Garrett College Board of Trustees

Jason Rush was originally appointed to the Garrett College Board of Trustees on April 1, 2009 to complete a six-year term from July 1, 2008-June 30, 2014. Unfortunately, he was only able to serve through December of 2011. On August 17, 2016, he was again appointed to serve through June 30, 2022. His current reappointment was July 1, 2022 to serve through June 30, 2028.

Jason served as Board Vice-Chair from June 2023 through June 2024. He was then appointed as the Board Chair from June 2024-June 2025 and again from June 2025-June 2026.

Jason grew up in Garrett County and currently resides in McHenry with his wife, Angie. He has two children, Morgan and Jake. He is a graduate of Northern High School and Frostburg State University with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science.

He has been employed by First United since 1993 and currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer with in-depth industry, retail, risk, compliance, and operations experience. He also serves as a Director for the Maryland Bankers Association’s.

He is also an owner of Rush Services, Inc., a family-owned and operated business in Garrett County, where he assists in many different capacities.

Jason has also served as the President of the Garrett County Agriculture Fair Inc. since 2017.

Karen Myers was appointed to the Garrett College Board of Trustees on July 1, 2021 to serve through June 30, 2027. She served as Vice-Chair from June 2024-June 2025 and again from June 2025-June 2026.

Karen is a product of rural Garrett County. She represents the 9th generation of her family who have lived and raised their families in Garrett County. Her ancestors were the early settlers along the Youghiogheny River in Friendsville in the mid-1700s. Her father and grandfather incorporated a progressive lumbering operation in the late 1950s, which grew into an enterprise supplying kiln-dried lumber to cabinet, frame, and furniture companies around the country.

Karen and her family founded Mountaineer Log & Siding Company in 1978 and that same sawmill operation would go on to produce and supply, by exclusive arrangement, their uniquely machined timber. Since then, she has acted as President and co-owner, taking responsibility for the overall organization, supervising the administration, developing marketing strategies and acting as construction manager for single-family, log-home construction projects. Around the same time that she helped start Mountaineer Log & Siding Company, she launched A&A Realty, a real estate brokerage that operated in Garrett County and the Deep Creek Lake area until 1997. From 1997 to 2001, she managed the Garrett County branch of Long & Foster Real Estate.

Karen practiced real estate brokerage in Maryland for more than 40 years and has taught the real estate pre-licensing course or trained nearly 40% of Garrett County Realtors, developed or assisted in the development of 50 subdivision communities, guided a Planned Residential Development and dealt with governmental regulations at all levels – local, state, and federal. She has also developed specific marketing plans for subdivision communities and for individual properties. She currently serves as an Associate Broker for Taylor-Made Deep Creek Sales.

Karen has received numerous awards throughout her career including The Daily Record’s 30th Anniversary Maryland’s Top 100 Women for 2025, The Daily Record’s Circle of Excellence (an honor reserved for individuals who have made the Top 100 list three times), and the 2024 Heise Entrepreneurial Spirit Award presented during the 2025 Garrett County Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Membership Meeting & Dinner.

Dr. Midcap became the 13th president of Garrett College in 2017, coming to GC after nearly 23 years at Chesapeake College on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He was Chesapeake College’s vice president of student affairs from 2003 to 2017, except while serving a one-year appointment as the college’s interim vice president for academic affairs. Dr. Midcap, who spent 12 years as a journalist prior to becoming Chesapeake’s public information officer in 1994, also served as Chesapeake’s director of admissions, associate dean for student services, and dean of students.

A strong advocate for statewide collaboration, Dr. Midcap currently chairs the Maryland Council of Community College Presidents (MCCCP) and serves as vice president of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges (MACC). He has served on the MACC Board of Directors’ Executive Committee and Legislative Committee since 2021.

Dr. Midcap is a former member of the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and currently serves on the Garrett County Public Schools’ “Blueprint” Executive Committee.

Dr. Midcap, whose doctoral dissertation focused on experiences of Dual Enrollment students, has also served on a variety of statewide workgroups examining ways to expand Dual Enrollment opportunities for high school students.

Dr. Midcap holds a bachelor’s degree in secondary education/history from Salisbury (Md.) University, a master’s degree in history from Washington (Md.) College, and a doctorate in education from Wilmington (Del.) University.

Madeleine Collins has lived in Garrett County for over 50 years now. Although her father was originally from the area, she was born and raised primarily outside the country, in Europe and Latin America. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from the College of William & Mary, then settled in Garrett County in the early ’70s, working alongside her husband at the Wisp ski area. They started their own small business several years later and gradually developed other businesses, culminating in the formation of McHenry Plaza.

Aside from her family small business involvement, she has taught prepared childbirth classes through the Garrett County Health Department, swimming classes at Wisp, and small business classes through Garrett College Continuing Education. She has also served as a coach with the local Manta Ray Swim Team for many years.

Madeleine has also had an active artistic career, including works in ceramics/pottery, watercolors, and most recently, garden/landscape design.

She and her husband, George, have three grown children as well as four grandchildren.

She has served as a member and president of the Board of Trustees of the Ruth Enlow Public Library, was a member and president of the Garrett County Board of Education, and has served as chair of the education committee of the Garrett Lakes Arts Festival.

George C. Edwards was born and raised in Grantsville, Maryland. He graduated from Northern High School, and then attended Fairmont State College where he received a B.S. in business administration (Cum Laude) and was named to the NAIA Football All-American Team as a fullback. He also served in the Maryland National Guard for six years. He obtained his teacher's certificate from Frostburg State University.

George served on the Grantsville Town Council and was a Garrett County Commissioner prior to his election to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1982. He served as a Maryland State Delegate for 24 years before running and winning the Maryland State Senate seat for Maryland District 1 in 2006. George served as the Minority Leader in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2003 to 2007. During his tenure in the Maryland State Senate, he held numerous leadership roles including Senate Co-Chair and Chair within various committees and subcommittees.

George retired in 2022 from the Maryland State Senate and continues to serve the Garrett County community on many organizations. He enjoys spending time with his family and watching his grandchildren participate in school and sporting events.

Kurt Heckman served as the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Director of Secretarial Boards and Councils during the first Trump Administration. Among other notable achievements, he co-authored the Secretary’s Advisory Board report on artificial intelligence. Prior to working in the Office of the Secretary, Kurt served as a senior advisor in the Office of Science, where he promoted nuclear fusion, high-energy physics, advanced scientific computing research, and the general awareness of the DOE’s science mission.

Kurt currently serves as president of vCalc, the online science and industry calculation site (www.vcalc.com), and served from 1996 to 2010 as president of Sycamore.US, a software engineering company that had 160 employees with offices in Frederick and McHenry, MD. His technical background includes large IT integration, program management, systems engineering, and software development. These skills were primarily employed in his career as an aerospace engineer building ground control software system satellites in Earth orbit.

He has also presented on AI in Society in numerous locations, including the Performing Arts Center at Garrett College in 2023.

Gary Ruddell, chairman of Grantsville-based Total Biz Fulfillment, joined the Board of Trustees in July 2022. The University of Maryland graduate has enjoyed a varied career that’s including banking, development, and fulfillment services.

In addition to serving as chairman of Total Biz Fulfillment – a business services provider for more than 66 international and domestic companies – Gary is a former member of the Board of Directors for First United Bank and Trust and a former director of the Garrett County Economic Development Corporation, which focuses on the creation of new businesses and the expansion of established businesses.

Gary and his wife, Luanne, live in Oakland. Their son, Paul, is chief executive officer of Total Biz Fulfillment.

Duane Yoder was born and raised in Garrett County, Maryland. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Eastern Mennonite University and completed his graduate work at the University of Maryland and West Virginia University. He served as President of the Garrett County Community Action Committee (GCCAC) from 1980 until his retirement in 2024. He was previously employed in similar roles in southern and eastern Maryland.

During Duane’s tenure with GCCAC, the organization emerged as one of Maryland’s most successful rural community development corporations, becoming a state leader in implementing innovative early childhood education and family development strategies. GCCAC spent nearly three decades addressing the need for low- and moderate-income housing throughout Garrett County, developing over 700 affordable rental units and supporting more than 800 homebuyers with down payment assistance. GCCAC has also fostered partnerships with federal, state, and local entities to cultivate asset-building projects and home mortgage and economic literacy programs directly resulting from the housing development work.

Duane served on numerous national, state and local boards during his tenure with Community Action and continues to be involved in community development and anti-poverty issues. He was also a 2002 graduate of Leadership Maryland.