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 The new Trustees are Lynn Paulus of Lincoln, Paula
Kaler and Guy Fraker of Bloomington, John Edwards of Palos Heights
and Laura Beltchenko of Libertyville.
“I am very pleased that we were able to persuade such a talented
group of professionals to join the Board of Trustees,” Lincoln
College President John Blackburn said. “They come to the board from
very different backgrounds but each has demonstrated a deep
commitment to education and to community that will
serve the College well.”
The new Trustees began their service at the May 8 Board meeting and
all will serve as Trustees-at-Large. Lincoln College, which has
campuses in Normal and Lincoln, is celebrating its 150th anniversary
year. It was the first institution named in honor of then-President
Abraham Lincoln and the only institution named after Lincoln while
he was alive.
They will soon work with a new president as Blackburn retires in
June after many years of dedicated service to the College. He will
be replaced by Dr. David Gerlach, who comes to Lincoln College after
a distinguished career leading higher education advancement in
upstate New York.
The Lincoln College Board of Trustees appoints the President and
major administrative officers of the college. Board committees
oversee finances, development, planning, academic affairs and
student services, among other duties. All salary and tenure
decisions must also be reviewed and approved by the Board.
 Here is a look at the backgrounds of the five new board members:
Lynn Paulus
Lincoln resident Paulus is the owner/manager of the Hampton Inn,
Holiday Inn Express and Baymont Inn and Suites in Lincoln, as well
as Holiday Inn Express hotels in Evansville, Indiana and
Bloomington, Illinois; Wingate by Wyndham in St. Charles, Missouri;
and the Carpenter Street Hotel in Springfield. She is also the
Treasurer/Business Manager for Hotel Ventures Management Co. of
Illinois and Business Manager for McDonald’s of Springfield.
In addition to her business interests, Paulus has been an active
volunteer and supporter of local sports programs such as West
Lincoln Broadwell and Lincoln High schools; has been a board member
of the Illinois 4-H Foundation; a sponsor of the Lincoln Art and
Balloon Festival; a member of the Logan County Farm Bureau and a
Logan County 4-H Volunteer.
Paulus is a 1988 graduate of the University of Illinois at
Champaign. She and her husband Kent have three daughters, Ashley,
Michelle and Emily.
“With her extensive business experience, Lynn Paulus will bring an
important perspective to the Board of Trustees. I am very pleased
that she has agreed to serve as a Trustee,” Blackburn said. “Her
background and record of success will serve the College well as we
move into our second 150 years.”
Paula Kaler
Kaler, a longtime resident of Lincoln, recently returned to central
Illinois after living in DeKalb and Sycamore since 2007. As Agency
Manager for Country Financial in Bloomington, she led the agency to
become the Number One performing agency in the state and was named
to the company’s Executive Club for her performance as one of the
top 10 agency managers in the nation.
Kaler began her career with Country Financial in 1998 in Lincoln.
Before that she was owner and operator of Bylines, a marketing
company, and was manager of Main Street Lincoln from 1993 to 1998.
“Paula Kaler will be an excellent addition to our Board,” Blackburn
said. “Her experience at Country Financial as well as her ties to
the Lincoln community will both be important assets that we can use
on the Board.”
Guy Fraker
Fraker has been an attorney in Bloomington since his graduation from
the University of Illinois in 1962. In addition to his law practice,
he has been active in the community for many years, including
serving as the President of the McLean County Bar Association in
1994 and 1995 and was awarded its first annual Lincoln Award for
Excellence for community service in 1997.
He is the author of “Lincoln’s Ladder to the Presidency: The Eighth
Judicial Circuit” and was a consultant on and participant in the
award-winning documentary “Abraham Lincoln: Prelude to the
Presidency,” produced by WILL-TV (PBS). He is also the co-curator of
Prologue to the Presidency, a permanent exhibit at the David Davis
Mansion state historical site in Bloomington.
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He also served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Illinois Chapter of
the Nature Conservancy from 1995-1996 and worked as Director of Land Protection
from 2000-2001, acquiring over 13,000 acres of Illinois landscape for protection
during his tenure. He has continually served on the Board since 1990. He is a
founding Board Member of Parklands Foundation, a land trust, and has served on
that board for more than 40 years. He has also held leadership positions in the
Jaycees and Bloomington United, a downtown advocacy group.
“Guy Fraker will be an excellent addition to our Board. His distinguished legal
career, deep community involvement and extensive research of Lincoln’s legal
career made him a perfect candidate for the Board,” Blackburn said. “His
experience will serve the College well as we move into our second 150 years.”
John Edwards
Edwards, a Palos Height resident, specializes in advising college and university
business officers and has helped more than 140 colleges and universities better
manage their finances.
For over ten years, he served Midwestern colleges and universities through his
work with Nelnet Business Solutions, a Lincoln, Neb., based financial management
and eCommerce technology provider.
He also currently serves as House Captain for Rebuilding Together – Metro
Chicago and from 1992 to 2002 was treasurer for Primo Women’s Children’s Center
of Chicago.
Edwards has had an extensive career in the financial services sector, working
for JP Morgan Chase Bank, Manufacturers Bank, PNC Bank among other companies
since 1978. He is a 1977 graduate of the University of North Carolina, at Chapel
Hill.
His ties to Lincoln College stretch back for decades, as his father Robert
Edwards served as a Lincoln College trustee from 1976 to 1988, and then his
mother Shirley Edwards followed Robert on the board from 1988-2014.
“As a consultant, John Edwards is helping more than 140 colleges and
universities better manage their finances. His deep understanding of higher
education financing will be invaluable to the Board of Trustees as we prepare to
meet the challenges of the next 150 years,” Blackburn said.
Laura Beltchenko
Beltchenko is an education consultant from Libertyville with extensive teaching
and administrative experience in school districts in Illinois and Michigan.
Beltchenko currently operates Read, Learn, Achieve, LLC, Laura Beltchenko
Educational Consulting. The North Cook Intermediate Service Center, a branch of
the Illinois State Board of Education, contracts with Beltchenko as a
Foundational Services Facilitator supporting school districts with standards
implementation, assessment design and creating student learning objectives.
Beltchenko currently serves as chair of the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE)
Gifted Education Advisory Council and a member of the ISBE Foundational Services
for Common Core Standards. She is also on the Board of the Illinois Association
of Title I Directors.
In addition to her teaching experience, Beltchenko served for 24 years as an
elected member of the Libertyville District 70 Board of Education.
Beltchenko previously served as Associate Superintendent, Curriculum and
Instruction, as Wauconda CUSD #118. She also worked as an administrator or
teacher in school districts in Gurnee, Deerfield, Lake Forest School District,
Highland Park, Lake Bluff, Vernon Hills and in New Baltimore and Brown City,
Michigan.
“Laura Beltchenko has been a classroom teacher and an administrator and now
operates her own educational consulting business. Her lifelong commitment to
improving education and helping students achieve their full potential will be an
ideal match for Lincoln College,” Blackburn said.
[Tracy Bergin, Lincoln College]
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