Governor Mike DeWine appointed a new member to Kent State’s Board of Trustees on June 11. Graduate Student Jasmine Hoff will serve as the board’s Graduate Student Trustee, one of two student positions on the board.

Hoff holds associate, baccalaureate and master’s degrees, all of which are in nursing and from Kent State. She is currently studying for her doctorate in Nursing Practice and a graduate certification in Adult Gerontology Acute Care.  

Kent State announced Hoff’s appointment to the two-year term in an email on June 13. She will replace doctoral student Jessica Peck. Hoff’s position does not give her a vote on board decisions, but does allow her to participate in discussions about how the university is governed.

Hoff is currently the assistant nurse manager at the Cleveland Clinic’s Heart and Lung Transplant Unit and serves as an adjunct faculty member in Kent State’s College of Nursing.

Hoff has several years of nursing experience, both on campus and in the emergency room. She is also involved with the Ohio Nurses Association and the Nurses on Boards Coalition.

Also among the Governor’s appointees is Aurora Mayor Anne Womer Benjamin.

Womer Benjamin has a history of serving the State of Ohio and the city of Aurora, where she’s been mayor since 2013.  She became mayor after spending two years on the Aurora City Council as an at-large member. She also served from 1995 to 2002 as the State Representative for Aurora, and acted as director of the Ohio Department of Insurance in former Gov. Bob Taft’s cabinet from 2003 to 2007.

She was the Executive Director of the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education and in 2012 was appointed to the Ohio Tuition Trust Authority.

After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree from Vanderbilt University, Womer Benjamin went on to earn her Juris Doctor Degree from Case Western Reserve University. She then taught law at Case Western Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and Hiram College.

David Williams is a senior reporter. Contact him at [email protected].