April 26, 1996
Contact: Jamie Lawson, (615) 322-2706

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Business executive Jane Evans and graduating senior Zachary Willette are the two newest members of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust. Both were elected today during the Board's spring meeting.

As immediate past president of the Vanderbilt Alumni Association, Evans succeeds Tom Cone as an alumni trustee. A 1965 graduate of Vanderbilt's College of Arts and Science, Evans is president of Smart TV, a new interactive telecommunications service based in Burbank, Calif. Her career includes top management positions with Genesco, U.S. West Communications, The Interpacific Retail Group and General Mills.

She serves on the board of directors for various companies and non-profit groups including Philip Morris, Georgia Pacific, Banc One-Arizona, the Phoenix Heard Museum, Maidenform Inc. and the Ladies Professional Golf Association. She is a member of the Young President's Organization.

Fortune Magazine listed Evans among America's 10 Most Wanted Managers in 1986 and she was named one of Corporate America's Top Women Executives by Glamour Magazine in 1984. While serving as executive vice president of fashion for General Mills from 1981 to 1984, Evans received an Entrepreneurial Woman Award from the Women Business Owners of New York.

Evans is married to George Sheer. They have a 21-year-old son, Jonathan, who graduated from Vanderbilt in 1995.

Willette's passion for service learning, a philosophy and pedagogy in which students gain and apply academic and social skills by engaging in problem-solving that meets community needs, inspired him to design his own interdisciplinary minor in the area. His other area of study, elementary education, coupled with his service activities has made him a leader on campus and in the community. He is recipient of a Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Scholarship as well as an Ingram Scholarship.

As an Ingram Scholar, Willette has facilitated projects with Nashville schools that integrate community service with academic learning. He also served as the Ingram Scholar student facilitator.

Willette is an enthusiastic supporter of Alternative Spring Break, serving as a participant, site leader, leadership and education co-chair, and in 1995-96 co-chair of campus relations. He has also served on the board of BreakAway, the national alternative spring break group founded at Vanderbilt.

In addition he has been active in Omicron Delta Kappa, Mortar Board and Athenian honor societies, along with Kappa Delta Pi and Kappa Delta Epsilon professional education honor societies.

Willette, who hails from Blue Earth, Minn., chairs the student/faculty service-learning advocacy group LISTEN (Linking Involvement and Service to Education Now). He has also served as co-chair of Peabody Academic Leaders for the past two years.

Willette's eclectic list of extracurricular activities includes playing trombone at Commodore basketball games, listening to a cappella music, travel, foreign languages, canoeing and collecting fonts. He grew up in a family with 21 siblings, including nine foster siblings, four cousins and two refugees from Vietnam.