Three newregents join the board for TSU
Abbott appoints a Houstonian, two others to vacancies
Texas Southern University welcomed three new regents to its board this week.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced this week that he appointed Mary Evans Sias of Dallas to serve on TSU’s board through February 2021, James Benham of College Station to serve through February 2023, and Stephanie Nellons-Paige of Houston to serve through February 2025.
The appointments follow the departure of three regents earlier this year.
Sias is the assistant to the president of the American Association of State Colleges andUniversities and also serves as the organization’s director of the Millennium Leadership Initiative, which aims to provide the needed support, training and networking opportunities for traditionally underrepresented individuals in senior-level positions as they advance toward the presidency of their respective institutions.
Sias has had a vested role in higher education, previously
serving as the president of Kentucky State University and as the senior vice president of student affairs and external relations for the University of Texas at Dallas. She has also served as chair of the boards of AASCU, the South
ern Intercollegiate Association and the Educational Testing Service Advisory Board for HBCUs. She received a bachelor of science in sociology fromTougaloo College, an HBCU in Mississippi, graduated with her master’s and
doctorate in sociology from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and received a master’s of business administration from Abilene Christian University.
Benham is the CEO of global software company JBKnowledge. He served as an adjunct professor of construction science at Texas A&MUniversity for around five years and served two terms as a city council member in College Station, where he is still a resident. Benham received a bachelor’s of business administration in accounting and a master’s of science in management information systems from A&M.
Houstonian Nellons-Paige is the CEO of the Nellons Paige Group Inc. and recently served as a managing director of the Texas Central High-Speed Rail project, which has proposed a bullet train that can travel between Houston and the DallasFort Worth area in 90 minutes. Nellons-Paige developed and implemented the project's business and workforce policy, which aims to create a skilled and diverse workforce to build the rail.
Nellons-Paige received a bachelor of science in urban studies and master’s of science in transportation management from Morgan State University, an HBCU in Baltimore. She is married to Rod Paige, a former superintendent of the Houston ISD and former U. S. Secretary of Education.