GRANTS

 • Bechtel National donated $60,000 to the Washington State University Tri-Cities engineering program. This contribution will help fund the purchase of a new universal testing machine, significantly enhancing the university’s capabilities in testing material properties, particularly 3D-printed materials.

• Junior Achievement of Washington hosted its annual Bowling Classic fundraiser April 22-27, May 1-2 and 8-9 at Atomic Bowl in Richland. More than $165,000 was raised to support Junior Achievement programs in southeastern Washington. Top fundraising companies were Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Central Plateau Cleanup Company and Navarro – ATL.

• Wildhorse Foundation awarded $515,757 in quarterly grant funding, some of which is going to Tri-City-based organizations. Communities in Schools Benton-Franklin in Kennewick received $20,000 for food and basic needs supplies for Benton County students and families. Mirror Ministries in Richland received $15,000 for the Mirror Ministries Outreach Center. Richland Fire and Emergency Services received $15,900 for the procurement of extraction tools. Therapeutic Riding of Tri-Cities in Kennewick received $3,000 for a parking and paddock lighting project.

• Amentum donated $12,500 to Mid-Columbia Meals on Wheels to support senior nutrition. This donation provided 1,450 meals to seniors in the Richland community. They were delivered directly to homebound seniors and served on-site at the Meals on Wheels Howard Amon dining location.

• Through Yakama Cares and the Community Impact Fund, Legends Casino Hotel recently distributed more than $1 million to nonprofits. The Yakama Cares program selected 107 nonprofits to share $511,987 while larger grants supporting law enforcement, fire departments and other community services were awarded through the Community Impact Fund. Nonprofits in Benton and Franklin counties receiving grants were: Camp Woods Legacy, Pasco, $15,000, training, vet care, and placement resources for therapy dogs; Strides Therapeutic Horsemanship Center, Pasco, $10,000, horsemanship sessions for veterans and completion of horse trail obstacles; Royal Family Kids Camp, Pasco, $5,400, camp shirts, activity books, gift bags, hats, water bottles and MP3 players for 54 campers; Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton & Franklin Counties, Pasco, $5,000, program supplies, technology, and prizes for Power Hour; Clean Sweep Tri-Cities, Pasco, $5,000, free transportation to and from treatment facilities; Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 598 Bikes for Tikes Charity, Pasco, $5,000, purchase of bikes and helmets for community distribution; Restore City Church, Pasco, $3,500, support for teachers with back-to-school items; Domestic Violence Services of Benton & Franklin Counties, Kennewick, $10,000, furnishing 10 housing units for domestic abuse survivors; Friends of the Mid-Columbia Regional Library, Kennewick, $5,000, incentives for reading programs including books and brag tags; Lutheran Community Services Northwest, Kennewick, $5,000, stocking the food pantry; Tri-Cities Cancer Center Foundation, -Kennewick, $5,000, gas and grocery cards, wigs, hats and meals for cancer patients; Kadlec Foundation, Richland, $5,000, NICU supplies including car seats, baby toys, hooded towels and books; Support Advocacy & Resource Center, Richland, $3,000, sustaining and enhancing advocacy services including transportation to appointments; Pronto Puppy Rescue, Benton City, $3,000, spay and neuter services; Prosser Community Band, Prosser, $1,750, for two hand drums, timpani, and five new songs; and Prosser Senior Citizens Club, Prosser, $1,000, for resistance bands and dumbbells for gentle fitness classes.

• Amazon recently donated $40,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton & Franklin Counties. A check was presented to the nonprofit during Dust Devils Family Feast Night on May 30 and 150 game tickets were donated.

• The Children’s Reading Foundation of the Mid-Columbia raised more than $23,000 in support of its summer reading initiative, Read Up! Stop the Summer Slide. Organizers called it a record-breaking total. The funds were raised at foundation’s annual Mini Golf FUNdraiser on May 31. Money raised will go toward putting books in the hands of local children and families this summer. The foundation’s Read Up! program is designed to combat the summer slide, a decline in a student’s academic skills and knowledge that can occur during summer vacation.

NEW HIRES

• Bechtel Principal Vice President Mark Johnson has joined the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant as the new project manager for the high-level waste scope. He began his career at the Hanford site at IFC Kaiser and Flour Daniel Northwest and joined Bechtel at TWRS-P in 1998. He also worked at Bechtel Hanford before joining WTP as the LAW Mechanical Handling Engineering Group Supervisor, a role he held until 2004. He then worked for Bechtel at the Yucca Mountain Project and Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant before returning to WTP, first as engineering manager for the Pretreatment Facility and then as the manager of WTP Engineering. Since leaving WTP in 2016, Johnson has held leadership roles across Bechtel, including as an executive assistant to the company’s chief executive officer and chief operating officer. He most recently was project manager for engineering, procurement, commissioning and startup for a highly complex $12 billion liquefied natural gas megaproject in Texas. Johnson was elected as a Bechtel principal vice president in 2015. He earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from Washington State University and is a registered professional engineer in mechanical engineering.  

• Tom Fletcher was hired as the chief operations officer of Hanford Mission Integration Solutions. He spent the last two years in the private sector and has more than 20 years of government experience, half of it as a senior executive service member for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). He simultaneously served as both DOE’s Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) program manager and the federal project director for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. Fletcher steered the DFLAW program through significant improvements related to nuclear safety, quality and project delivery.

• Dr. Manmohan Singh is a new board-certified pulmonologist at Good Shepherd Health Care System in Hermiston, Oregon. Singh has more than 35 years of experience and provides a wide array of pulmonary services, including the treatment of conditions such as COPD, asthma, sleep apnea, pulmonary fibrosis and lung infections. He earned his Doctor of Medicine in 1989 from London University at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School. He completed a residency in internal medicine as well as a residency in pulmonary/critical care medicine at Cedars – Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, from 1994-99.

PROMOTIONS

• Tom McDonald was named executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Bonneville Power Administration. He has worked as executive vice president of Compliance, Audit and Risk Management since 2017. He began his new role May 18. He has more than 20 years of experience leading complex and highly regulated compliance and governance programs. He previously worked as a senior auditor for a multi-national accounting firm and has experience managing financial accounting and reporting for a publicly traded company and a nonprofit organization.

• Dr. John Matheson was promoted to the role of chief medical officer at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland. He began in his new role earlier this year, stepping into a position previously held by Dr. Kevin Pieper, who left for another opportunity. Matheson is well-known at Kadlec, having worked as a physician and medical director for the Kadlec Emergency Department for the past 19 years. He earned his medical degree at the University of Utah School of Medicine in 1999 and served his emergency medical residency at Maricopa Medical Center in Arizona.

• Alessandra Dearing is stepping into a new role as the director of growth at Krista Hopkins Homes at 8200 W. Grandridge Blvd. in Kennewick. In her new position, she will be leading the recruiting efforts while continuing to serve real estate clients. 

• Nick Boucher is the new chief financial officer of Inland Imaging, which has an office in Kennewick. Inland Imaging’s longtime CFO Tavi Lohman announced her intention to retire at the end of 2026. Boucher officially assumed the role on May 27. He previously worked for Saltchuk Resources Inc. in Seattle, where he has held a number of management and executive positions since 2016. He served most recently as interim chief financial officer at Carlile Transportation Systems, a Saltchuk company. He also worked as a senior associate with CliftonLarsonAllen LLP in Bellevue.

AWARDS & HONORS

• Two Tri-Citians are the first to receive a new scholarship to enable their participation in this year’s Ironman 70.3 triathlon in September. Michael McKinney and Maricela Vargas will receive benefits valued at $9,000 to help them prepare and compete in the race, which includes a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run, according to a release. Called the IM TRI Scholarship Program, the scholarships were awarded by Visit Tri-Cities, with benefits provided by local businesses. McKinney is the owner of Riverside Collision in Kennewick and a former competitive car and dirt bike rider. Vargas is a school transition counselor with the state Department of Social & Health Services, serving Kennewick School District high schools and Delta High School. The scholarship includes gym membership, race entry, personal trainer sessions, specialized training, running shoes and more.

• The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Grid Storage Launchpad has been honored with the 2025 Battery Council International Innovation Award. The award recognizes the launchpad’s role as a national resource for accelerating the development, validation and deployment of battery energy storage systems. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity, the 93,000-square-foot facility brings all phases of the battery development cycle under one roof, from materials research and prototyping to 100 KW-scale system testing.

• Melissa Abel, a nurse at Pasco School District, has been named the 2025 School Nurse of the Year by the School Nurse Organization of Washington. This statewide honor recognizes Abel’s commitment to student health, clinical expertise and professional leadership. She will be formally recognized at the group’s fall conference and at the National Association of School Nurses Annual Conference.

• Marty Lusby of Visiting Angels of Tri-Cities & Walla Walla has been named a semifinalist for the National Caregiver of the Year Award. This award recognizes her 17 years of service and dedication to the seniors and families she serves. Lusby’s commitment goes far beyond daily tasks. From crafting fresh flower bouquets to brighten a client’s day to preparing homemade meals filled with love, she creates environments that nourish both the body and spirit, according to Visiting Angels. Her caregiving journey began long before she joined Visiting Angels. From a young age, she cared for her own family members, showing a natural gift for nurturing and supporting others.

• Carol Price, a registered nurse at Lourdes Health in Pasco, has received the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. She earned this award for her quality nursing care and personal connections with her patients. Price has been a nurse at Lourdes Health in the Women’s Health clinic since October 2008. She was nominated by a coworker who appreciates her kindness, patience and understanding.

• Jana Valdez, a social studies teacher at Legacy High School in Kennewick has been selected as a 2025 Auschwitz Legacy Fellow by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation. She is one of four educators in Washington to be selected for this year-long professional development program focused on Holocaust education.

• Pasco High School honored two alumni at its Golden Bulldogs Awards event on May 15.

• Marisa Howard (née Vander Malle) was a 2010 salutatorian of Pasco High School. Howard’s athletic and academic excellence began early. She broke school records in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races and earned multiple podium finishes at the state level. She represented Team USA internationally, earning a silver medal at the 2019 Pan American Games and finishing fifth at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials. In 2024, she fulfilled her lifelong dream of becoming an Olympian, competing in the 3000-meter steeplechase at the Paris Olympics.
• Robert “Rob” Booth graduated from Pasco High in 1991, where he was an all-league athlete in both football and basketball. As a senior, he was named the state Defensive Player of the Year. Booth dedicated his professional life to education and coaching in Pasco schools, teaching at Pasco High, Emerson Elementary, Marie Curie STEM Elementary, McLoughlin Middle and Reynolds Middle schools. He died in 2023. 

• Sheri Appleby has been recognized by Lourdes Health as the 2025 Mercy Award winner. The Mercy Award recognizes one employee from each of Lifepoint Health’s facilities who touches the lives of others. Appleby was nominated by a coworker who noted her commitment to the department and her willingness to sacrifice her time and energy for the good of the hospital. She has been a nurse at Lourdes Health for nearly 22 years, and has also volunteered at Second Harvest, Meals on Wheels and My Friends Place, among others. Appleby was born at Lourdes, her parents were both providers at the hospital, and she volunteered at the hospital when she was in high school. Lourdes is her first and only job out of nursing school.

• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) was recognized for its significant contributions to several projects at the fiscal year 2024 Secretary’s Honor Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C.

• James Ang, PNNL chief scientist for computing, and Mahantesh Halappanavar, a PNNL chief data scientist, were among the contributors to the Exascale Computing Project Leadership Team, which was recognized for delivering the Exascale Computing Project, a seven-year, $1.8 billion collaboration among DOE national laboratories to create the world’s first sustainable exascale ecosystem.
• Matteo Muratori, PNNL director of transportation and industry programs, was a key contributor to the Transportation Blueprint Team. The team, comprised of several federal agencies, including DOE, developed the first-ever blueprint for energy and emissions innovation across the entire transportation sector.
• WESTWORLD is a DOE multi-laboratory consortium which was initiated seven years ago to address the nation’s critical energy infrastructure cybersecurity challenges. The consortium consists of personnel from PNNL, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Nevada National Security Site, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and DOE.

• Sara Nelson Design in Kennewick received nine awards from Graphic Design USA in its 62nd anniversary GDUSA Package Design Awards, a celebration of the power of effective package design. More than 2,800 entries were received. Sara Nelson design won awards in the following categories: Packaging design - home and garden: Wine Away (Walla Walla); Packaging design - home and garden: The Bee Society (Honey, Holographic Jars) (Tri-Cities); Packaging design - sustainable packaging: Grab ’n Go Wine Boxes (Tri-Cities); Packaging design - sustainable packaging: Cascadian Outfitters Tetra Paks (Tri-Cities); Packaging design - wines, beer and liquor: Firewater Distillery Packaging (Tri-Cities); Packaging design - wines, beer and liquor: 1883 Sanctuary Cellars label (Texas); Packaging design - wines, beer and liquor: Lacewing Cellars (Walla Walla); Packaging design - design for good: Love Girls Wine Label (Tri-Cities breast cancer fundraiser); and Packaging design - private label: Inspiring Dreams Foundation/Villa Bibbiani (Italy).

• Columbia Ability Alliance was honored with the Government Contracts Award at the 2025 Achievement Awards hosted by SourceAmerica. The Government Contracts Award honors a nonprofit agency for excellence in AbilityOne contract performance. Columbia Ability Alliance earned this recognition through its longstanding AbilityOne contract with the General Services Administration, where it provides outstanding janitorial services to an important community building while offering individuals with disabilities access to meaningful employment.

• Richland Fire Chief Tom Huntington has been named the 2025 recipient of the Dan Packer Fire Chief of the Year Award by the Washington Fire Chiefs (WFC) Association. The award, named in memory of Fire Chief Dan Packer who lost his life in 2008 while assisting with wildfire operations in California, recognizes fire service leaders who demonstrate extraordinary professionalism, leadership and service to their communities. Recipients are selected based on their embodiment of Packer’s legacy, which includes loyalty, strength in action and commitment to collaborative service. Huntington, who marked 30 years of service with the city of Richland in 2024, has held every rank in the department before becoming chief in 2015. Huntington’s name has been engraved on the WFC’s perpetual Dan Packer Award trophy, and he received a commemorative plaque during the ceremony.

APPOINTMENT

• Matt Paiss, a technical adviser at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, has been appointed the chair of the NFPA 800, Battery Safety Code technical committee under development by the National Fire Protection Association. Founded in 1896, the nonprofit develops and maintains codes and standards to reduce fire, electrical and related hazards around the world.

MILITARY

• Navy musician 2nd class Kyndra Sisayaket of Pasco has been assigned to the U.S. 7th Fleet Band’s Shiokaze Wind Ensemble, embarked on the U.S. 7th Fleet flagship, USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19). The fleet is the U.S. Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

BOARDS

• Columbia Generating Station stakeholders, representing 92 utilities in six states, elected member utilities and individual officers to the nuclear power plant’s Participants Review Board during their public meeting May 21 in Santa Rosa, California. The meeting was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Northwest Public Power Association. The three utility participants elected for a three-year term to the nine-member board are: Ryan Edmond of Benton REA, Garry Rosman of Inland Power & Light; and Shan Rowbotham of Kittitas County PUD.

• Yuan Jiang, a chemical engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, has joined the editorial board of Gas Science and Engineering as an executive editor where she will manage submissions and supervise associate editors. Jiang joined Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in 2017. Her work focuses on bioenergy, petroleum refineries, power generation, carbon capture and utilization, and hydrogen production, with an emphasis on modeling and simulation. Her expertise includes conceptual process design and modeling, techno-economic and life cycle analysis, and advanced system analysis. She holds two U.S. patents and has published 35 articles in peer-reviewed journals.