Christian ethics from Vanderbilt University. He was ordained a priest of the Congregation of the Holy Cross in 1970. He is the author of eight books as well as more than 50 articles and book chapters.

He has served on the boards of numerous higher education associations and organizations, such as the Association of Governing Boards (vice chair), the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, the International Federation of Catholic Colleges and Universities, the American Council on Education, and the Business and Higher Education Forum.

Malloy has played a national leadership role in efforts to combat substance abuse and to promote community service. He was chair of the National Commission on Substance Abuse and Sports, and is a member of the Commission on the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. A founding member of the board of AmeriCorps, Malloy is former chair of Campus Compact and serves on the boards of governors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the Riley Children’s Foundation.

He has been awarded 24 honorary degrees, including an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from the University of St. Thomas in 1994. Vanderbilt University established the Reverend Edward A. Malloy Professorship in Catholic Studies in 1998, and the Malloy Theology/Philosophy Hall was dedicated on the campus of Notre Dame in 2001. He has received awards too numerous to mention for his outstanding achievements and his service to youth, and he was named among the Top 100 Irish Americans by Irish America Magazine in 1996. He received the Super Irish Award in 1998.

Father Malloy was elected to the University of St. Thomas Board of Trustees in 1997.

Linda Baughman

Linda Baughman has served as Dean of Students at St. Thomas since 2015. Her role includes oversight of Residence Life, our campus CARE team, the Behavior Intervention Team, student conduct, Off-Campus Student Life, Orientation and family programs, and the Veterans Resource Center. From 2005-2015, Baughman served at Century College, as a student success co-coordinator and chair of the faculty counseling department. In these roles, she helped develop a campus-wide student success strategic plan with the goals of eliminating the opportunity gap and increasing student retention and completion rates.

During her prior career at St. Thomas (1992-2005), Baughman served in a variety of roles, including residence hall director, interim director of orientation, academic counselor and director of Academic Counseling.

Baughman earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Western Michigan University. She has a Master of Arts in teacher education from St. Thomas and a Master of Science in counseling from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. She is currently enrolled in the Educational Leadership and Learning doctoral program at St. Thomas.

Dr. Tanya Gladney

Dr. Tanya Gladney is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Justice and Society Studies, a department in the College of Arts and Sciences that includes programs in criminal justice, sociology, and justice and peace studies. She teaches crime and sociology courses: Crime and Delinquency, Police and Society, Homicide, Seminar in Criminal Justice, Introduction to Sociology, and co-instructor for a study abroad course in Italy. Her research focus is on historical and contemporary inequalities within social institutions.

Dr. Gladney has a law enforcement and military background that includes 10 years of law enforcement and eight years with the United States Army Reserve. Dr. Gladney has provided Cultural Awareness and Implicit Bias Training with police departments for over eight years—primarily Saint Paul Police Department. She is a member of the Minnesota Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board and has served as a board member for local non-profit organizations.

Jemal L. Griffin

Jemal Griffin begins his third year at St. Thomas as Senior Associate Athletic Director, Student-Athlete Welfare and Development in August 2021. Griffin oversees the areas of sports medicine, strength and conditioning, life skills programming, the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), community outreach, academic support, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), and student-athlete conduct, along with serving as the department's liaison to campus Residence Life and DEI Ambassador to the University’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In addition, Griffin serves as the sport administrator for Tommie football, men’s swimming and diving, women’s swimming and diving, and softball.

Griffin comes to St. Thomas from Penn State University, where he earned the title of Assistant Athletic Director and Chief of Staff for the football program beginning in 2014. In that role, Griffin retained oversight of the day-to-day administration of the Nittany Lion football program, including team travel, bowl trips, training camp, budgets, contract negotiations, facility upgrades, and assist with non-conference game scheduling.

Prior to Penn State, Griffin spent three years in the same role with James Franklin at Vanderbilt University from 2011 to 2014. His duties again included overseeing daily administrative operations for the Commodore football program. He also managed the game day timeline for the team, along with planning, organizing, and executing career and professional development opportunities for student-athletes and staff, and serving as the team’s liaison to Nike and its representatives.

Griffin got his start in college football at the University of Maryland. He began his time with the Terps in 2006 as the Assistant Recruiting Coordinator before being promoted to the Director of Football Operations in 2008. Griffin spent a total of five years in College Park.; While there, his responsibilities began in all aspects of the recruiting process, including mailings, visits, game day events, evaluation, and transportation.

Before making his way onto the college scene, Griffin spent six years as a math teacher and assistant football and baseball coach at Woodlawn Senior High School from 2001 to 2006. He also has experience in Corporate America working in banking, investments, and insurance.

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Griffin earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Coppin State University, where he was a four-year starter and two-time team captain for the Eagles baseball team. He was named to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) All-Tournament Team as a senior.

Jemal and his wife, Carla, reside in Woodbury, MN and are the parents of three children: sons Brandon and Joshua, and a daughter, Billie Grace.

Sister Mary Haddad, R.S.M.

Sister Mary Haddad, a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, is president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States. She succeeded Sister Carol Keehan, D.C., in that role in 2019; Keehan was a St. Thomas trustee from 2007-2013.

Haddad leads CHA’s mission to support and advance the health ministry of the Catholic Church in the United States with its network of hospitals, long-term care facilities and community health centers that represent the largest group of nonprofit health providers in the nation.

Prior to her selection as president and CEO, Haddad served for three years as CHA’s vice president of sponsorship and mission services. From 2009-2016 she was senior director of sponsor services. Her previous experience also includes serving on the regional leadership team of the Sisters of Mercy, St. Louis, and working in areas of health care, social service and education, including work in Belize, Trinidad and Tobago.

Haddad has a bachelor’s degree in education from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. She received her M.B.A. in health care from St. Thomas in 2007. She also earned a master’s degree in social work from St. Louis University. She is a member of Alpha Sigma Nu, the honor society of Jesuit institutions of higher education.

Sister Mary Haddad joined the St. Thomas Board of Trustees on July 1, 2020.

Dr. Angela High-Pippert

Angela High-Pippert is Professor and Chair of Political Science at the University of St. Thomas and coordinator of the Peer Teaching Consulting Program within Faculty Development. Dr. High-Pippert serves as program director of Ready to Run Minnesota, a nonpartisan campaign training program designed to encourage women to run for political office. Ready to Run Minnesota is part of the Research in Action initiative within the College of Arts and Sciences at St. Thomas.

Professor High-Pippert teaches courses in American politics, women and politics, and public policy, many of which are included within interdisciplinary programs such as Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, American Culture and Difference, and Data Analytics. Her teaching was recognized with the Distinguished Educator Award by the Undergraduate Student Government in both 2005 and 2012. She was voted Professor of the Year by her faculty colleagues in 2022.

Her research focuses on women and politics, citizen participation in politics, and community energy initiatives, and her publication record includes not only academic journals but also applied research on community solar projects and clean energy initiatives in Minnesota.

Dr. High-Pippert has served as Director of Women’s Studies, Co-Chair of the ACTC Women’s Studies Program, Advisory Board member of the Luann Dummer Center for Women, and as part of university-level groups such as the Civic Engagement, Voter Education and Advocacy Task Force, the University Task Force on Sexual Violence Prevention and Response, and the Enrollment and Financial Aid Committee. She is also past president of the Minnesota Political Science Association. Professor High-Pippert joined St. Thomas in 1999.

James P. Kolar, Jr.

James Kolar is the market managing partner for PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ Central Market, responsible for all activities in the Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Omaha, Des Moines, Peoria and Fayetteville offices. Currently based in Chicago, he has more than 34 years of experience at PwC in its Baltimore, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Orange County, Minneapolis and Chicago offices since he began his career.

Prior to beginning his current role, Kolar was PwC’s office managing partner in Orange County, market managing partner in Minneapolis, and the Greater Chicago market managing partner. He also is beginning his eighth year and serving his second term as a member of PwC’s Board of Partners and Principals.

Kolar is active in the Chicago community, serving on the boards of United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, Economic Club of Chicago, Chicago Urban League, Chicago United, Executives’ Club of Chicago, World Business Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Big Shoulders Fund and the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. He also is a member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Additionally, he serves on the board of Treehouse in Minneapolis and served from 2008 to 2020 on the St. Thomas Academy Board of Trustees, which he chaired from 2013 to 2017.

A 1985 College of St. Thomas alumnus, he earned a B.A. degree in accounting and finance and is a certified public accountant. He is a member of the AICPA and the Illinois Society of Certified Public Accountants.

In addition to his service on the University of St. Thomas Board of Trustees, he also served 10 years on
St. Thomas’ Catholic Studies Advisory Board and currently serves on the university’s GHR Fellows Advisory Council.

He and his wife, Michele, live in Chicago and have three grown children.

Jim Kolar joined the University of St. Thomas Board of Trustees on July 1, 2020.

Jodeen Kozlak

Jodeen (“Jodee”) Kozlak is founder and chief executive officer of Kozlak Capital Partners, LLC. An executive with deep expertise in business strategy, people management, organizational development and leadership, she was the first global senior vice president of human resources of Alibaba Group, the multinational e-commerce company based in Hangzhou, China. Prior to joining Alibaba in 2016, she was executive vice president and chief human resources officer for nearly a decade at Target Corporation, and was a partner at the Greene Espel law firm and a senior associate at Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly. She began her professional career as an auditor at Arthur Anderson & Co.

Kozlak (née Zahariades) earned a Bachelor of Arts in business administration-accounting in 1985 from the then-College of St. Thomas, where she received the Tommie Award, St. Thomas’ most prestigious student award for scholarship, leadership and campus involvement. She earned her law degree at the University of Minnesota in 1990. She recently was named a 2018-19 fellow of Stanford University’s Distinguished Careers Institute.

Kozlak serves on the boards of C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc., Aspen Dental and the Stanford University Center on Longevity. She is a former board chair of the Guthrie Theater and also served on the boards of the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, Park Nicollet Health Services and OneVillage Partners, a nonprofit focused on community development in rural Sierra Leone, Africa.

Jodee and her husband, Nick Kozlak, are the parents of two adult children and live in Truckee, Calif.

Elected to the University of St. Thomas Board of Trustees in 2018, Jodee Kozlak began her term on the board on July 1, 2018.

Dr. Christopher Micahelson

Christopher Michaelson is the Opus Distinguished Professor of Principled Leadership and the Academic Director of the Melrose and The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas, Opus College of Business. As a scholar and business advisor, he explores how meaning and purpose in life and at work can improve our own and others' lives. Throughout his career, Christopher has built bridges between scholarship and practice. After earning his Ph.D. in philosophical ethics and aesthetics from the University of Minnesota in 1997, he helped launch a business ethics advisory practice, which became part of a global risk consulting network, in the New York office of a Big Four firm.

He served on the editorial boards of ten CEO surveys and as the firm's Strategy Officer to the World Economic Forum on projects examining the role of business in society. A few years into his consulting career, Christopher took a full-time lectureship at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania while keeping a foot in practice. In 2005, he joined the Business and Society faculty of the New York University Stern School of Business, on which he has remained since moving home to Minneapolis in 2006.

He came to St. Thomas in 2008 and is also an affiliate faculty member of the University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics. He is on several editorial boards including serving as the Arts, Humanities, and Business Ethics Section Editor of the Journal of Business Ethics, and he was elected to the Board of the Society for Business Ethics and to the Executive Committee of the International Society of Business, Economics, and Ethics.

Patrick G. Ryan

Patrick G. Ryan is chairman of Ryan Companies US Inc., a leading commercial construction, development and real estate management company headquartered in Minneapolis. Ryan Companies was founded in Hibbing by Patrick’s uncle, Francis Ryan, in 1938. Today the company is one of the 500 largest privately held companies in the United States. In 2007, Ryan Companies was named Developer of the Year by NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association. At St. Thomas, Ryan Companies constructed the Anderson Parking Facility (2009) and the Child Development Center (2005).

Patrick Ryan received a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration-financial management from St. Thomas in 1975. He received his J.D. degree in 1980 from William Mitchell College of Law. He became vice president of development at Ryan in 1983, president in 1989 and CEO in 2009.

In addition to serving on the University of St. Thomas Board of Trustees, Ryan served for 11 years on the St. Thomas School of Law Board of Governors, which he also chaired; he also has served on the university’s President’s Council and Alumni Athletic Advisory Board. He received the university’s 2011 John F. Cade Award for entrepreneurship.

Ryan is a past president of the Young Presidents’ Organization and a current member of the World Presidents’ Organization, a global organization of more than 4,600 business leaders. He also is a member of the Urban Land Institute, which provides leadership in the responsible use of land in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. His community work includes service as chair on the boards of Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, the Children’s Cancer Research Fund, and Catholic Charities. He is past president of Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School and a founder of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, an inner-city college preparatory school for young people with limited educational options. He also chairs the Spring Point Project, which is focused on finding a cure for diabetes.

Ryan and his wife, Ann, live in Tonka Bay, Minn. One of their five children, Colin, is a 2006 St. Thomas alumnus. Among other St. Thomas alumni in his family are two brothers, John R. Ryan Jr. ’72 and Joseph H. Ryan ’80, and three sisters: Kathleen Ryan Boone ’79, Jean E. Ryan ’87 and Mary Elizabeth Ryan Fenske ’93.

Patrick Ryan was elected to the University of St. Thomas Board of Trustees in 2013. He was elected board chair in July 2016.

Dr. Penny Wheeler

Dr. Penny Wheeler is president and chief executive officer of Allina Health, the Minneapolis-based health care system that owns or operates 14 hospitals and more than 90 clinics throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Allina Health also operates several health care service companies, including home health, hospice, transportation, medical equipment and retail pharmacy. She is the first woman and first physician to serve in this role at Allina Health.

Prior to her appointment as Allina Health’s CEO in 2015, Dr. Wheeler served as Allina’s chief clinical officer for nine years. A board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist, she served patients at Women’s Health Consultants in Minneapolis, was president of Abbott Northwestern Hospital’s medical staff, chaired the Allina Health Quality Committee and served on the Allina Health Board of Directors.

Wheeler earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physiology with honors from the University of Minnesota in 1980 and her M.D. degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1984.

In addition to her current role, Wheeler chairs the board of Minnesota Community Measurement, a regional health quality collaborative, and is on the board of Portico Healthnet, an organization dedicated to helping uninsured Minnesotans to receive affordable health coverage and care. She also serves on the boards of the Greater Twin Cities United Way and Health Catalyst, a Salt Lake City-headquartered heath care data warehousing, analytics and outcomes-improvement company. In 2012 Minnesota Business magazine named Wheeler the Outstanding Health Care Executive of the year. In 2015 Governor Mark Dayton appointed her to the Minnesota Health Care Financing Task Force. That year Modern Healthcare magazine recognized Wheeler as one of the top 25 women in health care.

Wheeler and her spouse, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Margaret Chutich, and their daughter reside in Minneapolis.

Elected to the University of St. Thomas Board of Trustees in 2015, Dr. Penny Wheeler began her term on the board July 1, 2016.

Dr. Sheneeta W. White

Sheneeta W. White, PhD, serves as the associate dean and chief strategy office of the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship. White leads the development of the Schulze School's long-term and short-term strategies in the areas of brand-building and national rankings, high school outreach and recruitment of top entrepreneurial talent to St. Thomas, curricular and co-curricular excellence and innovation, and effective community engagement to foster mentoring, internship and career opportunities for students.

Prior to her role as associate dean, White served as Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Student Achievement. In this position, she oversaw a robust group of departments and programs that support the undergraduate academic experience.

Dr. White has published refereed articles across a wide range of topics, including production planning and control, service operations management, and service quality. In addition to her education experience, Sheneeta enjoyed a seven-year professional career with IBM leading numerous project teams.

Dr. White holds a Ph.D. in Management Science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, an MBA from North Carolina State University, and a B.S. from Xavier University of Louisiana.

Mark A. Zesbaugh

Mark Zesbaugh is president of Entrepreneurial 180 LLC, a venture capital and consulting firm. He has spent his more than 25-year career in the insurance industry, most recently serving as president and CEO of Security Life Insurance Company of America.

Prior to this role, Zesbaugh established his strategic consulting and advisory firm, providing services to financial services organizations, start-up organizations and private equity firms. He also had started and led a Bermuda-based reinsurance company with a group of insurance executives to help annuity companies diversify and limit their exposure to financial guarantees embedded within fixed and variable annuities.

From 1990 to 2007, Zesbaugh enjoyed a successful 17-year career with Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America and acquired company LifeUSA. As part of the Allianz Group, one of the world’s largest financial services companies, Zesbaugh led North American life and health operations. Under his leadership as CEO, operating profits grew beyond $600 million, while invested assets grew more than $70 billion. Allianz Life maintained one of the largest independent distribution networks, with more than 100,000 independent financial advisers in the United States.

Zesbaugh earned a B.A. degree in business administration and accounting from the University of St. Thomas in 1986. In 1987, he received this Certified Public Accountant designation and, in 1995, the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Zesbaugh is an active member of the Young Presidents Organization and serves on the boards of a variety of for-profit and nonprofit organizations. He is a member of the Twin Cities Society of Security Analysts and the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute.

Mark and his wife, Jodie, have two daughters and reside in Eagan, Minn.

Mark Zesbaugh was elected to the University of St. Thomas Board of Trustees in 2003.