Four New Trustees Join Champlain College Board

Jeremy Walla, Robert Marino, John Illick and Stephanie Hainley - Champlain Trustees

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Champlain College welcomed four new members to the Champlain College Board of Trustees at its October meeting.

Jeremy Walla ‘15 is a business analyst with Lake Street Advisors, a multi-family financial office, in Portsmouth, NH. After receiving his B.S. in Accounting from Champlain College in 2015, Walla went on to complete the accelerated MBA program at the University of New Hampshire the following year. During his final year at Champlain he served as the Director of Finance for the Student Government Association, and in that role he helped lead two major projects that ultimately reached the senior leadership team. One project, The Hearthstone, is a student-focused space in Fireside Lounge that was completed in the fall of 2015, and the other is a student-managed investment fund for the business school. Walla lives in Dover, NH.

Robert Marino most recently served as the Dean and Professor in the Division of Information Technology & Sciences (ITS) at Champlain College. Named Interim Dean of ITS in 2012, Marino focused on faculty professional development and curriculum development and renewal. Marino has held leadership roles at a number of academic institutions throughout his career, including as President of the American University of Rome where he secured the University's first accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Previously, he served as acting Dean at Hunter College, City University of New York where he was on the faculty for 32 years. He has also served as interim Dean of the Colleges of Natural Sciences and Human and Health Sciences at California State University, Stanislaus. He earned his Ph.D. from Brown University and Bachelor's degree from the City College of New York, both in Physics.

John Illick founded ReArch Company in 2003 based on his decades of experience in the commercial construction industry. Under his direction, ReArch Company has become an area leader in the construction of LEED-certified architecture. In addition to his role at ReArch Company, Illick serves as Managing Partner for Technology Park Partners (TPP), and Sugar River Mills Redevelopment, LLC. Illick firmly believes in giving back to his community by volunteering his time and expertise. He spent nearly nine years as the Chairman of the Vermont Community Development Board, several years as Chairman of the Middlebury Planning Commission, and has sat on a variety of charitable boards including the Addison County Parent Child Center, the Addison County Educational Endowment Fund, and the Addison County United Way. He resides in Middlebury and he and his wife Elizabeth have two grown children, Adrienne and John, as well as two grandchildren.

Stephanie Hainley G'12 of Burlington, is the Chief Operating Officer & Senior Project Manager at White + Burke Real Estate Investment Advisors, Inc. In addition to day to day managerial responsibilities, Hainley has been instrumental in a number of key projects including Fletcher Allen/UVM Medical Radiation Oncology project, Hannaford Supermarket in Bradford, and land development planning for SP Land Company in Killington. Hainley has previously served as the President of Burlington Business & Professional Women, been a volunteer mentor at the King Street Center and a member of the Public Policy Committee for the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce. She was a founding Board member of the Main Street Alliance and the Director of the Northfields Saving Bank (NSB) foundation. She holds a BA from the University of Vermont and an MBA from Champlain College with a focus on data analytics.


Founded in 1878, Champlain College is a small, not-for-profit, private college in Burlington, Vermont, with additional campuses in Montreal, Canada, and Dublin, Ireland. Champlain offers a traditional undergraduate experience from its beautiful campus overlooking Lake Champlain and over 90 residential undergraduate and online undergraduate and graduate degree programs and certificates. Champlain's distinctive career-driven approach to higher education embodies the notion that true learning occurs when information and experience come together to create knowledge. Champlain College is included in the Princeton Review's The Best 384 Colleges: 2019 Edition. For the fourth year in a row, Champlain was named a "Most Innovative School" in the North by U.S. News & World Report's 2019 "America's Best Colleges,” and a “Best Value School” and is ranked in the top 100 “Regional Universities of the North” and in the top 25 for “Best Undergraduate Teaching.” Champlain is also featured in the Fiske Guide to Colleges for 2019 as one of the "best and most interesting schools" in the United States, Canada and Great Britain and is a 2019 College of Distinction. For more information, visit champlain.edu.