Ohio Gov. John Kasich has appointed Donald L. Mason of Zanesville, Ohio, to a three-year term on the Board of Trustees. Mason’s appointment began May 19, 2017, replacing the unexpired term of the late trustee Richard Marsh, which runs through May 2020.
“We welcome Don Mason to our board,” says Lawrence Pollock, chair of the Kent State Board of Trustees. “His extensive public service and experience as a private attorney will be an asset to the strategic vision of the university’s eight-campus system, and we look forward to his engagement with .”
Mason serves as a private attorney specializing in natural gas regulatory reform to promote consumer benefits. He also works on infrastructure projects, such as pipeline development and small-scale hydropower.
Mason long has been committed to public service. He currently represents Gov. Kasich on the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, and has served two terms as a commissioner of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
Additionally, Mason’s prior governmental service has included the Ohio Department of Natural Resources where he served as chief of the Division of Oil and Gas and was on the board as an officer of the Groundwater Protection Council. He also supervised the Divisions of Parks, Forestry, Watercraft, Natural Area Preserves, and Wildlife. Those agencies totaled over 2,000 employees and $100 million in annual budgets.
Mason also has served on the National Petroleum Council, and was a member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners where he served as chairman of the Gas Committee and member of the Board of Directors. Additionally, he was a government representative and chairman on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Technical Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Committee. Mason also served as chairman of the Gas Technology Institute Public Interest Advisory Committee and chairman of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Gas Committee.
Mason graduated with a degree in political science from Muskingum College where he was an NCAA All-American wrestler and later earned his law degree cum laude from Capital University. In 1983, at the age of 26, Mason was elected mayor of the city of Zanesville. He currently is the president of the Rotary Club of Zanesville, and past president of the Muskingum Country Library System. He also is a 32nd degree Mason, Shriner, and a lifetime member of the NAACP and Knights of Columbus. He also is an Ohio high school wrestling official.
As Mason has been appointed to complete Marsh’s unexpired term, he will be eligible for reappointment by the governor at that time.
The Board of Trustees is the governing body of Kent State. By Ohio law, the board is responsible for selecting and appointing the president; setting the operating budget; approving personnel appointments; granting all degrees awarded by the university, including honorary degrees; establishing tuition and fee rates; approving contracts; and approving university policies, new programs and degrees.
Kent State’s Board of Trustees consists of 12 members, nine of whom are voting members appointed by the governor of the state of Ohio, with the advice and consent of the state senate, to nine-year terms of office. Two student trustees, one undergraduate and one graduate, are appointed by the governor to two-year terms of office. Since 2011, the board has appointed a national trustee, who serves a three-year term, as an additional nonvoting member.
For more information about Kent State’s Board of Trustees, visit www.kent.edu/bot.