Goldey-Beacom College names dean of students
Goldey-Beacom College, Pike Creek, announced the promotion of Charles “Chuck” Hammond to Dean of Students, effective November 1, 2016. He will succeed the current Dean of Students, Bernadette H. Wimberley, upon her retirement effective October 31.
Hammond joined the College in 2003 and currently serves in several leadership roles including athletic director, head men’s basketball coach and adjunct professor. He manages a staff of over 50 coaches, administrators and student workers as well as supervises 11 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II sponsored sports.
He has been recognized as the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year, 2006, 2012; and in 2014, he achieved the highest cumulative GPA (3.28) among student athletes in school history. Hammond holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Philadelphia University and a Master of Arts in Education from Temple University.
Nanticoke Health names AVP
Nanticoke Health Services announced that Jim Watson has been promoted to the position of Assistant Vice President of Support Services. In this position, Watson oversees Biomed Services, Environment Services, Food Services, Maintenance Services, Safety and Security Services, Construction Services and Property Management.
Watson graduated from the United States Air Force Biomedical Engineering program and then joined the Delaware Air National Guard Medical division, where he was in charge of facility operations. Jim Watson served as a participant of Operation Desert Storm as a Biomed/Facility Equipment Specialist at Malcolm Grove U.S. Air Force Medical Center. He was employed at Nanticoke Health Services from 1991-1995 as Director/Technical Specialist and returned to Nanticoke in 2012 as Director of Facilities Management with over 20 years of support services experience.
Delaware Botanic Gardens adds advisory council members
The Delaware Botanic Gardens has added two new members to its Advisory Council, Henry DeWitt and Michael E. Riska. The additions bring to fourteen the number of professionals who provide their expertise to further development of Delmarva’s first botanical garden.
Henry DeWitt founded DeWitt & Associates, a company whose software is used by NASA ground networks to control satellites. In addition to currently consulting with NASA, he is a former commissioner of Rehoboth Beach who now serves on the Henlopen Acres Tree Committee. DeWitt is also a member of the Rehoboth Art League finance committee and is a former chair of its audit committee.
In addition, he is a member of the board of the Rehoboth Sister Cities organization, a former member of the Baltimore chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and Baltimore Fund for Educational Excellence, and a volunteer with the Sussex YMCA masters swimming team. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science and plays bagpipes for local events.
Michael E. Riska, of Hockessin, was awarded the Nature Conservancy’s Lifetime Conservation Achievement Award in 1997. He retired in 2011 as executive director of the Delaware Nature Society, where he had served since 1984, including directing its education programs. The Delaware Nature Society works to improve the environment through conservation, advocacy, and education.
Riska has also been honored with the Exceptional Leadership Award and the President’s Award from the Association of Nature Center Administrators in 1999 and the Delaware Center for Horticulture’s Mary Marsh Award for Horticultural Excellence and Service to the Community in 2015.
In retirement Riska has served since 2012 as a board member of the Delaware Nature Society, Delaware Center for Horticulture, Brandywine Baroque, and North American Clivia Society. He also advises groups including Children in Nature/No Child Left Inside and environmental studies programs at the Tatnall School (Greenville, Delaware) and Providence Country Day School (Rhode Island).
Riska’s environmental education experience extends back to teaching positions with both the Delaware Nature Society and the Tatnall School, where he was a science teacher and middle school science department chair. He has served in addition as an associate professor at the University of Delaware.
The Botanical Garden is under development in coastal Sussex County.
Karibjanian to head political communications center
Nancy Karibjanian, a veteran broadcast journalist and University of Delaware alumna who also has taught communication at UD for more than a decade, has been named director of the University Center for Political Communication
Karibjanian, who earned her bachelor’s degree in communication in 1980, has been an adjunct instructor in the Department of Communication since 2003, teaching classes in broadcast news writing and field production.
She has 30 years of experience in broadcast journalism, including positions in anchoring, reporting, producing and staff management. She was one of a core group of journalists who founded Delaware Public Media and launched Delaware’s first in-state NPR station in 2012.
Berkshire Hathaway manager named
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, Realtors announced that Walt Hurtt, GRI, CRS, has been named the new manager of the Brandywine Sales Office. “
Licensed since 2004, Hurtt was previously with Patterson Schwartz. Hurtt is a recipient of the Delaware Today Five Star Real Estate Agent Award, Chairman Award for Certificate of Excellence, Executive Club for Certificate of Excellence and Realty Alliance Award for Exceptional Performance and is a member of the New Castle County Board of Realtors Million Dollar Club. He is a member of the New Castle County Board of Realtors and is active with the Mill Creek Fire Department.
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, Realtors Newark Office also welcomed Naomi Ruth Ricketts as a Sales Associate. Ricketts is a member of the New Castle County Board of Realtors. Ricketts serves New Castle and Kent Counties.
