People of Rotary | Shari Veil
Written by Libby Valerio-Boster, Intern with UNL interviewing Rotary 14 members.
Shari Veil is a former Oklahoma Sooner. For anyone that knows the history of Nebraska football, this is an interesting fact. However, Veil says she has become a Husker now as she is the Dean of a college at UNL. Now, she is doing wonderful work in the UNL and Lincoln community and has found her place in Rotary 14.
Veil hails from North Dakota where she received her undergraduate and master's degrees as well as a PhD. After college, she met her husband and worked in marketing. Soon after, she moved to Oklahoma University and started her work in academia as an assistant professor. She helped run a research center and center for crisis management. As her career continued, she got pulled into student crisis issues, became a department chair, and then an associate dean. Eventually, she became tired of trying to fix problems without the budget to actually make a difference. This spurred her decision to move to Nebraska. In July of 2020, she accepted a position as the Dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Not long after moving to Lincoln, Veil joined the Rotary 14 Club in February of 2021. She was first introduced to Randy Bretz while participating in a variety of Zoom interviews to get to know the UNL and Lincoln community. Bretz brought Veil to Rotary meetings as a guest and was instrumental in her decision to join the club. Veil says that meeting UNL alumni and networking with people in the Lincoln community is one of her favorite parts of being in Rotary. Along with the people of Rotary 14, Veil enjoys the “service over self” motto of the club. Rotary continually makes her proud with the sheer amount of projects the club is involved in. She describes Rotary as continually dedicated to helping the community with empathy. Veil finds beauty in how easy it is to find your place in Rotary as there are so many projects and committees.
Her favorite memories of Rotary both revolve around community. She is involved in the business networking committee and has enjoyed hosting conferences at Pinnacle Bank Arena. During these conferences, the committee meets with 20 or so companies to discuss best practices and how to work together. On a more personal level, she has enjoyed taking her fifteen year old daughter along to fill up the little free pantries. Veil describes the beauty of passing along a life of service to her children. For the last interview question, I asked Veil who is someone that inspires her. She picked Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Veil says RBG is inspirational because she worked hard, persevered, and spent her whole life not caring what others think of her. While it is undeniable that RBG is a national inspiration, Veil is certainly an inspiration for her students, her daughter, and the Rotary community.
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