The Hope College Board of Trustees has elected five new members in addition to reappointing two members and appointing new Executive Committee members.
The new Trustees are: PJ Huizenga of Hinsdale, Illinois; Eric Keen of Nashville, Tennessee; Dr. Steven McMullen of Holland; Dr. Dara Spearman of Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Frances Traisman of Seattle, Washington. Keen, Huizenga, Spearman and Traisman have been appointed to three-year terms, and McMullen to a four-year term.
Trustees reelected to serve second three-year terms are: Andrew Ohm of Redondo Beach, California, and Laura Paredes of Old Greenwich, Connecticut.
Victoria Brunn of Seattle has been elected secretary. Dr. Stephen Boerigter of Los Alamos, New Mexico, is continuing to serve as chair, with Dr. Matthew Wixson of Ann Arbor continuing to serve as vice chair. In addition to Boerigter, Brunn and Wixson, the board’s six-member Executive Committee includes Lisa Joldersma of Washington, D.C., appointed chair of the Protecting the Mission Committee; Andrew Ohm, continuing as chair of the Living the Mission Committee; and Carol Van Andel of Ada, appointed chair of the Sustaining the Mission Committee.
The Trustees who have concluded their service on the board are: Dr. Llena Chavis of Holland; Sandra Gaddy of Caledonia; the Rev. Dr. Nathan Hart of Holland; Dr. David Paul of Rochester, New York; and Timothy Vande Bunte of Holland.
Huizenga is managing principal and a member of the Investment Committee at Huizenga
Capital Management (HCM). He focuses on investing in great people who share HCM’s
appreciation for high-quality business franchises that compound capital at high rates
of return over long-time horizons, including investing in hedge funds, venture funds,
private companies, public companies and other asset classes.
Prior to joining HCM, he worked at Andersen in the Transaction Advisory Services team and was responsible for conducting financial due diligence for M&A, carve-outs and loan facilities on more than 40 companies in over 15 industries.
He currently serves the Hope College Endowment Fund as a member of the Investment Committee as well as the Alternative Investments Sub-Committee. He is also chairman of the Board of Providence Bank, serves on the Big Shoulders Fund Board as well as Big Shoulders’ Investment Committee, serves on the Board of Timothy Christian Schools and volunteers at several other organizations.
Huizenga graduated from Hope in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and received his master’s degree in finance and management from the J.L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He and his wife, Abby, a Hope classmate, have been married for more than 23 years and have four children.
Keen is a co-founder and partner at Civitas Growth Partners. Civitas was founded
in 2024 with the express mission of supporting founders of micro-cap software and
technology-enabled service businesses who fall under the size threshold of traditional
private market investors.
Before founding Civitas Growth Partners, he spent the last 20 years at a host of middle market private equity firms, most recently over the last 10 years, as a general partner at Council Capital. Previously to Council, he spent time at DW Healthcare Partners, The Riverside Company and Norwest Equity Partners.
Prior to his tenure as a private equity investor, he spent time in management consulting at Marakon Associates and investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston.
Outside of work, Keen also serves on the board of Siloam Health and Currey Ingram Academy and was selected as a member of the 2016 Nashville Health Care Council Fellows program. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in finance and political science from the University of Illinois in 2000. He and his wife Macy have been blessed with four children, ranging in age from 16 to 10.
McMullen is a professor of economics at Hope, where he has been a member of the faculty
since 2014. He teaches microeconomic and macroeconomic theory courses, environmental
economics and the history of economic thought. During May Term he regularly takes
a class to London.
One of his academic passions is to explore Christian thinking about economics. He serves as executive editor of the journal Faith & Economics and hosts the podcast Faithful Economy, both associated with the Association of Christian Economists. He contributes regularly to the blog of the Christian Scholars Review.
He also engages in empirical education policy research. His published work includes studies of year-round schooling, school crowding and homework.
Much of his recent academic work lies at the intersection of moral philosophy and economics, and he is co-author, with Dr. James Otteson, of the book “Should Wealth Be Redistributed? A Debate.” He has also published articles on environmental ethics, animal ethics and technology, and is author of the book “Animals and the Economy,” and co-author of the book “Digital Life Together: The Challenge of Technology for Christian Schools,” with Dr. Kara Sevensma, Dr. David I. Smith and Dr. Marjorie Terpstra. He is a fellow at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics and a consultant editor of the Journal of Animal Ethics.
He graduated from Bethel College in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and completed his doctorate in economics at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 2008. He and his wife, Laura, have three children.
Spearman is the owner and medical director of Radiant Dermatology Associates in Fort
Wayne, which she established last year. She was previously on the staff of Parkview
Health, where she had served since 2016 and established the dermatology program with
a special focus in dermato-oncology and started the skin cancer multidisciplinary
tumor board. Among other professional activity, she recently completed a two-year
term as president of the Indiana Academy of Dermatology, and is also a past co-chair
of the Indiana State Medical Society’s DEI committee.
She graduated from Hope in 1999 with majors in biology and psychology, and completed her medical degree at the University of Michigan Medical School in 2004. She conducted her residency with the University of Michigan and subsequently practiced in Grand Rapids for several years before relocating to Fort Wayne.
Spearman’s community involvement includes serving as a board member with the Allen County public library, and the League for the Blind and Disabled; and with Canterbury School as a Trustee and member of the Head of School search committee. She is also an active member of Kingdom First Ministries, including as a member of the executive board of TouchCare Ministries, a non-profit arm of the church that works to improve the surrounding community.
She and her husband, Marlon, have three sons, the eldest two of whom are twins and will be freshmen at Hope this fall.
Traisman serves as the senior vice president of sales for the Seattle Mariners Baseball
Club, leading business development, revenue generation and fan growth through sales
of baseball and non-baseball events at T-Mobile Park. As a member of the senior leadership
team, she leads three teams – Ticket Sales & Service, Ticket Operations, and Event
Strategy & Sales – and plays a key role in strategic planning, development, and sales
and marketing of ballpark projects.
As an early adopter of data-driven decision making, Traisman established the club’s first Business Analytics team. She also served as the head of Mariners Corporate Partnerships, playing a significant role in securing the 25-year naming rights agreement with T-Mobile and directing a substantial reorganization and expansion of the Corporate Partnerships team.
She is actively involved in developing new leaders in sports. She co-founded the Seattle Chapter of Women in Sports and Events (WISE) in January 2020 and currently serves on the Board. She also serves as an Advisory Board Member for the MBA in Sports and Entertainment Management at the Seattle University Albers School of Business and Economics.
A native of Saratoga Springs, New York, Traisman graduated from Hope in 1989 with a degree in English. She spent a year teaching in Hangzhou, China before moving to Washington, D.C., where she met her husband, Clifford. They reside in Seattle with their four children, sons Quinn, Leo and Ellis; and daughter, Nora.