NSHE starts search to replace official who made ‘child speak’ comment

A search committee began the process Wednesday to hire a new chief of staff and special counsel for Nevada’s higher education board.

The new hire will replace Dean Gould, who retired at the end of December 2020 from the Nevada System of Higher Education. He previously faced criticism after telling a regent during an August 2020 meeting to stop with her “child speak.”

It’s unclear whether Gould’s decision to retire was connected to the incident. Keri Nikolajewski was appointed in January as interim chief of staff to fill the vacancy.

On Wednesday, a six-member search committee made up of members of NSHE’s Board of Regents decided in a split vote to set July 30 as the deadline for job applications unless there is an insufficient number of applications at that point. Regents Jason Geddes and Carol Del Carlo voted no.

Seven to 10 semi-finalist resumes will come to the committee for review at a future public meeting. The committee will then decide who to interview. The target start date for a new chief of staff is Oct. 1.

Minimum qualifications include having a juris doctor law degree, a current membership to the State Bar of Nevada and at least five years of experience. The starting salary range is $180,000 to $220,000.

The position is “responsible for the efficient functioning of the Board of Regents as a public body” and duties include “providing certain legal advice to the board as a public body and to individual regents when acting in their official capacity,” according to the draft job announcement posted online.

Regent Laura Perkins suggested applicants should have at least five years of experience — a deviation from a human resources recommendation of seven years — saying it could help broaden the applicant pool.

But NSHE Human Resources Director Sherry Olson told the search committee it’s an executive-level position and recommended sticking with a minimum of seven years of experience.

“We’re looking for a high-quality candidate and so the requirement of seven years is really more applicable to this position,” she said.

Del Carlo said she doesn’t think five years of experience is enough for the position. But Regent John Moran, who’s a lawyer, said he doesn’t think it matters if a candidate has five or seven years under their belt.

Geddes suggested the application deadline should be extended in order to get more applicants.

With summer vacations and the Fourth of July holiday weekend, Geddes said he doesn’t want to limit the pool of candidates and the human resources department needs sufficient time to cast the net as wide as possible.

He also said Sept. 15 is a religious holiday — he didn’t specify which one, but the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur falls on that day — and objected to that start date for a new hire.

The new NSHE official will take over following Gould’s retirement. The incident with the “child speak” comment came during a heated debate last year just before regents voted 10-3 to change board policy to comply with new U.S. Department of Education sexual misconduct regulations.

Then-Regent Lisa Levine — who was filling a vacancy on the board at the time and is no longer serving — voiced opposition, and alleged fellow regents who voted “yes” were siding with rapists and violent criminals.

Later in the discussion, Gould interrupted Levine and asked her to mute her line, but she continued speaking. Gould said he didn’t want to “man speak,” but would have to if she continued to “child speak.”

Shortly after the meeting adjourned, a video clip of the incident began circulating on Twitter.

In an August 2020 statement, Gould said his reaction was in response to a July 2020 meeting, where he was attempting to prevent an open meeting law violation when Levine accused him of “mansplaining.”

Later that month, the board hired an attorney to provide “advice and counsel” in response to the incidents.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.