April NewsMakers

Corey Wemple joined the Biwabik office as assistant vice president and consumer lending officer. Previously with Isabella Bank & Trust of Big Rapids, MI, Wemple has more than 12 years experience in real estate and consumer lending.

Catholic Charities Bureau

Gary Valley was promoted to director of bureau housing at the Superior-based nonprofit. He will supervise 26 apartment buildings in 18 communities in northern Wisconsin and Duluth. He joined Catholic Charities in 1998 after serving as a Peace Corps volunteer and as an administrator with USAID in Central America.

Bruce Todd, former manager of Northwest Region Housing, was named assistant director of housing/facilities manager.

Sandy Al-Qudah, was promoted to director of housing counseling. She began her career at Catholic Charities in 1997.

Depot Foundation

Susan Bolinger was named executive director of the Duluth-based nonprofit organization. She previously worked in Washington, D.C. for Citibank, where she was responsible for an annual $1 billion negotiated partnership program.

Fox 21 News

Todd Nelson was hired as chief meteorologist of the Duluth network affiliate’s news team. Nelson was the morning and noon meteorologist at KBJR/KDLH-TV in Duluth. He will continue to give the morning weather forecast on 95 KQDS-FM.

Kraus Anderson

Jarrid Houston was hired as assistant project manager in the Minneapolis-based company’s Duluth office. He worked for Big Lake Construction in Osceola, WI and received his B.S. in industrial technology/construction management from Bemidji State University.

Lake Superior College

Dental hygiene instructor Penny Fudally and sociologist Marlise Riffel were nominated for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Award for Excellence in Teaching. Fudally has been an LSC faculty member for 15 years. Riffel has taught for more than 25 years.

Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation

Joan Gardner-Goodno was hired as the Duluth foundation’s first executive director. She has more than 24 years of nonprofit experience including grants management, nonprofit administration, federal grants program monitoring and evaluation, community collaboration and program development.

Newby, Lingren & Westermann, Ltd.

Attorney Jeffrey Naglosky was hired by the Cloquet law firm. Naglosky obtained his Juris Doctorate from Creighton University School of Law in Omaha, NE with a concentration in criminal law. He worked for Carlton County Court Administration.

Northspan Group, Inc.

Peter Kolar, president of Kolar Autoworld of Hermantown and Wade Pavleck, Koochiching County commissioner, joined The Northspan Group board of directors. The board also named its officers for 2007: Dan Markham of Reuben Johnson & Son, Inc., chairman; Debora Bradt of Republic Bank, vice-chairwoman; and Steve Raukar, St. Louis County commissioner, secretary/treasurer.

The Northspan Group is a Duluth-based private nonprofit development organization that providew professional business and community development consulting services for the region and the Upper Midwest.

Northstar Aerospace

The Duluth aviation company announced these promotions and hires:

• Ken Chipman was hired as vice president, chief financial officer. With more than 20 years of accounting and management experience, he was controller at Grandma’s Restaurant Co. He received his accounting degree from the University of Minnesota Duluth.

• Doug Swanstrom was promoted to vice president of manufacturing. He joined the staff in 2004 as director of quality assurance. He earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Redlands in California.

• Don Winberg was promoted to quality assurance manager. He joined Northstar Aerospace in 2003 as a machinist and later became a supervisor in quality control. He has 17 years of manufacturing experience.

• Susan Taylor was promoted to employment coordinator, human resources.

Northland College

Senior Alison Spaude was selected as the Valerie Chabot Teaching fellow at the Ashland college’s Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute. Spaude will coordinate promotion, program development, and evaluation for the 2007 Apostle Island School.

Points North

The Duluth software company announced these promotions and hires:

• Todd Davis was promoted to director of development.

• Blaine Balavance was hired as an integration specialist.

• Warren Wolfe was hired as channel manager.

PolyMet Mining Corp.

The Vancouver, British Columbia-based company appointed operating and construction staff for NorthMet, its planned nonferrous mineral operation near Hoyt Lakes. Joe Scipioni was named chief operating officer; Phillip Brodie-Hall as project director; and Andrew Clark as project manager.

Brodie-Hall and Clark join the NorthMet team which includes Jim Scott in charge of environmental planning, Don Hunter in charge of mine planning and Steve Ryan in charge of construction labor relations.

Superior/Douglas County Leadership Program

The program named 10 as “Outstanding Douglas County Resident” for 2007.

They are: Louis Andrews, Bud Brand, Kim Bunnell, Linda Hines, Kathy Laakso, Ruth Lintelmann, Jim Manion, Christine O’Neill, Geof Wendorf, and Dan Wicklund.

The 10 were chosen based on nominations submitted by community members outlining the nominee’s volunteerism and community service efforts.

Winners will be honored April 24 at the Superior Moose Lodge.

University of Minnesota Duluth

The university announced its first doctoral program. The Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree program begins its initial course offerings in August 2007.

Professor Randall Hicks is the new director of the Center for Freshwater Research and Policy. The biology department chairman for eight years, Hicks completed a Ph.D. degree in Ecology at the University of Georgia and did postdoctoral work at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Illinois Natural History Survey before joining the faculty at UMD.

Michael Zgurovsky, rector of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute in Ukraine, met with scientists and administrators at the University and its Natural Resources Research Institute to explore a partnership to further refine his sustainable development gauging matrix. Zgurovsky also met with University of Minnesota Duluth administrators to discuss future cooperative projects in education and science between the two universities.

University of Wisconsin Superior

Bethany Haworth Boerboom, a senior majoring in Transportation and Logistics Management, received the national Louise Moritz Molitoris Leadership Award from the Women’s Transportation Seminar. She will receive a $3,000 scholarship and attend the WTS national conference in San Diego in May to accept the award.

Mary Schoeler was named assistant vice chancellor for instruction and information technology and chief information officer. She was chief technology officer at the State University of New York-Oswego.

Jane Birkholz was named assistant vice chancellor for enrollment management. She was chief student affairs officer at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Wells Fargo

The nationwide bank contributed $10.8 million to more than 1,000 nonprofit organizations and local schools throughout Minnesota in 2006. Contributions in Duluth and Northeastern Minnesota included the Northern Communities Land Trust, University of Minnesota Duluth and the United Way of Greater Duluth.

WesternBank

The Duluth-based bank appointed Steve Decatur to the position of executive vice president. He has more than 30 years of experience in banking and finance, including as president and CEO of U.S. Bank in Duluth.

Wisconsin Nonprofits Association

The founding board of directors met for the first time in early February. A charter membership package will be offered to nonprofits statewide later this spring.