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Board of Governors

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Board of Governors Members

Gat Caperton
Title Chair, Board of Governors
Gat Caperton is the founder and CEO of Gat Creek, a domestic manufacturer of solid-wood furniture that employees over 160 artisans in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a Bachelors of Arts in Economics from Davidson College.

Caperton was a member of Shepherd’s Board of Governors from 2006 to 2014 and served as board chair from 2011 to 2014. He also served as a member of the 2015 Presidential Search Committee.

James Cherry, Ph.D.
Title Vice Chair, Board of Governors
Dr. James M. Cherry ‘96 serves as the Associate Director of Research Technologies with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and on special appointment as the Senior Scientific Program Director to the NCI’s Principle Deputy Director in the office of the Director at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). His field of study is in women’s health where he researches the molecular changes in ovarian tumor progression and has identified potential biomarkers that have proven useful in early diagnosis and prognosis that often elude detection until it has reached a very advanced stage. Cherry earned a Master of Science in molecular biology from Johns Hopkins University in 2000, his Ph.D. in biology with a concentration in biomedical science from Catholic University of America in collaboration with the NCI in 2007, and his Bachelor of Science degree from Shepherd College in 1996.

Cherry joined Qiagen Inc. in 2008 as a research fellow in their gene expression laboratory. Following his research fellowship, he was promoted to a research scientist in Qiagen’s research and development laboratory, where he worked on Qiagen’s SYBR-Green chemistry miRNA technology, miScript, for high-throughput molecular profiling. This newly developed automated applications for gene expression was marketed to the biomedical research community where Qiagen’s new product generated $5.2 million in sales in year one.

Cherry was recruited back to the NCI in 2010 as a scientific program director of the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), and the contracting officer representative for the $800 million operational technical support contract for the NCI’s Division of Intramural Research. The ATP, now Cancer Research Technology Program (CRTP), is currently an $18 million program that provides state-of-the-art technologies to NCI’s principal investigators, postdoctoral and clinical fellows at NCI and other federally funded research institutes. Cherry established a $4 million technology development effort for the ATP in 2010. This program collaborates closely with NCI/NIH investigators to develop novel technologies in areas of biomedical research including: genetics/genomics, protein expression, proteomics, imaging (subcellular, cellular and whole-animal), nanotechnology, genetically-engineered animals, veterinary histology/pathology and bioinformatics. In addition to his responsibilities overseeing the ATP, Cherry was named the scientific program director for the Laboratory of Animal Science Program and the Advanced Biomedical Computing Center in 2013 and recently the Vaccine, Immunity and Cancer Program, overseeing the HPV and Serological Sciences Network for SARS-CoV-2 efforts. In 2021 Dr. Cherry was recruited to join NIAID’s Division of Intramural Research, DIR as their Associate Director of Research Technologies and Chief of the Research Technologies Branch and Center for Human Immunology.

Cherry has also served as the scientific advisor for the NCI from 2010 thru 2018 for graduate, undergraduate, and high school students at the NCI both Bethesda and Frederick. During this time, he has established academic partnerships, internships, and capstone opportunities with several universities, including Shepherd, Hood, Mount Saint Mary’s, Towson, and University of Maryland. He has also served on several scientific advisory boards for several universities and Frederick County Public Schools. He is also an associate professor at Hood College and an adjunct professor at Mount St. Mary’s University where he teaches Biomedical Ethics, Introduction to Cancer Biology, Protein Biochemistry, Foundation in Life Sciences, and Biomedical Science Seminar.

David Avella
Title Member, Board of Governors
David Avella ’92, a native of Martinsburg, is the CEO and chair of GOPAC, an Arlington, Virginia-based national organization formed in 1979 to develop and cultivate rising young leaders in the Republican Party to run for state and local offices. GOPAC’s programs include Conservative Congress Project, Emerging Leaders, and national and state leadership program.

Avella is a frequent guest on national television and radio, appearing on Fox News, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, PBS, and HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, and he delivered an address at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Avella earned a Bachelor of Science degree in political science in 1992. He and his wife, Claire, live in the Washington, D.C., metro area with their two daughters.

Henry Kayes, Jr.
Title Member, Board of Governors
Henry Kayes is currently chief operating officer and regional president for United Bank Incorporated and is responsible for the bank’s entire West Virginia market. United is West Virginia’s largest publicly traded company and trades as [Nasdaq: UBSI]. Kayes joined United in 2012 at the time of the Centra Bank/United Bank merger. He was a founder of Centra Bank Berkeley County in 2001 and served as its president from 2001-2012.

Prior to that he served as senior vice president and market president of BB&T Bank for the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia.

Kayes is a lifelong career banker, starting in the training program of First Union National Bank of North Carolina in 1986. He is a graduate of Elon University (1990).

Kayes is a native of Huntington, West Virginia. He and his wife Amy have two daughters, Meredith and Caroline. His wife and both daughters are graduates of Shepherd University.

His community leadership activities include: current board member for WVU Medicine-University Healthcare and Farmer and Mechanics Insurance Companies; past chairman and board member, Martinsburg-Berkeley County Chamber of Commerce; former board member, Eastern Panhandle United Way and the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation.

Eric Lewis
Title Member, Board of Governors
Eric Lewis ’95 has worked in public accounting and high-tech finance since 1995. In 2007, he joined with two partners to form Ours, Lawyer, Lewis & Company PLLC, a full-service certified public accounting firm with offices in Charles Town, Shepherdstown, and Martinsburg. OLL CPAs provides tax, audit, business consulting, and outsourced CFO and accounting services to a wide range of individuals and businesses in the region and beyond. In 2017, he founded Advisor Alliance LLC, a registered investment advisor company that works with CPAs and attorneys for wealth management referrals. Immediately prior to forming OLL CPAs, he was executive director of Walker Ventures, a $100 million early stage venture capital fund located near Baltimore, Maryland. Lewis has served as chief financial officer at two venture capital-backed high-tech companies and has worked with large regional CPA firms in auditing, tax, and business consulting.

Lewis also serves on the board of directors of Jefferson Security Bank, the Shepherd University Athletic Club (emeritus) and Shepherd Entrepreneurship and Research Corp. Appointed by Governor Joe Manchin and reappointed by Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, Lewis previously served on the West Virginia School Building Authority. He has previously served as chair of the West Virginia Venture Connection, a nonprofit created by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV and on the boards of the Shepherd University Foundation, Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, Jefferson County Farm Bureau, the Shepherd University Alumni Association, West Virginia Vision Shared, and the Jefferson County Schools Education Foundation. Lewis does not remember a time in which Shepherd College/University was not a part of his life.

His late father, David Lewis ’73, was a Shepherd College graduate and member of the football team. Some of his earliest memories involve watching football games on “The Hill” with his family and his father’s former teammates. Lewis graduated cum laude from Shepherd College with a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1995. He has two children (Chandler, 27 and Maclaine, 26) and resides in Shepherdstown with his wife, Joy Osbourn Lewis ’91.

Jonathan (Jay) Mason
Title Member, Board of Governors
Jay Mason ’08 was elected to the Board of Education in November 2018 for a four-year term: December 2018-2022. The Board elected Mr. Mason as its President for 2020-2021 term and previously served as the Board Vice President for the 2019-2020 term. Mr. Mason graduated from Governor Thomas Johnson High School in 1991 and completed his undergraduate studies at Shepherd University in 2008, where he was also a 3-year starter as a Quarterback and Captain of the football team from 1992-1994. In 2011, he completed his graduate work at Frostburg University with a Master of Arts in Teaching.

Since completing his degree, he has been dedicated to serving the youth in Frederick County through various avenues. His efforts supporting students of FCPS as a former President of Eliminating Achievement Gaps, Inc. (EAG) earned him a position on Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner’s Education Leadership Team, as well as the Superintendent’s Advisory Council. His work has included assisting in development of the new FCPS Strategic Plan, which is a long-term strategic plan to move Frederick County into the future and maintain our position as a high performing school system.

He served two terms as the President of the Board for Habitat for Humanity in the fiscal years of July 2019 – June 2020 and July 2020 – June 2021. He is presently serving as President for the Rotary Club of Frederick. Currently, he is an associate broker at Frederick Land & Home and has been a licensed Realtor since 2004. He has served on the County Executive’s Livable Frederick Steering Committee, was a county appointed member of the Affordable Housing Council and previously served on the Boys and Girls Club Board. As a member of Frederick County Association of Realtors, he chaired the Young Professionals Network in 2017-2018. He graduated from the Maryland Association of Realtors Leadership Academy in the spring of 2016 and is a member of the second graduating class of the Frederick County Minority Business Leaders Program in 2018.

Mr. Mason spent numerous years as a high school and youth football coach at Frederick-area schools. He has assisted Heartly House in their fundraising efforts for several years in the annual Walk a Mile in Their Shoes and Affair of the Heart events.

His wife, Beth, a longtime Frederick resident, and he are the proud parents of three children who attend Frederick County public schools.

Susan Mentzer-Blair
Title Member, Board of Governors
Susan Mentzer-Blair ‘72 earned a teaching degree from Shepherd University and a school counseling degree from Marshall University. She taught in Kanawha County, West Virginia, and continued her career in education as a school counselor in Jefferson County. She completed her 42 years in education in Frederick County, Maryland, where she earned her National Board Certification and earned certification as a Licensed Public Counselor. She was honored by her colleagues as Maryland High School Counselor of the Year in 2000.

Sue retired in 2014 and retains strong opinions on the college selection process. She now spends her time serving on the Development Committee of Frederick Health Hospital, as a committee member of the Brunswick Main Street and a volunteer with the Brunswick Heritage Museum.

Mentzer-Blair is a member of the Board of the Shepherd University Foundation (emeritus), an active member of WISH (Women Investing in Shepherd) and both the Alumni and Gridiron Associations. She was honored to be named Shepherd University 2020 Alumna of the Year.

Austin J. Slater, Jr.
Title Member, Board of Governors
Austin J. Slater, Jr. ’76 has 40-years’ experience as an executive in the energy industry, retiring March 2020 following 18-years as President and CEO of the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative. He formerly served as VP for Education and Training at National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) in Arlington, Virginia, and as General Manager of Tideland EMC in eastern North Carolina. Slater has served as a Board Member and Chairman of the Board of ACES Power Marketing and was a founding Member and Secretary of the National Renewables Cooperative Organization.

Slater is presently Board Vice Chairman of a publicly traded $6-billion community bank that operates in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia; Board Member and Treasurer for the Shepherd University Foundation; an instructor in NRECA’s Director Education curriculum; and an active member of the Shepherdstown Rotary Club.

Slater has served as both Director and Chairman of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, the Southern Maryland Workforce Investment Board, and the College of Southern Maryland Boards. He also served on the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Board (Baltimore Branch) and as director and Vice Chairman on the University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center board. Slater was recognized by the Maryland Chamber of Commerce as a ‘Business Hall of Fame’ recipient in 2013, and as the 2014 ‘CEO of the Year’ by the College of Southern Maryland Leading Edge Awards.

Slater graduated from Shepherd College in 1976 earning a BS in business and economics. He graduated from George Washington University in 1994 with an MBA in finance. He and his wife Carmen recently restored a circa 1789 home in the historic district of Shepherdstown, West Virginia where they now reside. The Slater’s pride and joy is their adopted son George who is a First Sergeant in the U.S. Army.

Karl Wolf
Title Secretary, Board of Governors
Karl Wolf ’70 graduated from Shepherd College with a bachelor of science in accounting, with additional fields in marketing and economics. Wolf earned his M.B.A. from George Washington University in International Business two years later. He then began coursework in higher education administration at WVU with fields in guidance/counseling and health care administration. He is a certified health care administrator.

Upon graduation from Shepherd, he was named Director of Admissions and served in that role for thirty-four years taking Shepherd’s enrollment from 1,800 students to 4,800 students. In 2004 he became Director of Athletics where he oversaw the addition of women’s lacrosse and renovations to the Butcher Center arena, the installation of field turf in Ram Stadium, the new fan seating and press boxes for baseball and softball, and the construction of the West Campus tennis courts. In 2011, he was named Assistant to the VPAA for Compliance and Athletic Initiatives. He retired in 2015, but has continued to teach one course each semester for the Recreation and Sports Department. He has served on numerous committees at Shepherd. Shepherd honored Wolf as its 2003 Outstanding Alumnus and with the 2019 President’s Award.

Since 2013, Wolf has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Shepherd University Foundation and serves as Secretary of the Executive Board and chair of the nominating committee.

He has been a member of the Potomac and Chesapeake Association for College Admissions Counseling and the National Association for College Admissions Counseling since 1970 serving as a NACAC national delegate and committee member. And, he has served on many PCACAC committees and served as President of the association in its three-year cycle. PCACAC honored him with the Richard Apperson Award, its highest award for service to students and the profession.

A charter member of the Kiwanis Club of Shepherdstown, he has served the community service organization as president for three terms.

On campus, Wolf has advised several campus organizations and has been the advisor for Shepherd’s Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity since 1976. He has facilitated and presented at numerous regional and national conferences. The International Fraternity honored him with its Order of Merit, the highest award for service at the campus/chapter level making him a permanent voting delegate at national conventions.

Kevin Murphy
Title Classified Staff Representative, Board of Governors
As a licensed Journeyman Electrician and Journeyman Plumber, Kevin Murphy is currently employed by Shepherd University as a member of the Facilities Management department and serves as the representative of the Classified Employees Council to the Board of Governors. In addition to his licensures, Kevin earned a B.S. in Sociology from Kansas State University in 2010, graduating Magna Cum Laude. He is currently working on his Master’s in Appalachian Studies at Shepherd, hoping to graduate in spring 2024, and start a doctoral program the following Fall. Formerly, Kevin had a decade-long career in law enforcement serving as a Communications Safety Officer and an Evidence Technician with the Montana State University Police Department as well as a contracted security team member with CMS in Bozeman, MT and as a Communications Safety Officer and Student Security member with the Kansas State University Police Department. Kevin is the owner/operator of Mountain Man Handyman Service and participates in numerous philanthropic activities including his work with Make-a-Wish, Relay for Life, and Habitat for Humanity. Most recently, he was given a Student Leadership Award for his work with Shepherd’s Alternate Spring Break in 2023. He is the husband of Dr. Sytil Murphy, Associate Professor of Physics at Shepherd, and is the proud father of Keaghan, Skye, and Sean.

Stephanie Slocum-Schaffer, Ph.D.
Title Faculty Representative, Board of Governors
Dr. Stephanie A. Slocum-Schaffer is Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Stubblefield Institute for Civil Political Communications at Shepherd University, where she teaches a variety of courses in American politics, women in politics, research methods, and public policy. Dr. Slocum-Schaffer earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from The American University and received a B.A., Magna Cum Laude, in International Affairs and Spanish from Bucknell University. In 2003, she published a book, America in the Seventies: A Lesson In Limits, with Syracuse University Press. She also has published several articles and has made numerous presentations at conferences. Her current research focus is shared between two major areas of study: the impact of perceptions of incivility on American civic engagement, as well as the different pedagogical techniques, approaches, and structures that enhance student learning at the undergraduate level.

Paul Teter
Title Student Representative, Board of Governors
Paul R. Teter is a junior at Shepherd University and serves as the President of the Student Government Association. He is majoring in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing, as well as double-minoring in Political Communication and Communication and New Media. He is from Romney, West Virginia, where he graduated from Hampshire High School in 2021. Paul is honored to serve on the Board of Governors and hopes to use his time to improve student life and well-being on campus.

Since Fall 2021, Paul has been a brother of Delta Sigma Pi, the professional business fraternity at Shepherd University. He currently serves as his chapter’s Senior Vice President and has previously served as its Chancellor and Webmaster. In spring 2023, he was awarded Greek Man of the Year for his service and tenure in Greek Life. On campus, he works for the Program Board, as well as a Student Ambassador for Shepherd Admissions. He is a member of the Order of Omega and TRIO and has served on the Student Life Council and the Strategic Planning Committee.