Davis & Elkins College welcomes five new Board of Trustee Members to enhance the College’s oversight, governance, and leadership strategies. These members include Sarah Biller, Dr. Kimberly M. Farry, Barbara A. Porter, Nico Pronk and Amber Vineyard.
Executive Director of Vantage Ventures of Boston, MA, Biller joins the College with a career in entrepreneurship, investing and educating in Financial Technology (FinTech) and adjacent industries. Her previous roles span from teaching graduate level courses on the evolution of FinTech at Brandeis University to fulfilling COO responsibilities, launching and leading research divisions for Fortune 500 CFO’s and treasurers and aiding as Principle in the launch of several venture-backed start-ups in the FinTech and Life Sciences sectors. Her current occupation with Vantage Ventures collaborates alongside the John Chambers College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University, providing entrepreneurs a systematic and efficient approach to build world-changing ideas that are scalable, investable, and capable of accessing venture capital. Biller has been named by Innovate Finance as one of the top 150 global women leaders in FinTech, Top 100 Women in FinTech in the UK and Hong Kong and NY FinTech Women as a Top 20 inspiration for her commitment to lift up other women in the industry. Biller’s father, Randall, of Elkins is a graduate of Davis & Elkins College.
Farry, a D&E alumna and graduate of the Class of 1985 and resident of Buckhannon, brings along a career centered around the medical field to the Board of Trustees. She has completed post-graduate and doctoral degrees and has been a Fellow of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology since 1999. Farry holds several professional affiliations: St. Joseph’s Hospital of Buckhannon as Staff Physician and Director of Obstetrics; American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology as Fellow; West Virginia State Medical Association; West Virginia Perinatal Partnership as President Board of Directors and Chair of Central Advisory Committee; Fred Eberle Technical Center as LPN Program Advisory Committee; Davis & Elkins College as member of the Department of Nursing Advisory Committee; Board of Directors at DHR, Inc. Farry currently holds a position with the WVU Medicine Department of OB/GYN at St. Joseph’s Hospital of Buckhannon.
Porter, of Berlin, MD, is a graduate of D&E’s Class of 1976 and spent a 25-year career as a print and broadcast journalist covering the White House, Capitol Hill, business and labor for various media outlets before transitioning to higher education. She became a University Spokesperson, VP for Health Communications and Chief of Staff to the President during her tenure at George Washington (GW) University, covering such high-profile cases as the hospitalization of Vice President Dick Cheney, Anthrax, SARS and Avian Flu. Her contributions to GW also include the development of crisis protocols for the entire university. Currently, Porter is a Senior Consultant with Guidehouse, writing speeches for administrators in the federal sector, and she maintains her consulting practice, COMcepts21, working with nonprofits on communications, fundraising needs, strategic planning and executive coaching.
Class of 1986 graduate of Davis & Elkins College and resident of Lakeville, MN, Pronk pursued post-graduate and doctoral-level education, completing each in 1988 and 1992, respectively. His work focuses on connecting scientific evidence of effectiveness with practical applications of programs and practices, policies and systems that measurably improve population health and well-being. His efforts have been noticed across multiple positions: President of the HealthPartners Institute and Chief Science Officer at HealthPartners, Inc.; Affiliate Full Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health; Co-Investigator on research studies in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Co-Chair of the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives; Chair for the Roundtable on Obesity Solutions at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; Board Member for the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO); Former President and Founder of the International Association for Worksite Health Promotion; Member of the Food and Nutrition Board. His work has been recognized with the President’s Award at HealthPartners, NIH Merit Award, HERO Research Award and the Merit in Authorship from the “Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.” Pronk was recognized by D&E at Homecoming 2023 with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.
A resident of Elkins, Vineyard, magna cum laude graduate of Davis & Elkins College’s Class of 2010, joined Orion Strategies, a West Virginia-based strategic communications firm as Lead Director and Chief Operations Officer. Her experience in marketing, spanning more than a decade, has provided opportunities to manage millions of dollars in launching strategic, layered and well-researched campaigns to specific audiences across television, radio, newspaper and digital mediums. Vineyard’s expert-level consultancy has provided massive positive influence on clients within industrial, manufacturing, economic development, energy, health care and education industries, among others. She currently serves as the Operations Director at Agency LMC in Elkins and engages in presentations to colleges with marketing and communications classes across the region, including Davis & Elkins College, Penn State and West Virginia Wesleyan College. Vineyard sits on the Board of Directors for the Woodlands Development Group of Buckhannon-Upshur Chamber of Commerce, and she was named Davis & Elkins College’s 2021 Outstanding Young Alumna.
Davis & Elkins College President Chris A. Wood states, “D&E is blessed by the quality of the members of the incoming class of our Board of Trustees. These five outstanding individuals have excelled in their chosen professions and bring tremendous gifts and talents to an already visionary Board. I look forward to working closely with each of them as we lead Davis & Elkins College into a promising future.”
