Appalshop founder and architect Bill Richardson of Whitesburg and Shawn C.D. Johnson of Winchester, Mass., an executive with State Street Global Advisors in Boston, were elected to the Berea College Board of Trustees at the Board’s February meeting. Both men were elected to six-year terms beginning immediately.

The newest members of the Board of Trustees, architect Bill Richardson and Shawn C.D. Johnson.

Richardson is principal architect of Richardson Associates Architects, P.S.C., Whitesburg, an architecture and planning firm Richardson began in 1976. Over the past 30 years, the firm’s projects have included master planning for college campuses, private residences and a wide variety of public projects ranging from state parks, schools, and libraries and town planning and redevelopment, to health care facilities and commercial buildings in eastern Kentucky, Lexington, southwestern Virginia and West Virginia.

Richardson first came to Kentucky in 1966 while still in architecture school at Yale to work on improving rural housing in eastern Kentucky. In 1969, his ideas about the role of media in community development led to his founding the Appalachian Community Film Workshop in Whitesburg – Appalshop. Originally a grant-funded project teaching media skills to eastern Kentucky young people, Appalshop evolved into a national model for regional self-expression that is now a multi-disciplinary arts and education center producing original films, video, theater, music and spoken-word recordings, radio, photography, multimedia, and books whose programs and services reach several million people nationally and internationally each year. Richardson served as Appalshop’s director for five years before starting his architecture practice. In 2004, he was a co-recipient with his wife, Josephine, of the Kentucky Governor’s Awards for the Arts’ Milner Award for Lifetime Contribution to the Arts.

In addition to his master’s degree in architecture from Yale, Richardson earned a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics from DePauw University. In addition to his activities with Appalshop, Richardson’s community service activities include Downtown Community Design workshops in the towns of Whitesburg and Neon and Main Street improvement projects in Whitesburg.

Johnson is senior principal of State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), chairman of the firm’s investment committee and director of institutional fiduciary services, positions he has held since 2003. The investment committee’s responsibilities include oversight for more than 225 investment strategies worldwide with more than $1.4 trillion in managed assets. Previously, Johnson served as the firm’s Director of Global Fundamental Research.

Johnson’s expertise has gained him appearances on CNBC Power Lunch, CNBC Market Wrap, CNN Moneyline News Hour and CNN’s Street Sweep.

Before joining SSgA in 1997, Johnson held management, management consulting and engineering positions for more than 15 years in the electronics, communications, aerospace, defense and software industries. He also served as an Intelligence Officer with the U.S. Naval Reserve.

A native of Bethesda, Md., Johnson earned his B.S. in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. His father, Millard J. Johnson, is a 1953 graduate of Berea College.