Kendal Corp names CEO
The Kendal Corporation’s board announced the selection of the organization’s next Chief Executive Officer. Vassar Byrd, formerly the CEO of Rose Villa Senior Living in Portland, OR. Kendal is based in Newark.
Before joining Kendal, Byrd was CEO of Rose Villa Senior Living, a nonprofit life plan community she had served for 17 years. Byrd’s departure follows the completion of Rose Villa’s 10-year master plan and campus redevelopment.
Amy Harrison, who has served as interim CEO since the beginning of the year, will resume her role as Chief Financial Officer upon Byrd’s start with Kendal.
The Kendal Corporation is a not-for-profit organization of aging services and senior living communities with 11 operating affiliates across nine states. For more information about The Kendal Corporation, visit www.kendal.org.
Bayhealth names physician services director
Bayhealth Medical Group named Eileen Giaimo senior director of physician services. Giaimo has 20 years of experience in healthcare operations and practice management.
The Bayhealth Medical Group is a partnership of physicians and advanced practice clinicians and operates medical offices throughout central and southern Delaware. Giaimo specifically oversees the primary and specialty practices that include endocrinology, family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, palliative care, psychiatry, and mental health services, women’s care, and maternal-fetal medicine.
Giaimo began her career as an audiologist, serving on active duty in the U.S. Air Force, and moved to hospital administration in the early 1990s.
Before joining Bayhealth, Giaimo served as the regional director for ProHealth Physicians, part of the OPTUM health system in Farmington, CT.
Ability Network names board president
The Ability Network of Delaware (A.N.D.), a statewide voice of disability service providers, announced it has appointed Shavonne Brathwaite, Ed.D, as its new board president.
Brathwaite is also the State Operations Director for nonprofit Mosaic in Delaware, part of a whole-person healthcare network that serves people with diverse needs in more than 700 communities across 13 states. During her eight-year tenure with Mosaic, she’s also been involved with A.N.D. by serving on its Board of Directors as the Chair of its Developmental Disabilities (DD) Committee.
Delaware Shakespeare name directors
Delaware Shakespeare will begin 2024 with two arts leaders leading the state’s largest professional Shakespeare company:
Mariah Ghant, now the artistic associate and literary manager for the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, will become Delaware Shakespeare’s artistic director.
Robert Tombari, now the program director of Goshen Theater in Goshen, IN, will step into the role of managing director.
Ghant has served a term on the Delaware Shakespeare Artistic Squad and has held various arts administration roles in Philadelphia, as well as being a former Arden Theatre Company Apprentice (Class 26), a member of Theatre Contra, and an improviser with ComedySportz Philly. Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, she is an alumna of Vassar College.
Tombari has been the program director of Goshen Theater since 2022. Robert and his partner, Peter, are both from Spokane, WA. While living in Washington, Robert co-founded The Spokane Shakespeare Society, served as Stage Left Theater’s board president, and was Spokane Ensemble Theatre’s executive director.
Sussex County Engineer retiring.
County Engineer Hans M. Medlarz, who was appointed County Engineer in 2015, announced he will retire from the post in early 2024. Medlarz will remain with the County for several months following that to close out a variety of projects and assist his yet-to-be-named successor during the upcoming transition.
Medlarz has worked for six decades of service in both the public and private sectors.
Park directors named
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control is pleased to announce three new superintendents at Delaware State Parks. Tyeast Amankwah is now the superintendent at Auburn Valley State Park, Diana Marsteller is the superintendent at Brandywine Creek State Park and Lindsey Goebel is the superintendent at Delaware Seashore State Park.
Amankwah has been with the DNREC Division of Parks and Recreation for 23 years, starting as an administrative specialist with Wilmington State Parks in 2000. In 2018, she was hired as the assistant park superintendent at Bellevue State Park. She has twice been called upon to lead the park as the acting park superintendent during staff transitions.
Marsteller comes to Delaware from the Maryland Park Service, where she most recently held the position of state park ranger lead for their training division. She previously worked at Elk Neck State Park and supported front-line operations at the Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area.
Goebel hails from Trap Pond State Park, where she was most recently the assistant superintendent. Her work with the division started as a seasonal naturalist at both Killens Pond and Trap Pond state parks. She previously worked in a civilian position with Denton Police Department in Maryland and held numerous positions in outdoor recreation.
Amankwah, Marsteller and Goebel are now responsible for all daily operations at their respective state parks.
Perdue announces executive appointments
Perdue Farms, one of Delaware’s largest employers, announced the following executive appointments:
Gregg Uecker, chief supply chain and operations officer
Uecker has joined Perdue Foods in the newly created position. He is responsible for the entire Perdue Foods supply chain, including live production, plant operations, transportation and warehousing, order fulfillment, customer service, food safety and quality assurance, procurement, and engineering.
Uecker comes to Perdue from CJ Schwan’s, where he was Executive Vice President of Global Supply Chain. Prior to that, he spent more than 30 years with Tyson Foods in key senior leadership roles.
Julie Katigan, executive vice president and Chief Human Resources Officer
Katigan will oversee all aspects of Perdue Farms’ people strategies that engage and develop talent, shape culture, and focus on associate well-being through active talent management, organization development, diversity and inclusion, and total rewards.
Before joining Perdue, Katigan was Chief Human Resources Officer for James Hardie Building Products. She has also held senior-level leadership roles of increasing responsibility at global business and function levels with such companies as Colfax Corporation, Electrolux, Mead Johnson Nutrition, and Ford Motor Company.
Perdue is based in Salisbury, MD.
Restaurant Association names foundation director
The Delaware Restaurant Association (DRA) welcomed Meghan Gardner as Director of the Delaware Restaurant Foundation (DRF). Gardner was announced as the new Director of the DRF (formerly the Delaware Restaurant Association Educational Foundation) in late 2023, which serves as the philanthropic arm of the Delaware Restaurant Association (DRA).
The Delaware Restaurant Foundation, and Gardner, as new director, manage the ProStart high school program curriculum, which has grown in reach to include 24 schools and two correctional facilities (reaching 3,600-plus students across the state), restaurant industry apprenticeship programs in Delaware that have been expanded to include young adults, re-entry and justice-involved individuals, and specialized training/employment opportunities pathways that have been implemented for adults with disabilities.
Delmarva Chicken Association names board president
The membership of Delmarva Chicken Association voted to return existing board members and add several new members to the nonprofit’s board for terms beginning in 2024. In addition, the DCA Board of Directors elected Amy Syester, a chicken farm owner with a background in all aspects of the chicken industry, to be DCA’s board president in 2024
The members elected to remain on the board are Rusty Covington, a senior grow out and housing manager for Perdue Foods; Zach Evans, community relations manager at Mountaire Farms; Jenny Rhodes, a Maryland chicken grower; Amy Syester, a grower who also works for Chemtrade Logistics; Far Nasir, a chicken grower, and a DCA past president; Jennifer Feindt, an ag lending manager at Horizon Farm Credit; Matthew Hearn, director of operations for Perdue Foods in Georgetown, Del.; and Robert Watson, senior director of live operations at Allen Harim.
Also joining the board are Dr. Michael Quist, production veterinarian at Mountaire Farms, and Matt Stevenson, a regional sales manager for Clear View Enterprises.
Syester, the 2024 DCA President, began her career as a flock supervisor and held many positions in live production over the years while working at Perdue and Allen Harim.
Chemtrade Logistics currently employs Syester as the sales manager of their poultry litter amendment product line. Her family has eleven poultry houses and raises over 1.5 million birds annually. She has served on the DCA board of directors since 2018.
