Polls Open for Staff Trustee Election

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 17, 2013) — Voting begins today and runs through May 1 for the University of Kentucky’s staff representative to its Board of Trustees.

Four candidates nominated themselves for the campuswide election — Mike Adams (Department of Biology), Sheila Brothers (Office of the Senate Council), Jann Burks (4-H Central Operations) and Gary Case (Center on Drug and Alcohol Research). See below the candidates’ biographies, all written by the candidates themselves.

The candidates may campaign through May 1. To view the candidates’ platforms, visit http://www.uky.edu/staffsenate/2013-staff-trustee-candidate-platforms.

All voting will be done online at https://iweb.uky.edu/elections/login.aspx. A UK username and password (LinkBlue credentials) OR a UK Person ID number and date of birth are required to vote.  Regular staff with a full time equivalency (FTE) of .75 or greater and those in phased retirement are eligible to vote in the election via the Staff Senate website.

On May 6, official election results will be announced by UKNow. The top three candidates will then advance to the run-off election. A final candidates’ debate will be held at 1 p.m. May 9 during the regular meeting of the Staff Senate in William T. Young Library. Voting will be conducted May 22 through June 5 via the Staff Senate website.

On June 10, official election results will be announced, and the newly elected staff trustee will begin his/her term on July 1.

Eligible staff are encouraged to take part in the election process, and questions and comments may be directed to Kean Ashurst, Staff Senate election chair, kean.ashurst@uky.edu, or Holly Jones Clark, Staff Senate office coordinator, hclark@uky.edu.

The candidates’ biographies are below.

Mike Adams

Mike Adams has been married for 19 years. He has one daughter and two sons. His daughter graduated from UK last year with a degree in special education. Adams started his career at UK in 1995 when he decided to further his education. As an undergraduate he secured a job as a teaching assistant. He worked part-time for the Department of Biology until 1998 when he secured a full-time position with the department. Adams has an associate degree in electronic engineering and an associate degree in nursing and is completing his Bachelor of Science in biology.

As Adams’ career evolved, he moved from overseeing the support labs to overseeing all facilities that are controlled by the Department of Biology. This allowed Adams to interact with many groups across campus, including Custodial Services, Grounds, all PPD shops as well as administrators, faculty and students.

As a result of these interactions and the love he has for UK, Adams became very active in the UK community. He has served on the Staff Council for the College of Arts and Sciences. And he won a seat on the university’s Staff Senate. As a staff senator, Adams has served on many university-wide committees such as the Appreciation Day Commission, which he chaired for two years; the Shared Leave Committee and many more. Adams has been the vice chair of the Staff Senate and is currently in his second term as the chair of the Staff Senate.

Sheila Brothers

Sheila Brothers was elected as the staff representative to the Board of Trustees in 2010. Since she was first elected, she has represented staff interests in a variety of ways, initiating practices to facilitate communication and to develop a greater respect for staff participation in shared governance.

Brothers has been employed by UK since 1993 and earned her bachelor's degree from UK in 1998. She is currently employed by the Office of the Senate Council. In 2003 she was the first woman elected as chair of UK's Staff Senate. During her term as Staff Senate chair, she institutionalized the regular inclusion of staff employees on UK’s committees.

She has served on a number of UK committees, including the Health Benefits Task Force and the Employee Education Program Expansion Committee. Brothers served as a member of the Grievance Panel and led the Flexible Work Arrangements Work Group and currently serves on the Regulation Review Committee. In 2012, she was elected by fellow Board of Trustees members to the office of secretary.

Jann Burks

Jann Burks has worked in the College of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service for 19 years. She has also worked in the medical center, College of Dentistry and the Student Affairs office on UK’s campus. In her current position, she is a youth development specialist, serving the 230,000 young people in all 120 counties of Kentucky. Previously, she worked in the Fayette County public schools with at-risk youth. In addition, she serves on several state and national association boards, has four grants and research projects, and has presented professional development programs at state, southern region and national conferences through her work in the College of Agriculture.

At present, Burks is serving her eighth year on the Staff Senate. Five of those years, she has held an officer position, treasurer (four years) and chair (one year), and currently she is serving as past-chair of the Staff Senate as well as a member of both the Staff Issues and the Presidential Advisory committees. She is married with three daughters and seven grandchildren.

Gary Case

Gary Case was born in Martin, Ky. He spent most of his life on a farm in Jessamine County. He has two daughters, ages 1 and 2, with his wife of four years. Case enjoys family time, sports and the outdoors. Other than spending time with his family, Case loves to spend time hunting deer and turkey, being on the lake fishing or teeing it up at many of the fine golf courses the state has to offer.

Case has been an employee of UK since 2002 in the information technology field. He currently works for the Department of Behavioral Science and the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research. He is currently responsible for the computers of the faculty and staff, the department’s website, and the department’s inventory processes. Whether it has been a student staff, part-time temporary staff, full-time temporary staff or regular full-time staff, Case has greatly enjoyed working at UK and looks forward to his future years here and retirement from UK.