Graduate student appointed, current members reappointed to SOU Board
(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University student Karen Lucia López Villanueva, a Master of Business Administration candidate from Guanajuato, Mexico, has been appointed by Gov. Tina Kotek and confirmed Thursday by the Oregon Senate to serve on the university’s Board of Trustees. Current board members Brent Barry and Iris Maria Chavez were each appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate to serve second terms on the SOU Board.
López Villanueva will finish the unexpired term of Rose Harwood as the board’s graduate student member. That term expires June 30, 2027, and Villanueva was also appointed to her own two-year term on the board, beginning next July 1.
Barry and Chavez were reappointed to their second four-year terms that will begin next July 1 and run through June 20, 2030. Barry was appointed to his initial term in June 2022, and Chavez was first appointed in September 2022 to complete an unexpired four-year term on the board.
“I am delighted to welcome Karen Lucía López Villanueva – an accomplished graduate student, violinist and financial professional – to the board, as Brent Barry and Iris Maria Chavez continue their invaluable leadership on the SOU board,” Chair Sheila Clough said. “I am deeply grateful for their service and shared commitment to bringing lasting vitality to SOU’s future and to ensure that our students thrive.”
López Villanueva is pursuing dual MBA concentrations in business analytics and accounting at SOU. She earned her bachelor’s degree in public accounting from SOU’s sister university, the Universidad de Guanajuato, and has professional experience in public and corporate accounting, and in fiscal compliance.
She is also an accomplished violinist who earned a second-place medal at the 16th Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in 2024, performing with Siskiyou Violins at Vienna, Austria’s renowned Musikverein concert hall.
López Villanueva is an active member of her communities in both Ashland and Guanajuato. She served previously in Guanajuato as secretary of the board for the student branch of the Mexican Institute of Public Accountants, representing the nine-state, central-western region of Mexico. She currently serves as a board member for the Ashland Amigo Club, supporting initiatives that strengthen cultural connections and community engagement in southern Oregon. She is also a graduate assistant to the dean of SOU’s College of Natural and Social Sciences, where she supports the administration and leads critical research on sustainable investment strategies that help to inform institutional endowment practices.
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