Board of Trustees Elects Jeanne Holm as Chair and Deron Marquez as Vice Chair
Jeanne Holm, who joined the CGU Board of Trustees in 2019, has been elected board chair, succeeding Rudolph I. Estrada, who resigned for health reasons.
Holm comes to the position with deep experience in government and higher education, as well as significant expertise in data technology and civic innovation. During her nearly eight years as Deputy Mayor for Finance and Innovation for the City of Los Angeles, she delivered the most progressive budget in city history and worked to ensure equity in services and procurements. She also oversaw the mayor’s budgeting and performance management processes, personnel, sustainability, and data management.
Serving in the Obama White House, Holm was the Evangelist for Open Data and the architect of Data.gov, which strives to inform decisions, drive innovation and economic activity, and strengthen an open and transparent government. At NASA for 30 years, she led teams building innovative technologies to share knowledge.
As a longtime distinguished instructor at UCLA, she has developed and taught courses in big data, civic innovation, open government, semantic technologies, knowledge management, and information sciences.
“I’m honored to help our faculty and staff continue to transform lives,” Holm said. “We face challenges, but I’m confident that we can surmount them in a spirit of transparency and collaboration.”
The CGU Board of Trustees also elected Deron Marquez to serve as vice chair, joining Juanita Dawson in that capacity. Marquez, a board member since 2018, served as chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians from 1999 through April 2006. He is a nationally recognized speaker and lecturer on issues of tribal governance and tribal sovereignty and is the co-founder and director of CGU’s Tribal Administration Certificate Program.
Holm, Marquez, and Dawson are all CGU alums—a historic first for the Board of Trustees leadership team.
“My education at Claremont Graduate University transformed me and shaped the work I’ve done,” Holm said. “I’m so grateful to CGU and honored to help our faculty and staff continue to transform lives. “Deron and Juanita bring powerful experiences to their positions as vice chairs. Our CGU education and love for the university unite us with shared values.”
Estrada, who succeeded Tim Kirley as chair of the CGU Board of Trustees, will continue to serve in an emeritus capacity.
“We’re very sorry to lose Rudy’s leadership, but we support his decision,” Holm said. “He has shared so much expertise and will be deeply missed. We’re grateful, though, that he has chosen to keep his ties with CGU in an emeritus capacity.