Search Committee

Presidential Search Committee Members

  • Betty Woods, ‘74
    Co-Chair, Former SU Board Chair
    President & CEO, Premera Blue Cross (Retired)
  • John H. Vassall, MD
    Co-Chair, SU Trustee
    CEO, Foundation for Health Care Quality
  • Kevin O’Brien, S.J.
    SU Trustee, President, Santa Clara University
  • Maureen Benoliel, ‘71
    SU Trustee, Community Volunteer
  • Patrick J. Callans
    SU Trustee, Executive Vice President, Costco Wholesale
  • Brenda Christensen, ‘81 MBA
    SU Trustee, Strategic Advisor and Board Member, Emerging Companies
  • Charles H. Porter
    SU Trustee, Information Technology Executive
  • Timothy P. Leary, PhD
    Executive Vice President
  • Annette Clark, MD, ‘89 JD
    Dean, Seattle University School of Law
  • Rubiná Mahsud, PhD
    Associate Professor, Albers School of Business & Economics
  • Frank J. Shih, PhD
    Associate Professor, College of Science & Engineering
  • Jennifer Schulz, PhD
    Senior Instructor, College of Arts & Sciences
  • Johnica Hopkins, MA
    Academic Advisor, College of Arts & Sciences
  • Megan Lemieux Bell, ‘95
    Alumni Board of Governors
  • Abem Fekade-Tessema
    Undergraduate Student, Albers School of Business & Economics
  • Jose Armando Munguia
    Graduate Student, College of Arts & Sciences
  • Mary S. Petersen, JD
    VP and University Counsel/Corporation Secretary (ex officio)
  • Anne Moran
    Senior Assistant to the President, Administrative Support

Search Committee Co-Chairs

Photo of Betty Woods, ’74 (co-chair)

Betty Woods, ’74 (co-chair)

Seattle University, Board of Trustees 2005–2017, Chair 2012–2015

Betty Woods was president and Chief Executive Officer of Premera Blue Cross, a $1.9 billion regional health care company serving more than one million residents in Washington, Oregon and Alaska, from 1992-2000. She retired in 2000 as vice chair and CEO. Woods is active on both corporate and university boards. From 1994 to June 2011, she was active on the Board of Directors of global biomedical company Beckman Coulter, Inc., serving as director, non-executive chair (2005-08) and independent lead director (2008-2010).

In addition, she was a director of Ambia, a privately held architectural firm. Formerly, she was on the Board of Directors of Pacific Northwest Bank and the Board of Trustees of Western Washington University, serving as chair for two years. She was a founding director of the National Institute of Health Care Management, a nonprofit research institute on health care issues. Woods holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Seattle University. She completed executive development programs at Stanford University, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the National Health Care Institute at the University of Michigan.

Photo of John H. Vassall, MD (co-chair)

John H. Vassall, MD (co-chair)

Seattle University, Board of Trustees

John Vassall, MD, is Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Health Care Quality and Physician Executive for Quality and Safety at Comagine Health in Seattle. Dr. Vassall is well known in the medical and health care communities having held numerous leadership roles over the past three decades, including national service with the American Medical Association and American Hospital Association Board of Trustees and Institute for Diversity and Health Equity; statewide leadership with the Washington State Medical and Washington State Hospital Associations; and eight years as the Chief Medical Officer with Swedish Health Services. He is a Seattle University trustee and member of the University of Washington School of Public Health’s Master of Health Administration Advisory Committee. In 2018, Dr. Vassall was appointed clinical associate professor of medicine in the Medical Education and Clinical Sciences department at the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University.

About the Search Committee