"Our new trustees bring a breadth of experience, a depth of knowledge and a commitment to Duke University that will help the trustees as we work with the administration and faculty to guide Duke as it seeks to achieve its aspirations in the university's long-range strategic academic plan, 'Building on Excellence,'" said Nicholas. "We are particularly pleased by the diversity of experience, geography and gender that our new trustees bring to the board. We look forward to having their counsel and insight as we address Duke's many challenges and opportunities."

Bass is a former director of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History and the World Wildlife Fund. She has been a trustee of her alma mater, Smith College, and currently serves on the boards at Bright School of Divinity at Texas Christian University, Texas Health Resources and the Lucile Packard Hospital in Stanford, Calif.

Crown has served on the Trinity College Board of Visitors and also serves on the Campaign for Duke Steering Committee. While an undergraduate, she was a member of the varsity women's golf team. She and members of her family have established the Lester Crown Endowment for Lectures in Ethics at Duke.

Among her civic activities, Crown is involved in children's health and education issues and cultural organizations. She serves on the boards of the Children's Memorial Hospital, Children's Memorial Institute for Education and Research, the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Lyric Opera, the Latin School of Chicago and High Jump.

McCleskey earned two degrees from Duke, a bachelor of arts degree in 1962 and a bachelor of divinity degree in 1966. He received his doctor of ministry degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1984. McCleskey has been a member of the Duke Divinity School's Board of Visitors and has served on the university's Annual Fund executive committee.

McCleskey is the resident bishop of the Columbia area for the South Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. He is the elected president of the Southeastern Jurisdiction College of Bishops of the United Methodist Church and a member of its executive committee. McCleskey previously served more than 30 years in the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, including appointments as superintendent of the Winston-Salem district and as senior pastor of Myers Park United Methodist Church, a 3,700-member church in Charlotte.

Stalnecker, vice president of E.I. du Pont De Nemours & Company, received a bachelor of arts degree from Trinity College in 1973 and an MBA from the Wharton School of Graduate Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Stalnecker is a member of Duke's Annual Fund Executive Committee. She and her husband Mark Eric Stalnecker, also a 1973 Duke graduate, served as co-chairs of the Reunions Gift Committee for their 30th reunion in 2003.

During her more than 25 years at du Pont, Stalnecker has held positions of increasing responsibility, including serving as treasurer of the DuPont Company before assuming her current post in 2003. Stalnecker is a member of the boards of the Elwyn Institute and Pennsylvania Power and Light Co. (PP&L) and is president of the Delaware Art Museum.

Sales is the current president of the Duke Alumni Association. She earned two degrees from Duke, a bachelor of arts in public policy studies in 1978 and a law degree in 1981. Sales has served on Duke Law School's Alumni Council and its Alumni Association, and was for several years president of the Puget Sound Association of the Law School. In 1999, she received the university's Charles A. Duke Award for distinguished alumni service.

Sales is a practicing attorney specializing in mediation and arbitration of personal injury, employment and medical malpractice matters. She has served as a trustee for the Legal Foundation of Washington and is the Washington state representative to and chair of the Alternate Dispute Resolution Committee for the Defense Research Institute. She has been active in the Seattle Council of the Navy League of the United States, and served as chair of the commissioning committee for USS SHOUP, an Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer that was commissioned in Seattle in June 2002. Sales has also just been elected to serve a one-year term on the Board of Seafair for 2003-04.

Nurkin graduated from Duke last May with a bachelor of arts degree in English and a minor in history.

Nurkin graduated with highest distinction in English and received both the FOCUS academic writing prize and the Terry Welby Tyler, Jr. award in poetry. He served as chair of the Campus Council, the student-led residential life policy-making body, and also participated in Project BUILD, a community service orientation program for first-year Duke students, and the Duke Model U.N. During his summers, Nurkin studied English and religion in London, conducted a service-learning research project with the Atlanta Community Food Bank and interned with Algonquin Books, a Chapel Hill, N.C., publishing house.

As president of the Duke Alumni Association, Sales will serve a two-year term on the board, the first year in a non-voting capacity and the second year as a voting member.

Nurkin will serve a three-year "young trustee" term, serving as a non-voting member the first year and a voting member the following two years.