Movers and Shakers 5/6/12

Anna Castillo is the new Learning Center manager for Credit Union 1. Castillo is responsible for the overall organization, operation, and on-site management of the Credit Union 1 Learning Center, which provides day care to employees. Castillo comes with 17 years of experience from the Providence Center for Child Development, where she has worked as a teacher and supervisor. She also has a bachelor’s degree in occupational education and human services with a specialty in early childhood development from Wayland Baptist University.

The 2012 Horatio Alger Association Alaska Scholarship recipients are: Anne L. Calhoun, Ketchikan High School, Ketchikan; Bryana Garcia-DeLaCruz, Effie Kokrine Charter School, Fairbanks; Mary E. Keele, Ketchikan High School, Ketchikan; TeoLani R. Lynch, Haines High School, Haines; and Megan R. Tuttle, Ben Eielson High School, Salcha. Since 1989, the Association has provided $318,000 in scholarships to high school seniors from Alaska. Students will receive $5,000 that will go toward their college tuition, fees, books, on-campus room and board, and other education-related expenses.

Alexei Desatoff, who heads the physical therapy program at the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium S’áxt’ Hít Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital in Sitka, has been notified that he will be awarded the U.S. Public Health Service Therapist Junior Officer of the Year Award this June. Desatoff, who holds the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the USPHS Commissioned Corps, also won this national award in 2004 and is the only person listed who has won the award twice. Desatoff won his 2004 award as a clinical instructor for Doctor of Physical Therapy students, and he will be awarded the 2011 award for co-authoring and implementing a business plan that brings significant upgrades and increased services to the hospital. Desatoff earned his doctor of physical therapy degree from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Desatoff has been with SEARHC since 2000 and was promoted to department manager of physical therapy in Sitka in 2010.

Dr. Bruce Chandler, pediatrician with the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center, has been named by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the 2012 CDC Childhood Immunization Champion for Alaska. The award is given to honor individuals who are doing an exemplary job to promote or foster childhood immunizations in their communities.

Margaret (Mel) Langdon has joined USKH Inc. as a senior water resources engineer/hydrologist. Langdon provides USKH’s clients with more than 15 years of experience in water resources engineering, specifically on water resources investigations, water supply planning, advanced detention design, storm water quality, low-impact development and risk assessment. Langdon returns to Alaska after one year working in Oregon. Langdon’s previous Alaska experience includes four years working as a watershed hydrologist for the Municipality of Anchorage and three years working as the storm water and wetlands program manager for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Langdon is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers / Environmental and Water Resources Institute and the American Water Resources Association. Langdon is a graduate of the University of Washington, and she received her master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Colorado. She is licensed in Alaska, Oregon and Colorado.

Joshua Harrod recently joined Denali State Bank as a loan officer and was appointed assistant vice president. Bonnie Roland recently joined Denali State Bank as loan collections manager and was appointed assistant vice president. Harrod brings almost 10 years of banking experience to Denali State Bank and has occupied various positions in the local financial services sector. A longtime Fairbanks resident, Roland has more than 10 years of banking experience, most recently in a managerial capacity at another financial institution. In her appointment as loan servicing and collections manager, Roland is responsible for oversight of the bank’s collections activities, including both the mortgage and consumer loan departments.