People: Week of May 25, 2015
The North Bay Business Journal
is looking for news of promotions, new hires and awards for possible publication in the People section. Send your press releases to the North Bay Business Journal, Attn: Business Register, 427 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95401; fax 707-521-5292; or e-mail people@busjrnl.com.
Banking
Summit State Bank has appointed Joel Louraine as vice president and commercial loan officer. Louraine brings more than 30 years of lending and community banking experience in the North Bay, most recently as vice president and commercial loan officer for Bank of Marin. Louraine holds a B.S. in finance from Western New England College in Springfield, Mass., and is a member and past president of the Rotary Club of Novato.
Redwood Credit Union (RCU) recently announced that three incumbents on its board of directors have been re-elected for three-year terms. Because credit unions are not-for-profit cooperatives, the board and Supervisory Committee are made up of credit union members who serve voluntarily and are elected by the membership. Robert Eyler has served as a volunteer official since 2009, and as a board member since 2011. He is a professor of economics and the senior international officer at Sonoma State University as well as CEO of the Marin Economic Forum, a public-private partnership organization focused on economic development in Marin County. Greg McGuirk has served on the board since 1987, after serving on Supervisory Committee, which oversees audits, for seven years. McGuirk is a retired audit manager for the Auditor-Controller’s Office for the county of Sonoma. Jim Olmsted has been a credit union official since 1993, and has served on the Supervisory Committee, as well as the board of directors for RCU Services Group. He is the principal of Olmsted & Associates, a land-use planning consulting firm, based in Santa Rosa. In addition, incumbent M. Christina Rivera has been re-elected to the Supervisory Committee. Rivera is a 19-year Sonoma County local government public employee, serving as a budget reviewer for the Government Finance Officers Association for the last five years. Rivera has a bachelor’s degree in business and accounting and from Sonoma State earned an MBA. The credit union board officers for the year: McGuirk, chairman; Eyler, vice chairman; Robert Steele, secretary; and Olmsted, treasurer.
Consumer products
Todd B. Rubin, vice president of sales and marketing and “minister of evolution” of The Republic of Tea, will assume the role of company president. Rubin succeeds his father, Ron Rubin, who will serve as executive chairman and “minister of tea.” Ron Rubin purchased the Novato-based company in 1994. He subsequently guided the brand into a major purveyor of more than 300 premium teas and herbs and tea-inspired products. The company promotes a “sip by sip rather than gulp by gulp” lifestyle.
Education
San Rafael Chamber of Commerce’s Education Committee selected Zannie Dallara as one of the recipients of its Excellence in Education Awards for 2014–2015. Dallara brings science alive for her students at The Marin School, where she teaches biology, zoology, physiology and ecology. Her students appreciate her ability to make science fun and easy to understand. She has a hands-on focus, and students enjoy activities like having turtle races, making squid prints, and creating a garden to attract monarch butterflies. Dallara works with other faculty members to integrate the science curriculum across other subjects.
Several new deans joined Santa Rosa Junior College this year. Josh Adams, M.A., dean of business and professional studies, has for the past four years been the manager of instructional computing in the Information Technology department. He completed B.S. and M.A. degrees in business administration at Columbia College and is currently completing a doctorate in education concentrating on organizational leadership at Brandman University. Matthew Long, Ed.D., dean of student services at the Petaluma campus, previously served as associate dean of student affairs and academic affairs at Gateway Community College in Connecticut. He brings a unique perspective from both four-year, two-year, public and private institutions, including as associate director of student financial services at Yale University. Long has a doctorate in educational leadership from Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. Matt Markovitch, M.A., will join as dean of kinesiology, athletics and dance on June 5. He played baseball for the current dean of KAD, Ron Myers, and obtained associates degree from SRJC in 1993. He received a B.A. in kinesiology from Sonoma State University and an M.A. in physical education and recreation from Saint Mary’s College. Markovitch has helped coach baseball teams at Sonoma, San Francisco and San Jose state universities. Most recently, he has spent the past several years as the director of kinesiology and athletics at College of Marin. Catherine Prince, M.A., dean of instruction and strategic program development, has worked for the past six years at the college in both student services and academic affairs components, including as manager of career development services. She was one of the tri-chairs of the SRJC Hispanic Serving Institutions Task Force and the lead author of SRJC’s Title V Developing Hispanic-Serving Institution proposal. Previously, Prince worked in the nonprofit sector as a CEO. Prince received an A.A. degree in mathematics from Sacramento City College and a B.A. in psychology and from Sacramento State University an M.A. in education. Catherine Williams, Ph.D., dean of instruction and enrollment management in Petaluma, has served the Sonoma County Junion College District, which oversees SRJC, for the past nine years in a number of leadership roles. She brings 16 years of experience teaching transfer-level, upper-division and graduate-level psychology courses at Dominican University, Sonoma State and SRJC. For the past five years, Williams has served as a tenured faculty member for SRJC’s disability resources department, where she provided disability management counseling and academic advising services. She graduated magna cum laude from Dominican University and earned a doctorate of philosophy in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology.
