July 21, 2008
Robert L. Elizondo, a St. Mary’s alumni and retired United Parcel Service executive, is the new chairman of the St. Mary’s University Board of Trustees. Jack Paul Leon will serve as vice chairman and Nancy Brown Loeffler will serve as secretary.
Elizondo takes over for previous chairman Ruben M. Escobedo. In addition, Judge Barbara Hervey and Rebecca Quintanilla Cedillo are the newest members to join the Board of Trustees.
About the new officers and board members:
Robert Elizondo retired from the United Parcel Service in 2001 as the company’s Miami-based vice president for operations in Puerto Rico, Mexico, South American, Central America and the Caribbean. He graduated from St. Mary’s with a bachelor’s of science degree in engineering in 1967 and received the University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2005.
Jack Paul Leon is a respected San Antonio attorney and a 1959 graduate of the St. Mary’s School of Law. Before entering private practice in 1962, he was an assistant district attorney for Bexar County and served as chief prosecutor in the felony section. He is a former president of the Law Alumni Association and was named Distinguished Law Graduate in 1986.
Nancy Brown Loeffler is a long-time advocate of volunteerism, charitable works and civic involvement. She serves on a variety of corporate and civic boards, including the Southwest Airlines Board of Directors, the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Board of Visitors, The South Texas Community Foundation, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame and the Vice President’s Residence Foundation in Washington D.C.
The Honorable Barbara Hervey, a 1979 graduate of the School of Law, was first elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2000. She is joining the board as the representative of the Law Alumni Association. Prior to serving on the bench, Hervey was an assistant criminal district attorney in the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office for 16 years. She served on the governor’s ad hoc committee to rewrite the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.
Rebecca Cedillo is president of Strategic Initiatives Consulting, which provides strategic planning, organizational and policy development and other management services to businesses and public agencies. She is a 1975 graduate of St. Mary’s, and earned a master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her career includes more than 25 years of service to municipal government.
Doris Slay-Barber, a graduate of St. Mary’s and a past president of the St. Mary’s University Alumni Association, will transition this fall from Alumni Association representative to a regular term member of the board. Slay-Barber has been a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors for eight years. She is the coordinator for attendance, grade reporting and scheduling for the Northside Independent School District
Ed Boyle, who is the outgoing president of the Alumni Association, will join the board this fall as the association’s representative.
Major Gen. Alfred Valenzuela, US Army, retired, who earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree at St. Mary’s, and Jack Beigler, a 1967 graduate of St. Mary’s and president of Ellison Management LLC, have previously served as Trustees and have returned to the board this year.