New BAA president brings wealth of governance experience

Emily George Tinsley has a volunteer résumé a mile long. Significantly, she has added the position of president of the board for the Baylor Alumni Association (BAA) in 2010.

BAA executive vice president and CEO Jeff Kilgore couldn’t be more thrilled. “Emily is as cool headed, poised, and graceful as anyone I’ve ever been around,” he said. “But don’t make the mistake of perceiving that as a weakness, because it’s quite the contrary.”

Tinsley said her commitment to volunteerism began in her youth, when she volunteered at the church office. “I think it was my father’s idea to keep me off the streets and out of trouble,” she laughed. But the idea stuck. “I have been lucky to have a life as an adult that has allowed me to continue that commitment,” she said.

Tinsley is a 1961 Baylor graduate, although she started with the class of 1962. She graduated early to keep up with her husband, Richard ’61, who played basketball for Baylor and is a member of the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame. The Tinsleys gave the first endowed scholarship to Baylor’s men’s basketball program.

Tinsley’s many years of volunteerism make her a perfect choice for the BAA role, Kilgore said. “Twenty-five years of board experience in the complex areas of higher education and health care have given her a priceless education in nonprofit business and governance,” he said. “She understands good governance and fiduciary responsibility for nonprofit organizations. She loves to do research and makes decisions based on the facts.”

 Tinsley served as a Baylor regent from 1988 to 1997, and she especially enjoyed chairing the Academic Affairs Committee, she said. “What I loved about it was working with the faculty and the students,” she said. “What happens in the classroom at Baylor is really what is best about Baylor, and that is still true.”

Tinsley also chaired the Title IX Compliance Committee when Baylor was working on fulfilling the requirements of the federal law that mandates equal opportunity for women in college athletics. “Everybody now is comfortable with Title IX,” she noted. “But at that time, people weren’t even sure that someone would pay money to see a women’s basketball game. We live in a great time—and a time of great change.”

A lifelong Houstonian, Tinsley was the founding president of the Baylor Women’s Association of Houston, started in 1986. She said the group has been a great opportunity for women to meet fellow Baylor graduates, make new friends, and renew old relationships.

Tinsley has received the W. R. Meritorious Service Award from the BAA (1994), the Herbert H. Reynolds Award from Baylor (1998), and was named an Alumna of Distinction by the School of Education (1994). After her graduation from Baylor as an education major, she taught high school English for several years.

Outside of Baylor, Tinsley has served as a trustee of Memorial Hermann Hospital and Healthcare System for twenty-five years, also helping with their foundation and fundraising events. She has also been a trustee of the Interface Samaritan Counseling Centers and was its chair in 2002 and 2003. She served for many years as a trustee of the Institute of Religion and Health at the Texas Medical Center.

Tinsley said she is eager to turn her attention to the BAA, where she has served as a director for several years and was vice president in 1984.

“My time at Baylor was a life-changing experience, for which I am extremely grateful,” Tinsley said. “I got involved with the alumni organization as a way of giving back, but it turns out I am still the one benefiting from my involvement.”

Tinsley said that the recent outpouring of letters the BAA received from alumni indicated that they want the BAA to continue as an independent advocate for Baylor, as it has been for many decades.

“Now is the time to look for areas where the university and the alumni association can work hand in hand and move forward with common goals,” she said. “With innovative collaboration across the campus and around the world, we can get to work to create value and see that Baylor’s best days are ahead of her.”

The Tinsleys have two daughters, one of whom graduated from Baylor. They are active members of South Main Baptist Church.