Abilene Christian University added three new members to its Board of Trustees: Shelton Gibbs IV, Berto Guerra and Leslie Hutchins, M.D. The new members were elected at the board’s February meeting.

Shelton Gibbs IV

Gibbs is a judge of the 422nd District Court and Kaufman (Texas) County’s first Black district judge. He attended Southwestern Christian College and then graduated from Abilene Christian University and later, Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law. Gibbs spent 13 years as assistant district attorney for Kaufman County. He previously served as a board member for the Crandall ISD Education Foundation and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Terrell Excellence Foundation and Senior Connect.

He also is the pulpit minister for Lawrence and Marder Street Church of Christ, where he has served since 2012. A 2002 ACU graduate, Gibbs is frequently a guest speaker for churches, lectureships and panels throughout the U.S., and is the university’s Young Alumnus of the Year for 2021. He is married to Toni and father to Shelton V, Hamilton and Linden.

Berto Guerra

Guerra is chair/CEO of Avanzar Interior Technologies, an automotive interiors manufacturing company based in San Antonio, Texas. He also is co-owner of three VBM Auto Group Dealerships: Toyota of Boerne, Nissan of San Marcos and Nissan of New Braunfels. He retired in 2005 as vice president for legislative and constituency affairs for SBC (now AT&T). His responsibilities included oversight of legislative activity in SBC’s U.S. region, political action committee solicitation and monitoring, and external education for elected officials, regulators and third-party constituency groups. Guerra began his career with Southwestern Bell in 1978 as a business office supervisor after serving as owner or manager for various hotel, restaurant and movie theater businesses in Texas.

He is active in several professional, civic and scholastic organizations, including El Centro Del Barrio – CentroMed of San Antonio, The University of Texas San Antonio Development Board, YoungLife (Global) Board of Trustees, ¡Adelante! U.S. Education Leadership Fund, After School All Stars, and Conceptual MindWorks Inc. 

Guerra previously served from 2003-18 as an ACU trustee. He is married to Tammy Guerra and they have 3 children: Kelly (Guerra ’02) Myrick, Christian (’06) and Michael.

Leslie Hutchins, M.D.

Hutchins has been a neurosurgeon at Abilene’s Hendrick Medical Center since relocating from Shannon Medical Center in San Angelo in 2017. A 2004 graduate of ACU, she attended The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and Virginia Commonwealth University for her residency and fellowship. 

She is a member of the Association of Women Surgeons, Women in Neurosurgery, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons and the Texas Association of Neurological Surgeons. She has served on the Visiting Committee for ACU’s Department of Biology, and her father, Hubert Pickett, also served as a trustee at Abilene Christian from 1994-2009. Hutchins has a daughter, Talia.

ACU’s Board of Trustees is the governing body for the university, and trustees are elected at the board’s February meeting each year. They are eligible to serve up to five three-year terms. Trustees set policy, guide the institution’s long-term direction and ensure it fulfills its mission to educate students for Christian service and leadership throughout the world. 

— Wendy Kilmer

Mar. 5, 2021