The Washington University in St. Louis Board of Trustees has elected a new trustee to a four-year term and a new vice chair for the 2025–26 academic year.
Lal Karsanbhai, MBA ’95, is joining the board for a four-year term beginning July 1. In 2021, Karsanbhai was named president and chief executive officer of Emerson, a $17.5 billion global industrial technology leader based in St. Louis. He held several positions at the company before being appointed leader of its automation solutions unit in 2018, where he led innovations to help key industries enhance operations.
Penny Pennington has been appointed vice chair for the 2025–26 academic year. Pennington is the managing partner of Edward Jones, a leading financial services firm with $2.2 trillion in client assets under care. Under her leadership, the firm is dedicated to advancing the financial well-being of its more than 9 million clients through comprehensive financial planning. Pennington is a member of the Business Roundtable.
In addition, Dean Yamamoto, BS ’87, JD ’90, founder of Hawaii law firm Yamamoto Caliboso Hetherington, is joining the board as an ex-officio member due to his appointment as chair of the Alumni Board of Governors. The Board of Trustees also reappointed trustee Andrew Newman to another term as vice chair. Further, Tonya Edmond, a professor at the Brown School, is the new faculty representative to the board as chair of the Faculty Senate Council.
The board also elected four new undergraduate and graduate student representatives for the 2025–26 academic year. The undergraduate representatives are:
Bella Gomez, a rising senior majoring in Latin American studies and in global studies, and minoring in educational studies, all in Arts & Sciences. Gomez is interested in equitable public health policy and hopes to pursue graduate studies in health law and population health; and
Da’Juantay Wynter, a rising senior from Sacramento, Calif., majoring in educational studies and in American culture studies, both in Arts & Sciences. As past president of the Association of Black Students and a contributing writer to the WashU Political Review, Wynter is interested in using public policy to ensure a more equitable society, especially in K-12 education.
The graduate representatives are:
Michael Kudom-Agyemang, a dual-degree student and physician from Ghana, pursuing a master’s in public health and a master’s in business administration. Kudom-Agyemang, who works as a graduate research assistant in Tristan McIntosh’s lab, is passionate about bridging medicine, business and public health to create solutions to health challenges; and
Alyssa Labonte, a fifth-year PhD student in the neuroscience program at WashU Medicine. Labonte is completing her dissertation research in child psychiatry in Chad Sylvester’s lab, where she studies development of functional brain organization in early infancy. She is also heavily involved in science outreach as executive director of the Young Scientist Program.
