By Ann Eads

(May 10, 2016) – The University of Kentucky Staff Senate will moderate a debate between staff representative to the Board of Trustees candidates at 2 p.m. Thursday, May 12, in the auditorium of the William T. Young Library.

Anthany Beatty, assistant vice president for public safety at UK, will moderate the debate. Staff members are encouraged to attend or view via the Staff Senate website by visiting https://connect.uky.edu/staffsenate.

The UK Staff Senate invites all university staff to participate in the campaign and election process to help determine the next staff representative to the Board of Trustees. The campaign period begins May 13, 2016. The staff trustee candidates are Mike Adams, space and facilities coordinator in the UK Department of Biology and David Melanson, assistant director for external affairs and development in the Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER).

Adams is from Eastern Kentucky and went to Hazard Community College (now Hazard Community and Technical College), which led him to Lexington. He worked in consumer electronics for some time, advancing to the role of service manager. Adams later decided to pursue a new direction and enrolled at Lexington Community College (now Bluegrass Community and Technical College). After his time there, he attended UK where he began working as a lab technician. Adams is currently the space and facilities coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences.

He has served on the College of Arts and Sciences Staff Council, Staff Senate, serving as chair for three terms, the Staff Appreciation Day Commission, the President's Strategic Review Committee, the Campus Revitalization Committee and on two of the past provost search committees.

A native of New Hampshire, Melanson graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in English-Journalism. Following college, he moved to Kentucky and began his career as a news reporter at the Advocate-Messenger in Danville. He then moved to St. Louis, where he served as communications manager for an international not-for-profit organization.

Melanson returned to Kentucky in 2004 and began his higher education career at UK. He was named the first presidential speechwriter at UK in March 2004, a position he held for nearly seven years. Melanson then became director of alumni and external relations at the UK College of Pharmacy and later joined the team at CAER in December 2015.

The staff trustee campaign period will run May 13-27.

Eligible staff members are encouraged to take part in the election process. Regular staff with a full time equivalency (FTE) of .75 or greater and those in phased retirement are eligible to vote any time between May 13-27 in the election via the Staff Senate website and at UK Appreciation Day May 26.

On Monday, June 6, official election results will be announced. The newly elected staff trustee will begin his term July 1.

Questions and comments may be directed to Ann Eads, Staff Senate Election Committee chair, at aeads2@uky.edu, or Jann Burks, chair of the Staff Senate, at jburks@uky.edu.