Former public school chief, college dean named regent

Jennifer Knight

Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2002 | 9:48 a.m.

Gov. Kenny Guinn appointed former school superintendent Marcia Bandera to the state Board of Regents Tuesday after accepting the resignation of longtime board member Dorothy Gallagher.

Gallagher resigned Friday with two years left in a six-year term, but in her resignation letter she did not give specific reasons for doing so.

In a letter to Guinn she said she wished that newly elected regents would "assist the remaining members to regain the respect and dignity we have enjoyed in the past."

"I hope that during the past 22 years I have been able to make a positive contribution," Gallagher said in her letter to Guinn.

Gallagher's resignation comes at a time when regents of the University and Community College System of Nevada are embroiled in controversy over one regent's access to student records. The incident has sparked a bitter feud between two regents who have exchanged insults publicly, causing embarrassment to the board.

Gallagher's replacement was the subject of a different controversy last year, when two regents balked at contracts she and others received as consultants for Nevada State College.

As a consultant helping to get certification for the college's teachers education program, Bandera was paid $1,000 a day for a total of $11,000. The Board of Regents is an unpaid elected position.

"I find it hard to believe that she was making $1,000 a day as a consultant and now she's going to be a regent for free for two years," Regent Steve Sisolak said.

Bandera was superintendent of the Elko County School District from 1995 to 2001. Before that she was the director of instruction for the Elko district and served as a dean at Western Nevada Community College in Carson City.

"Marcia has a very strong background in education and has shown great leadership and instructional skills throughout the education system in Northern Nevada," Guinn said in a statement.

Bandera will replace Gallagher at the next board meeting in December.

"I have as a role model Dorothy Gallagher, who is one of the most outstanding people that I have had ever had the opportunity to meet," Bandera said today. "She approaches things in a very professional manner and I can only hope to do the same."

During Gallagher's 22 years as regent the board has seen controversy over the firing of popular basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian and the dismissal of a university president.

Gallagher was praised for improving higher education in her part of the state. She helped Great Basin College in Elko offer its first bachelor's degree program and helped bring the Fire Science Academy to Carlin.

In addition, she was instrumental in helping the Desert Research Institute flourish and served as regent during some of the university system's greatest period of growth, observers said.

"Dorothy Gallagher has towered over her fellow regents for two decades," said John Cummings, Community College of Southern Nevada's adviser to the president. "She was our Barbara Stanwyck and Nevada was her 'Big Valley.' "

A fourth-generation Nevadan from Elko, Gallagher often visited the far-flung districts she represented in Northern and central Nevada by having her husband fly her in their Cessna airplane.

A banker by trade, Gallagher became regent in 1980 and quickly gained respect from legislators as a formidable advocate for higher education.

"She represents what is best about the Board of Regents," said CCSN President Ron Remington, who worked with her for many years in Elko before moving to Las Vegas.

Fellow Regent Thalia Dondero said the news was sudden and sad.

"She will be missed tremendously and we love her," Dondero said. "She worked very hard and certainly brought a lot of stability to the board. She brought history to the board.