Press Releases |
| HIXSON-LIED
ADVISORY BOARD ANNOUNCED The Hixson-Lied Advisory Board was created to review and react to requests for expenditures of income from the Hixson-Lied endowment to benefit the college and its affiliated organizations. The board encourages requests for funding that will truly advance excellence in the college and enhance its national reputation. Additionally, the board is involved in overseeing the investment of the endowed funds in cooperation with the University of Nebraska Foundation's Finance Committee. Miss Christina Hixson, the sole trustee of the Lied Foundation Trust, announced a gift of $18 million to the University of Nebraska Foundation to support UNL's College of Fine and Performing Arts in January 2000. The endowment, named the Christina M. Hixson-Lied Foundation Trust Endowment for the College of Fine and Performing Arts, will benefit all areas of the college. Half of the fund's income will provide support for programs at the college and the college's affiliated organizations, including the Lied Center for Performing Arts, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, Lentz Center for Asian Culture and the Nebraska Repertory Theatre. The remaining funds will be divided equally between faculty and student support within the college. The Advisory Board is comprised of the trustee of the Lied Foundation Trust, the chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the president of the University of Nebraska Foundation, the dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, and six additional members appointed to a three-year term who may serve two consecutive terms. Members of the Hixson-Lied Advisory Board include: 
John C. Angle is a retired Chairman of the Board and CEO of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of New York City. He is a graduate of Lincoln's public schools and the University of Chicago, a third-generation Nebraskan and is the second Nebraskan to become a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. He served as an Air Force weather officer during World War II and the Korean War. He and his wife, Catherine, lived in Lincoln from 1946 to 1953 and returned to Lincoln in 1989. The Angles, since returning to Lincoln, have continued to be active in community affairs. In 1995, John Angle chaired a Task Force appointed by UN President Dennis Smith. The report, which came to be known as the Angle Report, was adopted and its recommendations implemented. Angle also served on the Future Nebraska Task Force created by the Chancellor of UNL. The conclusions of the Task Force were published in March 2000 and called for a renewed emphasis on Research and Graduate Education at UNL. Angle has been president of the Nebraska Art Association and of the Friends of the Libraries at UNL. Both of the Angles have served on Council of Visitors created by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. They are also trustees of the Nebraska Trails Foundation. The Angles are members of the Friends of Chamber Music, of Friends of Opera, and of the Meadow Lark Society, which supports the summer chamber music festival. They are founders of the College of Fine and Performing Arts The Angles have endowed two professorships at the University of Nebraska: The J.L. Sellers Professorship in History and the Angle Professorship in the Humanities. 
Terry L. Fairfield has served as CEO of the University of Nebraska Foundation since 1987. He is a graduate of Kearney High School and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he has completed post-graduate work at UNL and The George Washington University. Fairfield recently led the Foundation's largest and most successful fund-raising campaign ever. Campaign Nebraska raised more than $727 million dollars to benefit the four campuses of the University of Nebraska. During the campaign 95 endowed faculty positions and nearly 1,000 new scholarships were established. Under his leadership, Foundation assets have grown from approximately $166 million to more than $1 billion, and benefits transferred annually to the university have increased from over $17 million in 1987 to more than $69 million in 2001. Fairfield has additional fund-raising and alumni programming experience from his previous positions at Northwestern University and the Council of Advancement and Support of Education. 
Christina M. Hixson graduated from Clarinda High School in Iowa in 1944. She borrowed $600 from an Uncle and moved to Omaha, Nebraska, to attend business school. After seven months, she went to work for Mr. Lied's car dealership as a switchboard operator and took dictation since his secretary could not. After the war, Miss Hixson became his secretary and also took on the accounting duties. Miss Hixson joined Mr. Lied in Las Vegas in 1960 and became his assistant. She attended all business meetings with him as he relied on her instinctive judgment of people to guide him in his transactions. After his death in 1980, Miss Hixson became the sole trustee of the Lied Foundation Trust. As such, she has turned the Lied Foundation Trust into one of the largest Foundations in the state of Nevada. Miss Hixson has tried to keep in mind the types of grants Mr. Lied would want her to make. She has made contributions to projects in California, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, Utah and Washington. Miss Hixson has a special fondness for young people who, like her, come from a challenging family background and are willing to work hard. Therefore, she has set up a scholarship fund at Iowa State University for students academically capable of college work but with no hope of attending without a financial boost. As Trustee of Lied Foundation Trust, she has demonstrated a keen insight in selecting for funding those projects that could only become a reality with a pacesetting gift that would, in turn, elevate the sights of other donors. Heather Jones received her Bachelors' degree at the College of Saint Mary in Omaha in early childhood and elementary education. She is currently attending the University of Nevada Las Vegas to receive a Master's of Education in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Literacy. The Angles have endowed two professorships at the University of Nebraska: The J.L. Sellers Professorship in History and the Angle Professorship in the Humanities. 
Giacomo M. Oliva, Professor of Music and Dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has also served as Director of the School of Music at the University of Florida, as Head of the Department of Music at Mississippi State University, as Director of Music for the Leonia, New Jersey Public Schools, and as an instrumental and vocal music teacher at all levels in several New Jersey school districts. He has presented papers and lecture recitals for more than a dozen national and international professional organizations, and has also served as a reviewer for the Music Education research Journal UPDATE, for the Southeastern Journal of Music Education, and for the second volume of the Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning. He maintains a special interest in Ragtime and other forms of American popular music, and presents recitals and lectures on piano rags on a regular basis. His activities as a pianist and conductor also include several years as musical director and accompanist for singer Connie Francis. Oliva has held a variety of leadership positions in professional organizations, and was recently named President-elect of the International Society for Music Education. 
Harvey Perlman was named the 19th Chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on April 1, 2001. He had served as Interim Chancellor since July 16, 2000. A former dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law (1983-1998), Perlman has also served as interim senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at UNL (1995-96). Perlman, a Nebraska native, was raised in York, Neb., and earned a bachelor of arts in history and a juris doctorate from the University of Nebraska. He joined the NU law faculty in 1967 and served until 1974 when he joined the faculty at the University of Virginia Law School. He returned to Nebraska in 1983 when he accepted the deanship of the Nebraska Law College. 
James W. (Jim) Strand is a native Nebraskan and graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with Bachelors and Masters degrees in Psychology, as well as a Masters in Business Administration. His business career of 27 years was with the Lincoln Telephone Company/Aliant/ALLTEL, retiring in 2001 as Executive Vice President and Director. He also served on the boards of Illuminet, a Seattle-based telecommunications company, and the Cellular Telephone Industry Association in Washington, D.C. His community activities include past president of the Lincoln Symphony and the Lincoln United Way. He currently serves as director of the University Place Art Center, the Lincoln Library Foundation, and Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital. He is a member of the Board of Governors of Nebraska Wesleyan, a Councillor for the Knights of AKSARBEN, and a member of the Advisory Boards for the Lied Center for Performing Arts and Peter Kiewit Institute for Information Sciences. 
Sandy Veneziano, '75 and '78, is a freelance director and set designer in California. Since graduating from NU with a master's in fine art, she has worked in the film and television industry. Her long list of credits includes "Dead Poet's Society," "Outrageous Fortune," "Home Alone II," "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Dallas," "Terms of Endearment," "Stripes" and the feature film of "My Favorite Martian." She just completed work on the film "The Lone Ranger" and worked as the production designer last season for the television show "Gilmore Girls." She also has taught film design classes at NU between Hollywood assignments and was honored for her professional success as a university Master in 1994. She received a UNL Alumni Association Alumni Achievement Award in 2000. 
Susan Varner Wilkins is a registered nurse. She has previously worked as a hospice nurse with Hospice Care of Nebraska and as a registered nurse at the Lincoln Community Blood Bank. Wilkins has served on the Lied Center for Performing Arts Advisory Board since 2000 and is currently chair of the programming committee. She served on the Friends of Lied Board of Directors from 1991-1997. She is a member of the Lincoln Community Foundation Board of Directors and is co-founder and treasurer of the Barth Syndrome Foundation. She serves as a Stephen Minister at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Wilkins is also a Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital Angel Dog Volunteer (pet-assisted therapy). Wilkins was co-founder and president of the Lincoln Candlelighters and a member of Junior League of Lincoln and the Folsom Children's Zoo Board of Directors. |
