Berea College Board of Trustees elects five new members
May 20, 2025
BEREA, Ky. – The Berea College Board of Trustees has elected Joe Bagnoli, Adam Edelen, Donna Fick, Talina Mathews and Celeste Armstrong as members, each to serve six-year terms beginning immediately. Their terms will end on June 30, 2031.
“Each of these new trustees brings a deep connection to Berea’s mission and a unique professional perspective that will guide our work into the future,” said President Cheryl L. Nixon. “Their commitment to service and to educational opportunity will help Berea remain bold and visionary in how we serve students. I am thrilled to welcome them to the Board.”
A 1988 graduate of Berea College, Joe Bagnoli currently serves as vice president for enrollment and dean of admissions and financial aid at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. He earned degrees in business administration and music at Berea College before earning a master’s degree in student personnel services for higher education from Eastern Kentucky University and a doctorate from the University of Kentucky. He served Berea College for nearly 15 years in various capacities, including associate provost for Enrollment Management, before moving to his current job at Grinnell. He has remained engaged with Berea College over the years and served as summer reunion giving chair in 2023.
Adam Edelen has served in both the private and public sectors. After graduating from the University of Kentucky, Edelen served as an aide to Governor Paul Patton, making him one of the youngest ever to hold that position in Kentucky. He also served as director of the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security and as chief of staff for Governor Steve Beshear. In 2011, Edelen was elected as Kentucky’s Auditor of Public Accounts, where he served until 2016. Edelen then turned his attention to solar energy initiatives in Appalachia and beyond, founding Edelen Renewables—a company committed to large-array, social-impact solar installations—in 2016.
Donna Fick is a 1986 graduate of Berea College’s nursing program. She received a master’s from the University of Cincinnati and a doctorate from the University of California, San Francisco. She is a leading expert in geriatric care and research and is best known for her work on delirium superimposed on dementia (DSD) and delirium detection at bedside. She and her team developed the Ultra-Brief 2-Item Screener (UB-2), a two-step protocol for identifying delirium in hospitalized older adults, used in healthcare systems worldwide. Her research has been disseminated widely through more than 160 publications, and she has served as the editor of the Journal of Gerontology Nursing since 2011.
Talina Mathews, a 1989 graduate of Berea College who studied mathematics and economics, is the chief financial officer of Big Rivers Electric Corporation, a member-owned, not-for-profit generation and transmission cooperative headquartered in Owensboro, Ky. She has a doctorate in economics from the University of Kentucky and previously served at Southwest Power Pool and in several positions in state government, primarily with the Kentucky Public Service Commission, where she worked as commissioner.
Celeste Armstrong is returning to the board after previously serving as an alumni trustee. She received her bachelor’s degree from Berea College in 1990 and a law degree from Samford University Cumberland Law School in Birmingham, Ala. She is a managing trial attorney for Nationwide. She is a distinguished Fellow for the Council on Legal Education Opportunity from the University of Mississippi and is certified as faculty for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy.
In addition to these appointments, the following trustees were elected to board leadership positions, beginning July 1.
Incumbent chair Stephanie Bowling Zeigler completed four years of extraordinary service to the Berea College Board of Trustees and will continue as a trustee.
Retired trustees Charlotte Beason, William Richardson and David Shelton were elected Honorary Trustees for life.
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