Gage Elected Chair of the UNC Board of Governors

Joni Worthington
June 13, 2008

CHAPEL HILL – Retired broadcasting executive Hannah D. Gage of Wilmington has been elected to a two-year term as chair of the UNC Board of Governors, the policy-making body of the multi-campus University of North Carolina. Gage, whose term begins July 1, is the first woman ever elected to lead the board. In addition, Raleigh government relations consultant Peter D. Hans was elected vice chairman, and Roper mayor Estelle &quotBunny&quot Sanders was re-elected board secretary. The founder and former owner of Cape Fear Broadcasting Co., Gage was first elected to the Board of Governors in 2001. Currently chair of the board’s Committee on Personnel and Tenure, she has previously chaired the Committee on Budget and Finance and served on the Committee on Educational Planning, Policies and Programs and the Audit Committee. Gage has also co-chaired the board’s Tuition Policy Task Force and Task Force on Teacher Recruitment and Retention and served on the University-Community College Task Force, the Presidential Search Committee, and the University of North Carolina Tomorrow Commission. A Fayetteville native with strong family ties to multiple UNC campuses, Gage graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1975 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Four generations in her family have now graduated from Carolina, and in years past her parents and/or grandparents have served as trustees for East Carolina University, Fayetteville State University, UNC Wilmington, and what was then the six-campus Consolidated University of North Carolina. In addition to her service on the Board of Governors, Gage also serves on the boards of WHQR Public Radio and Wachovia Bank. Previously, she has chaired the UNC Wilmington Board of Trustees and served on the boards of the NC Association of Broadcasters, the NC Coastal Land Trust, the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, and St. John’s Museum of Art. Managing director of government relations for the business law firm SZD Wicker, Hans joined the Board of Governors in 2003. He is currently secretary of the board’s Committee on Personnel and Tenure and has previously chaired the Public Affairs Committee. In addition, he has chaired board task forces examining the cost of college textbooks and relations with the Community College System and served on the Presidential Search Committee and the University of North Carolina Tomorrow Commission. Prior to joining the Board of Governors, Hans completed a six-year term on the State Board of Community Colleges, serving as vice chair and chair of the Policy Committee. A 1991 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, where he earned a degree in political science, he grew up in the towns of Southport and Hendersonville. Earlier in his career, he worked on Capitol Hill as senior policy advisor to former U.S. Senator Lauch Faircloth and then-U.S. Representative (now U.S. Senator) Richard Burr. First elected to the Board of Governors in 2003, Sanders is former director of the Elizabeth City State University Small Business and Technology Development Center. In addition to her service as mayor, she has also served on the Washington County Child Advocacy Board, the Gateway Bank Advisory Board, the Washington County Travel and Tourism Board, and the Washington County Hospital Board. Tapped last year to complete the Secretary’s term begun by Patsy Perry of Durham, who retired from the Board, Sanders currently serves on the Board’s Committee on University Governance. A former member of the Board’s Committee on Educational Planning, Policies, and Programs and former vice-chair of its Public Affairs Committee, Sanders has also served on several ad hoc board committees, including the Committee on Economic Development and the University. She holds an undergraduate degree in political science from Howard University and has pursued graduate studies at George Washington University. The oldest public university in the nation, the University of North Carolina enrolls more than 209,000 students and encompasses all 16 of North Carolina’s public institutions that grant baccalaureate degrees, as well as the NC School of Science and Mathematics, the nation’s first public residential high school for gifted students. UNC campuses support a broad array of distinguished liberal-arts programs, two medical schools and one teaching hospital, two law schools, a veterinary school, a school of pharmacy, 11 nursing programs, 15 schools of education, three schools of engineering, and a specialized school for performing artists. The UNC Center for Public Television, with its 11-station statewide broadcast network, is also under the University umbrella.