Duke Names Three New Members to Board of Trustees

DURHAM, N.C. -- Three new members of Duke University's Board of Trustees were announced Wednesday by Peter M. Nicholas, chairman of the trustees.

David Gergen of Cambridge, Mass., Kathryn A. Laidlaw of Katy, Texas, and William P. Miller of Greensboro, N.C., began their terms on the 37-member governing body on July 1.

"Our new trustees bring a breadth of experience and a commitment to Duke University that will help the trustees as we work with the faculty and with Duke's new president, Richard Brodhead, and his administration team," Nicholas said. "We look forward to having their counsel and insight as we seek to help Duke achieve its aspirations in the university's long-range strategic academic plan, 'Building on Excellence.'"

Gergen is a professor of public service at Harvard University and director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is also editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report.

Over the past 30 years, Gergen has been an active participant in American national life, including serving as an adviser to four U.S. presidents. At age 30, he was head of the speech writing and research team for President Richard Nixon. He was special counsel to President Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977, and in the early 1980s he served as the first communications director for President Ronald Reagan. In 1993, he served as counselor to President Bill Clinton on both foreign policy and domestic affairs, then as special international adviser to the president and to Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

A long-time journalist, Gergen frequently lectures and comments on world news events. In 2000, he published a best-selling book titled "Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton," now used in many college classes.

Gergen, a native of Durham, has strong ties to Duke and to Durham. He was a member of the faculty of Duke's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy from 1995 to 1998. His father, John J. Gergen, was a professor of mathematics at Duke from 1936 to the time of his death in 1967. Gergen received an honorary degree from Duke in 2001 and delivered the commencement address at Duke's graduation ceremonies in 1995.

Laidlaw graduated magna cum laude from Duke in May with a bachelor of arts degree in French and European Studies and a minor in Comparative Area Studies. She also earned a certificate in Markets & Management. She will join The Parthenon Group, a strategy consulting firm in Boston, as an associate in September.

While at Duke, Laidlaw was a founding member of the Nasher Museum Student Advisory Board, was executive vice president of the Duke Union and chaired the Union's visual arts committee. She also served as a Duke Student Government legislator and president of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.

During her college summers, Laidlaw interned with a Houston law firm, conducted market research for the outsourced benefits administration firm Ox International, interned with U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson's press office in Washington, D.C., and was a summer associate at The Parthenon Group.

Laidlaw will serve a three-year "young trustee" term, serving as a non-voting member the first year and a voting member the following two years.

Miller, a 1977 graduate of Duke, is a managing member of the High Point law firm of Roberson Haworth & Reese. His practice is concentrated in the areas of bankruptcy law, commercial real property and municipal law. He has been a member of the Chapter 7 Panel of Trustees for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of North Carolina since 1998. He has served as a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Bankruptcy Council of the Bankruptcy Section of the North Carolina Bar Association, and on the President's Council of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees.

Miller received his law degree from the University of North Carolina in 1980. He is a frequent lecturer on bankruptcy law at legal conferences and the Wake Forest University School of Law, the city attorney for Archdale, N.C., a former member of the board of directors of the North Carolina Municipal Attorneys Association and council member of the Bankruptcy Section of the North Carolina Bar Association. He has been board counsel to the High Point Regional Association of Realtors for the past 15 years.

He is active in a number of civic and charitable organizations in the High Point area, is a past president of the Duke Club of High Point, and has served on a number of university boards and committees. He will serve as president of the Duke Alumni Association for 2004-05.

As president of the Duke Alumni Association, Miller will serve a two-year term on the board, the first year in a non-voting capacity and the second year as a voting member.