About
Wesley Nugent has worked with the web before Y2K came and went. His passion for using the internet to help others has won awards, and fulfilled his desire to leverage emerging trends in pushing forward to learn what else might be possible.
Wes Nugent is now working in his 23rd year as a full-time as a professional technologist with marketing and communications technologies in higher education.
Personal Summary
Wes and his wife, Keri, were married in 2010 and are parents of two children: Joseph and Anna.
Nugent is past-president of the Wiles Hill-Highland Park Neighborhood Association, as well as past-president of the WVU Alumni Band, which was recognized as an award-winning alumni organization during his tenure.
He is a graduate of the Leadership West Virginia Class of 2004 and as a result of the program. In 2006, Nugent got involved with the City of Morgantown videoing City Council, Morgantown Utility Board, and various boards and commissions before running for office and serving on Morgantown City Council (2011-2017).
In 2021, Wes was appointed to the Mountain Line Transit Authority by the Monongalia County Commission to represent the county’s interests. Nugent was reappointed by the commission to a full term that ends in December 2024. He currently serves as Treasurer of Mountain Line Transit Authority Board of Directors.
In 2022, Nugent was elected to the Monongalia County Republican Executive Committee to represent Monongalia County Executive Committee District 1, as well the West Virginia Republican Party’s Senatorial Executive Committee for the 13th Senatorial District.
The Nugent family are members of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church. Wes ministers to the community, primarily as a cantor, leading others in song; he also serves as a eucharistic minister and lector as needed.
Wes is a sixth-generation West Virginian, whose ancestral heritage predates the state to some of the pioneering settlers who first forged the trans-Allegheny passage.
Nugent shares a spirit of technology and service inherited from bygone relatives who built and worked a new dominion including the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad and others who incorporated and led his Kanawha County hometown of Pratt, W.Va.
Work Summary with West Virginia University
Nugent came to West Virginia University in 1995 and graduated in 1999 with a bachelor of arts in international studies, however working with the internet has been a passion for Nugent even before his time with WVU’s Daily Athenaeum as webmaster (1998-1999).
Since 2000, Wes has been employed with the WVU Extension Service as a professional technologist and web developer with WVU Extension’s Office of Communications.
In his university role, Wes assists faculty and staff in Morgantown and across the state communicating the university’s outreach message, helping people put knowledge to work to improve their lives and their communities; people like 4-H’ers, farmers, families, and community development leaders are just a few audiences Nugent’s work impacts. He’s currently a member of WVU Extension’s Community Leadership Academy Planning Committee and finds the work insightful and beneficial both personally and professionally.
In 2019, Wes received an Excellence Award for contributions, results, and significance to the WVU Extension organization and its clientele. Nugent has won a number of other web and communications related awards, both professionally and personally, including other awards from the WVU Extension Service, and professional awards from colleagues with the Association for Communication Excellence, as well for pioneering web work with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Historical Society.
Work Summary with Morgantown City Council
On July 5, 2011, Wes was seated as an elected member of the Morgantown City Council; he was reelected in 2013 and again in 2015.
Nugent was named as Outstanding Public Official of the Year by Main Street Morgantown in 2012. He previously served as Chair of the Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization, in addition to serving other City Council appointments to the Morgantown Museum Commission and the Morgantown Parking Authority. Nugent also worked with Main Street’s Economic Development Committee as representative from Third Ward.
He previously served a term as Morgantown’s Deputy Mayor and as Council’s member on the Morgantown Traffic Commission, as well as a member for various special committees and other initiatives.