MONROE, Mich. -- Monroe County residents can meet the four candidates for the Monroe County Community College Board of Trustees at a candidate forum at the college Oct. 19.
Three positions are on the Nov. 8 ballot – one four-year term and two six-year terms.
Current Trustee Aaron Mason, who was appointed last December, is running unopposed for the four-year term.
Three others are running for the two six-year terms: Dr. Edward Feldman of Monroe, who also was appointed to the board last December, William Bruck of Erie, and Steven Hill of Dundee.
The forum is sponsored by The Agora, the student newspaper at MCCC. Leah Thomas, editor of The Agora, will be the moderator for the event. It will begin at 7 p.m. in the La-Z-Boy Center atrium.
The candidates will be asked questions developed by The Agora staff, as well as questions from the audience.
All four candidates have agreed to attend.
Two of the positions are open because Feldman and Mason were appointed and must be elected to retain the seats. The third opening is the seat currently held by Board Chairman Joseph Bellino, who is running for the state House of Representatives in the 17th District.
Bruck, a lifelong Monroe resident, is owner of Visiting Angels Monroe, a home health care agency. He also is an active Army Reservist and a journeyman lineman electrician.
He graduated from Monroe High School and has a bachelor’s degree from Northland Baptist Bible College, a master’s degree from Columbia Southern University, and training from American Line Builders Apprentice Training.
He currently holds the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 3 and served three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also serves as president of the Monroe Aging Consortium Board of Directors.
Feldman is a retired Monroe physician. He also was an adjunct instructor in Anatomy and Physiology at MCCC from 2008 to 2010.
He has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and a doctor of medicine degree from UM.He completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in cancer medicine at the Mayo Clinic.
He retired in 2014 after 33 years practicing medicine. He is a member of the Monroe Center for Healthy Aging Board of Directors.
Hill is a business development executive with the Eby-Brown Corp. in Ypsilanti, where he works with small business owners in southeastern Michigan and northern Ohio to increase the profitability of their businesses.
He has a degree from Henry Ford Community College as a systems software engineer and has more than 20 years of experience as a small business owner. He served on the Allen Park Charter review commission and in leadership positions with Business Network International.
He is married to Susan (Chambers) Hill, whose family are members of the Monroe County farming community.
Mason, also a lifelong resident of the Monroe area who attended classes at MCCC, is a vice president at Monroe Bank & Trust, where he is group manager of Mortgage and Consumer Lending.
He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toledo in Finance and attended the UT College of Law.
He has served on the Monroe Public Schools Board of Education, twice elected and once appointed. All three of his children have attended MCCC, and his father taught as a Mathematics adjunct professor for 30 years.
About Monroe County Community College
Founded in 1964, Monroe County Community College is a public, two-year institution supported by tax monies from Monroe County, educational funds from the State of Michigan and student tuition.
The college’s mission is to enrich and transform lives by providing opportunities and excellence in higher education. The Main Campus is located at 1555 South Raisinville Road, Monroe, Mich., 48161, with easy access to Toledo and Detroit. The Whitman Center is located at 7777 Lewis Ave.,Temperance, Mich., 48182, near the Ohio-Michigan Border. Detailed information about MCCC is available at www.monroeccc.edu.