FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE :
June 8, 2024
Media Contact:
Dillard University Office of Communications
Dr. Ceeon Quiet Smith
csmith2@dillard.edu
NEW ORLEANS – Dr. Monique Guillory, acting president, and Michael D. Jones, Esq., board chair, are pleased to welcome five additions to the Dillard University Board of Trustees. They are: Tiffany H. Brunson, Rose Hudson, Jennifer Kopylov, Lucie Lapovsky, and Roland Merchant.
“The board is truly excited to work with our newest members, four of whom are proud Dillard alums,” said Dr. Guillory. “The levels of expertise in their respective fields that they bring will be invaluable in moving Dillard forward. The trustees and I look forward to working with each of them.”
The new trustees were introduced at the spring board meeting in May of this year. They are:
Tiffany H. Brunson ’94
Tiffany Brunson serves as Vice President, General Counsel, and Assistant Secretary for FedEx Office and Print Services, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX). In this role, she leads the company’s legal services team, whose responsibilities include supporting all corporate matters, sales and vendor contracts and negotiations, real estate, intellectual property, and litigation matters.
Prior to her tenure at FedEx Office, Ms. Brunson honed her legal skills as a senior labor and employment attorney for the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Postal Service. Her career trajectory also includes significant roles as an associate at Morgan & Weisbrod Attorneys and as an assistant district attorney at the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, showcasing her diverse legal experience.
Ms. Brunson brings over 25 years of experience litigating various cases, including lead counsel in more than 100 employment charges, lawsuits, and arbitrations. She is a well-respected attorney and leader with a proven track record.
A resident of Lucas, Texas, she received her Juris Docto
Rose Hudson ’86
Ms. Hudson is the President and CEO of Louisiana Lottery Corporation. Under her leadership, the Lottery has enjoyed some of its most successful years in its 22-year history, garnering cumulatively more than $2.7 billion that has been used to fund K-12 education in Louisiana.
An industry leader, Ms. Hudson is vice president of the Multi-State Lottery Association, a non-profit organization of 33-member lotteries which operates a collection of multi-jurisdictional lottery games, including Mega Millions and Powerball. She has served in all leadership roles of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries.
Ms. Hudson also serves on the boards of Woman’s Hospital, the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, and is chair of the Center’s foundation board of directors, and is Chair of the Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Foundation Board of Directors. She has previously served on the boards of the Association of Junior League International, Louisiana United Negro College Fund and Louisiana Art and Science Museum.
She has been named one of the “Most Powerful and Influential Women in Louisiana,” by the National Diversity Council, was recognized as an Influential Women in Business by the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report, and was named LSU Masters of Public Administration Alumnus of the Year by the Department of Public Administration at LSU.
Ms. Hudson is a graduate of Dillard University and LSU Baton Rouge.
Jennifer Kopylov ’04
Born and raised in a humble, working-class environment in Nigeria where the power of education was reinforced by her parents, Ms. Kopylov is currently a managing director at Goldman Sachs where she oversees the Consumer Retail Group (CRG) and the Mergers and Acquisitions Group, leading the CRG principal investing efforts. Additionally, she serves as co-chair for the Investment Banking Division Council for Advancement of Racial Equity, and previously served as sector captain for the food retail and food distribution sectors. She joined Goldman Sachs as an associate in 2009 and was named managing director in 2017.
Ms. Kopylove returned to Fair Dillard in October, 2023 to serve as keynote speaker of the university’s Founders’ Day Convocation.
Ms. Kopylov earned a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science, summa cum laude, from Dillard University, where she was valedictorian. She also earned an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was designated a Palmer Scholar.
Lucie Lapovsky
Ms. Lapovsky is an economist who consults, writes and speaks widely on issues related to higher education finance, pricing, strategy, governance, and enrollment management. She also specializes in searches for chief financial officers. Her clients include private schools, colleges and universities throughout the United States and various companies and organizations throughout the world. Additionally, she is actively engaged in research on price resets, tuition discounting and cost containment. She is a frequent contributor to Forbes and is the author of more than 200 chapters and articles. She is also a frequent speaker at major higher education conferences.
She received her B.A. degree from Goucher College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from the University of Maryland at College Park. She also attended the new President’s Institute and the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard and the Directors Institute at Duke. Among her many honors, she was the recipient of the Donna Shavlik award from the American Council on Education for Advancing Women’s Leadership in Higher Education in 2016, she was named one of the top 100 women in Maryland in 1999 by the Daily Record, and she received the Alumni Award of Honor from Packer Collegiate Institute in NY in 2009.
Roland Merchant ’94
Mr. Merchant is a Senior Managing Director in the New York office for CBRE Capital Advisors, Inc. with more than 20 years of experience in finance, sales, and real estate investment banking. His primary concentration has been on investment advisory and equity placement transactions nationally.
Throughout his career, Mr. Merchant has been involved in more than $20 billion of investment advisory, joint venture equity, debt placement and loan sales transactions for major public and private institutional real estate investors throughout the United States.
Mr. Merchant has served as a senior managing director in JLL’s Capital Markets division in New York, where he joined as part of the HFF acquisition. Before that, Mr. Merchant was at Eastdil Secured LLC for over 13 years.
He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, where he was awarded the Robert A. Toigo Fellowship and a BA from Dillard University. He is an active member of Urban Land Institute (ULI), the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), the Real Estate Roundtable (RER) President’s Council and Real Estate Executive Council (REEC). Philanthropically, Roland is the Board Chairman for the Robert Toigo Foundation Alumni Endowment Board and Vice Chairman on the Board of Trustees for the City Parks Foundation of New York.
About Dillard University
Dillard University is a historically Black institution that cultivates leaders who live ethically, think and communicate precisely, and act courageously to make the world a better place. Located in New Orleans, Dillard is a private faith-based liberal arts university that offers 22 majors and two certificate programs. Ranked 5th on the 2021 The New York Times Overall Mobility Index and 14th in 2022 by Academic Influence for Best Colleges and Universities by Academic Stewardship, Dillard’s call to future leaders is to Write Your Legacy. Find out more about Louisiana’s oldest HBCU by visiting www.dillard.edu.
