4 UC Alumni Elected to Serve on the UC Foundation Board of Trustees

CINCINNATI – April 29, 2015 – The University of Cincinnati Foundation Board of Trustees has elected four new trustees to serve on its 66 voting-member board. Four UC alumni, including Shakila Ahmad, Gyan Jha, Darrell Miller and Jacqueline Neumann, will join the board’s prestigious ranks with terms beginning in October 2015.

“Our new class of board members bring a broad range of experience, diversity and perspectives that will prove invaluable to our fundraising and alumni engagement efforts,” said UC Foundation President Rodney Grabowski. “I look forward to working with them to build our momentum and connections with other UC supporters.”

The new trustees have backgrounds in business, law, finance and accounting and are well regarded in their respective fields.

Ahmad graduated from the UC McMicken College of Arts and Sciences with a degree in mathematics and presently serves as the director of business management at the Allergy and Asthma Specialty Center in West Chester, Ohio. She is a former systems engineer, consultant and educator for IBM and the first woman to chair the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati. Ahmad also holds the distinction of being the youngest member and first woman named to its board. She also holds leadership positions with the YWCA Cincinnati, United Way of Greater Cincinnati, Cincinnati FBI Multicultural Advisory Council and Mayor's Task Force On Immigration.

Jha is a consultant for MetalCure LLC, a local company serving the aluminum industry. He previously worked as a metallurgical engineer for ARCO Aluminum and has decades of experience in the aluminum and packaging industry. Jha graduated from the UC College of Engineering and Applied Science with a degree in metallurgical engineering. His father and mother also have UC connections. His father was a professor of nuclear physics at UC, and his mother also graduated from UC. Jha currently resides in both Louisville, Ky. and Dallas, traveling between the two to be with his wife, who is a tax partner at the Dallas-based EY.

Miller graduated from the UC College-Conservatory of Music with a degree in musical theatre and then earned his law degree from Georgetown University. He currently is a managing partner at the Los Angeles-based Fox Rothschild LLP, where he focuses on transactional law with an emphasis on entertainment. Earlier this year, he was named to Savoy Magazine’s list of the “Most Influential Black Lawyers” in recognition of his distinguished legal career, professionalism and community service. In 2014, he published The 16th Minute of Fame, an insider’s guide for maintaining success. He was also named to the Hollywood Reporter’s 2013 Power Attorneys list.

Neumann is the chair of the Kolodzik Business Scholars Advisory Board in UC’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business. She also serves on the Lindner Alumni Board of Governors and the Business Advisory Council. In addition to her leadership roles at UC, she is a board member of the local Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter. She received both her bachelor’s degree in management and MBA from UC and recently retired as a director with Deloitte LLP in Cincinnati. Prior to her role with Deloitte, she was vice president, controller and principal accounting officer at The Future Now and partner at KPMG.

Media Contact:

Caitlin Whitehurst
Assist. Director of Public Relations
513-556-4395
caitlin.whitehurst@uc.edu