Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer was recently appointed to serve a five-year term on the Salem State University Board of Trustees.
“I want to congratulate you, Thatcher,” said Select Board member Bret Muarry during the Select Board’s Jan. 24 meeting. “I don’t know what you how much free time you have left, but you are the most recent member of the Salem State University Board of Trustees.”
Kezer, who has served as Marblehead’s town administrator since 2022, was officially sworn into the volunteer SSU position by Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll during a ceremony at the Hawthorne Hotel, where his wife, Claire Kallelis, is the general manager.
The SSU board is responsible for overseeing Salem State’s policies, finances, its president and facilities. Kezer said he looks forward to giving back to his undergraduate alma mater and serving its 9,000 students. This is not Kezer’s first time on the board.
“I was elected by the student body in 1986 to the Board of Trustees at Salem State for a year and then I was appointed by the governor to the Board of Regents of Higher Education (which oversees the entire Massachusetts public higher education system) for my senior year,” said Kezer. “So these were foundational experiences in dealing with all kinds of people and all kinds of issues.”
As both a proud graduate and parent of a Salem State student, Kezer said he cares deeply for the institution. His term on the university’s Board of Trustees will expire in 2028.
