Jody Lundquist has been appointed to the Board of Trustees at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC).

Lundquist was announced Monday as one of six applicants vying for the NMC board seat, which former trustee Chris Bott vacated earlier this month citing personal reasons. After hearing presentations from the applicants at a board meeting on Monday evening, NMC’s sitting trustees voted to appoint Lundquist to the vacant seat. She will serve out the remainder of Bott’s term, which runs through the end of 2028.

Featured in multiple past classes of the 40Under40 feature selected annually by Ticker sister publication the Traverse City Business News, Lundquist is a career CPA who currently serves as both executive director of Northern Michigan Angels and as partner/CFO of Boomerang Catapult. She is also the owner of Taste the Local Difference and a member (and past president) of Impact100 Traverse City. She came to northern Michigan in 2016 after being hired as finance director for Grand Traverse County.

Following the interviews, each NMC trustee was asked to name their top three candidates. Out of the five trustees who were present for Monday’s meeting, three listed Lundquist as their top choice, while the other two ranked her in the top three. Kevin Query, the principal broker of Manitou Commercial Real Estate, and Leah Moskovitz, village clerk for the Village of Elk Rapids, also garnered significant support.

During her presentation, Lundquist said she was motivated to apply for the board opening because of the important role NMC plays in supporting the northern Michigan business community.

“I submitted my application because I believe strongly that the future prosperity of this region relies on the success of the students at NMC,” Lundquist said. “In order to support the growth of the existing businesses and to get high-growth companies to either start or locate here, we have to answer the question: How do we create the conditions for talent to thrive in northern Michigan? And that answer is NMC. There is no other institution in this region that can do what NMC does for creating the talent pipeline and supporting the enterprises that desperately need it.”