Members of the Harold O. Young VFW Post 2394 presented awards to several city employees during a banquet last Saturday, Feb. 18.

The VFW named Lisa Lord as Teacher of the Year, Lt. Paul Collina as Firefighter of the Year and Robert Mann, the school resource officer, as Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. (Click on the link, at left, to view a photo gallery from the awards banquet.)

The awards program has been held before, but not during the past few years — the VFW resurrected the tradition this year under the suggestion of Robert Driscoll, commander of VFW Post 2394 and chairman of the Melrose Veterans Advisory Board. The VFW selected the three honorees, with input from department heads.

Law Enforcement Officer of the Year

The letter written to nominate Officer Robert Mann recognized his status as one of the founding members of the Melrose Police Department’s Color Guard, supporting veteran parades and ceremonies and firefighter funerals and more, as well as his membership in the Regional Response Team that responds to emergencies throughout Middlesex County.

“Law enforcement has been a lifelong passion for Officer Mann from his humble beginnings as an undercover store detective to his honorable service as a distinguished member of the 972nd Military Police with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan to his duty today as the school resource officer in his hometown of Melrose. Put simply and truthfully, Officer Robert Mann is the embodiment of the values the VFW looks for in the Law Enforcement Officer of the Year,” the nomination letter said.

Mann’s efforts as the Melrose school resource officer were also recognized, including the many programs he implemented — such as a coat drive to help less fortunate students stay warm in the winter months.

Mann is an executive board member of Melrose’s Operation Resolve project, which is helping raise money to send World War II veterans to see their monument in Washington, DC. (Read a story about the program in the Feb. 9 edition of the Free Press or online at wickedlocalmelrose.com/news.)

Mann and his father also raise money to provide calling cards to local servicemen and women serving overseas.

His knowledge of the law, professionalism and dedication also contributed to his selection as Law Enforcement Officer of the Year.

“He is an independent thinker, pays attention to detail, and his energetic approach to his job is highly regarded by his supervisors, peers and the Melrose community. He is a team player with outstanding personal, academic and professional potential,” the nomination letter said.

Teacher of the Year

Lisa Lord has been a social studies teacher at Melrose High School for the past 14 years.

Many of her projects have encouraged partnership between veterans and students. She established an oral history project that brings local veterans — from World War II to today — into the classroom to speak with her students about their experiences and responsibilities in the military.

Begun in 2007, the project is ongoing. As part of the program, students’ biographies of veterans have been published in the Free Press and other local papers in recognition of Veterans Day.

As part of the oral history project, Lord lined up veterans from various conflicts, including a WWII veteran who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and a live conversation via Skype with an MHS alumni student who is serving in Afghanistan with the Air Force.

“Lisa Lord is quite simply a great teacher with much admiration and respect for the men and women in uniform. She is most deserving of the VFW’s Teacher of the Year Award,” her nomination letter said.

One year, Lord and her students attempted to create “Victory Gardens” in the classroom as part of their World War II studies. This year she is also hoping to collaborate with a local elementary school that started a community garden, which connects to a classroom lesson.

Lord has undertaken a project to create an elaborate archive of information about Melrose veterans. By working with veterans and other community members, she has an extensive collection of war-era magazines, newspapers, photographs and other artifacts. She is collecting veterans’ stories and obituaries from local papers to accompany the archive. At some point, she hopes to involve students in the project.

Firefighter of the Year

Paul Collina is a fire lieutenant, and is trained as a paramedic for the department. He helped Melrose’s city and fire officials reach their goal of restoring emergency medical services to an in-house program, which it had been before it was contracted out in the early 1990s.

Collina helped establish the policies and procedures needed for the fire department to offer ambulance services, worked through the challenging state licensing process, researched the purchase of a new ambulance and advised on the final choice, and spearheaded all the training for department members.

“The department began successfully operating on June 1, 2011 and it has been a tremendous success due to the efforts of Lt. Collina. He is without question personally responsible for the success of this new venture,” his nomination letter said.

The letter quoted Collina’s motto during the two-year conversion process: “If we are going to do it, we have to do it right.”

According to the letter, Collina helped make ambulance services in-house by working with state inspectors, the director of the city’s billing company, the medical director and emergency room staff of the Melrose-Wakefield Hospital, and the staff at Cataldo Ambulance.

At one point in the process, he even traveled out of state to observe the ambulance manufacturer’s factory.

“His depth of experience and his ‘give me the ball’ attitude was instrumental in the accomplishment of this department’s historic milestone,” the nomination letter said.

Excerpt from:
VFW presents awards to 3 community leaders

Originally published February 22, 2012 at 3:15 PM | Page modified February 22, 2012 at 10:30 PM

BREMERTON — By all appearances, it was a normal ending to a typical school day.

Students and staff at Bremerton's Armin Jahr Elementary School were preparing for the final bell at Wednesday's early dismissal time of 1:30 p.m. Outside, parents were driving or walking up to the school to collect their children.

But moments before the end of school, a single gunshot was fired in a third-grade classroom, striking 8-year-old Amina Bowman. The girl was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she was listed in critical condition Wednesday night.

Bremerton police believe the shooting was accidental.

Another student had brought the loaded handgun to school, police said. The handgun accidentally discharged while it was in the boy's backpack, and the bullet struck Amina, police said.

Police said a handgun was recovered in the classroom.

The student who took the handgun to school has been booked into the Kitsap County Juvenile Detention Center for investigation of unlawful possession of a firearm, bringing a dangerous weapon onto school grounds and third-degree assault.

Investigators are trying to determine where the boy obtained the handgun.

They released few details about the boy, reportedly a 9-year-old third-grader.

The student had recently transferred to the school, Bill Poss, husband of teacher Natalie Poss, told KIRO-TV.

"I don't know a lot about the kid other than my wife's been coming home talking about him, and he's been a real problem in the class, and she's been very concerned about it," said Bill Poss.

Amina was first taken to Bremerton's Harrison Hospital before being airlifted to Harborview, where she underwent about two hours of exploratory surgery to determine the extent of her injuries.

The bullet reportedly struck Amina's arm and then went into her abdomen, but hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg would not disclose details of her injury.

Amina's grandmother, Cindy Kocer, told KING-TV that her family expects the girl will be OK, but asked the community for prayers.

Bremerton police and emergency crews were dispatched to the school at 1:29 p.m. in response to a call that a student had been shot by another student.

The school was immediately locked down after the shooting, and all students were confined to their classrooms.

Jennifer Stevens was walking to the school to pick up three of her children when she saw "police cars flying down the road."

Another young mother told Stevens a child had been shot at the school.

Stevens said her heart almost stopped. "Is it one of mine?" she thought.

Seconds later, another woman, who she believes was a relative or friend of Amina, ran toward the girl's home screaming, "It's her! It's her!" Stevens said.

Parent Sharrae Sevier, of Port Orchard, said her son, Darnell, was in a classroom next to the room where Amina was shot. He told his mother he heard a loud bang and a short time later a voice came over the intercom telling students the school was under lockdown.

"They were all huddled together under the teacher's desk, and everything was really quiet," Sevier said.

Darnell later told his mother he was confused and had no idea what had happened, she said. He didn't realize the loud bang had been a gunshot.

The lockdown was lifted sometime after 2 p.m., and children rushed to tearful reunions with their parents in the school gym, Sevier said.

"It was probably one of the scariest days of my life," said Sevier, 26. "A little over an hour was like an eternity to me, just not knowing."

Parents who gathered outside the school wondered how a 9-year-old boy could have obtained a loaded firearm and taken it into a classroom.

"What I keep wondering," said Sara Sisk, a 28-year-old alumni of Armin Jahr, "is how in the world did a third-grader get ahold of a gun?"

Taylor Sumpter, 19, who has lived across the street from the school all his life, did not hear gunfire but looked outside about 1:30 and saw a police car parked on his lawn.

"I went outside and I saw a whole bunch of cop cars swarming around the school and swarming the neighborhood." He saw a couple of helicopters, one with a news crew and the other coming to evacuate the wounded girl.

"I didn't stay out there long," he said. "I have a young cousin here, and I wanted to make sure he was safe."

Amina was airlifted to Harborview, arriving at 3 p.m. She was in surgery in less than five minutes later, said Gregg, the hospital spokeswoman.

The girl was out of surgery around 5 p.m. and listed in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit.

Kocer, Amina's grandmother, said the girl is about to turn 9.

Neighbors of the girl, who lives less than two blocks from the school, described the family as warm and friendly.

Both of the Bowman children, Amina and an older brother who attends Bremerton High School, are "good kids," said neighbor Kenneth Brooks. "They've never been in any trouble."

Amina, who has long dark hair that hangs past her waist, is something of a tomboy, said other neighbors.

She is often out in her yard or street, riding her bike, playing basketball with the two girls across the street or running around, said Brooks and another neighbor, Alan Goff.

Brooks said he doubted that Amina, who was always smiling, could have been an intentional target. "She was a sweet kid, definitely not the type to bully anybody."

His son, Jarius Brooks, a Bremerton High School student, he believed Amina "must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Armin Jahr will reopen Thursday, said Linda Jenkins, the district's assistant superintendent. The school has about 400 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Counselors will be on hand and substitute teachers will also be available to assist any teachers who need help, she said.

Bremerton School Board member Dave Boynton called the shooting a "rare, isolated incident."

He said the School Board would review safety procedures after seeing the results of the police investigation.

"Right now our concern is with the child and how the child's doing," he said. "Obviously this is a tragedy."

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice announced that violent crime at the nation's schools is declining. The number of violent deaths declined to 33 in the 2009-10 school year, the lowest number on record since the agencies began collecting data in 1992

In the previous school year, there were 38 such deaths.

But the new government data reports an increase in cyber bullying and youth suicides.

The shooting is the first at a Washington school since February 2010, when 30-year-old Jed Waits, of Ellensburg, fatally shot Jennifer Paulson, a special-education teacher at Birney Elementary School in Tacoma. Waits later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

In October, Snohomish High School freshmen April Lutz and Bekah Staudacher were stabbed in a school restroom, allegedly by another student.

Seattle Times staff reporters Jack Broom, Brian M. Rosenthal and Emily Heffter and news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report, which includes information from The Associated Press.

Original post:
Girl, 8, shot by accident in Bremerton school

February 21, 2012, 11:40 AM EST

By Oliver Staley

(Updates to add year of Snyder’s Ph.D. in 39th paragraph.)

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- When Marion McCollom Hampton graduated from the Yale School of Management in 1982, the program didn’t grant business degrees and she didn’t want one. Its mission was to train leaders of all sorts, not just executives, she said.

Yale “was not your father’s business school,” said Hampton, 61, who works as an adviser to family-owned companies. “When the school was founded, it had an absolutely unique niche in the management-school world.”

Yale SOM opened in 1976 with a focus on grooming leaders in government and philanthropy. Now the school is preparing to take on Harvard Business School and the Wharton School with a new $222 million building and new dean -- Edward “Ted” Snyder, who previously led the University of Chicago’s top-ranked business school. As Yale’s business school sheds its outsider status, alumni and former faculty worry that it risks losing its unique qualities just when the business world needs them most.

“I’m not sure that the changes that are being made now are going to produce the sort of graduate who is going to use that management and business knowledge to make a difference in the world,” said Hampton, who turned down the opportunity to convert her management degree to an MBA. “To make it just another business school, to me, is a shame.”

Public-Mindedness

Snyder, 58, who took the helm in July, was hired by Yale University President Richard Levin to help raise the business school to the levels of Yale’s top-ranked schools of law and medicine. Snyder, who led Chicago’s Booth School of Business for a decade and the University of Virginia’s business school before that, said Yale can improve without giving up the public- mindedness that sets it apart.

Yale SOM trains its graduates to understand the complicated relationships between business, government and society, Snyder said in an interview in his New Haven, Connecticut, office.

“The world is facing extraordinarily big issues,” Snyder said. “Leaders have to be aware of what’s going on. Obviously they need to be competent in solving business problems but they need to be in tune with this extraordinarily important layer of complexity.”

Snyder said his mission is to tell the world what Yale graduates can offer.

“We’ve got some great people here who can help the world solve some big problems,” he said.

Top Five

Snyder said he loves competition -- he set a Colby College record in the triple jump in 1972 -- and he’s determined to boost Yale SOM’s rankings. He wants it to be one of the top five U.S. business schools in a decade, he said.

Yale’s full-time MBA program is ranked 21st by Bloomberg Businessweek compared with first for Chicago, second for Harvard and third for Wharton. Yale graduates’ median base salary was $100,000 for the class of 2011, trailing the $120,000 earned by business school graduates at Harvard and Wharton.

While Yale has produced prominent executives like Indra Nooyi, chief executive officer of PepsiCo Inc. and a 1980 graduate, it’s escaped the notoriety of high-profile alumni winding up in prison, such as Harvard’s Jeffrey Skilling, former CEO of Enron Corp., and Wharton’s Raj Rajaratnam, a hedge fund manager convicted of insider trading.

Snyder won’t try to impose his ideology on Yale faculty, which would be “suicidal,” said Steven Kaplan, a finance and entrepreneurship professor at Chicago Booth. Instead, he’ll boost the school by identifying its strengths and selling them to potential students and donors, Kaplan said.

“SOM has a lot more potential than it has currently reached,” Kaplan said. Snyder “has to figure out how to position the school and he’ll market that externally.”

Nonprofit, Government Jobs

Yale didn’t offer a masters degree in business administration until 1999, and didn’t phase out its masters of public and private management until after 2001. While most graduates take jobs in private industry, 10 percent work for nonprofit organizations and government, compared with 3 percent of graduates at Harvard Business School and 1 percent at Wharton.

In the wake of the financial crisis, Harvard Business School appointed Nitin Nohria as dean in 2010. Nohria, who has written about ethics, says business students should take a professional oath of conduct. Harvard also introduced a leadership course designed to immerse students in real-world experiences. In 2010, Wharton, part of the University of Pennsylvania, said it would overhaul its curriculum with a new focus on ethics and on global issues.

Yale SOM was at the forefront of introducing those ideas to business education and should continue to be a leader, said William Donaldson, former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the first dean of Yale SOM.

Advancing the Cause

“There’s a lot of criticisms of business school in general, as perpetuators of what’s going on that’s bad in business,” Donaldson said. “Yale has a position where it can really advance the cause, because it’s Yale and because of the history of the school.”

Snyder will be boosted by a new 242,000 square-foot building, designed by Norman Foster and set to open in 2013, which will allow the school to add more students and faculty. Snyder plans to expand international programs, which he said lag behind those of other business schools and the rest of the university.

He also wants Yale to bolster its reputation with corporate recruiters from top companies. Already, the school is placing more graduates at businesses such as Barclays Plc, Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Co. than in years past, Snyder said.

Teamwork Culture

“The numbers aren’t huge -- they’re going from zeros, ones, twos and threes to fours and fives and sixes -- but it makes a huge difference for the school going forward,” Snyder said. “We’re never going to be a big core school for McKinsey but are we going to be an accepted source of high-quality talent? We don’t want that question to come up.”

Barclays went from hiring two graduates from the class of 2010 to seven from the class of 2012, according to the company.

“The thing that really stands out is teamwork,” said Tara Udut, Barclays Capital’s head of campus recruiting for the Americas. “It’s part of the overall culture there.”

Alumni worry that to climb in the rankings, Yale SOM will reorient itself around the world of finance and Wall Street, said Chris LaFarge, who graduated in 1980.

“The rankings are distorting a business school’s ability to do something outside of the box,” said LaFarge, CEO of MedicaMetrix Inc., a medical-device company in Wayland, Massachusetts. “Yale should be able to get away with it because it’s Yale.”

‘Points of Pride’

While rankings don’t tell the whole story about business schools, they can attract more applicants and please graduates, said David Schmittlein, dean of the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Rankings can be points of pride with alumni and the feelings alumni hold for the school are important,” Schmittlein said.

Students and faculty will also look to Snyder to provide stability at an institution that has had little of it, going through 10 deans in its short history.

While the Wharton School was founded in 1881 and Harvard Business School in 1908, Yale University’s faculty and administration resisted for decades alumni efforts to start a school they saw as at odds with its humanistic values.

Under Kingman Brewster, Yale’s president from 1963 to 1977, that resistance began to crumble as the university put more emphasis on social sciences, including the study of economics and organizational behavior. The college received a bequest of $15 million from the estate of Frederick Beinecke, who died in 1971. Most of the money was directed to the founding of a new school for the study of management.

‘New and Different’

Brewster was adamant that Yale wouldn’t start a business school, said Victor Vroom, who was then chairman of the department of administrative sciences and a member of the committee charged with developing the new school.

“It’s got to be different,” Brewster told the committee, according to Vroom, 78, who still teaches at Yale. “We can’t copy Wharton, we can’t copy Harvard. It has to be new and different.”

The school, originally named the School of Organization and Management, was intended to educate managers for government, nonprofit companies and business and drew some of its curriculum from Yale departments that focused on human behavior, said Donaldson, the first dean. They even considered bringing in professors from the divinity school to teach ethics, he said.

In its early years, Yale SOM attracted students who might have otherwise considered studying law or government, Donaldson said.

Different ‘Cat’

“It was for a different sort of cat,” said Ned Lamont, a Connecticut entrepreneur and former U.S. Senate candidate who graduated in 1980. “I was on a different track and I loved the SOM message.”

Much of that spirit ended abruptly in October 1988, when Dean Michael Levine and Yale President Benno Schmidt decided to turn SOM into a traditional business school, eliminating faculty and departments they viewed as nonessential.

“They really gutted the school and made it more into a Chicago, Michigan place, more of a finance and accounting place,” LaFarge said.

Students and alumni were furious at the unilateral decisions, and hired a plane to tow a banner denouncing the moves over the university’s graduation. It took a decade for the school to regain its equilibrium.

$300 Million Gift

Snyder, who earned his Ph.D. in economics from Chicago in 1984, served as the dean of the Darden School of Business at Virginia from 1998 to 2001 before returning to run Chicago. While at Chicago, he secured a record $300 million gift from David Booth, co-CEO and chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors LP, an Austin, Texas-based asset-management firm.

Snyder also helped found the Milton Friedman Institute, a research center named after the Nobel prize-winning economist noted for his free-market philosophy and revered by conservatives. It’s now called the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics.

Snyder’s background made him a surprising choice for Yale, said David Thomas, dean of Georgetown University’s business school who received his Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Yale in 1986. Graduates of Yale SOM wondered if a free-market advocate would be a good fit, he said.

“That’s the question that’s on some people’s minds,” Thomas said.

Donor Cultivator

Snyder said that while he believes in laissez-faire principles, he recognizes the interconnectedness of business and governments.

“Governments are playing a bigger role and market economies are evolving very differently,” he said.

Snyder’s success at Chicago resulted from his ability to manage relationships, said Robert Topel, a professor at Chicago Booth who is writing an economics paper with Snyder. Snyder can massage the egos of “prima donna” professors, defend the business school’s interests to the university president and cultivate donors, Topel said.

“He’s extraordinarily good at communicating what it is we do and defending what we do and marketing what we do and looking the donor straight in the eye and saying ‘Can I have some money?’” Topel said.

So far, Snyder has shown a willingness to bolster the school without forcing changes, said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a senior associate dean who studies CEO leadership.

“He’s been one of the best bosses I’ve ever had,” Sonnenfeld said. “He’s come in with no grandiosity. He has ambition institutionally for the school and absolutely no ego personally.”

Yale DNA

Tom Taft, a 1985 graduate, said the school will continue to produce socially conscious graduates no matter who is in charge.

A fifth-generation Yale graduate and the great-grandson of William Howard Taft, the 27th U.S. president, Taft said the spirit of the school survived the Levine era.

“Despite efforts to turn the school into Wharton, there’s an inherent DNA in SOM that makes it a real special place,” Taft said. “Regardless of the administration, it’s going to be a place where students come in and walk out with a picture that the world is a bigger place.”

--Editors: Lisa Wolfson, Jonathan Kaufman

To contact the reporter on this story: Oliver Staley in New York at ostaley@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lisa Wolfson at lwolfson@bloomberg.net

Read more here:
Chicago Man Rescuing Yale Business Ranking Prompts Anxiety

NJC Alumni Association board member Andrea Anderson presents Paul Rodarmar with the Pathfinder Award. (Callie Jones/Journal-Advocate)

STERLING -- Northeastern Junior College recognized alumni and contributors to the college and its Alumni Association during a luncheon for the Association's annual Awards Luncheon on Saturday.

The event started with an address from interim president Scott Stump, who welcomed the alumni back "home" to NJC.

Those honored included Pathfinder Award recipients Paul Rodarmar and Irene Stute, Service Award recipient Jim Read and President's Award recipients Francis "Rock" Roche and Dr. Curtis and Judy Kimball.

Additionally, Judy Giacomini and Kent Wright were recognized as honorary members.

The Pathfinder Award honors alumni or former students who have made outstanding contributions in their field of endeavor wherein training or education began at NJC.

Recipient Paul Rodarmar was born in Grand Rapids, Mich. His father was a sales and marketing manager for Texaco, Inc., a company that no longer exists. His positions with the company resulted in the family relocating many times.

In the middle of Rodarmar's sophomore year of high school his father was promoted and his family moved to Denver, where Rodarmer entered Thomas Jefferson High School.

His first job was working at a Texaco station.

After graduating high school in 1970, college was not in his plans but after much persuading he agreed to attend NJC.

Rodarmar graduated with an associate of arts degree with a major in business in 1972. He planned to attend the University of Colorado, but his dad was promoted to work at headquarters in New York and moved to Connecticut. Rodarmar decided to go with his family and attended the University of Western Connecticut while working part time in a Chrysler Plymouth dealership.

He graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1974.

In 1975, Rodarmar was hired by Chevrolet as a dealer representative in New Jersey, where he also joined the volunteer fire department.

For four years, he was an entry-level manager working in the Chevrolet Zone Office in Connecticut. Then he moved to Detroit, where he worked in the sales technology department. After four years, he was promoted to manage Chevrolet Service Operations in North Texas and Oklahoma from the Dallas office.

Again, after four years he was Boston-bound to manage the product distribution function for all of the Chevrolet Dealers in New England and later was the regional service manager.

Then four years later he returned to Detroit to be the national warranty manager for all of the United States.

Rodarmar returned to Dallas and for the past 13 years has been manager of the Regional Customer Activities and Training Department for 14

Bob Carpio, NJC Alumni Association board member, presents Irene Stute with the Pathfinder Award. (Callie Jones/Journal-Advocate)

states. He hopes this will be his final career location after 38 years.

He lives on a small farm near Tioga, Texas, and has a 17-year-old daughter.

Rodarmar has remained active in the volunteer fire service and is currently the fire chief in Tioga. He has many hours of training with FEMA and is an incident commander, helping direct regional disasters such as tornadoes and hurricanes.

Additionally, he has served on the local school board for 10 years and as chairman of the local planning and zoning commission for several years.

"NJC has made me what I am today," Rodarmar said upon receiving the award.

The other award recipient, Irene Stute was born in Wels, Austria. Her father, Ray Howard, who was in the U.S. Army, met her mother, Ingelborg Burndorfer, while stationed in Austria.

When Ray was discharged from the service they returned to his home in St. Francis, Kan. Later the family moved to Denver for a short time and then relocated in Wray.

Stute attended Wray schools for 12 years and graduated from Wray High School in 1973. Upon graduating from high school, she enrolled in the clerk typist program at NJC and graduated with a certificate in 1974.

She utilized her degree working with a lawyer in Wray and then with Colorado Department of Health, Emergency Medical Services and Dresser Oilfield Products, both in Denver.

Stute met her husband, LeRoy, in October 1977 on a blind date and they were married on Aug. 25, 1979. They reside in Westminster and have three children, Phronsie, Elysia and Justin, and three grandchildren.

She was involved in many forms of community service while her children were growing up.

Stute worked with the Girl Scout program for 15 years, serving as a leader, school organizer, unit coordinator, unit program adviser, council craft trainer, council delegate, outdoor craft trainer, and day camp first aide provider, camp director/adviser. Plus, she served the Girl Scouts of Colorado as director for statewide registration for three years.

For her work with the Girl Scout program Stute has received the Outstanding Leader Award, Elizabeth Hayden Award, Trefoil Award and an Honor Pin.

Additionally, she volunteered as a Cub Scout leader and Tiger Cub Coach for four years and a Boy Scout secretary, troop recruiter and troop committee member for five years.

Plus, she served for seven years as promoter of hospitality and guardian secretary, with Jobs Daughters.

For 10 years Stute volunteered with Pamona High School band activities. She served as a bus and trip sponsor, bus sponsor chairperson, color guard mom in charge of bingo, flags and uniforms for three years.

Stute served on the school accountability committee for seven years on the elementary, middle school and high school levels, and volunteered as a Teacher's Helper for 12 years.

She is a member of the St. Andrew Lutheran Church and has been in charge of Sunday school bulletin boards, director of the senior high youth group, the director of the Christmas program for three years and a craft trainer for two Sunday school teacher trainings.

Stute is presently working for Covenant Care at Home as an office assistant.

"I made a lot of friendships at NJC and really enjoyed my time at NJC," she said upon receiving the award.

To learn more about the President's Award recipients see Wednesday's Journal-Advocate.com.

Callie Jones: (970) 526-9286; cjones@journal-advocate.com

The rest is here:
2 NJC alumni honored as Pathfinders

For months, financially stressed Commonwealth Medical College has publicly discussed entering an affiliation or partnership as an option to stay afloat.

Placed on probation last year because of financial difficulties, the medical college may have found a suitor.

The medical college and the University of Scranton on Monday issued a statement announcing they "are continuing discussions regarding a possible affiliation, building on a confidential exploratory phase."

In the statement, the medical college and university said an affiliation could "be beneficial both to our respective institutions" and the community. During an evaluation period that ends March 31, the schools noted that they will hold wider discussions "within our respective communities to consider...complex questions and issues."

Medical college spokeswoman Anne Green and university spokesman Gerald C. Zaboski refused to comment, noting the organizations were not releasing any more information than the statement.

The announcement comes about eight months after the Liaison Committee on Medical Educatio, which accredits American medical schools, notified the medical college that it would be put on probation because of financial difficulties. The college and Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania last year entered into an agreement in which the insurance company would "provide a cushion" to the college when it need additional funding in the next five years.

In November, college officials, who have said the institution needed $54 million over the next five years while it also considered an affiliation or partnership, reported that it was stepping up its fundraising efforts.

While local officials say an affiliation will benefit the medical college and university, a hospital consultant based in New Hope said an affiliation may indicate more.

Josh Nemzoff, the consultant, said the medical college's financial problems and past comments about an affiliation as an option indicates to him that the potential arrangement between the college and the university may be more than just an affiliation.

An affiliation between two organizations "typically" have no financial aspects to it and is a loose arrangement, Nemzoff said. He added organizations sometimes use the word "affiliation" to mask plans for more significant changes related to governance or funding.

"Many transactions are called affiliations because one party does not want to give up control," said Nemzoff, president of Nemzoff & Co. LLC.

The firm specializes in merger and acquisition activity for hospitals and hospital systems.

Local officials say an affiliation would be beneficial.

"We're thrilled with the medical college and the great progress we've made and we've always had a great respect for the University of Scranton," said Austin Burke, Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce president.

He said the university's top-notch pre-medical program and its ability to raise millions of dollars would help the medical college.

"In addition to the financial support, you have all of these alumni that got into the National Institutes of Health and major corporations," Burke said. He said the medical college would add prestige to the university.

The university and medical college already work together, including through a joint offering of a dual-degree program in Medicine and Health Administration.

The medical college has relationships with medical organizations throughout the region, including the Regional Hospital of Scranton and the Community Medical Center in Scranton.

It also works with Wilkes University on bio-medical projects.

"Our science and engineering faculty are currently cooperating with researchers at the medical college on nano materials and cancer research and these projects will continue," said Vicki Mayk, university spokeswoman. "We are supportive of any effort that sustains the medical school project because of its tremendous value to the region for improving the health of residents and providing significant opportunities for economic development."

Noting that the Regional Hospital of Scranton works with the medical college and university, spokeswoman Gladys Bernet said they "are eager to learn more about what they envision through their formal affiliation."

CMC spokeswoman Wendy Wilson said the hospital has 27 students at the hospital from the medical college.

She said it would be a "natural transition" to formally partner with the university if it enters into an affiliation with the medical college.

"With the Commonwealth Medical College pursuing affiliation with the University of Scranton is a great step forward," Wilson said. "Eds and meds are the future of city."

Contact the writer: jmrozinski@timesshamrock.com

More:
University of Scranton, Commonwealth Medical College explore affiliation

Stanley R. Farr, 78, died on Tuesday (Feb. 14, 2012) at Newton Medical Center.  
He was born on Dec. 3, 1933, in Adams Center, N.Y., to Nathan Earl and Letha (Clark) Farr. On April 6, 1953, he married Jeanetta E. Deines in Chapman, and she survives of the home. Stanley was an active member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Peabody.  
He was a retired manager for Westar Energy. Following his retirement, he farmed in the Marion area.  
Stanley was a member of the Kiwanis Club and president of the Peabody Chamber of Commerce. He enjoyed golfing and farming, and especially enjoyed his coffee groups in Marion, Peabody and Newton. Family was important to Stan, and he greatly looked forward to spending time with his loving family and many friends.
He is survived by his wife, Jeanetta of the home; sons, Gary Farr of Clearwater, Fla., and Daniel Farr and his wife, Melanie of Merriam; daughters, Brenda Hague and her husband, Randy of Newton, and Jaclyn Voight of Leawood; brother, Jerry Farr of Chapman; sisters, Betty Lou and Bob Whitley of Blakey, Ga., Shirley and Jim Montgomery of Corvalis, Ore., Cindy and Larry Combs of Redland, Ore., Mary Ellen Smith of Bella Vista, Ark., and Rosalee Turnbull of Lebonon, Ore.
Stanley was preceded in death by his parents; son, Randy Farr; and son-in-law, Brian Voight.
Visitation will be from 5 to 9 p.m. today at Petersen Funeral Home in Newton, with the family receiving friends from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the funeral home.
A celebration of Stanley’s life will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Peabody, with the Rev. Robert Kloth presiding. Inurnment will be in the Prairie Lawn Cemetery in Peabody.
Memorials are suggested to Peabody High School Alumni Association Scholarship Fund or St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, c/o Petersen Funeral Home, 215 N. Main St., Newton, KS 67114.

Excerpt from:
Obituary: Stanley R. Farr

McArthur has served on the boards of directors of north state organizations.

Faculty members at Chico State University have selected Redding native and City Councilwoman Missy McArthur to receive the school's Distinguished Alumni Award for her long record of accomplishments and community service.

The award is one of the school's highest honors, Chico State Paul Zingg said in a letter to McArthur.

"I was just floored," said McArthur, 62, who graduated from Chico State in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in English and completed a teaching credential a year later. A pair of faculty members told her she'd been chosen for the award at a recent lunch in Redding.

Chico State gives out eight distinguished alumni awards annually — one for each of the school's seven colleges and the eighth is a service award.

"We try to bring back the best and the brightest and it wasn't that hard to pick her," said Joel Zimbelman, dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, which oversees the English department at Chico State.

"She's a great local success story for Redding, obviously, and Chico as well," Zimbelman said.

McArthur went on from to Chico State to earn a master's degree from the University of San Francisco and a Physicians Assistant Credential from Stanford University.

McArthur was a physician's assistant for 25 years, including 12 years at Mercy Medical Center, before retiring. She's also taught for the Shasta Union High School District, was a family planning counselor and owned several businesses.

McArthur was elected to the council in 2008 and served as mayor in 2011. Her involvement in Redding goes back decades.

She's served on the boards of directors for organizations including the Shasta County Women's Refuge Auxiliary, the Shasta College Foundation, the Shasta Family YMCA and the Methamphetamine Task Force.

She also was a chair of New Library Now! The group was instrumental in securing funding for Redding Library, which opened in 2007.

McArthur also has been involved with the Shasta Library Foundation, Library Citizen's Advisory Committee, Library Review Committee, Chair of the Library Governance and Financing Task Force, Kids' Kingdom — Project Playground, Turtle Bay Board of Regents, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Help Line Inc., Plus One Mentors, Shasta-Tehama-Trinity Joint Community College District Board of Trustees, CSU Chico President's Advisory Board and Redding Rotary.

"Her community involvement record I think is pretty illustrious," said Zimbelman, who was on the team that selected McArthur for the award. "I think Redding should be very proud of her and I'm really pleased that we've got such outstanding people who graduate from this university who take up residence in the north state."

McArthur will receive the award during a campus visit in April. That visit will include a breakfast with Zingg, classroom visits, a panel discussion with other award recipients and an awards dinner, Zimbelman said.

McArthur said she's looking forward to the campus visit. Her son, 21-year-old Rob Milton, is a Chico State engineering student and a member of an honors society and on the dean's list.

"I'm real proud of him," she said.

Here is the original post:
Redding City Councilwoman McArthur will get alumni award from Chico State

Public release date: 17-Feb-2012
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Contact: Ron Najman
ron.najman@downstate.edu
718-270-2696
SUNY Downstate Medical Center

A new study published by researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center's School of Public Health assesses mercury levels in pregnant women and examines dietary and environmental sources of exposure to mercury. The research, which focuses on an urban immigrant community, examined risk factors that may be associated with elevated mercury levels, measured through urine and cord blood samples. The study, published this month in the Journal of Environmental Monitoring, found that foreign-born immigrant women from the Caribbean are at higher risk for elevated levels of mercury in the blood, predominantly from dietary sources such as large fish. The full article is available at http://xlink.rsc.org/?doi=C2EM10835F

Laura Geer, PhD, MHS, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at SUNY Downstate's School of Public Health, and Patrick J. Parsons, PhD, chief of the Laboratory of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry, Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, were the main collaborators on the study, "Assessment of Prenatal Mercury Exposure in a Predominately Caribbean Immigrant Community in Brooklyn, NY." The study can be read in the journal's online edition at (To Come). The School of Public Health at SUNY's University at Albany, where Dr. Parsons is professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, also contributed to the study, which was also conducted in collaboration with SUNY Downstate's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The research was sponsored by The New York Community Trust.

The study elaborates on previously identified risk factors of in utero mercury exposure. Mercury exposure is a continuing concern in immigrant communities due to risk factors such as maternal country of origin, fish consumption, and ritualistic use of elemental mercury in religious ceremonies. For infants and children, the primary health concern is possible damage to cognitive and central nervous system development related to maternal exposure.

Dr. Geer and her team used a combination of assessment methods to determine exposure levels. A questionnaire designed in collaboration with health professionals from the Caribbean community assessed the frequency of fish consumption, ritualistic practices, occupational exposures, number of dental amalgams, and use of mercury-containing skin and household products. [SUNY Downstate is located in an area of Brooklyn that includes one of the largest Caribbean-American communities in the United States.]

Analysis of cord blood for mercury revealed that 16 percent of samples exceeded the estimated equivalent of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Reference Dose. Cord blood samples generally reflect organic mercury that has been acquired through maternal food consumption. Predictors of cord blood levels included maternal fish consumption and foreign birth of the mother.

Urine mercury levels, which are more likely to reflect environmental exposure to inorganic mercury, were significantly lower than cord blood levels. Predictors of urine mercury also included foreign birth of the mother, as well as the number of dental amalgams and special product use. There were no reports of mercury use in ritualistic practices or in cosmetics; however, some women reported use of religious medals and charms. Women participating in the study were informed of any elevated test results.

Although the study population was selected as a convenience sample, the mercury levels were lower -- in this higher-risk population -- than those estimated based on maternal blood levels from the NYC Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES) of 2004, indicating the possibility of lower exposure since the NYC HANES study was conducted.

Putting this into context, Dr. Geer explains that the elevated cord blood mercury samples seen in some study subjects were still not at levels that are known to be associated with adverse health or developmental effects. However, she notes that the study indicates a need for further study and mercury-exposure prevention efforts tailored to this group, and that subjects were contacted and offered further testing. Furthermore, efforts should target health care providers, health agencies, and community advocates who provide avenues of education for women of childbearing age concerning appropriate dietary fish selection, and potential sources of mercury in the home. Dr. Geer points out that the new widespread use of fluorescent light bulbs, which contain a small amount of inorganic mercury and may expose people when they break, as well as the possibility of exposure from discarded computer equipment, are two current but little recognized sources.

Dr. Geer said, "Our study shows that women of Caribbean origin are at high risk for mercury exposure, owing to the consumption of specific types of fish and other factors. Since mercury can harm a child's development both in and beyond the womb, mercury should be kept at the lowest possible levels. Community education efforts should target Caribbean-American women to accomplish this."

Dr. Geer, assisted by Fay Callejo, MPH, from the School of Public Health, is in the process of completing a follow-up study to identify educational strategies to facilitate community awareness of mercury exposure sources, particularly for women of childbearing age.

Dr. Geer recommends that people familiarize themselves with how to protect their children and their homes from mercury exposure. As suggested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), five things they can do include:

Learn how to enjoy a diet that includes fish while minimizing exposure to fish species that have high mercury levels.

Learn which products are likely to contain mercury. Avoid use of mercury-containing skin-lightening creams.

Properly recycle or dispose of any mercury-containing products in the home.

Handle mercury-containing products such as thermometers and compact fluorescent bulbs carefully to avoid breakage.

And learn how properly to clean up a mercury spill. Never use a vacuum cleaner.

###

More information on how to avoid mercury exposure is available from the EPA at: http://www.epa.gov/mercury/spills/index.htm and from the New York City

Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/epi/mercury.shtml.

Advice from the EPA on consuming fish and shellfish can be found at: http://water.epa.gov/scitech/swguidance/fishshellfish/outreach/advice_index.cfm; advice from the NYC DOMHM on fish and shellfish is available at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/edp/mercury_brochure.pdf.

SUNY Downstate Medical Center, founded in 1860, was the first medical school in the United States to bring teaching out of the lecture hall and to the patient's bedside. A center of innovation and excellence in research and clinical service delivery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center comprises a College of Medicine, Colleges of Nursing and Health Related Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, a School of Public Health, University Hospital of Brooklyn, and an Advanced Biotechnology Park and Biotechnology Incubator.

SUNY Downstate ranks ninth nationally in the number of alumni who are on the faculty of American medical schools. More physicians practicing in New York City have graduated from SUNY Downstate than from any other medical school.

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Study finds Caribbean-American women at higher risk for elevated mercury levels