3 appointed to U of I System Board of Trustees
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS/WRSP) — Gov. JB Pritzker, D-Illinois, has appointed three people to the University of Illinois System Board of Trustees.
On Friday, Pritzker named the following individuals to six-year terms on the board:
- Ramón Cepeda, finance executive
- Sarah Phalen, banking executive
- Tami Craig Schilling, agricultural communicator
The board, which oversees the U of I System, consists of 13 members, 11 of whom vote.
The governor appoints nine trustees to the board. No more than five board members may belong to a single political party.
Ramón Cepeda
Cepeda is a Darien resident and political independent.
Cepeda earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and economics from the University of Illinois Chicago.
Currently, is senior vice president and managing director at The Northern Trust Company, a financial services company headquartered in Chicago. Officials say this is one of the largest banking institutions in the nation.
Additionally, Cepeda is a trustee of the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago.
This is Cepeda's second term as a trustee. He was first appointed to the board in 2015 by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Sarah Phalen
Phalen is a Republican from Springfield.
She earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and her MBA from the University of Illinois Springfield.
Phalen serves as the president and CEO of INB, a 13-branch bank headquartered in Springfield.
In addition, she is the treasurer of the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance and treasurer of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation.
Tami Craig Schilling
Craig Shilling is a political independent from Okawville.
She earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural communications from UIUC.
Craig Shilling has worked in agricultural communications since joining Monsanto in 1990.
She is currently an agronomy knowledge transfer lead with Bayer Crop Science.
