Two Northern Panhandle women have been seated on the Western Nebraska Community College board to fill two vacancies.
Marjorie Schmidt of Gordon succeeds the late Kim Marcy, who passed away in mid-July, in District 1 while Hemingford HIgh School Principal Misty Curtis fills the District 3 vacancy created by the resignation in late July of Richard Stickney.
District 1 includes Dawes, Grant, and Sheridan counties plus part of Cherry County while District 3 is Box Butte County and portions of Morrill and Scotts Bluff counties.
Board Chair Lynne Klemke says Schmidt and Curtis bring broad perspectives to the board with backgrounds in agriculture, healthcare, and education
Schmidt is a semi-retired medical professional who plays an active role in a large farm & ranch operation near Gordon.
She served in leadership roles at Gordon Memorial Hospital and the Pine Ridge IHS Hospital, and now fills in to cover temporary primary care vacancies for the Wapiti Medical Group.
Curtis has spent 17 years as a teacher and administrator in Wyoming in Pine Bluffs and in the Panhandle in Bayard, Gering, and Gordon-Rushville, where she was the Middle School principal before becoming the Hemingford High principal.
Even with the appointments of Curtis and Schmidt, there’s still one vacancy left as the board yesterday officially accepted the resignation of Dr Tom Perkins, an at-large member. Perkins was the longest-serving WNCC board member at 33 years.