New faces join Hutchinson Community Foundation board

New faces join Hutchinson Community Foundation board

Hutchinson Community Foundation recently welcomed three new members to its board of directors.

Esmeralda Tovar-Mora, Michelle Waln and Calvin Wright replace outgoing directors Susan Buttram, Alice Jane Hayes and Susan Richardson, whose terms expired. Each new director will serve two three-year terms.

Tovar-Mora is a case manager at Horizons Mental Health Center and an active community volunteer, serving as secretary/treasurer of Hutch in Harmony, as a member of the Health Equity Work Group and Nonprofits Connect, as a chairperson for Hutchinson Regional Medical Center’s Multicultural/Diversity Committee, and as a member of the Hutchinson chapter of the NAACP. As an immigrant rights advocate, she has hosted educator and student workshops and panels throughout Kansas. Her advocacy work has led her to an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and to Washington, D.C., to share her story with members of Congress.

She’s a Halstead Award recipient for Advocacy for a Special Population and is a 2021 Immigrant Star Award nominee by the Immigrant Support Services Network.

She earned an associate’s degree in science from Hutchinson Community College and studies criminal justice, sociology, and women/ethnic and religion studies at Wichita State University. She lives in Hutchinson with her husband, Michael, and their daughter.

A native Nebraskan, Waln has lived in Hutchinson since 1999, where she has worked at Heartland Credit Union for 22 years. She serves as vice president of culture, leading the human resources, education, marketing and financial literacy areas.

Waln is a member of the central Kansas chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management and serves on the Hutchinson/Reno County Arts and Humanities Council and the Hutchinson Ulster Project board. She volunteers for the Boys and Girls Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters and United Way of Reno County and serves as elementary youth group leader and choir director at Grace Episcopal Church.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication arts with emphases in advertising, public relations and communications management from Hastings College in Nebraska.

Waln lives just outside Hutchinson with her family. She and her husband, Bill, share three children.

Wright joined Hutchinson Regional Health Care System in 2015 as chief information officer and chief information security officer. Previously, he was the chief technology officer and chief information security officer for Chicago’s Mt. Sinai Health System. He retired from the U.S. Air Force, where he served in several telecommunications roles.

Wright recently became president of the Hutchinson chapter of the NAACP.

He earned a master’s degree in information system security from DePaul University and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Northeastern Illinois University, both in Chicago. He enjoys spending time with his wife and children.