CLEMSON, S.C. — Former South Carolina Governor and U.N, Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has been named to the Clemson University Board of Trustees.
The school announced Haley joins the board, which helps govern the school, effectively immediately. Clemson is also her college alma mater.
“Ambassador Haley’s love of country, leadership skills, commitment to education, and passion for Clemson University will serve the Board well. She will be a tireless advocate for the University and all of its constituents,” said Kim Wilkerson, Chair of the Board of Trustees, in a statement.
Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina and is the daughter of Indian immigrants, and she often remembers her experience as minority in a rural area as being formative to who she became.
She is a Clemson alumna, having graduated from the school in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in accounting. She then worked at her family business.
She later became a state representative from Lexington County and in 2010 was elected governor of South Carolina, the first woman and minority to be selected by voters as the state's leader. Haley would be reelected in 2014.
In 2016, then President-Elect Donald Trump picked her to be the U.N. Ambassador to the United Nations, the country's chief diplomat at that agency. She'd leave that position toward the end of 2018.
She now leads a policy organization called "Stand for America."
Haley replaces David Wilkins on the board of trustees. Wilkins is the former South Carolina House Speaker who later became ambassador to Canada during President George W. Bush's administration.