CRETE - Doane University has appointed three new members to the Board of Trustees. 

Dr. Steve Joel, Dr. Betsy Tonniges and Dick Shoemaker will join the board, which serves as the governing body for the university and oversees the implementation and prioritization of Doane's strategic plan, while also serving as the governing body. 

Joel is a 1976 graduate of Doane College, with additional degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a doctorate from Kansas State. He's recently retired after serving 12 years as superintendent of Lincoln Public Schools, with 25 years as superintendent for other Nebraska and Kansas districts.

In recent years, Joel has published numerous leadership articles for School Administrator and other media, been an invited speaker on leadership and team development, and led a number of national superintendent searches. 

Tonniges first graduated from Doane in 2006, with her bachelor of arts in Elementary Education. Then again in 2008, with her Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction. And again in 2011, with a master’s in Educational Leadership. She received her doctorate from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her first jobs were teaching at elementary schools, first in Douglas, Arizona, and then in Millard Public Schools in Omaha. She has served as a principal for elementary schools in Ralston Public Schools and Lincoln Public Schools, as an adjunct professor for Doane, and a student-teacher supervisor for multiple Nebraska collegiate teaching programs.

Outside of her work in education, Tonninges has been involved in in several leadership positions in Nebraska and Lincoln. 

Shoemaker is a 1972 graduate of Doane College. He is currently chairman of the board for Pinpoint Holdings, a diversified Nebraska communications company. Pinpoint Holdings was incorporated in 1997 as the parent company of various telecommunications-related subsidiaries. Shoemaker has spent over 30 years with media companies, serving as CEO of Cambridge Telephone Company, a Nebraska incumbent telephone exchange that has operated for nearly 100 years.

Shoemaker has also served on many nonprofit organizations, including the State of Nebraska Governor’s Excellence in Education Council, chairman of the Nebraska Educational Television Commission, and president of the Kitty M. Perkins Foundation and Shoemaker Family Foundation. Additionally, he holds board positions at numerous private companies and serves as a director of Digital Capital Partners, a Chicago-based data center investment group.