2012 Voter Guide: Nevada Board of Regents District 4

The race for the Board of Regents in District 4 is wide open. The current seat holder, Mark Alden, cannot run again because of term limits.

Allison Stephens, a health care consultant, and Stavan Corbett, president of the state Board of Education and a nonprofit manager, face each other in the race.

Stephens has bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is a network program consultant for United Health Care.

She said she learned from her own experience trying to pay for college that keeping education affordable has to be a top priority for anyone on the board. And she noted, too, that tuition and fees throughout the higher education system have risen dramatically in recent years.

"Education has become less and less affordable," said Stephens, who has not held public office before.

She said she agrees with a pending rewrite of the formula used to fund the state's colleges and universities. The rewrite would shift money away from rural community colleges and provide small budget increases at Southern Nevada institutions.

She said shoring up the higher education system's finances would be a top priority if she were elected. Equally important is making sure the state's work-force needs are being met by the higher education system, she said.

"There has to be some sort of alignment," she said.

Corbett resigned as the chief operating officer of the Luz Community Development Coalition this year when the nonprofit came under scrutiny from federal officials. The group provided substance abuse prevention programs and had annual revenue of about $1.5 million. He said he is focusing on his campaign now.

He said he is an undergraduate at UNLV and the College of Southern Nevada, having gotten a late start on his education because he was married with children when he was younger.

He is a former schoolteacher whose first and only term on the state Board of Education is up this year.

He said he, too, supports changes to the higher education funding formula.

His top priority, should he win a seat on the Board of Regents, would be making sure the changes the formula calls for are put in place.

"Ensuring we have the right funding system that supports Southern Nevada," he said. "That it's fair. That it's equitable."

He would also try to increase funding to the state's community colleges.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.