For seven years, Longwood Board of Visitors member Katharine Bond has watched a slate of rectors guide the university’s governing board with what she calls grace, collegiality and a sense of purpose.
Now, in her final year of the maximum two terms she is allowed to serve on the board, Bond ’97 has the opportunity to continue that legacy and shape the future of her alma mater, 25 years after she walked across the stage at Commencement.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve Longwood in this capacity,” she said. “Being on the board for the past seven years has been one of the most rewarding chapters of my life, but I also feel deeply the responsibility to continue to help the university secure a position of strength in the future. I’ve seen the difference a strong, steady Board of Visitors can make when we are all focused on that goal, and it’s my job to make sure we continue in that direction over the next year.”
I’ve seen the difference a strong, steady Board of Visitors can make when we are all focused on that goal, and it’s my job to make sure we continue in that direction over the next year.
Katharine Bond '97 Tweet This
Her service has been made even more special because she served some of that time with a fellow Kappa Delta sister and 1997 alumna, Colleen McCrink Margiloff, who served as rector from 2014-16.
Bond, the vice president for public policy, state and local affairs at Dominion Energy, was part of the board’s leadership team during one of the biggest upheavals in higher education in recent years—the Covid 19 pandemic. For three years, the pandemic presented challenges that Bond and other board members couldn’t predict.
“There was a lot of uncertainty,” she said. “Through it all, there was one constant belief that the board held, and that was a belief in the transformative power of a residential academic community. It’s what I experienced as an undergraduate, and it shaped me as a person. Despite all of the pressures that the pandemic brought with it, we never lost sight of that as our north star.”
Part of the Board of Visitor’s strength through the pandemic, she said, was a tradition of collegiality that crosses party lines. Board members are appointed by the governor to four-year terms, with a maximum of two terms, which often leads to some sitting members having been appointed by Republican governors and others by Democratic governors.
“The tone is set by the rector and vice rector,” said Bond. “I’ve seen countless examples of recent rectors, refocusing conversation on our single mission: helping make Longwood strong far into the future. It’s important that we ask lots of questions and bring our individual perspectives to bear on those answers to help guide and shape the university, but that we do so with the same collegial spirit that students feel when they are in Longwood classrooms and residence halls. We are all in this together, so let’s work together.
“A unique strength of Longwood is stable leadership,” she continued. “President Reveley looks at his job as affecting the university in 25, 50, or 100 years from now, and that’s reflective of the board’s work. In the business world, stable leadership at the top of the organization is a critical asset. It means the company is prospering, has a clear plan for growth and has secured value in the marketplace. I think it’s very much the same in higher education, and Longwood has been in smart, capable hands for the past 10 years.”
On June 28, Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed three new members to the Longwood Board of Visitors. They began their four-year terms on July 1.
Jeffrey Nottingham, of Raleigh, North Carolina, is a territory manager for Interventional Specialty Group, a medical equipment manufacturer. He is a graduate of nearby Hampden-Sydney College.
Kathryn Roberts ’99, of South Boston, is the chief financial officer of Rob Land Development & Construction. She previously served on the Danville Community College Board of Trustees and the Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital Board.
Brian Schmalzbach, of Midlothian, is a partner at McGuireWoods. He serves as co-chair of the law firm’s appeals and issues group, and is a member of the Law360 Appellate Editorial Board. He graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
The Longwood Board of Visitors meets quarterly. Its next meeting will be held Sept. 14-16.
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