Four join Manchester University Board of Trustees

Leaders in health, public service, marketing and higher education have joined the Board of Trustees at Manchester University:

• Ding-Jo Hsia Currie, a nationally and internationally recognized leader in higher education
• Madalyn Metzger, marketing director for Everence Financial in Goshen
• Michael J. Packnett, president and CEO at Parkview Health
• William “Mark” Rosenbury, a retired renewables and environment professional with extensive experience in public service and volunteering

 “We welcome the extraordinary leadership and knowledge these four new members bring,” said Manchester President Dave McFadden. “Their diverse backgrounds and expertise will help Manchester build on its legacy of educating those with ability and conviction who go on to make a difference in the world.”

Ding-Jo Hsia Currie, a 1975 Manchester graduate in mathematics and psychology, is the former chancellor of Coast Community College District in California, the seventh-largest community college district in the United States.

“I am very honored to have been asked to serve in this capacity and do want to make a contribution in furthering the future success of Manchester University,” she said. “I’m indebted to the solid foundation Manchester provided for me in so many ways during my four years there. Serving on the board for me is a way to pay back as well as paying forward.”

She is past president of Coastline Community College, where she was one of the first Asian-American women to serve as a CEO of a higher education institution. Currie is currently a professor in the doctoral education leadership program at California State University-Fullerton.

She is also president of Lingnan Foundation, a private foundation that funds higher education service and learning programs in China and the U.S.  She is on the board of Air University, the intellectual and leadership center of the U.S. Air Force. She lives in Huntington Beach, in Orange County, Calif.
 
After Manchester, Currie earned a master’s degree in counseling from Wright State University and a Ph.D. in international and intercultural education at the University of Southern California. Among her many professional accomplishments, Currie founded China’s Higher Education Foundation, which promotes higher education through collaboration between East and West.

Currie received the Manchester University Alumni Honor Award in 2012.

Madalyn Metzger leads the marketing and communications direction and vision for Everence products and services, including the company’s investment, asset management, charitable services, health, and retirement and credit union products. In 2015, she received the Everence Financial Commitment to Excellence Award, as part of the company’s Financial Planning Leadership Group.

Prior to joining Everence in 2005, Metzger worked in fundraising communication for Church World Service, an international humanitarian aid organization providing sustainable self-help, development, disaster relief and refugee assistance around the world.

An advocate for peace and justice, Metzger was a board member of On Earth Peace, an agency of the Church of the Brethren, from 2007 to 2015, and served as the organization’s board chair from 2008 to 2013. She also served on the advisory board for New Community Project, an environmental and social justice organization, from 2006 to 2009, and the Church of the Brethren Inter-Agency Forum from 2009 to 2013.

In 2008, Metzger was recognized as one of the 40 young professionals younger than 40 in northern Indiana and southern Michigan for her contribution and accomplishments in both the workplace and community. She is a member of the American Marketing Association and Anabaptist Communicators.

She is a 1999 Manchester graduate, with a degree in interpersonal and organizational communication. She and husband Kris Brownlee, a 2000 Manchester graduate, live in Bristol, Ind., and attend the Goshen City Church of the Brethren.

Michael J. Packnett joined Parkview Health as president and CEO in June 2006. Parkview is the largest employer in northeast Indiana with more than 9,700 employees, and it serves more than 890,000 residents of northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio.

“I can relate to Manchester University’s mission statement recognizing the ‘infinite worth of every individual,’” Packnett said. “It is important to serve everyone we meet by treating them with the utmost respect, listening to and learning from their experiences, needs and dreams.”

Before joining Parkview Health, he served for 15 years in several roles with the Sisters of Mercy Health System – St. Louis.

Packnett serves on several boards throughout the region including the Indiana Hospital Association, the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, the Regional Chamber of Northeast Indiana, the Indiana Chamber, the Allen County Capital Improvement Board, the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo and Greater Fort Wayne, Inc.

He has a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Central Oklahoma and a master’s degree in Hospital Administration from the University of Minnesota.

William “Mark” Rosenbury earned degrees in business and economics from Manchester in 1969 and went on to a successful business career. He was present at the historic speech of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Manchester in February 1968, shortly before the civil rights leader was slain, and joined fellow students as actor-activist Paul Newman stumped for Sen. Eugene McCarthy’s presidential bid from the back of a station wagon.

He and his wife, Janet, also a 1969 Manchester graduate, support the causes of equality and justice. The West Des Moines, Iowa, residents are regular supporters of The Manchester Fund and created The Rosenbury Family Endowed Scholarship. Their gifts have supported a number of projects, including a Science Center biology lab from accounting and business alumni named in honor of legendary professor Art Gilbert ’53. The Rosenburys also provided a classroom and faculty office in the new Academic Center.

He serves on the boards of the Iowa Legal Aid Foundation, currently its president, and ACLU of Iowa, where he is board treasurer. He is a volunteer income tax return preparer in Perry, Iowa, for elderly and low-income individuals. He also led the Iowa Watershed Improvement Review Board and Agribusiness Association of Iowa, as well as serving on the steering committee of the Iowa Immigration Education Coalition.

Manchester University, with campuses in North Manchester and Fort Wayne, Ind., offers more than 60 areas of academic study to 1,500 students in undergraduate programs, a Master of Science in Pharmacogenomics, a Master of Athletic Training and a four-year professional Doctor of Pharmacy.  Learn more about the private, northern Indiana school at www.manchester.edu.

January 2016