Three new NMU Board of Trustees members were appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in February. All the new trustees are Upper Peninsula natives and NMU alumni, who hold at least one degree from the university.

The new board trustees are Brigitte LaPointe-Dunham of Baraga, Steve Lindberg of Marquette and Greg Toutant of Negaunee. 

LaPointe-Dunham holds a bachelors in sports science, a master’s certificate in performance improvement training and development, and a master’s in exercise science. LaPointe-Dunham currently serves as the CEO for the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC). 

Lindberg holds a bachelor’s in education and a master of arts in education. Lindberg was formerly a teacher and guidance counselor at Marquette Public Schools and served as a Michigan state representative.

Toutant holds a bachelor’s in history, and currently serves as CEO of Great Lakes Recovery Centers (GLRC). Toutant was an addiction and behavioral specialist for 30 years, and the recipient of the NMU 2020 Alumni Service Award.

“One of the things that is important is that we have people that serve on the board that have been to Northern, have been on campus, been educated there and have degrees from there,” Chair of the NMU Board of Trustees, Stephen Young said. “I think it’s a real plus to have people serve on our board that actually attended Northern.” 

Young himself also went to NMU for a few semesters and completed his degree at Michigan State University.  The three new appointees join Stephen Young of Lansing, Alexis Hart of Royal Oak and Lisa Fittante of Kingsford, all of whom were appointed to the board by former Gov. Rick Snyder; Melissa Holmquist, of Marquette and Gregory Seppanen of Marquette, were both appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. 

“I think it’s important to have a balance geographically, having two of us on the board from downstate and having six on the board from the U.P.,” Young said. “I think that it gives those board appointees a different perspective than those of us that might be from downstate, and vice versa.” 

The members of the board met for their first gathering Feb. 16-17 for an on-campus retreat.

“We’re just really excited to hit the ground running,” Young said. “The beauty of these three that were appointed is they have a lot of experience either serving on boards like this in the community and in their real life, so the learning curve is less steep than someone that comes in and doesn’t have that experience.”