On the move – 1/27/12: Smith leads board of transit system

Smith leads board of transit system

Chris Smith, vice president of sales & marketing for The Barbour Group, has been appointed chairman of the Carroll Area Transit System’s board of directors. The transit system is a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation providing transportation in a shared-ride, door-to-door, advanced reservation service offered on a space-available basis and with driver assistance. Smith came to The Barbour Group from Eli Lilly and Co. in 2005. He leads the company’s property and casualty insurance sales division and directs its marketing. The Barbour Group, based in Westminster, provides surety bonding and commercial insurance for small, medium and large construction contractors as well as Fortune 1000 companies.

Accounting

Diana Boyd DeWitt, CPA, recently earned the QuickBooks 2011 ProAdvisor Certification designation. DeWitt is a manager in the audit and accounting department of Gross, Mendelsohn & Associates, of Baltimore.

Jennifer Benward, CPA, and Naomi Pinson have joined the audit and accounting team of Gross, Mendelsohn & Associates, of Baltimore, as staff accountants. Benward has five years of experience as a staff accountant at private manufacturing and health care companies. Pinson, who has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Maryland, College Park, previously worked for the Reznick Group.

Architecture

Tonia E. Burnette has joined Cannon Design, an architectural, engineering and planning firm, as principal and health care practice leader, based in Baltimore. Burnette will have responsibility for the strategic growth of the firm’s Mid-Atlantic practice. She previously was principal for Marshall Craft Associates, of Baltimore.

Craig Williams of Becker Morgan Group recently received the Award for Excellence in Digital/Hybrid Media in the 37th Annual Ken Roberts Memorial Delineation Competition for his 3D illustration, “Red,” which also received the American Society of Architectural Illustrator’s AIP26 Koichi Yasuda Juror Award.

Awards

Community College of Baltimore County President Sandra Kurtinitis recently received the 2011 Pacesetter Award from the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations. Kurtinitis has been CCBC’s president since 2005. The award recognizes a community college president or CEO who has demonstrated special leadership and support in marketing and public relations. It is awarded annually in each of NCMPR’s seven districts; district recipients automatically become a nominee for the national award.

Ben Shifrin, head of Jemicy School, in Owings Mills, recently was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Dyslexia Association, in Towson. He was honored for dedication and commitment to educating students with dyslexia and other related language-based learning differences for 30 years. Shifrin is on the executive board of directors of the International Dyslexia Association. Before becoming head of the Jemicy School in 2002, he spent 14 years as a special education teacher and administrator in Los Angeles. Shifrin later served as the head of Westmark School, a school for students with learning differences, in Los Angeles.

Baltimore-based financial representative Peter D. Tillinghast recently was named by Northwestern Mutual to its Forum group in recognition of his work in 2011 for clients seeking financial security. Tillinghast is affiliated with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network–Maryland.

Several employees of the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Annapolis received awards at the Lane Hospitality Executive Summit: Gail Terribile was named Director of Sales of the Year; Terry Duley was named Sales Manager of the Year; Christine Hoffman was named Comptroller of the Year; and Chris Borel was named Engineering Department Head of the Year.

Banking

Chris Wood has joined Severn Savings Bank as senior vice president in the Community Mortgage Lending group. He will work in the Annapolis headquarters. Wood most recently was sales manager of the Annapolis and Waldorf offices of Bank of America Home Loans. He has 23 years of experience in mortgage lending businesses in Anne Arundel County, including prior ownership and management of First Priority Lending in Severna Park.

Boards

Seven Baltimore-Washington-area business executives have joined the board of directors of the MPT Foundation, the fundraising affiliate of Maryland Public Television: H. King Corbett, executive vice president and chief lending officer, Bay Bank; Robert C. Douglas, litigation partner in the Baltimore office of DLA Piper; Nettie R. Johnson, vice president, corporate communications, Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions; Harry Kassap, principal, Kassap Investments; Kathryn D. Lindquist, chief marketing officer, Taylor-DeJongh; Richard Rynd, president, Rynd Enterprises; and John Anthony Wolf, chairman, Ober|Kaler.

Joseph Smith, of Owings Home Services, recently was installed as president of the Home Builders Association of Maryland. Smith has more than 30 years of expertise in commercial and residential construction, particularly in new construction and remodeling. He is certified as a graduate remodeler, aging in place builder and green professional. In 2010 he received the association’s Remodeler of the Year award.

Dr. Jon Koman, an orthopedic surgeon and medical director of LifeBridge Health Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation, has been elected to the board of LifeBridge Health, of Baltimore. Directors elected to the boards of LifeBridge Health centers include: Sinai Hospital: Nupur Parekh Flynn, managing director/co-director of marketing at Brown Capital Management; Ailene Mash Fradin, a former vice president of Zn Inc. and South Tek Trailers; Donald Himelfarb, a consultant who serves on the board of Arc Baltimore; Daniel Hirschhorn, chairman and president of the American Trading and Production Corp.; P.J. Pearlstone, financial adviser with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney; Leslie Footlick Schaller, director of media and marketing at Bond Distributing Co. Northwest Hospital: Paul L. Saval, president of Saval Foods Corp.; Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital: Robert I. Damie, CPA, trustee of the Herman & Walter Samuelson Foundation; Scott London, attorney at the Law Office of Fred S. London; Brenda Weil Mandel, president of Atlantic Construction Corp.; and Steven Wions, vice president at America’s Realty.

Better Business Bureau|Greater Maryland recently added seven members to its board of directors: Lt. Col. Ronald Edwards, CEO, Hague Quality Water of Maryland; Brandon Green, general manager of Cintas Document Management; Betsy Hayes, vice president of Chapin Davis Investments; Kate Kasabula, corporate sales account executive for the Baltimore Ravens; Tim Kassouf, marketing director of G.1440; Ellie Meyd, BBB Educational Foundation chair and vice president of Atlantic Financial Federal Credit Union; and Charles Sawyer, president of The Sawyer Group.

Harbhajan (Harry) S. Ajrawat has been sworn in as president of MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society. In 2006 Dr. Ajrawat and several other urologists formed MidAtlantic Urology Associates, headquartered in Greenbelt, where he is president and CEO. He has served as president of the Prince George’s County Medical Society, the Indian American Medical Society of Greater Washington, and the Indian American Urological Association of North America.

Consulting

Jeannette L. Gaines has been named chief operating officer for Dynamic Shared Services, a business venture recently launched by AVF Consulting founder Andrew Fass. The company provides accounting, membership management, dues processing, and reporting services to nonprofits and unions nationwide. Gaines was director of financial services at Service Employees International Union’s Member Action Service Center. Before that, she was controller and senior director of information technology at ACO Hardware.

Credit Unions

Sharonne Bonardi, director of the Compliance Division for the Comptroller of Maryland, has joined the board of directors of SECU. Bonardi has been assistant director of the Compliance Division, manager/assistant manager of the Hearings and Appeals Section and an administrative law judge with the Office of Administrative Hearings. She has a law degree from the University of Maryland, an MBA from Johns Hopkins University, and a bachelor’s degree from Trinity University. Also, John W. Dorsey, a SECU board member since 1975 and past chairman of the board, has retired. Dorsey was a professor of economics and vice chancellor at the University of Maryland, College Park, and chancellor of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Education

James Posey Associates, a Baltimore-based mechanical and electrical engineering firm, has endowed a permanent new scholarship fund. The fund will be administered by the Engineering Society of Baltimore Education Foundation with a goal of awarding $2,000 annually to a Baltimore-area student who is enrolled in an ABET-accredited engineering program, with a preference for students majoring in mechanical or electrical engineering. The first scholarship recipient will be announced this year.

Engineering

Gregg Iskra has been named a supervising engineer in the Baltimore office of Parsons Brinckerhoff, a global infrastructure strategic consulting, planning, engineering and program/construction management organization. Iskra is a water resources engineer with expertise in stormwater management design; erosion and sediment control design; hydrologic and hydraulic analyses; and designs for highways, bridges, drainage systems and outfalls. In his new position, he is responsible for project management, coordination and design for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System and stormwater management projects for state and county agencies in the Mid-Atlantic region. Iskra holds a J.D. degree in environmental law from the University of Baltimore, as well as engineering degrees.

Bryant Associates has opened a survey department in Landover, led by new Chief of Survey David M. Harris. The Landover-based company is an MDOT certified MBE/DBE with 35 years of experience providing quality survey, engineering, and construction management services. Harris is a Registered Professional Land Surveyor with 30 years of experience managing survey projects in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia. The firm has 16 offices throughout North America, as well as in Shanghai, China, and Mumbai, India.

Grants

The Carl M. Freeman Foundation has awarded $50,000 to Montgomery County nonprofit organizations through its Freeman Assists Communities with Extra Support annual program: the Court Appointed Special Advocate Program of Montgomery County; Eastern Montgomery Emergency Assistance Network; Hospice Caring; Mid-County United Ministries; Operation Fly; Rainbow Community Development Center; Rockville Presbyterian Church; Stepping Stones Shelter; Sunflower Bakery; Senior Connection of Montgomery County; and the Upper Montgomery Assistance Network.

The Abell Foundation has awarded Baltimore-based nonprofit Feeding the People a $5,000 grant to provide low-income diabetics with home-delivered meals, diabetes education and ongoing support. Feeding the People’s mission is to develop and implement a research-based model of nutrition-related in-home care for under-served, low-income diabetics to reduce the incidence of diabetes and diabetes-related illnesses in Maryland.

Health Care

Thomas Smith has been appointed director of palliative care for Johns Hopkins Medicine and the inaugural Harry J. Duffey Family Professor of Palliative Care in the Department of Oncology. He will lead palliative care efforts throughout the system in addition to the Kimmel Cancer Center. Dr. Smith is board-certified in oncology and pain/palliative medicine; his research focuses on neuropathic pain, care at the end of life, and bending the cost curve in patients with life-limiting conditions. He is a spokesperson for the Center to Advance Palliative Care and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Smith previously was co-director of the Massey Cancer Center Cancer Control and Prevention Program at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Massey Cancer Center.

Dr. Sara Sukumar, a Johns Hopkins Medicine breast cancer researcher, recently received $50,000 to encourage rapid translation of her basic research on biomarkers into a commercially available test that could predict the best treatment options for some women with breast cancer. She is co-director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Three of the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s 24 new Young Investigators are from Johns Hopkins Medicine. The Young Investigator awards are designed to encourage the most innovative minds in cancer research to focus their careers on prostate cancer. Each is awarded a grant of $225,000 over a three-year period; funding is also matched dollar-for-dollar by each recipient’s research institution. The three Hopkins winners are Michael Haffner, M.D.; Corinne Joshu, Ph.D.; and Tamara Lotan, M.D.

The University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore has again been ranked by the Leapfrog Group as a top hospital for patient safety and quality of care. The hospital is one of only two in the United States to make this list every year since its inception six years ago. The medical center is the flagship hospital of the University of Maryland Medical System.

Deloris Simpson Tuggle has been named vice president of human resources and organizational development/chief human resources officer of the GBMC HealthCare System. She previously was senior director of human resources and interim senior vice president of human resources for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Tuggle also served in human resources roles with the May Institute in Randolph, Mass., Lifespan Healthcare Systems in Providence, R.I. and Trans World Airlines. She also was a program manager with the Housing Services Co. in Boston. Tuggle is on the board of Benjamin Healthcare Associates, and previously was co-chair of the Diversity Committee for the Northeast Human Resources Association and an elected official with the Town of Canton Housing Authority in Massachusetts.

Insurance

IWIF, of Towson, has promoted several members of its information systems and loss control departments: Derek Meeks, to assistant vice president of information systems; Alaina Liberto, to IS director of project office; Brian Stephens, to IS director of architecture and integration; Scott Trickett, to IS director of infrastructure; and Kristin Klein, to loss control director. IWIF is the leading writer of workers’ compensation insurance in Maryland.

Morgan C. Gilligan has been named vice president, business development officer of the Mid-Atlantic region by Stewart Title Co. Gilligan, whose office will be in Towson, previously served as vice president, marketing and business development of Craftsman Developers. He serves on the board of the Urban Land Institute and the Baltimore City Mayor’s Leadership Advisory Board. Gilligan has a bachelor’s degree from Mt. St. Mary’s College.

Lending

Embrace Home Loans has opened an office in Towson with David Ratti as its branch manager. Ratti previously worked at Bank of America Home Loans. He is a former chairman of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors’ Finance & Education Committees, and a current member of the Home Builders Association of Maryland’s Finance Committee. Also on the staff are Senior Loan Officer Debbie Keyes, and Loan Officers Michael Ciresi and Michael Adamez. Embrace Home Loans also has regional offices in Rockville, Frederick, Annapolis and Waldorf.

Real Estate

The Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors has named Susan Myszkowski president of its board of directors for 2012. Gwendolyn Wynn is president-elect, Sharon McKenna is vice president, and Tasha Linton is treasurer. Stephen Cooper, Doris Hall-Scheeler, Jeffrey Margolies, Ian Parrish, Ashley Richardson and Jose Rivas were appointed to two-year terms on the board of directors, and Carl Herber was appointed to a one-year term. The organization last month named David W. McIlvaine its Realtor of the Year. Yolanda Powell was named Rookie Realtor of the Year, Sharon McKenna was named Distinguished Sales Associate of the Year, and Alison Noger was named Affiliate of the Year. Linda Dieter received the Community Service Award, and Peg Castle was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Transportation

Amine Faridi has been hired as a sales engineer by Roadnet Technologies, a Baltimore-based vehicle routing and fleet management technology company. He previously was an associate resident at Towson Global, a Towson University incubator where he launched and operated his company, Study Abroad Counselor. He has also been an engineering data manager for Ariba Inc., and a government project engineer for Johnson Controls.