Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 26, 1994 TAG: 9401260036
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
O'Brien is the first director to join the board under the tenure of NS Chairman David Goode, a Vinton native and former Roanoke resident.
Goode has actively pursued a policy of increasing the diversity of the NS work force, including management. There are more women than ever before in NS's middle- and upper-management ranks, NS spokesman Bob Fort said.
O'Brien also becomes the first person from Roanoke to serve on the NS board since former Norfolk and Western Railway Co. President John Fishwick retired from the board in September 1988.
The Norfolk and Western and the Southern Railway merged in 1982 to form NS, a diversified transportation company. Fort said he was unaware of any woman having served on either the NW or Southern board of directors.
O'Brien, who holds a doctorate in chemistry, came to Hollins as its president in 1991. Before that she had been an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry and dean of the faculty at Middlebury College in Vermont.
O'Brien has been a member of the NS Corp. Advisory Board since Nov. 1, 1992.
She has been on several boards for educational organizations, including the executive board of the Kaleidoscope Project in undergraduate science education, the American Council of Education's Commission on Women in Higher Education, the Virginia Secretary of Education's Advisory Council and the Roanoke Valley Educational Partnership.
She has received several grants to conduct research in biomedicine and science policy. At Hollins, she has expanded graduate programs, including those in literature and creative writing.
A native of Annapolis, Md., O'Brien received her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Vassar College and her doctorate in chemistry from the University of Delaware.
She could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
by CNB