Dianne Byrum was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2008 and again in 2016. Byrum is a founding partner at Byrum & Fisk Advocacy Communications, a public relations firm she started in 2006, with offices in East Lansing and Grand Rapids. Before that, she was the Michigan House Democratic Leader, the first woman to lead a caucus in the state. Byrum was first elected to the Michigan House in 1991, and to the state Senate in 1995, returning to the House in 2002. She served on the Ingham County Board of Commissioners from 1983 to 1990. Byrum is the current chairperson of the Board of Trustees and was the co-chair for the presidential search committee that resulted in the hiring of President Samuel Stanley as the 21st president at MSU.
 
She is married to Jim Byrum and they have two adult children and four grandsons.