The nonprofit corporation that oversees private support for the University of California, Davis, elected four new trustees at its spring business meeting. On July 1, Michael Child of Atherton, Calif., John H. Hodgson II of Carmichael, Barbara Jackson of Davis and Michael Sugawara, M.D., of Sacramento began three-year terms on the 40-member board. The trustees also elected Robert Murphy as chair and Charles Soderquist as vice chair for the 2000-01 year. Both live in Sacramento. "Each of the new trustees brings a unique perspective and a long association with the university to their responsibilities as trustees," said Norm Weil, who concluded his term as board chair. "They strengthen this organization and they are going to help our foundation advance and strengthen the university." Child is a managing director in the Palo Alto office of TA Associates, Inc., a national venture capital firm with headquarters in Boston. He has a 1976 bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from UC Davis and an M.B.A. from Stanford. In 1998, Child and his wife, Renée, funded a professorship specializing in engineering and entrepreneurship at the UC Davis College of Engineering. He also serves on advisory committees for the college and the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. Hodgson is founder and president of The Hodgson Co. in Sacramento. The company specializes in land-use advocacy, real estate and project development. Among his projects are Ashton Park Estates and Sierra Oaks Vista Estates in Sacramento, both of which have won awards as high-end residential developments. A 1973 graduate of the UC Davis law school, he is a member of the State Bar of California and the Sacramento County Bar Association. He serves on a number of civic and volunteer organizations including the Capital Area Development Authority, of which he is chair, and HOMEAID, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing housing for the transitionally homeless in the Sacramento area. Jackson is a longtime supporter of the performing arts at Davis. A founding member of the Friends of Davis Presents, she is currently a member of the UC Davis Presents Producer's Circle and a member of the Center for the Arts Campaign steering committee. Jackson worked in the English, speech and dramatic art department at UC Davis for a number of years, and at one time, she designed and made costumes for the Sacramento Opera Company. In honor of a 1999 contribution to the arts center campaign, the "green room" in the new performing arts center on campus will be named for her and her late husband, professor emeritus of history W. Turrentine Jackson. Dr. Sugawara retired from Kaiser Foundation Hospital, Sacramento, in 1998 after 29 years as a physician, although he continues to volunteer as a faculty member of the UC Davis Medical Center's Department of Pediatrics. Career highlights include the presidency of the Kaiser Hospital medical staff, teaching pediatrics at Tulane University Medical School and serving as Lt. Commander of the U.S. Public Health Services Hospital in New Orleans, La. Frequent donors to the university medical center, he and his wife, Sachiko, have created a permanent endowment to help support student teaching and residencies in pediatrics. Robert Murphy will chair the UC Davis Foundation board for the coming year, having served as vice chair since 1998. A partner and senior shareholder with Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard, he received his bachelor's degree in 1963 from UC Davis and his J.D. degree from UC Berkeley, Boalt Hall. He has served on the California Board of Regents and as president of the Cal Aggie Alumni Association, and he headed the campaign that raised construction funding for the campus alumni and visitor center. Beginning his term as vice chair, Soderquist is an entrepreneur and currently president of the Technology Development Center in West Sacramento. A former University of California regent and former president of the UC Davis alumni association, Soderquist earned a Ph.D. in agricultural and environmental chemistry from UC Davis in 1978. Formed in 1959, the UC Davis Foundation currently manages private assets of more than $75 million for the university. Included among the foundation's 250 income-producing endowments are 28 permanent funds that support faculty chairs.