FORT WAYNE, Ind.—The University of Saint Francis welcomes two new members to serve with the USF Board of Trustees.
Ronald W. Turpin, JD, CPA, CGMA, returns to USF as a member of the board and Deacon Melvin R. Tardy, Jr. joins USF as a director to the Mission Integration Committee (MIC) of the board.
Turpin was initially elected to the USF Board of Trustees in 2016 and served until 2020. He served as a director on the board’s Development Committee in 2015-2016. He currently works as Chief Financial Officer and Head of Civic Engagement at Ambassador Enterprises.
Turpin has been involved with over two dozen boards and commissions throughout his career and is currently the chair of the Regional Strategic Planning Commission, chair of the Fort Wayne Legacy Joint Funding Committee and a member of the East Allen County School Board. Turpin is a graduate of Indiana State University and Indiana University School of Law and he and his wife Kathleen have two children.
Ordained a permanent deacon in May 2011, Tardy
serves the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend at St. Augustine Parish, as chair of the Black Catholic Advisory Board, as a Foundations of Faith instructor for educators and as a member of the Deacon Admissions and Scrutiny Board.
He also serves as president of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus and on the boards of the National Black Catholic Congress, the National Association of Black Catholic Deacons and the John S. Marten Program in Homiletics & Liturgics at Notre Dame. Additional service includes the Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network of the Lumen Christi Institute in Chicago and the African American Vocations Committee of the National Religious Vocations Conference.
Tardy earned a BA in Studio Art in 1986 and an MBA in International Finance in 1990 at the University of Notre Dame, where he serves as an Associate Advising Professor in the College of Arts & Letters.
Tardy was a contributing author for the 2014 book, “Black Domers: 70 Years at Notre Dame.” His recent articles include “The Diaconal Vocation” and “The Power of the Eucharist” for Our Sunday Visitor. In 2021, Tardy received the Archbishop James P. Lyke African American Male Image Award from The Knights of Peter Claver, Ladies Auxiliary St. Felicitas, St. Ailbe Court #181 in Chicago.
Tardy and his wife, Annie, serve in the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Tolton Ambassadors of Indiana and the Youth & Young Adult Ministry at St. Augustine Parish in South Bend, Indiana.
Founded in 1890 in the Catholic Franciscan tradition, the University of Saint Francis offers more than 60 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs through the College of Health Sciences and the College of Arts, Sciences and Business. In addition to its traditional programs, USF designs focused curricula for working adults in Fort Wayne, Crown Point and online. USF Downtown houses the music technology program while offering enhanced internship and networking opportunities for students. The University of Saint Francis, recognized as an NAIA Five-Star Champion of Character institution, has 18 athletic programs boasting two individual and four team NAIA national championships. Approximately 2,200 students from a broad geographic region attend USF.