Eight new members to the Cornell University Board of Trustees were recently elected with terms beginning July 1.

They are: Nelson G. Hairston Jr., chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, faculty trustee; Darrick T. Nighthawk Evenson, doctoral student, graduate student trustee; Gene Resnick '70, M.D. '74, and Sheryl Hilliard Tucker '78, alumni trustees; and Robert S. Langer '70, Linda R. Macaulay, Dalia P. Stiller '84 and Leland C. Pillsbury '69, trustees-at-large.

The Cornell Board of Trustees helps determine major policy directions for the university and has an important role in safeguarding the integrity of the university. Cornell is the only Ivy League university -- and one of the few universities across the country -- whose board includes student, faculty and staff representatives as full voting members. There are two faculty and two student trustees and one employee trustee on the 64-member board.

Hairston, the Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor of Environmental Science, served as the College of Arts and Sciences' senior associate dean, 2006-09. A Cornell professor for 25 years, he has led several committees, including one that led to the formation of the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future.

A doctoral candidate in the Department of Natural Resources, Evensen studies the application of sociology to natural resource management, with an emphasis on environmental risks. He has served as the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly's president and chair of its finance commission.

Resnick of White Plains, N.Y., is executive vice president of Averion International Corp., a contract research company that supports clinical trials for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. He has served as vice president of the Cornell Alumni Federation and as president of the Weill Cornell Medical College Alumni Association.

Hilliard Tucker is a media and conference development consultant to Time Warner Inc. She previously was executive editor of Time Inc., where she helped manage more than 100 magazines and websites including Time, Fortune and Money. A resident of North Caldwell, N.J., she has served on the University Council and other Cornell groups.

Langer is the David H. Koch Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His biomedical engineering lab is the world's largest, with $12 million in annual grants and more than 100 researchers. Langer has written 1,100 articles, has 750 issued and pending patents, and has received more than 180 major awards.

Macaulay, a dedicated ornithologist and supporter of wildlife, is a research associate of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. She has recorded sounds of 2,660 bird species, amassing one of the world's largest bird sound collections, which is housed at the lab. She was named a Cornell Foremost Benefactor in 2001.

Stiller is an architectural consultant for Woolbright Development Inc., the fastest growing retail real estate developer in Florida which was founded by her husband, Duane Stiller '84. She has been a member of the Cornell University Council since 2008 and has served on the College of Architecture, Art and Planning's Advisory Council.

Pillsbury co-founded Thayer Lodging Group, which recently completed the acquisition of Interstate Hotels and Resorts, the largest independent hotel and resort operator in the world. He and his wife, Mary, recently endowed the School of Hotel Administration's Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship.

The board also re-elected Stephen B. Ashley, David D. Croll, Bruce S. Raynor, Philip R. Reilly, Ratan N. Tata and Andrew H. Tisch.

The graduate student trustee term is two years (the undergraduate student trustee is elected in alternate years), and the terms for the faculty and alumni trustees are four years.