NEW HIRES

• Chris Musick has been named the deputy project director for Bechtel at the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. He has more than 30 years of engineering, procurement, construction and operations experience. He has a broad range of management experience with an emphasis on nuclear waste processing, including technical issue resolution and managerial roles in engineering and project management. He joined WTP in 2001 as a lead engineer and took on roles of increasing responsibility and breadth. Prior to joining Bechtel, he worked at Idaho National Laboratory and Boeing.
• Ana Ruiz Kennedy has been hired as a community development and impact specialist for Numerica Credit Union in the Tri-Cities. Ruiz Kennedy is the board chairwoman for Tri-Cities Community Health and Progreso Latino. She has 10 years of experience in community development. She will work to help community partners and members live well through strategic support and services.
• Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic has hired Jolene Babka as the new clinic director for the Tri-Cities area, overseeing Miramar Health Center in Kennewick, Columbia Basin Pediatric Dentistry, Community Dental Clinic, and Dentistry for Kids. She has worked in the dental and medical industries for more than 10 years.
• The Washington State Department of Commerce has hired Norma Chavez as a community engagement specialist based in Kennewick, covering Adams, Benton, Columbia, Franklin, Klickitat, Yakima and Walla Walla counties. Her 25-year background in state government includes community engagement and outreach at the Washington Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Labor and Industries. She also worked for the civil rights branch for the Washington State Department of Transportation, working to provide equal opportunity to socially and economically disadvantaged businesses, and she headed the agricultural seasonal workforce services office at the Department of Agriculture.
• Kiemle Hagood has hired Austin Crawford for its Tri-Cities office brokerage division. He is a licensed broker in Washington and specializes in commercial real estate acquisitions, leasing, sales and investments. Prior to joining Kiemle Hagood, he was a project engineer for Engineered Structures Inc. in Boise, Idaho.
• Miramar Health Center in Kennewick has hired Edith Zaragoza as a physician assistant. She learned her master degree in physician assistant studies from Heritage University in Yakima and her bachelor’s of science in clinical physiology from Central Washington University in Ellensburg. She grew up watching her farmworker parents make hard decisions about health care and day-to-day necessities.
• Dr. Shanette Bruce has joined the Miramar Health Center in Kennewick. She received her doctor of osteopathic medicine from Western University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, Northwest, in Lebanon, Oregon, and completed her residency at Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic’s Sollus Northwest Family Medicine Residency in Grandview.
• Lourdes Health hired Dr. Chris Brussow as a family medicine provider at Lourdes Family Medicine, 7425 Wrigley Drive, Pasco. He joined Oct. 11. He recently completed his family medicine residency with LSU State University Health Science Center, Department of Rural Family Medicine, in Vivian, Louisiana. There, he practiced in a critical access hospital and was the chief resident in his final year of the program. He is fluent in English and Afrikaans. Brussow attended medical school at St. Matthews University of School of Medicine and then went on to complete a one-year internship with LSU State University, Department of Family Medicine.
• Umpqua Bank has added Rudy Mendoza to its commercial banking team, which has a focus on serving companies up to $100 million in annual revenue. Mendoza has extensive banking experience across a variety of key sectors, including agriculture, commercial real estate and C&I lending. Prior to Umpqua, he managed a bank portfolio of roughly $80 million.

Charlie Drader also joined Umpqua’s commercial banking team. He has nearly two decades of banking experience across a variety of key sectors, including agriculture, real estate, and C&I lending. In his most recent position as a regional president for Homestreet Bank, he oversaw loan and deposit growth, leading a team of relationship managers, portfolio managers and credit analysts.

• Retter and Company Sotheby’s International Realty has hired Scotty Smiley as a development coordinator and leadership coach. He will work with Dave Retter on land development projects working closely with developers and builders. In addition, he will also be working to develop the leadership and personal growth of Retter and Company’s agents. Smiley is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and began his career as an active-duty officer. After being injured by a suicide bomber in Iraq, he became the military’s first active-duty member to continue his service as a blind active-duty officer. He went on to receive a master’s in business administration from Duke University and he has taught at USMA and Gonzaga University.
• STCU has hired Luke Todd as director of retail for the Tri-Cities and Central Washington. In this role, he will oversee 11 branch locations, including three in Tri-Cities and eight Columbia Basin branches that STCU has acquired in the past two years. He comes to STCU with more than 14 years of experience at Northwest financial institutions, most recently as a vice president and area manager at Umpqua Bank, where he oversaw branches spread across portions of eastern Washington and Oregon, and southwest Idaho. A Tri-Cities resident and Kamiakin High School graduate, he attended Pacific Banking School’s Executive Leadership Training program. He is a board chair for the Southeastern and Central Washington Chapter of the American Red Cross.

STCU also hired Ian Myers as a loan officer based at the Southridge branch in Kennewick. He will serve members throughout the region. Raised in East Wenatchee, the Kennewick resident has more than two decades of experience as a real estate loan officer, most recently with Gesa Credit Union. Myers has taught first-time homebuyer classes and is well-versed in construction lending, as well as government-backed USDA, FHA and VA home loan options.

PROMOTIONS

• CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen LLP) promoted Joseph Locatelli to senior CPA (certified public accountant). CLA is a professional services firm in Kennewick.
• Gesa Credit Union promoted Cheryl Brown to executive vice president of member support and service. Brown brings more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry to her new role, over 10 of which she has spent at Gesa. Brown will provide direction and support for all projects and solutions that support Gesa’s strategic plans, as well as collaborate directly with the executive management team and other departments to identify, recommend, develop, implement and support cost-effective solutions for all aspects of the organization.

Brown began her career at Bank of the Cascades as vice president, applications manager. Since then, she has worked for Banner Bank as a project manager and as of 2011, Gesa Credit Union. Prior to her promotion, Brown served as vice president of operations and program management at gesa.

 Brown has lived in the Tri-Cities for the last 11 years after moving from Bend, Oregon, where she lived for the last 30 years. She has been happily married for 39 years and has three children.

AWARDS & HONORS

• Prodigy Homes Inc. won the 2021 Parade of Homes People’s Choice Award.
• The Tri-Cities Cancer Center Foundation’s Dine Out Road Trip fundraiser was named Event of the Year for the Washington Festivals & Events Association Southeast Washington Chapter (budgets under $250,000). The Dine Out Road Trip was created in partnership with the local restaurant community to raise awareness that healthy, cancer-crushing eating can be fun and convenient. Event participants traveled around the Tri-Cities sampling dishes created by each participating restaurant’s chef and voted on their favorites.
• Matthew Riesenweber of Cornerstone Wealth Strategies in Kennewick was recently named among 2021 Forbes Top Next-Gen Wealth Advisors. Advisors featured on the list are all under 40 and, according to Forbes, represent the future of the wealth management industry.
• Trios Health has received the American Heart Association’s Get With the Guidelines - Stroke: Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award for its commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines. Trios Health also received the association’s Target: Stroke Elite Honor Roll Award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke. Additionally, Trios received the association’s Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll Award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed with more than 90% of compliance for 12 consecutive months for the “overall diabetes cardiovascular initiative composite score.”
• Jennifer Musick was the grand prize winner of the 2021 Rotary Mid-Columbia Duck Race, winning a new 2021 Toyota Tacoma Dbl Cab SR5 4x4 from Toyota of Tri-Cities in Kennewick. This is the sixth year Toyota of Tri-Cities has donated a new vehicle to the duck race. More than 18,460 tickets were sold for the duck race this year, raising tens of thousands of dollars to support area nonprofits.
• The Association of Washington Business honored Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with the 2021 AWB Manufacturing Excellence Award for Green Manufacturing. The award recognized PNNL’s work to develop Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion, or ShAPE, a new technology for processing aluminum and other metal alloys and composites that allows for greatly reduced energy consumption and fewer greenhouse gases.

GRANTS

• Gesa Credit Union launched its first Local Heroes Grant program and seven of the 23 organizations receiving grants were from the Tri-Cities. They were the Richland Firefighters Community Outreach Program, $5,000; Franklin Fire District 2, $5,000; Benton Fire District 2, $5,000; Chaplain Services Network, $5,000; Second Harvest, $5,000; Friends of Disabled Veterans, $5,000; and Mid-Columbia Ballet, $3,000.

DONATIONS

• Lourdes Health and Trios Health donated $6,500 to the Grace Clinic in Kennewick to support its breast cancer programs. The donation is generated from Lourdes’ and Trios’ joint sponsorship of the Tough Enough to Wear Pink Night at the 2021 Benton Franklin County Fair and Rodeo. This donation is one of the largest single awards ever generated to a single recipient from the event.
• State Farm insurance agents delivered fire safety kits from National Fire Protection Association to more than 2,700 fire departments and elementary schools across the country. Washington received 10 kits, and one was donated to the Pasco Fire Department by State Farm agent Edison Valerio. The donation was intended to help educate kids during National Fire Protection Week and throughout Fire Prevention Month.
• The Dinner with Friends fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties on Nov. 4 raised $330,000, a new record. The event featured Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee, a track and field athlete. Cornerstone Wealth Strategies, a keynote sponsor of the event, and its clients donated $100,000 to the nonprofit during the event.