SIU System Initiatives, Inc. Board of Directors
Bruce Holland, Board President
Bruce Holland serves as CEO of Holland Construction Services, which he founded in 1986. Under his leadership, Holland Construction Services has developed a strong company culture that balances personal family and business family, customer and employee satisfaction, and controlled growth that allows the company to maintain both its values and its close relationships with customers, while still providing the high-quality service, for which it’s known. Holland has personally assisted in the development of projects, including land assemblage and construction of buildings for clients.
Holland has served on the boards of numerous organizations over the years including leadership roles at the Leadership Council of Southwestern Illinois, St. Louis Regional Chamber, Regional Business Council, United Way of Greater St. Louis Board & Executive Committee, Southern Illinois Construction Advancement Program, Associated General Contractors/SIBA, Illinois Laborers-Employers Cooperation & Education Trust Management, Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce and the Military/Civilian Belle-Scott Committee. He has also been recognized through multiple awards including the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 Award for the Central Midwest. Holland resides in Swansea, Illinois.
Sara Salger, Vice-President
Sara M. Salger was appointed to the SIU Board of Trustees by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on June 16, 2022.
An attorney and managing partner at The Gori Law Firm in Edwardsville, Salger has advocated for individuals wronged by the actions of others, with a particular focus on representing victims of mesothelioma and lung cancer, as a result of exposure to asbestos. She has also handled complex benzene litigation and general personal injury claims.
She received her undergraduate degree from SIU Edwardsville, graduating cum laude, in 2004 and her J.D. in 2008 from Saint Louis University School of Law, where she received an international law certificate and litigation focus. Salger spent two semesters abroad during law school attending Università Cà Foscari di Venezia in Venice, Italy, and University College Cork in Cork, Ireland.
Working at The Gori Law Firm since the firm's inception, and a partner since May 2016, Salger is licensed to practice law in Illinois and Missouri, is a member of the American Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, Madison County Bar Association, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, Missouri State Bar Association, Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, American Association for Justice, National Asbestos Mesothelioma Trial Lawyers (member), National Women Trial Lawyers, and is on the Illinois Trial Lawyers Executive Committee and Board.
Actively involved in her community, Salger serves on various philanthropic boards in the area and volunteers her time speaking to local high school and college law classes and groups.
She and her husband, Blake Salger, live in Columbia, Illinois, and have two children, Sophia and Will.
Kevin Bame, Treasurer
Kevin Bame earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1979, and a Master of Business Administration in 2002 from SIU Carbondale. He is a licensed certified public accountant. Bame started his professional career in public accounting. In 1986, he began his employment with SIU and held several administrative positions with the university during his 31-year tenure. In 2003, he received the SIU Outstanding University Administrative Professional award. Bame retired in 2017 after serving as the SIU Carbondale vice chancellor for administration and finance.
Bame serves as a board member for several not-for-profit organizations, including the SIU Foundation. He is completing his 15th year on the Murphysboro Board of Education. He lives in Murphysboro with his wife, Lyn. They have two children and four grandchildren. The Bames are lifetime members of the SIU Alumni Association and support Saluki Athletics.
Rex Duncan, SIUC, Secretary
Rex Duncan retired in 2019 as executive director of Champion Community Investments (CCI), a 501c3 non-profit community development financial institution that provides economic and community development support in five southern Illinois counties. He previously served as president of the CCI Board of Directors since 2004, becoming the organization’s first executive director in November 2015.
Duncan is also retired from SIU Carbondale, where he worked as the director of community development and outreach in the SIU Office of Economic and Regional Development (OERD) and founding executive director of the regional Connect SI broadband initiative. While at OERD, he advised non-profit corporations on start-up and tax exemption processes.
Duncan has served as a board member of the Southern Illinois Economic Development Authority. He also served four years on the Community Development Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Duncan holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from Eastern Illinois University and a Master of Science in Workforce Education and Development from SIU Carbondale. He is a former city council member and mayor of his hometown of Du Quoin, Illinois.
Niki Allen, Director
Niki Allen is currently chief IT & operations officer and VP of infrastructure & operations for Boeing IT & data analytics. In her role, she is responsible for the global technology strategy, roadmap, infrastructure and operations to generate more than sixty billion dollars of revenue annually. Allen is also responsible for delivering workplace solutions to nearly two hundred thousand employees and partners across seventy countries worldwide. Since beginning her Boeing career in 2001, Allen has worked as a technical program leader across several marquee programs and customer segments to include the United States Department of Defense, Homeland Security, United States intelligence agencies, and foreign military defense ministries.
Prior to this role, Allen spent a year in retail serving as the divisional CIO and SVP of Technology at Kohl’s Corporation. During her tenure, she led the architectural design, application development, deployment, integration and reliability engineering for enterprise marketing and merchandising technologies. Allen also owned the enterprise data & analytics capability include strategy, platform and visualization capabilities. Before her pivot to retail, Allen spent nearly 20 years leading information technology and product management at The Boeing Company. Notably, she led the digital technology transformation to modernize the end-to-end digital experience and enable the digital thread across the full product lifecycle. In addition, Allen created the first product centric environments within IT, delivering agile software development at scale for the Enterprise.
As a servant leader, Allen is the executive advisory board member at SIU Carbondale where she recently helped launch an advanced analytics degree specialization as part of the SIUC College of Business. She most recently co-founding the DC chapter of Chief, an organization aimed at developing strong female talent. She is also a strong promoter of diversity and inclusion and participates in several external technical organizations such as TMCF, NSBE and the Women’s Leadership forum. Her focus on STEM and community outreach consists of development and recruitment sponsorship for Black Engineer of the Year, National Society of Black Engineers, Grace Hopper and Women of Color in Technology. In 2021 efforts in STEM were nationally recognized by Blacks in Technology, Inc as she was named Top 100 in Technology. Allen is an active member of the prestigious Executive Leadership Council where she also serves as a member of the IT Advisory Committee. She holds an Executive MBA from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from SIU. Allen resides in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
Kyle Harfst, Director
Kyle Harfst retired from the University of Illinois in 2024 as Associate Vice President for Economic Development and Innovation. In this role, he served as the inaugural Executive Director for the Illinois Innovation Network (IIN) for over five years. The IIN is a consortium of all 12 public universities in the state, working on initiatives ranging from workforce, research, and broadband.
Prior to his time at the University of Illinois, Harfst spent twenty-five years at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He started at SIUC as a Business Counselor in the Small Business Development Center. When Harfst left in 2019, he was Executive Director of SIU Research Park and the Office of Economic and Regional Development. He started his professional career as a banker in the state of Iowa. Harfst has served on the boards of seven non-profit organizations throughout Illinois.
Harfst holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Northern Iowa. He also has a master’s degree in business administration and a doctorate in Workforce Development, both from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Harfst resides in Mahomet, Illinois.
SIU System President Dan Mahony, Ex Officio Director
Dr. Dan Mahony has served in higher ed for more than 25 years-- in roles from professor to president. He became the 10th president of SIU in 2020.
Originally from Clinton, New Jersey, Mahony earned a B.S. in accounting from Virginia Tech, an M.S. in sport management from West Virginia University, and a Ph.D. in sport management from Ohio State University.
Before academia, Mahony worked in both public accounting and intercollegiate athletics. He is an active researcher in the areas of sport consumer behavior and intercollegiate athletics.
Mahony has received many awards for his work including the 2020 recipient of the Charles Whitcomb Service Award given by the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association (MOAA) which recognizes individuals who foster diversity and inclusion within the intercollegiate athletics community.
As SIU system president, Mahony has worked diligently to strengthen the ties between the system’s campuses in Carbondale, Edwardsville and Springfield.
Sara Musch, Director
Sara Musch is a 2007 MBA Graduate from SIU Edwardsville. She currently is a department leader at Edward Jones; Musch and her team are business consultants to the firm’s over 18,000 Financial Advisors and their branch teams.
Sara resides in Glen Carbon, Illinois and is a wife and mother of 3. In her free time, she serves on two PTO boards for her children’s schools and is a member of a local women’s charitable organization.
