NEW HIRES

• Three new physicians and an advanced practice provider have joined Providence Medical Group Walla Walla. Dr. Onder Orgul, a nephrologist, has joined Providence Medical Group Nephrology; Dr. Jason Sedarsky, a urologist, has joined Providence Medical Group Urology; Dr. Kaye Sedarsky, a neurologist, has joined Providence Medical Group Neurology; and Monica Mendoza, a physician assistant, has joined Providence Medical Group Family Medicine.
• Cait Bero has joined New U Women’s Clinic & Aesthetics’ women’s aesthetic team. She graduated from the Denver College of Nursing in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in nursing and began her career in the medical ICU at the University of Colorado Hospital.
• Rupesh Patel has joined Meier Architecture and Engineering as a mechanical engineer. Patel has more than 15 years of experience designing and managing projects. He holds a Master of Science degree from California State University.
• Sara Howe has joined Columbia Ability Aliance as a philanthropy officer. She brings more than 20 years of experience in hospitality management, event planning and relationship cultivation. Howe previously worked as a certified culture trainer with hospitality brands such as St. Regis, Four Seasons and Belmond.
• Elida Carrillo has joined Columbia Ability Alliance as an employment specialist. She brings experience empowering people with disabilities and life barriers, including from her previous work as a home care aide. She also has mentored middle school students, focusing on supporting those who were chronically absent. In her new role, she will help clients secure and maintain employment, enhance their job skills and support their goals.
• Heather Zaragoza has joined Lourdes Behavioral Health in Richland as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. She’ll treat patients for psychiatric needs such as depressive mood disorders, psychotic disorders, anxiety disorders and other conditions and life issues. She’s board-certified, holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from Washington State University, and has more than 24 years of mental health experience.
• Dr. Teigen Goodeill has joined the Prosser Orthopedic Center team. He is an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist with an extensive academic background. Goodeill graduated in the top 15% of his class at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences and has been recognized for several prestigious awards.
• Pasco Fire Department has tapped Tim Harkins as its new deputy fire chief. Harkins comes to Pasco from the Kennewick Fire Department, where he worked for 24 years. In addition to his firefighting career, Harkins serves as a part-time instructor in the fire science program at Columbia Basin College, helping prepare the next generation of fire service professionals.
• Tanner Henson has joined Petersen Hastings in Kennewick as a portfolio analyst. He’ll work with the team to perform investment-related services for new and existing clients. Henson has a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a focus on finance from Gonzaga University.
• Ali Mayfield has joined Mercer Wine Estates as a winemaker. She attended Walla Walla Community College, where she studied viticulture and enology, and she has extensive experience with premier Washington state wineries. At Mercer Wine Estates, she will collaborate closely with winemaker Ashley Stephens and lead winemaking for a growing list of custom clients.
• Felice Presti is now a senior vice president at Bechtel National Inc. He serves as the project manager for the High-Level Waste Facility at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, known as the vit plant, in Richland. Before that, he was project manager for the NASA Mobile Launcher 2 project at the Kennedy Space Center, where he led the Bechtel team through the design phase and the start of construction. Presti has more than 30 years of project experience in technical and management roles, and he’s held numerous positions within Bechtel since joining the company in 2004. Presti has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a doctorate in fluid dynamics from the University of Liverpool in Liverpool, England.
• Dr. Sirshendu “Dev” Banerjee has joined Prosser Memorial Health’s Prosser Clinic. He’s certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and previously worked for Community Hospital Network in Indianapolis, Kadlec RegionalMedical Center in Richland and in various hospital settings, including Evergreen Health in Kirkland. He completed his residency at Montefiore Medical Center, New York Medical College, and earned his medical degree from Calcutta National Medical College in India. He also holds a master’s in physiology and biophysics from the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine.
• An experienced law enforcement leader has been chosen as Richland’s next police chief. Martin Pilcher will take over the post, pending a background investigation. He’s worked as the police chief in Woodburn, Oregon, since 2021.

  Before that, he served as the deputy chief for about three years. He also worked for the Portland Police Bureau as an internal affairs investigator and spent most of his career with the Elk Grove Police Department in Elk Grove, California. Pilcher has a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Norwich University and is a graduate of the Senior Management Institute for Police from the Police Executive Research Forum.

  “I am honored and excited to be selected to serve as the chief of police for Richland,” Pilcher said in a statement. “My goal is to work collaboratively with the community, the department, and other city agencies to ensure that Richland remains a safe and welcoming place for everyone. I look forward to meeting with residents and working together to address our community’s needs.”

PROMOTION

• Petersen Hastings Wealth Advisors has promoted Cameron Ridgeway to wealth advisor. He joined Petersen Hastings in Kennewick as an associate wealth advisor in 2020, first interning with the firm in 2017 and then again in 2019. Ridgeway graduated from Eastern Washington University in 2020, earning a bachelor’s in finance.

AWARDS

• lion and Bo Peng from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have earned 2024 Early Career Research Program awards. The researchers work in earth science, biology and chemistry. They’re among 91 researchers chosen for the competitive award from the U.S. Department of Energy. It comes with five years of funding. 
• Natural Grocers, a natural and organic retailer chain with a store in Kennewick, has been named Best Natural Food Stores (both online and in-person) in this year’s Green Matters Approved contest. The Green Matters editorial team chose the nominees and readers voted to determine the winners.
• Evangelina Shreeve has earned the 2024 Tri-Cities Champion of Diversity Award. She is the chief diversity officer and director for STEM Education and leads Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility and STEM workforce development strategies.
• Lisa Bugas, the community engagement and philanthropy relationship manager at Numerica Credit Union received the 2024 ATHENA Young Professional Leadership Award. Amanda Lorraine, the CEO and co-founder of Grace Kitchen, received the 2024 ATHENA Leadership Award. Grace Kitchen is a nonprofit offering opportunity to women survivors of abuse, addiction, trafficking and incarceration.
• Celeste Blair of Richland earned a Gold Award from the Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. The awards go to girls who solve a problem in their community or make a lasting change in their world. Blair saw a need to help preserve the history of women’s contributions during World War II in the U.S. Naval Reserves’ Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVES, at Naval Air Station Pasco. She worked with the Pasco Aviation Museum to build a display to educate the community on the history of WAVES and preserve the artifacts from this time.

DONATIONS

• Wildhorse Foundation has donated $30,000 to Mid-Columbia Meals on Wheels, which will use the money for a new commercial dishwasher. Mid-Columbia Meals on Wheels is a program of the nonprofit Senior Life Resources. It provides meals to seniors in Benton and Franklin counties at in-person dining centers and through home delivery. The new dishwasher will help streamline meal production and enhance food safety and sanitation.
• Pasco School District has received $20,000 from Amentum in support of STEM programs in Pasco schools. Amentum, a global technical and engineering services partner, is the parent company of Washington River Protection Company, Central Plateau Cleanup Company and the Waste Treatment Completion Company at the Hanford site.
• Grants from The STEM Foundation provided 3,000 students in the Mid-Columbia with enriched learning experiences aimed at inspiring interest in science, technology, engineering and math careers. The foundation awarded 19 grants to teachers in the Richland, Pasco, Kennewick, Columbia and Kiona-Benton City school districts during the 2023-24 academic year. That’s the most grants ever awarded by the foundation, and they paid for activities in everything from coding and computing to wind energy.

HONORS

• Washington Trust Bank has been ranked as the top bank in Washington on the annual America’s Best-in-State Banks list. The list is presented by the media company Forbes and Statista Inc., a statistics portal and industry ranking provider. It was created based on a survey of about 26,000 banking customers in the United States. Washington Trust Bank is the largest independently owned full-service commercial bank in the Northwest.
• Natalie Hartley of Kiona-Benton City High School, was selected as the 2024 STEM Rising Star for Washington STEM’s southeast region. She is a 4.0 student and an active member of the biomed club at her school.