After working on Wyoming’s local schoolboards for about 16 years, local pediatrician David Fall has decided to take on a position as a member of the Board of Trustees at the University of Wyoming.
Fall attended the University of Wyoming as a pre-med student, eventually graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Zoology. From there he attended Creighton University through a similar contract that Wyoming now has with the University of Washington.
Fall came back to Wyoming in 1984 where he settled down with his wife and their first child. Currently, Fall is working as a pediatrician in Gillette with his wife and their children.
Since his return to Wyoming, Fall was on the preschool board for about ten years, then progressed to the school board, and has now decided to step up again onto the University’s board.
Branding Iron: How did you decide you wanted to get involved with the Board of Trustees?
David Fall: Well I’ve been on a local school board here for 16 years plus and I’ve enjoyed it. Actually, my first board I was on in Gillette was a preschool for like ten years and then the school board and then the University seemed like the natural progression. I thought it would be exciting and I like new challenges and different things and so I thought this would be a fun thing to do and an interesting thing to do. I love the University of Wyoming so I thought that hopefully down the road I could make a difference.
BI: What qualifies you for this position?
DF: I’ve been in Wyoming pretty much my whole life and I went to the University of Wyoming and I’ve always loved the University. So that helps, but I think the fact that I’m a physician brings a difference perspective to the Board. I’ve worked with the Laramie Program, I was an interviewer for six years. Like I said, I’ve been on our local school board for 16 years and so I understand boards, [I] understand how these kinds of things work, and with the school board I’ve been involved with the legislature and so I know a lot of the legislators. I think that all those things help.
BI: What do you hope to accomplish through the Board of Trustees?
DF: Well first of all I need to get to know how the system works with the University of Wyoming. I’ve only been to one board meeting and then I realized it’s a huge operation, maybe a little bigger than I anticipated, so I need to understand our organizational scheme, I need to learn our budgets better, I need to know the key people like the Dean of the colleges. I’ve met the President of the University and she seems like an incredible woman. So I need to learn the key players, understand how everything works, and then I hope to continue to make Wyoming one of the best land-grant public universities in the country. I think we’ve made remarkable strides, especially in the last few years, making us not just great for our state but for our region and our country. I want to continue to do that.
BI: You changed your political party just before being added onto the Board; was this strategic?
DF: No that was a mistake of mine, the timing was wrong. To be honest, after the last election my wife and I were kind of just so disgusted with politics, we just couldn’t take it. So, we just sat down one day and [my wife] said first, ‘You know I’m gonna change my political party,’ we were both registered republicans because in Campbell county to vote in the primaries you have to be republican. I said, you know, I am too because I’m really an independent. I’ve never voted party-line in my life, I’m gonna be true to myself. So, that’s really what happened after the election, the problem is I just didn’t get around to it until I was down at the Treasurer’s office and realized you know I need to fill out that card because actually one of the senators they called me and asked me if I wanted to apply to be a Trustees. I had tried the previous year and I didn’t get selected and I said yeah sure but I need to change to an independent because that’s really what I want to go in as. I didn’t think it was a problem but it turns out it was but that was my bad; that’s really the way it happened.
BI: Have you done any work with the Board already?
DF: Basically I went to my first meeting in March and read a massive amount of material they sent to us. I went back and read minutes from the last couple meetings and their phone meetings and tried to get up to snuff on some of the initiatives they’re doing. This Friday I actually have an orientation in Laramie. It’s a one day orientation with Kermit Brown, another new appointee so we’ll have an orientation on Friday so I’ll be coming down. They have a pretty busy day planned for us, I’m looking forward to it.
