ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
CAROL VAN ANDEL Co-chair Grand Action 2.0
Carol Van Andel is a fixture in the West Michigan community. Recently, she became the co-chair of Grand Action 2.0, an organization that is focused on economic development. Grand Action was founded in 1992 and it has completed public-private developments that accounted for $420 million in direct capital investment, including private funding of $130 million. Other projects include DeVos Performance Hall, Grand Rapids Civic Theatre and the Secchia Center at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Grand Action ceased operation in 2017, but this year the organization relaunched itself as Grand Action 2.0. Its primary mission is to identify capital-intensive projects that could transform the downtown area, galvanize public opinion and support for those projects, and leverage public and private investment. As a philanthropist, Van Andel has financially donated to a number of projects and she holds prominent positions in organizations, foundations and schoolss. She has donated to the building of a health center at Mary Free Bed YMCA. The facility now bears her name, Carol Van Andel Healthy Living Center. This year, her family donated to open an outdoor entertainment venue in Ada, which is now called the Van Andel Family Pavilion.
EDUCATION
NORMAN BEAUCHAMP Associate provost and assistant vice president for health initiatives/dean MSU College of Human Medicine, Grand Rapids
As dean of the MSU College of Human Medicine, Norman Beauchamp leads medical school and research operations in downtown Grand Rapids. Working on an expansion of the research campus with a third facility, his goal is to put the area on the map for health care innovation. Beauchamp started his role over four years ago and since has been dedicated to expansion of the field and overall economic development locally. Prior, he was a professor and chairperson of the department of radiology at the University of Washington. EDUCATION: Michigan State University (B), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (M), Michigan State University College of Human Medicine (M.D.) MEDICAL SCHOOL RESIDENCY AND FELLOWSHIPS: The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine CHILDHOOD: At age 7, his family moved from Boston to a farm in St. Johns, Michigan, where he helped raise 200 chickens and 20 cows until college. EARLY CAREER: Substantially increased the number of patients treated at Johns Hopkins Medical Institution by reducing wait times BOARDS: Van Andel Institute, The Right Place, formerly Grand Action
EDUCATION: Hope College (B)
DAVID EISLER
President Ferris State University, Big Rapids/Grand Rapids
Dr. David Eisler has served as president of Ferris State University since July 2003 and is the senior public university president in Michigan. Under his leadership, the university has embarked on an ambitious program of curricular innovation, classroom renovation, cooperative programs with high schools and community colleges, and providing opportunity for students who may not otherwise attend college. Under his leadership, Ferris State was the first university selected to receive the Uncommon Greatness Award from the Center for Community Leadership of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce. In 2018, Eisler was chosen to present the President-to-Presidents lecture to his nearly 400 presidential colleagues of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
J.C. HUIZENGA
Chairman, founder National Heritage Academies, Grand Rapids
EDUCATION: University of Michigan (B, Ph.D.), Yale University (M) FIRST JOB: Woodwinds instructor and assisting with the band program at Troy State University in Alabama. FUNNIEST WORK EXPERIENCE: When I was a dean of fine arts at Eastern New Mexico University, a young man was walking the hall and making a disturbance. I went out to see what the problem was and walked with him. He was complaining about the dean, which was me. I said, “Well, he’s like that” and walked back to my office. He stopped complaining.
44 THE GRAND RAPIDS 200
J.C. Huizenga founded National Heritage Academies in 1995 and now chairs the organization that serves more than 60,000 students in 90 charter schools across nine states. In 2008, Huizenga launched a high school initiative, PrepNet, which operates seven charter high schools serving more than 2,500 students in Michigan. Huizenga founded and is the chairman of Huizenga Group, which manages a portfolio of businesses providing products and services for customers and manufacturers in the security, automotive and pharmaceutical industries, and consumer goods. Huizenga has chaired the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, served as a national judge for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and serves on the Grand Rapids Promise Zone Authority. EDUCATION: Hope College (B), Michigan State University (M) BOARDS: Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Acton Institute, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, Grand Valley State University Foundation and Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, Salvation Army national advisory board, Seidman School of Business advisory board FIRST JOB: Washing garbage trucks BEST ADVICE: Never confuse activity with accomplishment DOWNTIME: At our lake house in Holland during the summer
