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Bellingham port hires
Anacortes port executive
Dan Stahl, executive director for the Port of Anacortes, will be the Port of Bellingham’s new director of marine services.
“The Port of Bellingham is committed to bringing the most qualified, experienced staff to serve on our senior team,” said Port of Bellingham Executive Director Jim Darling. “Dan is experienced in both the public and private sector and has an excellent reputation in the marine industry.”
Stahl has worked for the Port of Anacortes for more than 11 years serving first as director of operations and for the past five years as executive director. Before joining the Port of Anacortes, Stahl was the port captain for NYK lines managing cargo operations in Seattle and was the stevedore superintendent at Marine Terminals Corporation also in Seattle.
Stahl has a bachelor of science degree in marine transportation from the Maine Maritime Academy and a master of science degree in ocean systems management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also completed the University of Washington’s public executive program.
“I am aware of the magnitude of marine work the Port of Bellingham is anticipating as it moves ahead with the development of the Clean Ocean Marina and the waterfront revitalization,” Stahl said. “I truly view this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join the Port of Bellingham and take part in these projects.”
Stahl will begin work in Bellingham early in 2006, after he implements a transition plan with Anacortes officials. He replaces Stephan Jilk, who is leaving the Port of Bellingham to work as the general manager for Whatcom PUD #1.
Hovde fills new position for Dunkin & Bush
Don Hovde has been named vice president of operations for Dunkin & Bush, Inc., industrial contractors specializing in industrial coating and lining applications, lead abatement, fireproofing, consulting and NACE inspection services. Hovde has been with the company for 25 years, most recently as regional manager of the company’s Bellingham operations.
Hill-Leavy joins State Street Insurance
Debbie Hill-Leavy recently passed the state examination to become a licensed insurance agent. Hill-Leavy works for State Street Insurance in Bellingham and already has nine years experience in the insurance industry. With her licensure she can now insure clients’ homes, autos, boats and RVs as well as provide life and disability insurance.
Raised in Ferndale and a 20-year resident of Custer, Hill-Leavy is a board member of Blue Skies for Children.
Oak Harbor representative receives AWB award
Rep. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, was presented with the Association of Washington Business’s (AWB) 2005 Cornerstone Award in recognition of her efforts to support the business community. The award is given to legislators who voted in support of the business community more than 80 percent of the time. Bailey received a 100 percent pro-business voting score from the AWB.
Other local legislators who received the Cornerstone Award include Rep. Chris Snow, R-Langley; Rep. Doug Erickson, R-Ferndale; and Sen. Dale Brandland, R-Whatcom County.
Layton gets under your skin in a new way
Edward P. Layton, a licensed acupuncturist in Bellingham, recently completed advanced training in the treatment of common injuries to the neck and shoulder, blending physical therapy techniques and Traditional Chinese Medicine. According to Layton, combining these modalities can enhance and accelerate patient healing.
3D Corporation expands team
3D Corporation, based in Bellingham and serving Whatcom, Skagit and Island counties, has promoted Katie James to marketing manager. James started with the technology management firm in 2002 as a purchasing manager. As marketing manager she will work with clients and vendors as well as assist the company’s corporate sales team.
3D also welcomes Bruce M. Roberts to its business development and client-relations team. Roberts is responsible for educating the Whatcom and Skagit county communities about 3D’s comprehensive IT services. He has a depth of leadership experience in manufacturing, electronic services and material management.
Poole for pets
Absorption Corp of Ferndale, makers of CareFRESH® brand pet bedding, has hired Ian Poole as brand manager to oversee its growing product lines, including the Premium Small Animal Diet line from Supreme Petfoods, Ltd., Puppy Go Potty brand dog litter and industrial absorbents.
Poole brings a strong pet industry background to this position after many years working for Central Pet Distribution and most recently as general manager of sales and marketing at Kent Marine.
Feline pampering specialist attends kitty behavior class
Molly McEvoy, a feline pampering specialist at the Cat Nap Inn in Sedro Woolley, recently attended a feline behavior class presented by the Seattle/King County Humane Society. The training focused on understanding a cat’s motivation behind what we consider “misbehavior” and how to correct those behaviors.
The Cap Nap Inn Bed & Breakfast Exclusively for Cats offers boarding, grooming and specialty services such as caring for diabetic cats and massage.
Skagit Valley College names San Juan Center Director
Denise King, PhD, of Bremerton has been selected to serve as director of the Skagit Valley College (SVC) San Juan Center, an extension of the college located in Friday Harbor. Prior to joining SVC, King was interim dean of the Social Sciences and Humanities division of Olympic College in Bremerton. She joined Olympic College in 1995 as a program administrator and instructor in the Theatre Arts department.
As director of the San Juan Center, King will be responsible for the daily operation of the center as well as leading the center’s development of partnerships that provide educational opportunities to the residents of San Juan County.
Burlington native honored by local Rotary
Burlington Rotary Morning Club member Jeff Rasar of Wallace & Associates in Burlington received the Paul Harris Fellowship Award in November. The award is the Rotary’s highest honor.
Jeff, born and raised in Burlington, has volunteered countless hours to the 24 Hour Cancer Walk, Rotary Auction and Skagit Hospice Auction.
Burlington Rotary recognizes past president
Burlington Rotary Morning Club honored past club president Don Powers with the Vocational Service of the Year award. Powers was recognized for his tireless “retirement” volunteering with several local organizations. Powers sits on the boards of the Rotary International Foundation, Burlington Parks & Recreation and Burlington Edison High School (BEHS). He also volunteers at the Lucille Umbarger School, BEHS Decca and BEHS PAWS program. Powers and his wife, Michele, run the concession stand at the BEHS baseball field, deliver Meals of Wheels to seniors in Burlington and regularly attend BEHS sporting and performing arts events.
Juanita McGee joins Objective DOE
Objective Design of Experiments, a Bellingham company teaching Design of Experiments nationwide, welcomes Juanita McGee as head of marketing and sales. McGee will develop business in Whatcom County. She is excited to share techniques used by large successful companies to manufacturers in Whatcom County.
Massage therapist Matteson expands care to counseling
Nationally licensed massage therapist Marie Matteson, LMP, RC, has added counseling to her list of services.
The emotional component of pain is widely recognized, but few have the training and skills necessary to address both physical and emotional areas in one visit. Trained in a number of modalities, including Swedish massage, Wellness Kinesiology and nutrition, Matteson tailors treatment plans to the patient. Matteson also has more than 16 years’ experience as an Emergency Medical Technician.
Matteson’s practice is located in Bellingham’s Fairhaven district.
St. Joe’s Community Council names new president
Andy Garcia, a real estate consultant with RE/MAX Whatcom County Inc., is the new president of St. Joseph Hospital’s Community Council.
The council is a volunteer group organized by the hospital’s governing board. The council serves as a sounding board for ideas, new programs and communications projects.
St. Joseph Hospital is a 253-bed, two-campus medical center and Level II Trauma Center in Bellingham.
New manager at Paws Awhile
Jan Purvis, a volunteer for the Whatcom Humane Society, is the new manager of Paws Awhile, the Society’s treasure-filled gift shop in Bellingham’s historic Fairhaven district.
Paws Awhile was created by a group of volunteers seven years ago to raise funds for the shelter – a thrift shop evolved into a gift shop. The majority of merchandise is donated by the community and consigned from local artisans, craftspeople and artists.
“This is truly guilt-free shopping,” Purvis said. “To shop and help the animals is a win-win.”
Peterson hotel industry ‘star’
Brenton Peterson received the Outstanding Lodging Employee of the Year for a Small Property award by the Washington State Hotel & Lodging Association. Peterson, 19, is a maintenance employee with Comfort Inn Mount Vernon as well as a full-time student at Skagit Valley College. He was honored at the association’s seventh annual Stars of the Industry program.
McGee strengthens knowledge of construction industry
Chris McGee, business manager of Business Support Services Northwest’s Bellingham branch, took part in the 9th annual Construction Financial Management Conference in Nevada. The conference was specifically designed for financial professionals in the construction industry, one of McGee’s specialty areas.
Topics he participated in emphasized new ideas in financial control and reporting, turnarounds in tough financial times, strengthening cash flow, compensation plans for contractors, equipment and fleet accounting, and benchmarking with peer companies.
McGee, who holds a masters degree in administrative science from John Hopkins University, has been manager with BSS Northwest for 10 years, and is a business counselor and certified QuickBooks Pro Adviser and trainer.
Experienced agents join RE/MAX Whatcom County
A pair of experienced real-estate agents, Denise Spreitzer and Art Johnson, have become associates at RE/MAX Whatcom County, Inc.
Spreitzer joined the Gallent group in RE/MAX’s Sudden Valley office. Spreitzer has sold real estate since 1982 and also has 20 years of experience in commercial property management. She is president of the Lake Whatcom Kiwanis Club and serves on the Sudden Valley Community Association’s board of directors.
Johnson, based in RE/MAX’s Bellingham office, has been selling real estate in Whatcom County and Arizona since 1973. He also served in the Air Force.
Both Spreitzer and Johnson focus on residential properties.
Horizon Bank hires new Whatcom,
Skagit county mortgage loan officers
Chris Price, Loren Adkins and Tiffany Bergsma-Evans were recently hired as mortgage loan officers for Horizon Bank in Whatcom County.
Price is located at Horizon’s Lynden office. He brings several years experience in the financial industry with a focus on retirement planning and insurance. Price graduated from Lynden High School in 1998 and received a degree in business from St. Martins University in 2002.
Adkins is located at the Meridian office in Bellingham. He has more than 20 years experience varying from personal loans to home mortgages. Adkins received his business administration degree from Central Washington University.
Bergsma-Evans is located at the Cornwall office in Bellingham. She has 12 years experience in real estate management having worked at Fairhaven Realty and RE/MAX Whatcom County. Bergsma-Evans graduated from Sehome
High School in 1988, attended Western Washington University, and received her real estate license in 1990.
Maia Halvorsen was recently hired as a mortgage loan officer for Horizon Bank in Skagit County. Halvorsen is located at the Mount Vernon office and comes to Horizon with seven years’ experience in new construction management and sales.
Halvorsen also has a total of 13 years experience as a real estate agent and associate broker within Skagit County, making her a knowledgeable player in the mortgage-lending field.
Yonally named mortgage adviser
for Whatcom, Skagit counties
Sharon Yonally recently joined PHH Mortgage as a mortgage adviser serving Whatcom and Skagit counties. Sharon brings to PHH Mortgage more than 20 years of exceptional service and experience in the local mortgage industry specializing in assisting homebuyers. Sharon has been a resident of Whatcom County for more than 27 years. In addition to her dedication to serving her business partners and clients, she is active in the local community serving as a board member for the Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Services and volunteering her time when needed.
Davis attends financial management seminar
Scott Davis, CPA, recently attended the Medical Group Management Association annual conference in Nashville. The MGMA is an organization of professionals dedicated to improving the performance of medical group practice professionals and the organizations they represent. Davis attended workshops focusing on financial management for physicians and other health care providers. Davis is a Bellingham-based certified public accountant and consultant with more than 20 years of professional accounting experience in private industry and public accounting.
Local Allstate agents provide investment products
Sylvia Cuevas and Bruce Prince are among an elite group of Allstate insurance agents who recently earned the personal financial representative title. The two will now be able to offer customers variable annuity, variable life and mutual fund products, in addition to auto, homeowner and traditional life insurance products.
Cuevas, an agent in Burlington, and Prince, an agent in Bellingham, received the personal financial representative title after passing the NASD Series 6 and Series 63 securities license exams and completing an extensive Allstate training curriculum.
Anacortes Chamber events coordinator named
Stephanie Hamilton has been named the events
coordinator at the Anacortes Chamber of Commerce.
Hamilton graduated from the Edward R. Murrow School of Communications at Washington State University in the mid 1980s. Her background includes working as the director of marketing at the Economic Development Association of Skagit County (EDASC), helping to launch the Skagit County Business Monthly magazine (now part of Northwest Business Monthly), and acting as interim executive director of the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce, ending her term as chairman of the board this year. Most recently, Hamilton was a sales director with Mary Kay Cosmetics and the owner of public relations firm Image Consulting.
“I am so happy to finally be working in the same community where I live, shop and worship,” remarks Hamilton. “The Anacortes Chamber is an awesome organization and I look forward to getting to better know our members.”
Burlington antique mall changes hands
Jody Belisle is the new owner of Perisseia Antique Mall in Burlington.
New editor joins Northwest Business Monthly
Hilary Parker is the new editor of Northwest Business Monthly. Parker recently moved back to Bellingham after a 10-year absence. She most recently worked for the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle as editor of its award-winning member publication WAC Magazine.
“I am excited to join the team at Northwest Business Monthly and look forward to taking the publication to the next level,” Parker said.
Parker is a 1995 graduate of Western Washington University’s journalism program, and says she has local journalism “in her blood.” Her mother worked as a reporter for the Bellingham Herald and her father sold advertising for the newspaper.
Tulett joins Northwest Computer team
Laura Tulett, owner of Data Stream Customizing, has joined the OSAS/Traverse support team at Northwest Computer.
Tulett, a graduate of Western Washington University where she majored in Accounting and Computer Science, has worked as a programmer and software administrator in Whatcom County for more than 10 years. Since 2001 she has supported, modified and migrated business accounting software including OSAS and Traverse, both published by Open Systems, Inc.
“I am happy to be part of a total solution at Northwest Computer,” Tulett says, “with the array of technical and business services that we offer we can truly partner with clients to ensure that their business software, hardware and network all work together to meet their business objectives in the best possible way.”
Northwest Computer is located in downtown Bellingham and has served the local business community for more than 16 years.
Skagit State Bank hires Pickering
Skagit State Bank has hired Gary Pickering as a vice president of business banking in Bellingham. In his new role Pickering will provide commercial lending and other business banking services to clients throughout Bellingham and Whatcom County.
Pickering, a 15 year banking veteran, most recently worked as vice president and senior relationship manager for Key Bank in Whatcom and Skagit counties and has also worked for US Bank in various capacities. Pickering has a degree in business administration and finance from Washington State University.
Skagit State Bank was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in Burlington, Washington
Bellingham Festival Of Music appoints new executive director
Joan Penney, currently the executive director of McIntyre Hall in Mount Vernon, has been appointed as the Bellingham Festival of Music’s new executive director according to an announcement made by Diane Norman, chair of the Festival’s Board of Directors. Penney will assume the position at the end of January 2006, replacing Andrew Moquin, who has served as the interim executive director. Festival dates for its 14th season are August 4-20.
Penney has been employed at Skagit Valley College for the last 17 years as faculty member (1984-1988), dean of academics (1994-2004), and the last year and a half as executive director for the McIntyre Hall Performing Arts and Conference Center. She has been an active member of the Skagit Valley Chorale for eight years and is currently chair of the Washington State Arts Commission. Joan has two degrees in music, a bachelor’s from Seattle University and master’s in vocal performance from Western Washington University.
Faculty exchange program connects SVC with Beijing
As part of a faculty exchange program with Beijing Foreign Studies University, in Beijing, China, Skagit Valley College has welcomed Ms. Cao Haiying to the Mount Vernon Campus for the 2005-06 academic year.
“I didn’t realize how necessary it is to really understand another culture before I came to SVC,” commented Haiying. “This exchange program allows me to enhance my language skills and avoid speaking “Chinglish” (an informal mixture of English and Chinese language), as well as the opportunity to understand American people.”
Since 2002, Haiying has been a faculty member and lecturer in the BFSU English department, teaching English as a Second Foreign Language. Currently, she is working on a book of practical English titled, “Avoid Speaking Chinglish” with the Publishing House of Electronics Industry of Beijing.
Architect brings state-level experience to Bellingham
Michael E. Smith, FAIA, served his final day as an Executive Board member of the AIA Washington Council on December 15.
Smith, a partner with Zervas Group Architects, Bellingham’s oldest and largest architectural design firm, spent eight of the last 10 years on the board, and is the only person to have served on the board twice.
During Smith’s tenure, the Council was instrumental in forging the coalition responsible for the Green Buildings bill, the nation’s first statewide sustainable design law for public buildings and schools. Smith also chaired the committee responsible for getting the state to adopt the International Building Code, which eliminates the confusion and costs of meeting three separate sets of standards by establishing a single set of comprehensive and coordinated national model construction codes.
“While it’s been a great experience and I’m proud of our accomplishments, it did limit my involvement here in Bellingham,” says Smith. “I’m looking forward to bringing that state-level experience back home as I get re-engaged in the community.”
Smith starts that community involvement with positions on the boards of the Downtown Renaissance Network and the local AIA chapter.
Prostock drafts Tweit
Prostock Athletic Supply welcomes Murray Tweit to its sales team. Tweit brings with him more than 25 years of sales experience. Tweit says he looks forward to serving the school and corporate markets for Prostock.
New Ferndale School District food service director
Alex Singer joined the Ferndale School District as the director of food service at the start of the school year. Singer is contracted by the school district and works for Sohexho, an international food service management company.
Singer is a Seattle native and a 1995 Western Washington University graduate.
Bellis Fair marketing manager attains professional designation
Cara Buckingham, Marketing Manager for Bellingham’s Bellis Fair shopping center, has attained the designation of Certified Marketing Director (CMD). The CMD designation is awarded by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), which aids shopping center professionals and the industry through education, research, information, deal making and action on legislation and regulation. Professionals attaining the designation have successfully passed a written examination administered by ICSC.
The opportunity to achieve the designation is offered to marketing professionals with four years of shopping center marketing experience and a broad knowledge of marketing principles.
Mueller recognized for risk management role
Western Washington University Risk Manager Paul Mueller has been recognized by the state for leadership in the area of risk management.
The risk management division for the Office of Financial Management announced its Orca awards in December.
Mueller was nominated for and received a risk manager’s award, which recognizes an employee who effectively and creatively promotes risk management within his agency while providing leadership in the area of risk management.
Western also was nominated for an award in the sustained achievement category, which recognizes agencies with the most effective risk management programs over the last five years.
Mueller became Western’s risk manager in 1999. Prior to joining Western, he worked 15 years in the Seattle office of Associated Aviation Underwriters, one of the world’s largest aviation insurance underwriters, where he was an assistant vice president.
Mueller is a Western alumnus, graduating from Western in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in industrial psychology. He received a Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) professional designation in 1992. CPCU is an organization for insurance and risk management professionals. He also is a member of the University Risk Management and Insurance Association and of the Public Risk Management Association.
Foster receives clinical certification
Dr. Denis Foster of Family Care Network (FCN) has successfully completed training from the International Society of Clinical Densitometry and now is certified as a clinical densitometrist. He is the only doctor in the region with this certification.
“Fifty percent of all women will have osteoporosis,” said Dr. Foster. “I believe this warrants our attention as family physicians to pursue new knowledge in discovering, treating and hopefully preventing the pervasive disease that affects so many women.”
To aid Dr. Foster in his practice, FCN recently purchased equipment to detect osteoporosis and vertebral bone fractures.
Dr. Foster is certified by the American Board of Family Practice, and is a member of the International Society of Clinical Densitometry.
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