Stu Turgel has been appointed to serve on the Maricopa County Northeast Council, a regional partnership council of the Arizona Early Childhood Development and Health Board, also known as First Things First. The council is the voluntary governing body responsible for planning and implementing services and support to improve early childhood development and health in Cave Creek, Carefree, Fountain Hills, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley and the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation. Turgel, who is president of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix, is among 266 leaders throughout the state serving on the regional councils. First Things First was created when voters approved Proposition 203 in 2006. The measure will raise an estimated $150 million annually to fund voluntary early health screenings and education programs for children up to 5 years old. The 31 councils will recommend how funds are to be allocated each year within their regions.
Marlyne Freedman, associate vice president for the Women's Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, was honored by the Tucson-based federation as the Ben & Betty Brook Community Professional of the Year during the southern Arizona organization's annual meeting on May 8. Freedman had been executive director of Temple Chai in Phoenix for 13 years before moving to Tucson to become director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona in 2002.
The following teens were recently elected to the board of Mountain Region BBYO: Adam Paikowsky, regional AZA president; Chelsey Keller, regional BBG vice president of programming; Danielle Dobrusin, regional BBG vice president of membership; Marc Wohlleban, regional AZA secretary-treasurer; Mikaela Gibson, regional BBG secretary-treasurer; Adam Bongiorno, regional AZA Judaism-community service-social action vice president; and Sarah Rosenberg, regional BBG Judaism-community service-social action vice president.
Practical Art, an environmentally conscious retail shop carrying utilitarian items for everyday life, has opened at 5070 N. Central Ave., just north of Camelback Road, in Phoenix. Founder Jane Reddin, a partner retired from the Lewis and Roca law firm, opened the store to support local artisans who are using recycled materials in their work and to raise consumer consciousness about reducing waste. Products range from kitchen wares to clothing. Visit practical-art.com or call 602-264-1414.
Craig D. Thatcher, a researcher at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, has been named Dean of Arizona State University's School of Applied Arts & Sciences in Mesa. He will succeed David E. Schwalm, who is retiring, on June 30. Thatcher chaired the Food Nutrition and Health Advisory Committee in the Institute for Biomedical and Public Health Sciences and is a co-director of the National Science Foundation's Macromolecular Interfaces with Life Science, Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), where he has been for nearly 25 years.
Doris Marshall received Arizona State University's 2008 A. Wade Smith Community Award for Advancement of Race Relations. In her role as deputy director for the Phoenix Human Services Department's Senior Services Division, Marshall oversees the operation of 17 senior centers that provide support to more than 3,000 people. One of her initiatives was the establishment of a senior services diversity committee that developed strategies, like performance skits, to combat racial and ethnic tensions that often cause people to leave senior centers. The award is given to an Arizona resident whose efforts contribute to the improvement of race relations in the community. Marshall has bachelor's and master's degrees in social work from ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Kelly Conner has been promoted to senior vice president of Alliance Bank of Arizona's Phoenix Midtown office at 2901 N. Central Ave. Conner joined Alliance Bank shortly after it was founded in 2003 and has been managing the midtown office since it opened in 2005. Conner has been instrumental in expanding the bank's escrow deposit services to law firms throughout the state. A native of Calgary, Alberta, Conner graduated from the University of Alberta and received an MBA from the University of Phoenix.
Larry Stangler has been promoted to senior vice president and Ryan Muranaka has been promoted to vice president in the lending department of Scottsdale-based IMH, a mortgage firm.
Stangler served as vice president since joining IMH in August 2006. He previously was vice president and business development officer for the Phoenix office of Sonoma National Bank.
Muranaka joined IMH as an assistant vice president responsible for commercial real estate loan portfolio, new loan transactions and business development.
IMH specializes in short-term loans for real-estate acquisition, development and construction.
