Over the past year, the University of Lynchburg welcomed several new members to its board of trustees.
Dr. Kelli S. Rainey ’99, who has a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from Lynchburg, joined the board in July 2024. She previously served six years on the University’s alumni association board, including her final year as president.
Rainey, of Charlotte, North Carolina, is senior director for grants management at the National Association of College and University Business Officers. At NACUBO, she leads a multicampus project to determine frameworks, tools, and models that will change how higher education institutions strategically and sustainably finance equitable student outcomes.
Over 15 years, she also served in various capacities at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte. In her final role, vice president for academic and student support services, she provided strategic leadership in undergraduate admissions, spiritual life and counseling, institutional planning, residence life, and other areas.
Rainey has a master’s degree in applied psychology from Fairfield University and a doctorate in higher education and organizational change from Benedictine University.
Treney Tweedy ’97, ’20 MBA joined the board in July 2024. The Lynchburg, Virginia, native was a U.S. Navy journalist before earning two degrees at Lynchburg: a bachelor’s in English and a Master of Business Administration.
Currently, Tweedy is the student health clinic administrator at Hampton University, in Hampton, Virginia. She previously was senior director for workforce development for Goodwill Industries of the Valleys.
Tweedy served six years on the Lynchburg City School Board and was mayor of the City of Lynchburg from 2016-18. She served on the boards of STEP with Links, Hill City Youth Football and Cheerleading Association, and the New College Institute, and on the advisory boards of Lynchburg Youth Services and Horizon Behavioral Health.
She is a member of the Lynchburg Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.
Dr. James White ’73 was appointed to the board of trustees in July 2024. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from Lynchburg College and a doctorate in anatomy from Pennsylvania State University.
White is an adjunct professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, where he has taught for more than 20 years. He has received numerous teaching awards, including the 2006 Provost’s Award for Distinguished Teaching and the 2000 and 2011 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Basic Science Teaching.
He was elected an honorary member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.
White has written textbooks on anatomy and gross anatomy, the latter of which is used at Lynchburg.
Dr. Robert Wilson-Black, a former member of Lynchburg’s president’s advisory council, joined the board of trustees in July 2024. He is co-founder and founding board co-chair of The National Museum of American Religion, in Reston, Virginia, and former president and CEO of The Faith & Politics Institute in Washington, D.C.
He served nearly 13 years at Sojourners, a progressive Christian organization, including 10 years as CEO. At Sojourners, he was liaison to the World Economic Forum, Aspen Institute, and Chautauqua institutions, and the Rockefeller, MacArthur, Kellogg, Casey, Kresge, Carnegie, and Skoll foundations.
Wilson-Black previously served in vice presidential and other capacities for numerous seminaries and universities, including the University of Chicago. His most recent book, “The End of College: Religion and the Transformation of Higher Education in the 20th Century,” was released in 2021.
He has a bachelor’s degree from University of Richmond and a doctorate from University of Chicago.
This month, the University welcomed four more new members: Eric Bell ’89, CEO of an eye care organization; Anthony J. “A.J.” Kreshock ’91, co-chair of a nonprofit that promotes inclusive play; Edward Walker ’87, CEO of a health insurance company; and Denise Woernle, Centra Health’s vice president of communications, marketing, and community relations.
Bell, of Richmond, Virginia, is CEO of Virginia Eye Institute. He was raised in Lynchburg, Virginia, and has three decades of experience in hospital systems, government, and private practice.
Bell has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Lynchburg, where he competed on the varsity baseball and track and field teams. He also has a bachelor’s degree in history from Virginia Tech and a Master of Health Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Past positions have included CEO at Virginia Oral & Facial Surgery; director of physician services for Sheltering Arms; administrator for Surgical Associates of Richmond Inc.; director of medical assistance services for the Commonwealth of Virginia; director of specialty services for Memorial Health in Savannah, Georgia; and administrator of Healthcare Consulting Inc.
He also serves on the board of directors for Conexus for Children’s Vision.
Kreshock, of Seattle, has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Lynchburg, where he played lacrosse and served as honor board chairman. He completed executive programs at Harvard Business School and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Kreshock is co-chair and board advisor for Hangar2.org, a Seattle-based nonprofit described on LinkedIn as a “world class kids play experience, grounded in current research and best practices for positive child development.”
He also is co-chair of the University’s Men’s Lacrosse Alumni Association.
Kreshock has held leadership positions at numerous technology companies, including Snowflake, Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions North America, Compellon, H2O.ai, Sprinklr, AppDynamics, Splunk, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Mainline Information Systems, IBM, and Internap Network Services.
Walker, of Reisterstown, Maryland, has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Lynchburg and a Master of Business Administration from Loyola University in Baltimore. He is the CEO and former president of ArmadaGlobal, a company that specializes in supplemental health insurance and digital healthcare solutions.
He previously held leadership positions, including president, with Transamerica Direct.
Walker served on the boards of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, Business Volunteers Maryland, The Leadership, Greater Baltimore Committee, Ahoy! Insurance, and America’s Health Insurance Plans, and he was a founding board member and past president of U.S. Travel Insurance Association.
Woernle, of Monroe, Virginia, leads Centra’s internal and external communications, public relations, marketing, and community engagement efforts. Prior to joining Centra in 2024, she worked for many years at Framatome, formerly Areva and Ericsson.
She is a board member for the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities and was a board member chair of Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance from 2016-23. She also was chapter co-founder and former president of the International Association of Business Communicators.
She also volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism-public relations from Liberty University and certifications from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, and Royal Roads University.
