JCCC board will interview 7 finalists for new trustee

The Johnson County Community College Board of Trustees will soon select a new member to fill the vacant seat of Joy Koesten, who stepped down last month.

Here’s the latest:

There are seven finalists

The board received 19 applications to fill Koesten’s seat and has picked seven people to interview, including:

• Julie Brewer, executive director of United Community Services of Johnson County
• Greg Mitchell, WaterOne board member,
• Clay Norkey, attorney and member of the Blue Valley Recreation Commission,
• Melody Rayl, former JCCC trustee from 2008-2013,
• Ken Selzer, former Kansas State Insurance Commissioner,
• Zach Thomas, criminal defense attorney
• Jerry Williams, T-Mobile executive.

Interviews will take place in January

• The board will interview each of the finalists at a special meeting on Monday, Jan. 9, at 4 p.m.
• The new trustee will then be selected at that meeting by roll-call vote of the current board members.
• The new trustee will then be seated for the board’s regular Jan. 19 meeting.

One person was added to the original list

• The board initially narrowed its list of finalists to six at its meeting Dec. 15.
• A special meeting was held Thursday, Dec. 22, for the purpose of reviewing another application that the trustees say had been lost in a spam email folder.
• That applicant was not moved on in the process but the board held another roll call vote and added Selzer, who had previously applied, to the list of finalists.
• “These are serious people with a serious interest in the college, with a wide diversity of age and experience,” trustee Greg Musil said at the Dec. 15 meeting, when six finalists were originally picked.

New trustee will serve out Koesten’s four-year term

• Koesten announced her resignation in November, citing ongoing family health concerns.
• She was one of four board members elected in 2021.
• Before that, Koesten served one term in the Kansas House of Representatives from 2017 to 2019.

Go deeper: Read more about JCCC’s guidelines and requirements for Board of Trustee candidates.