McMullen named WSFS Senior VP
WSFS Bank, the primary subsidiary of WSFS Financial Corporation, announced that Erica McMullen has been named Senior Vice President, Loan Review Director.
McMullen will manage the bank’s entire loan review function, including for commercial, consumer banking, small business and Small Business Administration (SBA), and mortgage lending and leases.
Prior to her new role, McMullen spent three years as Vice President, Senior Credit Officer at WSFS She previously served in regional vice president, senior relationship manager, commercial credit manager and senior credit analyst roles, among others, at various financial institutions.
Barnes named Courtyard Sales Director
Courtyard by Marriott University of Delaware named Stephanie Barnes as our Director of Sales. Stephanie will lead the hotel sales efforts for guest rooms, banquet/meeting events, corporate travel partnerships, and leisure travel. Barnes brings over 20 years of experience in hospitality sales, corporate and social events planning, technology consulting, and human resources recruiting and development.
Stephanie is a volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters Breast Cancer Walk, Easter Seals Volleyball Challenge, Food Bank of Delaware, and other organizations.
Three join Community Foundation Board
The Delaware Community Foundation welcomes Mariah Calagione, Lynn Evans and Chrissi Rawak to its Board of Directors.
Leaving the DCF board are Thomas D. Wren, Thomas L. Sager, and Nicholas Lambrow.
Calagione has spent the past 28 years working for Dogfish Head, leading its grassroots marketing, PR and social media teams until ultimately focusing on her true passion, Beer & Benevolence, Dogfish Head’s charitable-giving arm.
She now serves as the Boston Beer Co. social impact leader, working across all of the company’s brands and locations. Calagione and her husband, Sam, have two children and live in Lewes.
Evans works as the director of the Women’s Leadership Initiative at the University of Delaware, dedicated to advancing gender equity through programming and advocacy for students and professionals from all industries. In previous roles, she has worked for over 35 years in asset management at BlackRock and JPMorgan. Evans and her husband, Joe, live in Wilmington and have two daughters and two granddaughters.
Rawak has served as the director of athletics, community and campus recreation at the University of Delaware for the past seven years, leading the university’s intercollegiate athletics program, consisting of 21 Division I men’s and women’s sports as well as the university’s recreation services department. Rawak and her husband, Glenn Hill, have three children.
Delaware Bio announces new board members
The Delaware BioScience Association (Delaware Bio) announced the election of Tim Mueller, Ph.D., of Prelude Therapeutics, Lakshmi Cyr, Ph.D., of Delaware Technical Community College, Sandra Lewisch, Ph.D., of Siemens Healthineers, Tracy Shickel of the University of Delaware and Shamus Whyte of AstraZeneca to its board of directors.
Mueller is vice president EHS, lab operations, and facilities at Prelude Therapeutics, a precision oncology company. In addition to leading operational excellence for the safe and efficient operations of Prelude’s research laboratories, he is leading the effort to construct a new headquarters in Wilmington.
Cyr is the instructional director and Science Department chairperson at Delaware Tech, where she has been on faculty since 2007. Earlier in her career she worked in industry and did postdoctoral research at the University of Georgia and Ohio State University. She replaces Katie Lakofsky, who left Delaware Tech and the Delaware Bio board upon her appointment to lead industry workforce development.
Shickel is associate vice president of corporate engagement at the University of Delaware (UD). Shickel leads university-wide external engagement supporting innovation-based economic development, including the growth of the University’s Science Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus.
Lewisch is senior director R&D, at Siemens Healthineers, based at the company’s Newark site. Lewisch leads the development of clinical chemistry and immunoassays for automated clinical analyzers and has held progressive technical and leadership roles in R&D and led product development efforts from predevelopment through commercialization and customer support.
Whyte is the executive director and site manager responsible for the leadership and direction of the 300 professionals at AstraZeneca’s supply site in Newark. This includes accountability for all aspects of the manufacture & supply of products to global markets supporting more than $8 billion in sales. Whyte has extensive global experience leading strategy and operations, including assignments in the UK, Russia, Germany, China, Tibet, and Nepal.
Delaware Bio also announced the reelection of two directors: Greg Tronto of Gore PharmBio Development and Chris Yochim, director of business development at NIIMBL, the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing of Biopharmaceuticals. Yochim serves as chair of the Delaware Bio board.
Barr named executive chef
Dianna Barr was named executive chef at the The Cottage Café in Bethany Beach.
Barr grew up in southeast Georgia and moved to Delaware for a degree in human services from Delaware Technical Community College.
However, she was drawn to the hospitality industry — and no wonder. She was just 13 when she got a job as a dishwasher at Jekyll Island, Georgia, restaurant. Barr worked her way up to serving and helped prep and cook.
While pursuing a degree in psychology, she went to the Cottage Café and decided to pursue her culinary career. She lives in Frankford with her brother and daughter. The Cottage Café was recently purchased by Coastal Delaware restaurant group, SoDel Concepts.
Grinnen joins Core Concierge Health
Core Concierge Health, Rehoboth Beach, announced the addition of Dr. Kathryn Grinnen, DO, to their practice.
Grinnen is a board-certified internal medicine physician and obtained her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. She then pursued her residency training in internal medicine at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
Core Concierge Health is a concierge medical practice that goes beyond just primary care to include services like nutritional counseling, Transformational Total Care Program, specialty care, chronic and acute care, and wellness programs.
Nevin wins national honor for fourth year in a row
For a fourth year in a row, Modern Healthcare has recognized ChristianaCare President and CEO Janice E. Nevin as one of the nation’s 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives.
The publication praised her and ChristianaCare for the work being done to extend the reach of the health system via new offerings, including Hospital Care at Home, ChristianaCare Business Health Solutions and Virtual Primary Care.
“Dr. Nevin has a bold, courageous and clear-eyed vision for the future of health care regionally and nationally,” said Nicholas Marsini, chair of the Board of Directors of ChristianaCare. Nevin has led ChristianaCare since 2014
DCF’S Popelka promoted
The Delaware Community Foundation announced that Matt Popelka has been promoted to marketing and communications coordinator.
Popelka joined the DCF marketing and communications team in 2022. His new title reflects additional project management and strategic responsibilities, said Allison Taylor Levine, DCF vice president for marketing and communications.
Delaware native to head Tennessee Tech alumni group
Tennessee Tech University has named a Delaware native as chair of its Alumni Association Board of Directors.
Dontrell Baines, who grew up in Dover and graduated from Tennessee Tech in 2009 with a degree in accounting, will serve as chair of the Alumni Association’s board through June 2025. Baines works as a business transformation manager for Capgemini, a global consulting company.
In his new position, Baines says he hopes to raise the profile of the Alumni Association and increase participation from recent graduates.
Unidel health chair named
Dave Edwards, professor and new chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology in the University of Delaware’s College of Health Sciences and leading expert in cardiovascular research, has been named the Unidel Katherine L. Esterly Chair in Health Sciences.
The Unidel Chair in Health Sciences is named for the late Dr. Katherine L. Esterly, a pioneer in neonatology in Delaware and recipient of the University’s Medal of Distinction.
Edwards is responsible for the creation of the University of Delaware Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) in Cardiovascular Health, which, now in its eighth year of funding from the National Institutes of Health, has helped grow cardiovascular health-related research at UD.