The Board of Trustees held its first meeting for this academic Sept. 9. (Photo courtesy of SMU News)
Trustee Caren Prothro will begin her two-year term as chair of the SMU Board of Trustees at today’s meeting.
Prothro takes over for Carl Sewell. The Board of Trustees unanimously elected her at its May meeting.
Prothro has been a trustee since 1992. She served as vice chair from 1998-2000.
“I am honored for the opportunity to serve as chair during one of the most dynamic and forward-looking times in SMU’s development,” Prothro said in a press release. “Thanks to the strength of our students, faculty, staff and administration, SMU is a rising national university with local and global impact,” she said.
“I look forward to working with our outstanding Board of Trustees in helping SMU continue to improve student quality, faculty and academic excellence, and the campus experience,” she said.
Prothro’s chair duties will include serving on the executive boards of each school within the university, as well as SMU’s libraries.
Prothro also serves as the co-chair of the Second Century fund raising campaign and its Leadership Council. As a member of the Board of Trustees, she serves on several committees: Academic Policy, Planning and Management and Building and Grounds.
Additionally, Prothro serves on the boards for the Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility and SMU-in-Taos.
“Caren Prothro will lead our Board during a unique period in our history, as we prepare to commemorate the Centennial of SMU’s founding in 2011 and of its opening in 2015,” SMU President R. Gerald Turner said.
“During this period, we will be continuing our successful Second Century Campaign, for which Mrs. Prothro serves as a co-chair,” he said. “And our Centennial will help us focus attention on the incredible progress of the university in fulfilling the vision of its founders. Most importantly, she will provide leadership and guidance going forward.”
Prothro has donated millions to the university, giving $3.6 million to support biological sciences in January 2008. Her late husband C. Vincent “Vin”
Prothro, as well as relatives in the Perkins-Prothro family, has also given millions to SMU.
In the Dallas Community, Prothro sits on the boards of the Dallas Museum of Art and the Dallas Salvation Army.
She served nine years as the vice chair of the AT&T Performing Arts Center Board of Directors and has also sat on the boards of the J.P. Morgan-Chase Bank of Texas, the YWCA, the YMCA, the Visiting Nurse Association, the Dallas Foundation Board (as chair) and the Hoblitzelle Foundation.
Under President George W. Bush, she served on the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
