Duke Names New Trustee Members

Two new members and two new observers will join the Duke University Board of Trustees next month, the university announced Thursday.

Foundation president Laurene M. Sperling and United Methodist Bishop Hope Morgan Ward will assume terms on the governing body July 1.

Sperling, of Wayland, Mass., is president of the Sperling Family Charitable Foundation, where she plays an active role investing in the social service sector. Her prior professional experience was in corporate finance and investment banking at Paine Webber, Inc. and Cowen and Co., and accounting for Ernst and Young.

She is chair of the Bell Foundation, a national leader in after-school and summer programs for children at risk. In addition, she serves on the Board of Dean's Advisors for Harvard Business School, the Board of New Profit, Inc., the Dana Farber Cancer Institute Women's Cancers Visiting Committee, the Brigham and Women's Hospital Women's Health Leadership Council, and the Wayland Public Schools Foundation.

She was a member of the Duke University Library Advisory Board from 1997 until 2010, serving as chair from 2006 through 2010. She earned a degree in accounting from Duke in 1978 and an MBA from Harvard in 1982.

Ward, of Jackson, Miss., was elected a bishop of the United Methodist Church (UMC) in Mississippi in 2004, where she leads 190,000 United Methodists in more than 1,100 congregations across that state. Ward is the second female bishop selected to serve in the denomination's nine-state Southeastern Jurisdiction.

She is a former superintendent of the Raleigh District in the UMC's North Carolina Annual Conference. Duke maintains an affiliation with the United Methodist Church.

Ward also has served on the Duke Divinity Board of Visitors (2002-2008), and Duke Alumni Board of Directors (1997-2001).

She earned undergraduate degrees in English and religion from Duke in 1973, and a master's degree in divinity from Duke in 1978.

The two new young trustee observers are John Harpham of Chapel Hill, and Adrienne Clough of Durham. Observers attend board meetings and serve on committees but do not have voting status.

Harpham, an Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholar at Duke, chaired the editorial board of The Chronicle, the Duke student newspaper, during his junior year. He graduated in May from Duke with a double major in political science and French.

Clough graduated in May with an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business and a Certificate in Health Sector Management. She received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and has worked for the United Nations, Princeton's endowment and Take Care Health Systems. She will be working for the Boston Consulting Group as a consultant in Washington, D.C.

In addition, two observers on the board last year, Sunny Kantha and James McDonald, will now have voting membership -- Kantha for two years, McDonald for one.

A native of Nepal, Kantha grew up in Columbia, Mo. He earned a degree in economics and public policy studies from Duke in 2009 and now works as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York City.

McDonald, originally from Denver, is an attorney who works as a law clerk for a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He earned his law degree from Duke in 2009.