The WVU Board of Governors announced the election of three officers for the 2024-25 academic year. Richard "Rick" Pill (from left) will serve as chair, Dr. Patrice Harris will serve as vice chair and Robert "Bob" Reynolds will serve as secretary for the University's governing body. (WVU Graphic)
The West Virginia University Board of Governors is announcing its officers for the 2024-25 term. Experienced members serving in leadership are Richard “Rick” Pill, elected as BOG chair, Dr. Patrice Harris, elected as vice chair, and Robert “Bob” Reynolds, elected as secretary.
Pill is a Morgantown native and founding member of Pill & Pill, PLLC, located in Martinsburg. A proud University alumnus, he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a law degree from WVU.
With his law practice concentrated on commercial and residential real estate transactions, he is a past president of the West Virginia Bar Association, a founding member of the West Virginia Real Estate Lawyers Association and a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.
Pill previously served as a member of the WVU Alumni Association Board of Directors. He is also a past president and remains active with the WVU Alumni Association Eastern Panhandle chapter.
Additionally, Pill has been a member of the Woodburn Circle Society, WVU Hospital System Board of Directors, Mountaineer Parents Club and the visiting committee for the WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics. In 2021, he established the Richard and Thelma Pill Family Law Scholarship which is primarily for WVU College of Law students who are members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
In 2005, Pill was named an Outstanding Alumnus for his service to the University community, and in 2023 was inducted into the WVU Greek Alumni Hall of Fame.
Dr. Harris, co-founder and CEO of eMed, a digital health technology company based in Miami, also serves as the chair of both the Presidential Search Committee and the Ad Hoc Governance Committee.
A Bluefield native, she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a master’s degree in counseling psychology and a medical degree from WVU before completing her psychiatry residency and fellowships in child and adolescent psychiatry and forensic psychiatry at Emory University School of Medicine.
Drawing on her diverse experience as a private practicing physician, public health administrator, patient advocate and medical society lobbyist throughout her career, Dr. Harris was inaugurated as the 174th president of the American Medical Association in 2019.
Harris has previously served as a WVU Foundation Board of Directors member and is a 2007 inductee into the WVU Academy of Distinguished Alumni. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and was inducted into the WVU Greek Alumni Hall of Fame in 2023.
Reynolds, a Clarksburg native, is chairman of Great-West Lifeco U.S. He previously served as president and CEO of Putnam Investments and vice chair and CEO of Fidelity Investments. Reynolds is considered one of the architects of the modern retirement industry due to his efforts to popularize employer-sponsored 401(k) plans.
Reynolds earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, finance from WVU. In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in business administration. Also that year, Reynolds was inducted into the WVU Academy of Distinguished Alumni. He is a 2010 inductee into the Chambers College Business Hall of Fame and a 2016 inductee for the Chambers College Roll of Distinguished Alumni.
Reynolds and his wife, Laura, are the namesakes for Reynolds Hall, a transformative University learning and research complex that officially opened in 2022 as the home of the Chambers College.
The BOG, which next meets in regular session on Sept. 20, is the governing body for WVU, WVU Institute of Technology and WVU Potomac State College.
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