The third candidate for Ohio University's director of government relations will be on campus next Thursday to interview.
Teri Geiger -no relation to Alan Geiger, secretary for the university's Board of Trustees and assistant to the president -will be in Athens July 28 for two meetings with President Roderick McDavis and a lunch with the university's deans.
At 11 a.m., she will speak at an open forum in room 111 in Scripps Hall.
Since 1987, Geiger has worked for the Ohio Senate Majority Caucus, and since 1996, she has served as the group's chief of staff and adviser to the Senate president. She graduated from OU with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1986.
In her current position, she makes $109,803 a year.
Jack Bantle, vice president for research, chairs the search committee charged with finding qualified candidates. He said Geiger's status as an alumna was a factor in the committee's decision. And her connections are impeccable
he added.
The committee proffered its top choices to McDavis by early June. On June 23, he said he had been in contact with Geiger by phone and that she was the candidate he would probably go with.
When asked to clarify that comment earlier this week, OU spokesman Jack Jeffery said McDavis meant to say that all the applicants are very qualified.
Geiger, a 41-year-old Jackson, Ohio, native, said she would not comment on the process until it is finished. She said she wanted to remain as low key as possible until the end of the process.
Currently, OU pays $28,000 yearly to the Columbus-based State Street Consultants firm to lobby the state legislature on its behalf.
For federal issues, Bantle said OU has a contract with Beverly Jones, an independent lobbyist in Washington. She is currently under a yearlong contract with the university that expires in June and pays $36,000 plus $7,500 in expenses.
The OU College of Osteopathic Medicine retains its own lobbyist, George Dunnigan, who earns $106,362 annually. OU-COM pays half -$53,181 -and the Ohio Osteopathic Association pays the other half.
McDavis will determine the director's salary, and Bantle said he estimated that the new hire, depending on his or her experience, will earn between $75,000 and $100,000 per year. The university might set up an advisory committee to oversee the director.
OU has not had a full-time lobbyist since 2003, when Pam Siemer resigned, Bantle said. Siemer, who handled the university's federal lobbying efforts, left OU when her husband, Richard -then vice president for finance and administration -accepted the same position at the University of Kentucky.
OU is also in the process of hiring a permanent vice president for finance and administration.
In June, OU brought in two other candidates for the position -Adrienne Dziak, director of government relations at Case Western Reserve University; and Scott Williams, director of governmental affairs for the Ohio Association of Realtors. 17
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