INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Former Newfields President and CEO Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette has joined the board of trustees at Martin University, the school announced Tuesday.

Pierce Burnette abruptly resigned from Newfields in November. She joined the art and nature museum in August 2022, taking over after a racially insensitive job posting led to the departure of ex-CEO Charles Venable.

She never gave a reason for her sudden departure, and Newfields never explained, despite condemnation by 18 local community organizations and demands for answers by the Indiana Black Expo and Indianapolis Urban League.

Pierce Burnette, the first Black woman to chair the Newfields’ board of trustees and the former president of Hutson-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas, will now help guide Indiana’s only Predominantly Black Institution of higher education.

Martin University says two other new members are joining Burnette on the board of trustees: Brig. Gen. Felicia Brokaw, the Indiana National Guard’s first Black female general, and Mr. Haskell “Danny” Portee, an Army veteran and founder of Professional Management Enterprises, an Indy-based staffing agency.