The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Jackie Gill Powell to IALR’s board of trustees for a three-year term. As the president of Danville Community College (DCC), Powell will serve ex officio with voting privileges and will lend educational and workforce development expertise to economic transformation efforts. 
“Dr. Powell has cultivated an impressive and extensive career in the world of academia and talent development,” said former Delegate Donald Merricks, chairman of IALR’s board of trustees and chairman, president and CEO of Virginia Bank and Trust Company. “We look forward to adding her perspective to our board of trustees and collaborating for continued economic transformation of Southern Virginia.”
Before joining DCC, Powell served as the president of Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, Missouri. She has worked in higher education for more than 20 years in such roles as the vice president of Academic Affairs & Community & Industry Education, as well as the director of continuing education for the Northeast Campus of Tarrant County College in Hurst, Texas.
Powell joins the following fellow board members who accepted reappointment: Petrina Carter, reappointed by Gov. Ralph Northam, and Roy Ford Jr., Dr. Angeline Godwin and Kris Willard, reappointed by the Senate.
IALR is governed by a 15-member board of trustees consisting of the presidents or their designees of Averett University, Danville Community College and Virginia Tech; the chairman or his designee of the board of the Future of the Piedmont Foundation; one resident of the City of Danville to be appointed by the Danville City Council; one resident of Pittsylvania County to be appointed by the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors; and nine citizens representing business and industry and residing in Southside Virginia, three to be appointed by the governor, three to be appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules and three to be appointed by the speaker of the House of Delegates.
