Four elected to University of the Pacific Board of Regents

University of the Pacific's Board of Regents voted to add four new members who bring complementary professional skills and leadership experience to the University's governing body. The four new Regents were elected in a special session on July 17. Each will serve a three-year term extending through June 30, 2017.   

The new Regents come from varied walks of life: one is a partner and senior vice president of a major San Francisco-based insurance firm; another is a prominent Stockton businessman; another is president of a Covina pharmacy; and the fourth had a long career in engineering and marketing before heading an East Bay Area nonprofit organization. All are graduates of University of the Pacific or have had family graduate from Pacific. Each has shown an unwavering support of the University.

"We have been so very fortunate over the years to draw the top leaders in their fields willing to give of their time and expertise to shape the university's long-range strategic direction," said Kathleen Lagorio-Janssen, chair of the Board of Regents. "I look forward to working with the new regents as we continue to forge together a bright future for the University. We welcome their leadership experience as we strive to make the University even stronger and find new ways to best serve our students."

Norman E. Allen

Norman E. Allen earned a bachelor's degree in communication and political science from the College of the Pacific in 1988 and a law degree from Pacific's McGeorge School of Law in 1994. As a student on the Stockton campus, Allen was ASuop president, a resident hall assistant, a patron scholar, a founding member of Phi Delta Theta, and a member of the Order of Omega. At McGeorge, Allen was a comment editor and staff writer for the Pacific Law Review.

As an alumnus, Allen has remained involved with Pacific, including serving seven years on the Pacific Alumni Association Board of Directors, where he was on the executive committee and was elected president. He also served on the Pacific Fund Advisory Board, the vice president for Student Life Search Committee (twice), the Student Life Panel of the National Commission, and as a founding member of the PRIDE Pacific Alumni Club.

Allen is a senior vice president and partner at Woodruff-Sawyer & Co. in San Francisco and has extensive experience advising high-profile companies on risk management and solutions, with a particular focus on global directors and officers liability insurance. He is member of the State Bar of California, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and the Professional Liability Underwriting Society.

Charles Berolzheimer

For Charles Berolzheimer, president and CEO of California Cedar Products Co. in Stockton, the connection to Pacific is a family affair. Sons Philip and Thomas received degrees from Pacific's Eberhardt School of Business - Philip in 2009 and Thomas in 2011 and again in 2012 completing his MBA. Both sons were student athletes and also married Pacific graduates. Charles Berolzheimer's brother, Parke, graduated from Pacific in 1985.

His parents, Philip and Anne, and sister Caroline Guenther, have all been friends of Pacific, and his grandfather, the late Charles Philip Berolzheimer, received an honorary degree of letters from Pacific in 1995. Berolzheimer, who holds a bachelor's degree in management science from UC San Diego and a master's degree in management as a Sloan Fellow at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, serves on both the Eberhardt School of Business Advisory Board and the Athletics Leadership Council. In the past he has served on the Baseball Advisory Board and the Athletic Campaign Committee.

Berolzheimer and his wife established the Blackwing Foundation to support and strengthen elementary and high school music and arts programs. That foundation has partnered with Pacific's Brubeck Institute, Little Kids Rock and others creating the Ignite the Arts Program. Berolzheimer is a director of The Mark Catesby Commemorative Trust, which focuses on natural history research and education, and also is a past trustee of The Cate School in Carpinteria. 

Dr. Virginia Chan

Dr. Virginia (Chang) Chan has a very deep connection to Pacific. She graduated from the Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in 1977 and is married to fellow pharmacy graduate Dr. Tony Chan, a Pacific Regent from 2005 to June 2014. Dr. Virginia Chan is president of Covina Pharmacy in Covina.

The Chan family, for whom the Chan Family Health Sciences Learning Center and Clinics facility on the Stockton campus is named, has been generous over the years. Drs. Tony and Virginia Chan were inducted into Pacific's Gallery of Benefactors in 2007 and are part of the 1851 Society, which acknowledges the University's most generous donors.

Their son, Jonathan, earned his degree from the Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in 2009 and their daughter, Megan, in 2013. Siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins and spouses of those family members also have graduated from Pacific.

Dr. Virginia Chan has participated in the Women's Leadership Council.

Janet Y. Spears

University of the Pacific's 2012 Distinguished Alumna for the School of Engineering and Computer Science, Janet Y. Spears is the interim president and chief executive officer and also chief operating officer of the East Bay Community Foundation, one of the largest sources of philanthropic support for the East Bay.

Before coming to the foundation in 2008, Spears spent more than two decades at AT&T, becoming the executive director of marketing and vice president of strategic sales, engineering and operations.

Spears earned a bachelor's of science degree with honors in electrical engineering from Pacific's School of Engineering and Computer Science in 1986. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers while at Pacific.

She also earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University in 1988 and an Executive Advanced Management Certificate from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2000.

Since graduating from Pacific she has served on the Alumni Association Board in 2012-14, the School of Engineering and Computer Science Dean's Council in 2006-2014 and the BU/EG/SIS Panel of the National Commission in 2000. She was a member of the university's Industrial Council. She was the guest speaker several times at Pacific's summer science program for junior high school students and spoke to the students about her career in engineering. She was part of the campaign to name the Kemet Conference Room in the John T. Chambers Technology Center, "honoring and defining a sense of place for black alumni of the school."

As interim chief executive at the East Bay Community Foundation, headquartered in Oakland, she leads an organization that administers more than $400 million in charitable assets for about 500 individuals, families, corporations and other organizations.   

For more information about the Board, visit http://students.pulse.pacific.edu/About-Pacific/AdministrationOffices/Board-of-Regents-.html.