Harding University’s board of trustees announced three new members at their semiannual meeting in Searcy on Oct. 31. The new members are Dr. Michael Justus, Craig Cheatham and Howard Wright.

Searcy, Arkansas, resident Justus is a family practice physician with the Searcy Medical Center and the White County Medical Center. He graduated from Harding in 1974 with his B.S. and from the University of Arkansas College of Medicine in 1978. He did his residency in family practice at the University of Arkansas Area Health Education Center in Fort Smith, Arkansas, from 1978-81. He has been a physician in Searcy since 1985.

Cheatham lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and is president and CEO for The Realty Alliance Incorporated, a network of the largest residential real estate firms in North America. He graduated from Harding in 1990 with a B.A. in advertising, and he graduated from Samford University in 1997 with his MBA.

Senior Minister of the Camp Creek Church of Christ Wright of Atlanta, Georgia, received his B.A. from Harding in 1968, becoming one of the first two African Americans to graduate from Harding. He earned a Master of Social Work degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In 2007, Wright was awarded an honorary doctorate from Harding and was named the school’s Distinguished Alumnus in 2011.

The newly added members will attend their first meeting when the board meets for their semiannual meeting in May 2015. The additions bring the number to 27 of men and women in Harding’s governing body.