College Columns December 2022 | Page 12

A Warm Welcome to Class 34

Patricia Redmond , Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson , P . A . Chair , Board of Regents
After working diligently since March 2022 , the Board of Regents met at the Fall meeting of the College in Orlando , Florida on October 19th to consider the selection of the new Fellows of Class 34 . During those six months since March , Regents , members of the Circuit Admissions Councils and hundreds of Fellows participated in the demanding nomination process resulting in an invitation to 39 insolvency professionals to join the College as Fellows . These Fellows will be inducted at the Annual Meeting in Washington , D . C . on March 24 , 2023 .
Last year , Charlie Beckham reported that the Board of Regents , Circuit Admissions Councils , the Judicial Nominating Committee and the International Fellows Nominating Committee would “ keenly focus on diversity , equity and inclusion in the College and adding youth to our ranks ”. Charlie reported being happy to advise that the new Fellows improve the diversity of the College in an effort he hoped would be continued for many years to come . This year ’ s Class 34 has continued the momentum and over 50 % of the new Fellows have diverse backgrounds . This Class also includes four chapter 13 trustees , 12 professionals under the age of 49 and two international professionals including an international judge . Our new international Fellows are from the World Bank and the Singapore
court further extending the College ’ s global footprint . You may access the complete list of new Fellows by clicking here .
The nomination process requires the highest degree of commitment from our Regents and our Circuit Admissions Councils . The word that kept surfacing throughout our meeting to describe the standards by which the College admits new Fellows was “ excellence ”. The Board of Regents seeks to invite Fellows that are the best and the brightest restructuring professionals and who have shown a commitment to scholarship , education , paying-it-forward , and to the promotion of DEI professionally and in their community . Each candidate is subject to diligence with respect to each of these qualities .
The meeting on October 19th involved a robust discussion of each candidate with Regents expressing honest and open views . The Regents ’ preparation was extraordinary and all participated in the discussion of nominees . This year , with the invaluable input of Judge Erithe Smith ( who is the new DEI representative to the Board of Regents ), the Regents completed their task of reviewing and nominating 39 new Fellows to the College . The Regents are : John Monaghan ( 1st ), Kelley Cornish ( 2nd ), Natalie Ramsey ( 3rd ), Michael Baxter ( 4th ), Deborah Williamson ( 5th ), Ricardo Kilpatrick ( 6th ), Brian Shaw ( 7th ), Eric Lam ( 8th ), Jennifer Hagle ( 9th ), Mark Craige ( 10th ) and Elizabeth Green ( 11th ). Our Regents-at-Large are Professor Robert Lawless , Judge Clifton Jessup , and Randall continued on page 24
12