Two new board members were recently named to the Tusculum College Board of Trustees. Dr. David W. Baker and Dwight B. Ferguson, Jr. are the newest members to help guide the college through service on the Board of Trustees.
A resident of Weston, Fla., Dr. Baker currently serves as senior vice president of field services for the DirecTV Group, Inc., where his areas of expertise include operations management, turnaround and restructuring, board and shareholder relations, leadership and teambuilding, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, as well as risk management, business strategy and development and international and joint venture operations.
In his position, he is responsible for Managing DirecTV’s $1.6 billion home installation and service network, with 17,000 technicians in 50 states. He has previously worked as an executive with On Command Corporation and Nightingale and Associates. Dr. Baker’s career includes more than 20 years with The DirecTV Group and its former parent company. Between 1998 and 2006, he held leadership positions with DirecTV Latin America and DirecTV Japan, as well as several senior-level financial and operational roles.
Baker received his undergraduate degree from West Virginia University, where he graduated cum laude. He earned a master’s degree in industrial engineering from West Virginia University and then a doctorate in mineral economics at the Colorado School of Mines.
He has received the General Motors President’s Council Award for Leadership, the Weyerhaeuser Achievement Award and the R.E.D. Woolsey Diamond Award. He is a member of the Financial Executives International Group, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences and the Institute of Industrial Engineers.
He is also a member of the American Production and Inventory Control Society and the Association for Computing Machinery.
Ferguson, retired, is a resident of Jonesborough. From March 1992 until January 2009, Ferguson served as president and chief executive officer of Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc., located in Erwin. 
Ferguson began his career with a degree in accounting earned with distinction from the University of Virginia. After graduation he moved to Atlanta, accepting a position in public accounting with the international firm of Main Lafrentz & Co.
In 1971, he became a certified public accountant and moved into industry, working in a number of positions, among them controller, group controller and chief financial officer. In 1987, Ferguson joined Nuclear Fuel Services.
Ferguson has been actively involved in the community, having served on a number of non-profit boards. He was instrumental in establishing the “Goal Card” program which serves Washington, Carter and Unicoi counties by providing incentives for academic performance. He received the Tennessee Education Association 2005 “Friend of Education” Award on behalf of Nuclear Fuel Services in Nashville for recognition of involvement in schools through a myriad of programs.
He pioneered the first program in Tennessee that assures that every graduating student from Unicoi County High School will have the financial support to further his or her education at a local community college and new instructional methods that have improved learning for school students in Unicoi County, including Direct Instruction for language arts and a fun and innovative program for math students called Calculating Caterpillar.
He and his wife, Beverly, have four adult children and attend Jonesborough United Methodist Church.
Both Baker and Ferguson attended their first Tusculum College Board of Trustees meeting in October.