Cleveland newscaster elected chair of BGSU Board of Trustees

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Leon Bibb of Shaker Heights has been elected chair of the Bowling Green State University Board of Trustees, and Valerie L. Newell of Cincinnati has been elected vice chair.

Bibb is a news anchor for WEWS-TV5 in Cleveland, and has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 1996. He received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from BGSU in 1966 and subsequently did graduate work in radio-television-film at the University. He has received a number of journalism awards, including an Emmy Award and induction into the National Association of Black Journalists and the BGSU Journalism halls of fame.

Newell is managing director of Zurich Scudder Investments in Cincinnati. Active in the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants, she also serves on the boards of trustees for the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Cincinnati Museum Center and the Bethesda Hospital Foundation. She was named to a nine-year term on the BGSU Board of Trustees in 1993.

Dr. Richard Hebein, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and an associate professor of romance languages at the University, was elected secretary.

Hebein has held a number of administrative posts since joining the faculty in 1969. In addition to chairing the Department of Romance Languages from 1974-82, he directed the Classical Studies Program from 1982-96 and served as acting faculty ombudsperson from 1991-97. He also has held various leadership positions on the Arts and Sciences Council and was chair of the Faculty Senate during the 1986-87 academic year.

All three officers were elected to one-year terms. (Posted June 28, 2002)