Trustee Melanie Foster, Vice Chairperson
- 450 Hannah Administration Building
- East Lansing, MI 48824-1046
- (517) 353-4647
- mfoster@msu.edu
Elected to the Board in 2004, Melanie Foster previously served on the MSU Board of Trustees from 1991 to 1992. In 1997 she was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Central Michigan University and served until 2004. While at CMU she chaired a national presidential search and a comprehensive presidential performance review.
Foster was raised in the landscape and nursery business in Flat Rock, Michigan. For 15 years she served as President and CEO of a commercial landscape company that she built into the nation’s largest female-owned and controlled landscape firm. Based in the Detroit area, the firm also had offices in four states.
Foster was also President and CEO of a commercial landscape firm in Orlando, Florida, that specialized in theme park and entertainment related landscaping. She currently manages a personal real estate portfolio.
Foster’s memberships include World Presidents Organization Detroit Chapter and Trinity Church Lansing. She is a former member of the MSU Wharton Advisory Council, serving there for six years. Former directorships include Charter National Bank, Artrain, the State of Michigan Board of Landscape Architecture Registration and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America.
She has been an active parent for the past decade at the MSU Child Development Laboratory. Foster is also a Board Member for the Michigan Dyslexia Institute in Lansing, Michigan.
Foster received a B.S. degree from MSU in 1977 in Ornamental Horticulture. She resides in East Lansing with her husband John and three children.
