Topeka ? The Kansas Board of Regents has named former Lt. Gov. Gary Sherrer as its chairman for a year, starting in July.

Sherrer, from Overland Park, replaces Jill Docking, a Wichita financial planner. She’s leaving the nine-member board, which oversees the state’s higher education system.

Sherrer served as vice chairman for the past year.

He was the state’s longest-serving lieutenant governor, having been appointed in 1996 by then-Gov. Bill Graves to fill a vacancy. A moderate Republican, he won a full, four-year term on Graves’ re-election ticket in 1998.

The regents named Ed McKechnie (MUH’-keck-nee) as their new vice chairman. He’s a rail company executive and former Kansas House member from Arcadia in southeast Kansas.