League Reaffirmation - Johnson County Community College

Board of trustees
Although the Kansas Board of Regents is the coordinating board for community colleges in
the state, a six-member board of trustees governs Johnson County Community College and
sets the budget and the local tax levy. The trustees are elected at-large from the community
to four-year terms; three trustees are elected every other year, in odd-numbered years.
Shirley Brown-VanArsdale, vice chairman
Chairman of Facilities Committee and the Audit Committee
Shirley Brown-VanArsdale is the owner and president of Bruce Funeral Home Inc.,
Gardner and Spring Hill. She has been president, legislative committee chair, and
District 2 director of the Kansas Funeral Directors Association, a member of the National
Funeral Directors Association and a member and chair of the national association’s
Government Affairs/Political Action Committee. She was a member of the Gardner-
Edgerton-Antioch USD 231 school board for 20 years and of the advisory committee for
the Johnson County Vocational School for 16 years. A member of the Gardner Chamber
of Commerce, she served as the president and as a board member for six years. She has
been named the Citizen of the Year by the city of Gardner and has received the Kansas
Department of Commerce Award of Merit, the Business of the Year Award, from the
Gardner Chamber of Commerce (2002) and the Spring Hill Chamber of Commerce
(2005), as well as the Rotary Centennial Service Award for Professional Excellence.
She is on the board of the First Kansas Bank and Trust and president of the Gardner
Cemetery Association and the Gardner Historical Museum and served as chair of the
Gardner Historical Celebration. Mrs. Brown-VanArsdale has served on the JCCC board
of trustees since 1997.
Benjamin Hodge, trustee
Member, Human Resources Committee
A life-long Kansan, Ben Hodge grew up in northeast Johnson County, where he attended
the Shawnee Mission public schools. He graduated from Kansas State University in
2003 with a degree in journalism. He will soon complete a master’s degree in business
from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. In 2004, Mr. Hodge worked on the staff
of the Republican U.S. Congressional nominee, Kris Kobach. He was elected to the
JCCC board of trustees in April 2005. In early 2006, Johnson County Commissioner
John Toplikar appointed him as chairman of a special committee on eminent domain.
Mr. Hodge was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in November 2006.
His public policy record has been recognized by Americans for Prosperity, the Kansas
Chamber of Commerce, the Kansas Taxpayers Network, Kansans for Life and the
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).
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