Douglas County commissioner named 2023 Dole Fellow

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

New District 3 Douglas County Commissioner Karen Willey is sworn into office by Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. Willey will finish out the term of former commissioner Shannon Portillo, which expires in January of 2025.

Douglas County Commissioner Karen Willey this week was named the 2023-2024 Dole Fellow by the University of Kansas’ Dole Institute of Politics.

The Dole Institute announced Willey’s fellowship in a news release on Tuesday. It’s a partnership with the Kansas Rural Center, a state-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the long-term health of the land and its people through research, education and advocacy.

Willey is a Kansas Rural Center board member and, as fellow-in-residence, will engage with members of the Dole Institute’s Student Advisory Board to develop public programming for spring 2024 on topics related to sustainability in Kansas.

“We are excited to partner with the Kansas Rural Center to create bipartisan, student-focused programming around critical issues of rural sustainability and their broader implications,” Dole Institute Director Audrey Coleman said in the release.

COMMENTS

Welcome to the new LJWorld.com. Our old commenting system has been replaced with Facebook Comments. There is no longer a separate username and password login step. If you are already signed into Facebook within your browser, you will be able to comment. If you do not have a Facebook account and do not wish to create one, you will not be able to comment on stories.