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Barbara Giorgi-Vella
Barbara
Giorgi-Vella

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News Release

Contact: Melanie Magara, NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-1681

June 20, 2005

Rockford native to lead NIU governing board

DeKalb — Rockford attorney and longtime community leader Barbara Giorgi-Vella has been elected Chair of the Board of Trustees of Northern Illinois University. 

Giorgi-Vella is both the first Rockford resident and the first woman to lead NIU's independent governing board since its inception in 1996. She was appointed to the board in 1999, and has since chaired both the finance committee and the academic affairs committee.

“Barb Vella understands the complexity of NIU's service region, the changing nature of our students, and the need to become less reliant on state funding,” said Trustee Bob Boey in his nomination remarks. “She will bring great skill and new perspectives to the chair's role at a time of great challenge and great opportunity for NIU.”

For her own part, Giorgi-Vella outlined an agenda for the coming year that includes a focus on student retention.

“Student numbers are soaring,” Giorgi-Vella said. “But at NIU and around the country, those greater numbers are bringing more students who are unprepared – academically, financially and motivationally – to succeed in college. NIU has many existing support programs, and it's one of my goals to help students take better advantage of those systems.”

Giorgi-Vella obtained both her master's and law degrees at NIU. She is a partner with Vella & Lund, P.C. of Rockford, and specializes in family law and mediation. In Rockford, Giorgi-Vella has served on the Saint Anthony Medical Center Advisory Board, the Winnebago County Bar Association Board of Trustees, the Holy Family Foundation Endowment Committee, the Crusader Clinic Board of Directors, the Rockford Public Library Board and on many other civic boards and commissions.

NIU's new board chair began her career as a public school teacher, and has carried an interest in education and children's issues throughout her career and in her volunteer work. In 2001, Giorgi-Vella helped dedicate a new NIU facility in Rockford: the Zeke Giorgi Legal Clinic, named for her late father and member of the Illinois General Assembly.

In 1998, Giorgi-Vella was named Volunteer Lawyer of the Year by the Prairie State Legal Services for her work with children and families. The following year, she received the NIU Alumni Association's coveted Distinguished Service Award.

Other board officers elected today include vice chair Cherilyn Murer of suburban Homer Glen and secretary Marc Strauss of DeKalb. Murer is president and CEO of The Murer Group, a legal-based healthcare consulting company headquartered in Joliet . Strauss is general counsel for First Rockford Corporation, a Rockford-based commercial and residential development company.

All board officer terms begin July 1.

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