Gov. Joe Manchin III has appointed three people to the West Liberty University Board of Governors.
First Senatorial District representative Brian Joseph (Triadelphia, W. Va.) will serve a term ending on June 30, 2014. He is an Independent, and this is a reappointment. Joseph co-founded Touchstone Research Laboratory in Wheeling, W.Va. in 1980. He has been recognized nationally as an expert on innovative management strategies and effective technology development and commercialization activities. He has been featured in the pages of Inc., Nation’s Business, Entrepreneur and Small Business Opportunities magazines and on the national airwaves of the USA Network. Joseph is a graduate of WLU.
Also from the First Senatorial District is Republican George Couch (Wheeling, W.Va.). He will serve a three-year term ending on June 30, 2013. Couch is the CEO at Wetzel County Hospital. In May he won the Rural Hospital Community Impact and Innovation Award from AmeriNet and has been recognized as the Distinguished Administrator of the Year by the West Virginia Health Association. Couch is a member of numerous professional organizations. He is a current member of the American College of Health Care Executive, West Virginia Hospital Association, American College of Health Care Administrators and West Virginia Health Care Association.
Republican Patrick Kelly (Charleston, W.Va.) has been appointed to an unexpired term ending June 30, 2012. Kelly represents the Eighth and Seventeenth Senatorial Districts. Kelly is a member of the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson PLLC and is the managing member of the firm’s Charleston office. He was raised in Wheeling and received his doctorate of jurisprudence from the WVU College of Law. Kelly served as general counsel to Gov. Cecil Underwood from 1997-99. He also served as a trustee of the West Virginia Investment Management Board and as President of Leadership West Virginia. He currently is a director of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce.
The Board of Governors is responsible for the oversight of WLU’s programs, finances, and many other supervisory and administrative matters.