Bates Board of Trustees elect officers for coming year

At its June 23 meeting, the Bates Technical College Board of Trustees elected Mike Grunwald as board chair and Karen Seinfeld as vice chair for the 2011–2012 academic year.

Grunwald, an international representative for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was the former chair of Bates’ Electrical Construction program advisory committee and is the past president of the Washington State Association of Electrical Workers.  He served as president of the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council, as a member of the Washington State Workers’ Compensation Finance Committee and is an American Leadership Forum Senior Fellow. Governor Gary Locke originally appointed Grunwald in 2004 as a trustee, and Governor Christine Gregoire re-appointed him in 2009.

Seinfeld is a retired Judge of the Washington State Court of Appeals. A graduate of Stanford University and the University of Puget Sound Law School, Seinfeld served as president of City Club of Tacoma, The Puget Sound Inn of Court, the Tacoma Sunrise Rotary, and the Tacoma Public Library Board, and she is currently a senior fellow with the American Leadership Forum. Seinfeld also serves as chair of the Washington News Council, as vice president of the Tacoma Philharmonic, on the boards of the Tacoma Goodwill, the Washington State Courts Historical Society, and the State Office of Public Defense, and as a member of Rotary #8. Governor Gregoire first appointed Seinfeld to a partial term as a trustee in 2005 and re-appointed her to a full term in 2007.

Both Grunwald and Seinfeld will assume office at the Sept. 27 Board of Trustees meeting.

About Bates Technical College
The governor of Washington State appoints a five-member board of trustees composed of community representatives to govern Bates Technical College. The board’s role is to develop and oversee college policy in accordance with state law. Bates is Washington’s largest public technical college, providing quality, affordable education to more than 15,000 students each year.