Governor Pete Ricketts has appointed two new members to the Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education. Gene Kelly of Papillion will represent District 4. Mr. Kelly brings a wide career background to the Commission, having been an Air Force officer and worked in systems engineering, financial analysis and management, and construction and general contracting among others. He is a past treasurer, vice-president and president of the 11,000-student Papillion – La Vista Public Schools, serving twelve years on the school board, and he is founder of NebraskaPensions.Org – a Nebraska public-employee pension reform group. Kelly earned his Bachelor of Arts in Quantitative Methods from the University of St. Thomas and his Master of Science in Information Systems from the School of Engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology.
Molly O’Holleran of North Platte will represent District 6. Ms. O’Holleran has advocated for education on various levels, including as a two-term member of the Nebraska State Board of Education and on the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), where she was chair of the Governmental Affairs Committee (GAC). She also served on the North Platte Public Schools Board of Education, North Platte Public Schools Foundation, Nebraska Association of School Boards Legislative Committee, and the Nebraska Council on Teacher Education. She is a graduate of the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and taught English for Westside Community Schools in Omaha, Nebraska; Kapaun Mount Carmel in Wichita, Kansas; and Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte, Nebraska. O’Holleran currently serves on the Noon Rotary Board of Directors, Holy Spirit Catholic Church Parish Council, and the Nebraska Children and Family Foundation, and she is an officer in several genealogical societies.