Gov. Jay Inslee last week appointed a new trustee to the five-member Green River College Board of Trustees.

Jackie Boschok, of Kent, replaces Pete Lewis, whose five-year term expired in September. Lewis, who was appointed to the board in 2011 and served as board chair for two years, decided not to seek reappointment to a second term.

As he steps away from the board, Lewis, a former three-term mayor of Auburn, said he plans to work with veterans and immigrants.

“I had decided I had time enough to do one or the other, but I could not do both,” he said of his decision to leave the college board and focus on other causes.

A Vietnam veteran, Lewis serves as co-president for the American-Vietnamese War Memorial Alliance, which dedicated a memorial in Auburn this summer.

“This has always been pretty close to my heart,” he said.

Lewis said he also plans to work with local minority groups.

“I really like a lot of the new immigrants coming in from different areas and working with them to make that first generation gap easier,” he said.

Lewis’ first two years on the college board overlapped with his last two years as mayor of Auburn. He saw the city through two recessions as mayor and helped the college through a downturn in the economy.

During the recession, enrollments increased at the college, as people who were out of worked looked for job retraining opportunities, but as the economy recovered, enrollment declined.

“You have to admire the board for trying everything they knew at that time to try to maintain the work of college,” Lewis said.

During his time at Green River, Lewis said he advocated for veterans looking to further their education.

“The expansion of the Veterans Affairs Office and having a very good program for returning veterans is one of those accomplishments,” Lewis said when asked what he was proud of during his tenure on the board.

The college is in good shape and in capable hands, Lewis said.

“I believe Green River college is a really great vehicle for young people of the service area to further their education,” he said. “(The board and administration) are working very hard at representing the community they serve.”

New challenge for Boschok

Boschok moved to Kent last year after living for more than 30 years in Snohomish County. She learned about the opening on the Green River board from a friend.

“I decided that it was something I was interested in doing,” she said.

Over the past year, Boschok said she read articles about tension on Green River’s campus over budget shortfalls and program cuts.

“It just seemed like the community really needed some interested people,” she said. “I am interested in making sure it is a community college that serves our community well.”

She wants to help the college move forward.

“I want to learn as much as I can about the college and the board and how things function and operate and then decide what I might want to focus on,” she said. “I am just excited to be a part of it. I think it is a good time to be coming on the board.”

One of the top priorities for the board will be finding a new president. Eileen Ely resigned from the college’s top post in June. Scott Morgan is filling the role in an interim capacity.

“I think the ability to work together to hire a new president that will be able to serve our college well will be a good opportunity for us to work to get in focus,” Boschok said.

A native of Missouri, Boschok moved to Washington in 1979 to take a job at Boeing as a material processor and resource facilitator. She was also an elected business representative for the Aerospace Machinists Union District 751.

Prior to earning her bachelor of science degree in agriculture from the University of Missouri-Columbia, Boschok took courses at Forest Park Community College in St. Louis.

During her time at Boeing and the Machinists Union, Boschok saw many employees use worker retraining programs to further their education and careers.

“I am really interested in making sure that those opportunities are available to the community down here,” she said. “Workers now days, even if they are staying at the same job, might need training. That is an important thing that the college can help with, that the companies have great trained workers and the employees get the training they need.”

Boschok is an advocate for senior citizens and serves as a vice president of the Washington State Labor Council – representing seniors – and is also the president of the Washington State Alliance for Retired Americans and a member of the Board of Directors for Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action.

She said her experience working with senior citizens will give her a unique perspective as a college trustee.

“Because I am a senior advocate, I understand some of the situations seniors are in because of things that happened in their early careers,” she said. “It is important to have a strong foundation in education that serves them well their entire life.”