Posted: September 9, 2011

Banking & finance

Connie Forbes of 1st Advantage Federal Credit Union has been promoted to chief financial officer. Forbes began her career at the credit union as the financial accounting manager. She is currently the comptroller with E-Services, Financial and Member Accounting reporting to her. Forbes will be responsible for the day-to-day financial processes and financial reporting for the organization, including certification of the financial statements.

Dave Moore has joined SunTrust Diversified Commercial Banking as an SBA business development officer. Moore, who has more than 15 years of experience, was most recently employed by Community South Bank. Moore provides SBA financing solutions for small business in the Greater Hampton Roads area. He is a graduate of James Madison University.

Architecture & engineering

Tom Retnauer has joined the architectural team at Bay Creek Resort and Club, a development by Baymark Construction Corp. in the town of Cape Charles. He will take the lead on the architecture and design of Bayside Village, one of the 10 neighborhoods at Bay Creek.

Retnauer is the founding principal of Retnauer Design Associates PC based in Chesapeake. The company recently changed its name to Retnauer Baynes Associates LLC. Retnauer has been recognized for his designs at Homearama and the National Association of Home Builders for design work at East Beach in Norfolk. He was also recognized with the Best Community award by the Peninsula Home Builders Association for Grayson Pond in Virginia Beach.

He received a bachelor of architecture degree from Virginia Tech and has received accreditation by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design with advanced certification in building design and construction. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects and the U.S. Green Building Council.

The following individuals at Clark Nexsen have been named design principals of the firm:

Christopher Born, PE, LEED AP, director of Fire Protection; David Keith, AIA, LEED AP, director of Architecture; Dennis Marchant, PE, Norfolk Electrical Department head; Edward Westerman, PE, SE, LEED AP, director of Structural Department; Gary Bright AIA, senior architect; Ray Pentecost, DrPH, FAIA, FACHA, LEED AP, director of Healthcare Architecture; Susan Drew, CID, IIDA, LEED AP, director of Interiors Department; Stephen Weber PE, senior structural engineer; Willie Cooper AIA, senior architect.

H&A Architects & Engineers announced the following corporate title recipients for 2011-2012:

Benjamin Lilly PE, director of Embassy Programs, has been awarded the title of senior vice president. He holds a bachelor's degree from Virginia Military Institute.

Patricia Davison SPHR-CA, human resources director, has been awarded the title of vice president. She holds a bachelor's degree from Saint Leo University.

Steven Applegate PE, structural department head, has been awarded the title of senior associate. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree from Virginia Tech.

Lisa Bilski CPA, controller, has been awarded the title of senior associate. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a master's degree from Indiana University.

Jared Jamison PE, construction administration/quality assurance department head, has been awarded the title of senior associate. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree from Virginia Tech.

Catherine Gettys, marketing/business development director, has been awarded the title of senior associate. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia.

Patrick Markley, PE, LEED AP BD+C, RCDD, electrical quality manager, has been awarded the title of senior associate. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree from Old Dominion University.

Charles Richardson PE, chief electrical engineer, has been awarded the title of senior associate. He holds a bachelor's degree from Virginia Military Institute.

Jeremy Kappes, director of Information Systems, has been awarded the title of associate. He holds a bachelor's degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a master's degree from the Florida Institute of Technology.

Susan Brain, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C, PMP, architect, has been awarded the title of associate. She holds a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Michigan.

LaTonya Whitaker, communications manager, has been awarded the title of associate. She holds a bachelor's and master's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Kevin Kosker, CTS, RCDD, chief technology systems engineer, has been awarded the title of associate. He holds a bachelor's degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a master's degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Katherine Lester, facility security officer, has been awarded the title of associate.

Jonathan Gray, project manager, has been awarded the title of associate. He holds a bachelor's degree from Virginia Military Institute.

Erich Flessner, PE, LEED AP BD+C, program manager, has been awarded the title of associate. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois.

Wendi Scott, assistant controller, has been awarded the title of associate.

Elizabeth Goetz, SPHR-CA, senior human resources adviser, has been awarded the title of associate. She holds a bachelor's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Daniel Layou PE, chief life safety engineer, has been awarded the title of associate. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Carey Kendrick, document control manager, has been awarded the title of associate. She holds a bachelor's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Brian Stanley PE, senior structural engineer, has been awarded the title of associate. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Maryland.

Brian Conron, project manager, has been awarded the title of associate. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia.

Adam Mease, PE, LEED AP BD+C, senior mechanical engineer, has been awarded the title of associate. He holds a bachelor's degree from Penn State.

Economic development

Telly Tucker has been named assistant director for James City County's Office of Economic Development.

Tucker previously worked as a community development administrator for the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development in Richmond.

Prior to that, he was an economic development specialist for the city of Lynchburg. There Tucker's responsibilities included business recruitment and retention, administration of the local Virginia Enterprise Zone Grant Program, and facilitation of workforce development programs in partnership with Lynchburg City Schools. He helped Lynchburg businesses obtain more than $2 million in local and state grant funds from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development and the city of Lynchburg.

He has also served in an assistant directorship capacity for the city of Lynchburg's One program, which was awarded the Virginia Economic Development Association's Community Economic Development Award, the Southern Economic Development Council's Community Economic Development Award, and the Virginia Municipal League 2008 Achievement Award.

He will also serve as the assistant secretary to the Economic Development Authority.

Health care

Rahel Amare MD has joined Sentara's Infectious Disease Specialists in Norfolk. Amare specializes in the diagnosis, treatment and management of contagious diseases with a special interest in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Amare is board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease and is certified by the American Academy of HIV Medicine.

She earned her medical degree from Jimma Institute of Health Sciences in Jimma, Ethiopia, and completed a fellowship in infectious disease at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Amare spent two years in the Nicholas A. Rango HIV Scholarship and Fellowship Program, which included intensive training in the clinical care and public awareness aspects of HIV/AIDS.

Lind Chinnery MD has joined Patient First as a staff physician at the Taylor Road location in Chesapeake. Chinnery is a graduate of Virginia State University and an alumnus of Meharry Medical College in Nashville. He completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University. He has been practicing medicine in the Tidewater area since 1991. Prior to joining Patient First, Chinnery worked at Riverside Center for Internal Medicine in Hampton. He is board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Debra Chinnery APNP, has joined Patient First as a nurse practitioner at the Denbigh location in Newport News. Chinnery is a graduate of Hampton University where she received her bachelor's degree in nursing and her master's as a primary care ambulatory nurse practitioner. She earned her Ed.D. at George Washington University.

Prior to joining Patient First, Chinnery worked at Riverside Center for Internal Medicine in Hampton. She is certified as a family nurse practitioner by the American Nurses' Association.

Alpa P. Donato DO has joined Amelia Medical Associates, a Bon Secours Medical Group Practice, as a family practitioner.

Donato completed her undergraduate degree in biology at the University of Illinois. She received her medical degree from Des Moines University and completed an internship at York Memorial Hospital in York, Pa., and her residency in family medicine at Michigan State, Garden City Hospital, in Garden City, Mich. She is board-certified by the National Board of Family Practice.

Her previous experience includes private practice and urgent care practice in Virginia Beach.

Real estate

Cushman & Wakefield/Thalhimer made the following announcements:

Eric Throne has joined the Virginia Beach office as a commercial sales and leasing specialist. Throne's focus will be on both tenant representation and listings for industrial properties. Previously, Throne worked for Keller Williams Residential Real Estate in Virginia Beach. He is a graduate of Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Fla.

David Tunnicliffe has joined the firm as a retail sales and leasing specialist and will focus on landlord and tenant representation throughout Hampton Roads. Previously, Tunnicliffe owned a consulting company that developed sailing programs around the country. He is a graduate of Old Dominion University with concentrations in business management, decision sciences and music performance.

The following individuals have joined Abbitt Realty Co. LLC:

Deana Renn, who has been in the real estate business for more than 10 years, joined the New Homes division.

Lindsay Pennington joined the New Homes division. Pennington has been in real estate for almost 10 years and represents builders, developers, buyers and sellers. She is representing McQ Builders at Wright's Farm in Hampton and Cypress Creek Development in Cypress Creek in Smithfield. She attended Christopher Newport University.

Jennifer Amick joined the New Homes division. Amick provides assistance on the purchase and selling of homes.

Chamber

Jemal Harris, a Christopher Newport fellow, has been assigned to Program Development at the Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. A senior majoring in economics with a minor in African American Studies at CNU, he is active in various organizations including the Men Of Vision and Excellence (M.O.V.E.), Alpha Kappa Psi Fraternity and Minority Student Recruitment Task Force. Harris has worked for the Newport News Public School System as a recruiter/liaison for its Student Leadership and Youth Development Program. He volunteers with the Southeast Community Weed & Seed organization as a financial empowerment chairman.

Certifications & designations

Milissa England of DJG Inc. has completed training classes by Virginia Commonwealth University to be an asbestos project designer. England holds a bachelor of science degree in environmental studies and a bachelor of arts in geography from Emory & Henry College. England is EPA-accredited to prepare project design drawings, documents and specifications for asbestos abatement.

State government

Laura W. Fornash has been appointed Virginia's secretary of education by Gov. Bob McDonnell. Fornash had been interim secretary of education since July, and prior to that was deputy secretary of education. She is also serving as the executive director of the Commission on Higher Education Reform, Innovation and Investment.

Before joining the Office of the Secretary of Education, Fornash spent 20 years with Virginia Tech in a number of divisions including student affairs, continuing education, distance learning and government relations. She most recently was the director of state government relations for the university. She was the school's restructuring project director, responsible for managing Virginia Tech's implementation of the 2005 Restructuring Act that created new levels of operational autonomy for all public higher education institutions in exchange for meeting certain academic performance measures. She was director of the Virginia Tech Richmond Center, an extended campus center, where credit and noncredit programs were offered to working professionals.

In 1998, as the director of information technology programs, Fornash launched an innovative web-based interdisciplinary master's degree program to help transition professionals into the IT field as the result of research conducted for the International Technology Association of America.

Fornash received her undergraduate and master's degrees from Virginia Tech.

Boards, commissions & associations

The Entrepreneurs Organization of Southeast Virginia elected the following individuals to its board of directors:

J. Richard Braun, sponsorship chair; Eric Brown, integration chair; Stephanie Downs, communications chair; Gary Farrell, finance chair; John Finguerra, education chair; and Jeff Jaycox, president.

Hampton Mayor Molly Joseph Ward has been selected chair of the Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance, a not-for-profit organization created to focus area efforts on preserving and growing federal capabilities across all of Hampton Roads.

Volunteer Hampton Roads announced its board of directors:

Kenneth E. Cummings, Virginia Beach city executive, senior vice president of BB&T, has been elected chair of the board of directors.

Fellow officers include past chair, President JD Williamson of Williamson CPA; Vice Chair Chris B. Graves, senior vice president of Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc.; Secretary Dawna L. Ellis, chief financial officer of Harvey Lindsay Commercial Real Estate; Treasurer Steven C. Whetstine, senior manager of KPMG LLP; and at-large officers Rusty L. Bailey of Taylor Johnson Group, Ramon C. Darcey of Sentara Enterprises and Scott D. McGregor of Norfolk Southern Corp.

New board members are Joanna G. Brumsey of Wall, Einhorn, & Chernitzer; Delores D. Gee of DDG Media; J. Les Hall of Allfirst LLC; Joseph Harris of Virginia Port Authority; Capt. Kenneth Levins of Navy Assault Craft Unit Four; W. Edgar Spivey of Kaufman & Canoles; and Charles Tapp II of Booz Allen Hamilton.

YWCA South Hampton Roads announced its 2011-2014 board members:

Barbara Hamm Lee, president, WHRO creative services director and producer of "Another View"; Michelle Woodhouse, first vice president, acting provost, Portsmouth campus, Tidewater Community College; Carol Ormond, second vice president, CEO of AAA Tidewater; Beth McMahon, secretary, staff attorney with U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Suzanne Franklin, treasurer, BB&T, retired banker.

New members: Susan Colpitts, principal, Signature Financial; Tara Corrigall, Virginia Beach branch manager, UBS Financial Services; Kathleen Gardner, Marlyn Development; Cathy Harris, director of cost segregation, Wall, Einhorn & Chernitzer; Arminda Israel, teacher education services, Old Dominion University; and Marie Pierre-Myrick, volunteer.

The Norfolk Airport Authority appointed the following individuals to serve on its board of commissioners:

Rev. Dr. Harold James Cobb Jr., immediate past-vice chairman, will serve as chairman. Cobb is rector at Grace Episcopal Church in Norfolk, where he's served for the past 16 years. He serves on the boards of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, Children's Health Systems and Saint Paul's College.

New officers: Gus James, vice chairman; Blythe Ann Scott, treasurer; Wayne Shank, executive director of the Norfolk Airport Authority, secretary.

Malcolm P. Branch; Dr. Samuel F. Coppage; William L. Nusbaum; Chris G. Stephanitsis; and Robert T. Taylor will remain as commissioners.