North Bay Business Journal

A multiyear effort to boost career technical education at Sonoma County schools has begun to fund programs, with a new Career Technical Education Fund pledging more than $500,000 over five years to help launch and support workforce training courses.

SANTA ROSA — More than $500,000 will be allocated over five years to support workforce training programs in Sonoma County schools, with a first round of programs announced today that will receive support from a fund launched last year to promote career skill education in the region.

The Business Journal is researching for its new list of the largest North Bay Women-owned Companies. Deadline to submit your name is Tuesday, June 25th.

If your company is 51 percent or more women-owned and is located in Sonoma, Napa, Marin or Solano counties, please fill in this form.

The deadline for signing up is Friday, June 21.

ST. HELENA — After the graduation of its third cohort since the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone launched its Accelerated Wine and Beverage program three years ago, data has shown that the course has generated strong outcomes for graduates that include a high passing rate on Court of Master Sommelier exams, according to information from the college.

SANTA ROSA — Santa Rosa Junior College has brought its culinary arts and agriculture departments under unified leadership, aligning those programs to emphasize for students the sometimes invisible relationship between farming and food.

ROHNERT PARK — With a hope of attracting and supporting entrepreneurially minded students both inside and outside of the School of Business and Economics, a newly formed “Entrepreneurship Society” at Sonoma State University is among the school’s latest efforts to broaden its role in cultivating cross-disciplinary connections between current and future entrepreneurs.

College of Marin saw the number of individuals graduating from its certificate and associate degree programs in the 2013 academic year increase by 34 percent over 2012, a jump that administration attributed to a greater focus on student outcomes. …

ieSonoma, a coalition of private and public organizations focused on exploring best practices in modern education, is partnering with the Sonoma State University School of Education to offer a four-day course. …

Pivot Charter School’s Santa Rosa-based North Bay campus received full accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. …

Large employers in the North Bay and beyond are launching initiatives to support education in science, technology, engineering and math, with San Rafael-based Autodesk among those taking part in a new effort under San Francisco’s Exploratorium science museum. It’s also in partnership with South San Francisco-based Genentech, which operates a large biotechnology manufacturing plant in Vacaville. …

SANTA ROSA — Santa Rosa Junior College has received a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, meant to support education in sustainable agriculture over a three-year period, according to the college.

Site preparation for College of Marin’s new Academic Center continues with the demolition of outdated buildings, including the Administrative Center, Olney Hall, Business and Management Center, and Harlan Center. …

St. Helena Hospital Foundation’s 23rd annual golf tournament featuring PGA legend Johnny Miller took place at Silverado Country Club on May 20. …

Northern Sonoma County’s Wine Road announced that it is making it easier than ever to plan a trip to wine country with the launch of its newest online tool, Wine Road Concierge Service. …

Please accept my sincere thanks to the many who have expressed through email, social media and text messaging kind words of appreciation.

An important point to emphasize is that my next step includes my continued participation in the marvelous Cardinal Newman community through the Angela Merici and John Henry Newman Foundation, Inc. There are many projects on the horizon to further improve our learning environment and to preserve Catholic secondary education in the greater Santa Rosa area. This region is home to Sheila and me. We are taking steps to secure property nearer to the Cardinal Newman campus to construct our retirement home recently sketched by our architect son.

SANTA ROSA — Mike Truesdell, who became president of Santa Rosa’s Cardinal Newman High School as part of a reorganized administrative model in 2004, will leave his role to serve as the first lay president of St. John’s Jesuit High School & Academy in northwestern Ohio, according to a Cardinal Newman announcement.

Also, see letter to the editor: Truesdell to remain with Newman foundation

Napa County’s wine producers enjoyed strong growth in case sales through their tasting rooms last year and even stronger growth in consumer spending on wine purchases at those venues, and membership in the county’s winery-based clubs is rebounding at a strong clip as visitors are convinced to become purchasing members, according to a recently updated annual survey of several hundred mostly North Coast vintners. …

St. Helena Hospital Napa Valley said it has entered into a new agreement with five orthopedic surgeons to expand round-the-clock care, including orthopedic trauma and fractures, minimally invasive joint replacement, and treatment of other orthopedic disorders. …

Napa was the 16th most popular U.S. travel destination in 2013, and the Rutherford Auberge du Soleil location was among the 42 California dining establishments on the list of the top 100 outdoor dining spots nationwide. …

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has presented Napa’s Vintage High School with the largest award it offers through its Bright Ideas grant program, with the $10,000 gift planned to support the school’s Green Technology Pathway program. …

Emily Pickral-Papach of Chappellet Winery in Napa was the newest local inductee to the Court of Master Sommeliers (mastersommeliers.org), among four announced last week. …

Mira Winery last week ended a three-month experiment in underwater cellaring. …

Manufacturing got technical over the last few decades. It got harder. It’s paying more. It’s more innovative. It’s “advanced”, and In California it has to be tremendously efficient to compete. It must constantly improve and account for the end-of-life of its products. California State University at Chico has answered the state’s call by providing one of only three programs in the world that offers a four-year degree in “Sustainable Manufacturing”. This program is in part filling a massive and growing California void of industrially trained students that can go from the production floor to management soon after graduating from college.

As part of the implementation of the Local Vendor Preference policies adopted by the Napa County Board of Supervisors, the county will host a Contracting Opportunities Workshop for Professional Services Consultants and Construction Contractors in May. …

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. officials presented College of Marin with a check for the energy efficient design and construction of the new Science, Math, Nursing Building. …

Direct Flow Medical, Inc., the Santa Rosa-based transcatheter heart valve company focused on improving patient outcomes, announced that it has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an investigational device exemption to begin the SALUS feasibility trial of the Direct Flow Medical Transcatheter Aortic Heart Valve System. …

Phoenix, Ariz.-based Sprouts Farmers Market is getting closer to opening its first store in Sonoma County. …

Petaluma’s Enphase Energy, Inc. announced its support of Team USC in the 2013 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, a biennial competition powered exclusively by the sun. …

A Sonoma County-based nonprofit and several others with ties in the North Bay are among 48 organizations across the state to share in $37 million in outreach and education grants from Covered California, the state’s online health exchange developed under health care reform.

Petaluma-based Redwood Community Health Coalition received $830,000. Catholic Charities of California, which has a presence in Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties, received $859,000. California Rural Indian Health Board, which has a presence in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, was given $300,000. The California NAACP, which has locations in Sonoma and Solono counties, received $600,000 and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Solano County received $100,00.

ROHNERT PARK — Efforts continue to secure full funding for constructing an outdoor pavilion at Sonoma State University’s Green Music Center, one of a number of construction projects at the school that include a new student center that is nearing completion, according to the university.

Offered for the first time this year, the eight-course Wine Industry Finance and Accounting certificate program takes many of the financial skills taught in Sonoma State’s full-blown wine business degree programs and breaks those topics out for focused instruction to a non-student audience.

NORTH BAY — At a time of reduced state funding for public education in California, some of the North Bay’s largest and most influential employers are launching and supporting initiatives that seek to bolster programs for students from elementary school through the college level.

Gary Heck, owner and president of Korbel Champagne Cellars and Kenwood Vineyards, became an honorary inductee of the Sonoma State University chapter of the Beta Gamma Sigma business honor society last month. …

Amid the rising popularity of a for-credit “Banking and Finance Academy” program operated in partnership with Santa Rosa City Schools, Redwood Credit Union recent took part in a new “Bite of Reality” financial literacy program in San Rafael. …

Dominican University’s Venture Greenhouse incubator and accelerator program will host a “Marinnovation” showcase for innovators and entrepreneurs from Marin County on May 15, with Netflix co-founder and Mill Valley resident Mitch Lowe as keynote. …

On May 10, College of Marin will host a celebration for its recently opened Science, Math and Nursing building at the school’s Kentfield Campus, featuring a lecture by alumnus Adam Steltzner from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Mars Rover “Curiosity” expedition. …

Stephen Olson, long-time agriculture instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College and a major force behind the college’s Shone Farm programs, has been selected to receive one of the school’s highest honors for staff, the President’s Medallion of Honor. …

Massage Envy Spa’s Santa Rosa location hired a certified massage therapist in March, Susan Losinski. …

The Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa hired an additional group sales manager, Mary Jo Baird. …

Jen Birmingham, a sales associate in Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage’s Petaluma office, has been awarded membership in the company’s International Sterling Society, an honor bestowed upon the top Coldwell Banker sales associates worldwide. …

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage announced that Gary Sumner, a sales associate in its Santa Rosa office, earned membership in the company’s International Diamond Society. …

Sonoma-based marketing agency V2 Wine Group appointed industry veteran Ken Meyerson director of national retail accounts. …