Former Nevada treasurer vies to lead state higher education system

Former Nevada State Treasurer Kate Marshall is on the short list to be chancellor for the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Marshall was state treasurer from 2007 to 2015. After an unsuccessful candidacy for secretary of state, she won election as lieutenant governor in 2018.

She resigned in 2021 to become a special assistant to President Joe Biden and senior advisor to the governors in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

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"The Nevada System of Higher Education is our state's jewel," Marshall said in a letter as part of the application for the position. "As chancellor and as a leader I would bring the highest degree of ethics, professionalism and respect to a position, which is all about letting that jewel shine."

Prior to entering public office, Marshall served at the U.S. Department of Justice where she earned a strong reputation of fighting white-collar crime and taking on big corporations, according to her White House biography.

She will compete against Lawrence Drake, interim president of Bethune-Cookman University, a private, non-profit college in Florida; and Charles Ansell, a vice president at Complete College America, a higher-education advocacy organization, for the slot.

Drake described himself as "a recognized global leader, scholar, researcher, author, corporate executive, and entrepreneurial thinker, having lived or worked in over 60 countries."

The 13 Nevada System of Higher Education regents are elected by the public to serve six-year terms, charged with setting policies and approving budgets for Nevada's entire public system of higher education: four community colleges, one state college, two universities and one research institute.

Dale Erquiaga has served as interim chancellor since last year.

He was hired after the Nevada system's former chancellor, Melody Rose, left under a cloud. NSHE reportedly paid Rose more than a half million dollars in a separation agreement.

The embattled system also has seen other officials leave under suspicious circumstances. Two former regents are still facing ethic violations with the state ethics commission.

The controversy spurred two major pieces of state legislation this year, according to the Nevada Independent.

Assembly Bill 118, signed by Gov. Joe Lombardo May 30, will reduce the number of regents from 13 to nine, as well as reduce the length of their terms from six years to four. The bill will phase in gradually from election to election, with the process completing by 2033. 

Separately, lawmakers approved in a second consecutive session SJR7, a proposed constitutional amendment that would remove the regents from the constitution and put them in state law. This year's passage sends the measure to the 2024 ballot; voters defeated a similar effort in 2020. 

Regents will discuss the three candidates at a June 29 special meeting prior and are expected to make a final decision the next day at their regular meeting.