Vanessa Emlich (Courtesy: City of Lincoln)
Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird today announced her nomination of Vanessa Emlich to fill a vacancy on the Lincoln Airport Authority Board. If approved by the City Council, she would replace Nick Cusick, who resigned his seat in July. Emlich would serve the remainder of Cusick’s term, which expires in May 2025.
Emlich works as the Director of Pharmacy Audit for Prime Therapeutics and previously worked for Lufthansa Airlines. She has more than 20 years of team-building and strategic planning experience and coordinated with government, nonprofit, faith-based, and private sector entities to establish youth programs in southeast Nebraska that received local, state, and federal funding.
She has served on the board of directors of the Mental Health Association of Nebraska for almost nine years. She also ran for a seat on the Lincoln Airport Authority during the 2023 election, earning over 26,000 votes and finishing as first-runner-up in the race for two open seats. Emlich has a Master of Business Administration from the University of South Dakota School of Business, a Master of Arts from the University of Surrey, and a Bachelor of Arts from Humboldt State University.
“I look forward to applying my experience in the airline industry and operations to service on the Lincoln Airport Authority board,” said Emlich. “I hope to use my unique background and skillset to expand opportunities for Lincoln and surrounding area residents to travel to other parts of the country and world.”
More information is available at lincolnairport.com.