Pacific Welcomes Four New Members to Board of Trustees
Pacific University has welcomed four new members to its Board of Trustees, including two Pacific alumni and one former trustee.
Pacific alumni elected to the board include retired teacher and therapist Kelli Gehrs ’81, MAED ‘82, and attorney Hong Huynh ’95. Mike Henningsen Jr., retired president of Henningsen Cold Storage, returns to the board after a nine-year hiatus. Also joining the board is business president and Pacific parent Chuck Quinn.
Gehrs is a retired teacher and therapist at the Tucker Maxon School for the Deaf in Portland. She earned her bachelor of arts in communication disorders from Pacific in 1981, followed by a master of arts in education in 1982. She taught for several years while she and her husband, fellow alumnus Jon Gehrs ’78, owned Pacific Foods. The couple has generously supported Pacific University Athletics, and she also has been an active volunteer with many area organizations.
Huynh earned her bachelor’s degree in biology and literature from Pacific in 1995, before going on to earn her JD from the University of Oregon Law School in 1998. She began her legal career as an honors attorney and attorney-adviser at the Office of the Solicitor, U.S. Department of the Interior, in Washington, D.C. From 2000 to 2018, she was an attorney with Miller Nash Graham & Dunn, where she was named a partner in 2008. She now serves as general counsel in the Multnomah County Drainage District. She was selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers (Environmental Law) and Oregon Super Lawyers-Rising Stars Edition, and was named one of the Portland Business Journal’s “40 Under Forty.”
Henningsen returns to the Pacific Board of Trustees after a previous stint from 2002 to 2010. He is an alumnus of the University of Oregon, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1985 and his MBA in 1998. After starting his career with First Interstate Bank of Oregon, he joined the family business, Henningsen Cold Storage, where he worked from 1988 until his retirement, as chairman and president of the company, in 2018. He continues to serve on the company’s board of directors. He also has served as a member of the Tuality Healthcare Foundation Board of Directors, Forest Grove Chamber of Commerce and Forest Grove Daybreak Rotary Club, and the American Red Cross board.
Chuck Quinn is the president of Allbright Cotton, a privately-owned cotton fiber supplier, based in California, as well as the owner of US Plant Genetics, a seed distribution company. He attended Grand Canyon University and Arizona State University and is also the father of a Pacific University student and active supporter of Pacific University Athletics.