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March 10, 2008

 

Knowbulls

Recent Changes, Promotions, and Awards

 

Reasons to Believe – Durham, Where Great Things Happen

Local Awards & Recognitions

Events & Happenings

Promotions, Staff & Board Changes

New Businesses & New Developments

Changes & Renovations to Durham Businesses & Organizations

 

To submit a Durham news tip or announcement, email julier@durham-cvb.com.

 

 

Reasons to Believe – Durham, Where Great Things Happen

 

  • Durham will host the North Carolina premiere of The Color Purple when it tours in 2009.
  • Duke's Coach K reached 800 wins, only the sixth Division-I head coach to hit the milestone, taking 1,064 games to reach the historic total.
  • The Museum of Life and Science ranked 7th on Budget Travel's list of North Carolina's Top Ten Picks for Spring travel.
  • Durham's N.C. Central University's student newspaper, The Campus Echo, was honored with 15 awards at the 10th annual Historic Black College and University Newspaper and Media Conference. 
  • Durham advertising agency The Republik took home 24 awards at the Addys, more wins than any other agency in the advertising competition sponsored by the Ad Club of the Triangle. Ogilvy Durham was also a big winner with 15 awards including 10 gold’s.
  • Durham's Jordan High School Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo each finished first in their respective divisions at the Essential Ellington Jazz Festival at UNC in Chapel Hill. The jazz groups competed with 24 other groups from across the state.
  • Nine students at the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics students took honors in the 30th annual Math Meet at the College of Charleston competing against 680 high school students from South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.
  • N.C. Central University will become the second in the UNC system to offer students a degree in computer and informational science.

·         Serenex in Durham and nonprofit group CHDI have an agreement that allows CHDI to assess some of Serenex's products as potential therapeutics for Huntington's disease.

  • Bowe Bell + Howell, which provides document processing and postal solutions, has been ranked by Training magazine as 34th among the nation's top 125 companies for employer-sponsored training and development.
  • Durham’s N.C. Central University Provost Beverly Washington Jones has been named one of the 25 Influential Black Women in Business by Network Journal Magazine.
  • The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, has announced that Dr. Darol E. Dodd, a senior research toxicologist at CIIT and director of toxicology and preclinical studies, has received a $655,367 contract from the Navy Health Research Center Environmental Health Effects Laboratory Detachment to conduct inhalation toxicity studies on a new jet fuel, Syntroleum S-8.
  • Durham-based QSR magazine's editor, Sherri Daye Scott, will serve as a judge for the National Restaurant Association's 2008 Faces of Diversity Awards program.

·         After swabbing the cheeks of more than 200 lemurs and related primates to collect their DNA, researchers at Duke's Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy and Lemur Center now have a much clearer picture of their evolutionary family tree. The information will help trace the ancestries of humans and all their primate cousins.

·         Professor, preacher, and theologian Peter Gomes, spoke at the Durham Academy Upper School, visited classes and participated in a lunchtime question-and-answer session with students. Gomes was included in Talk Magazine's, "The Best Talkers in America: Fifty Big Mouths We Hope Will Never Shut Up."

  • Burt's Bees is among the first companies in the nation to subsidize its employees' purchases of renewable energy certificates, also known as carbon offsets.

 

 

Local Awards & Recognitions

  • The Durham Library Foundation has announced a partnership with Target to benefit children to promote early literacy skills in young children and bring a children's librarian, books and story time to 18 one- and two-star child care facilities in Durham's poorest neighborhoods through the “Get Set... Get Ready... Let's Read!" program.
  • The Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill has established a $1 million need-based scholarship fund.
  • The following area students have been named to the fall 2007 dean's list for academic excellence at the following colleges and universities: The College of Wooster (Ohio) -- Meredith Sharpe, Radford University (Virginia) -- Serena Caroline White, Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tenn.) -- Alessandra Elizabeth Mazzia, Jefferson Daniel Bowen, Layne Catherine Christensen and Liwei Jiang, all of Durham.
  • Durham authorities have activated Durhamdevelopment.org as a one-stop shop linked to forms, requirements and procedures of the planning, inspections, and public-works departments; the Unified Development Ordinance; ordinance revisions; and a 10-point list of helpful hints for prospective developers.

·         Timothy Lenoir, the Jenkins Chair of New Technologies and Society at Duke, will receive $238,000 from the MacArthur Foundation for a project that will transform an existing military simulation into a humanitarian assistance game.

·         In celebration of Black History Month, former Duke lineman and current Shaw University President Clarence Newsome, former defensive back Ernie Jackson, former basketball player C.B. Claiborne and former football player William Turner were honored at halftime of the Duke-St. John's game in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

  • The Museum of Life and Science has opened a permanent exhibit called “Play to Learn” which focuses on child development and is meant for children ages 0 to 6.
  • The late state Sen. Jeanne Lucas and five other deceased black legislators were honored in an event called “Honoring our Fallen Angles” to raise awareness of health disparities and high mortality rates among minorities.

·         One World Market, a local non-profit that sells hand-made items and art items from impoverished regions of many countries hosted a fundraiser to benefit Keep Durham Beautiful, Inc. This money goes directly into programs that teach about waste reduction, it pays for litter events, and it provides trees and plants to beautify Durham.  

·         Durham now has two gang prosecutors for the first time in history, Christine Wright, a Connecticut native who holds a 1997 law degree from N.C. Central University and a doctorate in theology from a seminary in Massachusetts, will work with Assistant District Attorney Stormy Ellis, who has handled local gang cases for several years.

  • Mission Residential paid a partnership that includes Harbor Group International of Norfolk, Va., almost $42 million for two Durham apartment complexes- 362-unit Laurel Trace complex at 614 Snowcrest Trail and the 224-unit Triangle Pointe at 600 Discovery Way.
  • Durham, N.C.-based Duda Paine Architects is designing a $60 million glass tower in downtown Columbia, S.C. to be completed by 2010.
  • Stan Eskridge, CEO and president of Entegrion, joins twenty-four distinguished professionals as Triangle Business Leader magazine’s 2008 Impact Business Leaders of the Triangle.
  • Chesson Labs has raised $3.3 million in first-round funding, and the Durham health-care products company plans to use the money to fund future product development efforts and to bring its products to market.
  • Element Customer Care proudly announced the graduation of its first in-house Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) class. This class is the result of Element's in-house training program and the corporate focus on developing the whole person to create a team of tech-savvy employees.
  • The ISA Alaska Section, based in Research Triangle Park, made history by establishing the Tom Quimby Memorial Endowment with the largest ever single-source donation for the ISA Foundation's student scholarship program to students studying the arts and sciences related to the theory, design, manufacture, and use of instrumentation, systems, and automation.

 

 

Events & Happenings

 

For a complete list of events and happenings in Durham, visit www.durhameventcalendar.com. Click here to have weekly eCalendar updates delivered to your email.

 

 

Promotions, Staff & Board Changes

 

  • Michele Myers, president of M Squared Builders & Designers, has been named Builder of the year by the Home Builders Association of Durham, Orange and Chatham Counties.

·         Linwood Bowen was named president of Generations Community Credit Union in Durham

·         Michele Ostraat joined RTI International in Research Triangle Park as director of engineering research for the Center for Aerosol Technology

·         Earl Tye, BB&T's senior vice president and city/area executive for Durham, has been elected chairman of the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce's 2008 board of directors.

·         Alan D. Robertson Sr. has been appointed vice chancellor of administration and finance at N.C. Central University, arriving from a similar role at Chicago State University.

·         Al Bass Jr. has joined Self-Help of Durham as director of Portfolio Management

·         Andy Zupko, a McKinney programmer, has been selected to join the core team at Papervision 3D, the most prevalent 3D Flash engine on the market.

·         Brendan Ward has been promoted to Art Director at Flywheel Design. In his three years at Flywheel Design, Ward has earned numerous industry honors (including several ADDY awards) for his print, Web and corporate identity designs.

·         Steve Medlin has been hired as Durham's new city/county planning director and has been running the department on an interim basis since former City/County Planning Director Frank Duke's departure last summer.

·         Electronic tools maker ViASIC Inc. has promoted J. Mark Goode to president and chief executive officer.

 

 

 

New Businesses & New Developments

·         Poppies Gourmet Farmers Market, a store in Brevard described as a cross between Earth Fare and a regular grocer, will be opening its second store in a 20,000-square-foot space at University Marketplace when completed.

·         Across Roxboro Road, next to the Rose Manor Convalescent Center, a Discount Tire store is going up.

·         Rich Harris has left GVA Advantis to form his own company, Synergy Commercial Advisors at 2530 Meridian Parkway in Durham. Synergy will offer tenant representation, project marketing and investment sales services.

·         Meelo Restaurant at Loehmann's Plaza, a popular Greek restaurant in the neighborhood, has been dark for most of this month as its new owners are remaking it with continental cuisine, showcasing Italian and Spanish dishes and tapas - Andre Chabaneix, previously with the Hilton in Research Triangle Park, and Louis Lishner are owners.

·         Revolution will open this spring on the first floor of the Baldwin building located at 107 W. Main Street and will offer contemporary global cuisine made with fresh local ingredients, and will have a bar scene. Dinner only, with a $7 to $17 price range.

 

Changes & Renovations to Durham Businesses & Organizations

 

·         The former East Campus science building and art museum at Duke University that has been renovated to house humanities programs has been named after renowned anthropologist and long-time Duke faculty member Ernestine Friedl.

  • Food For Life Supreme, a foundation for upbeat, abundant life and connectedness among neighborhoods, has a Durham restaurant at 1106 Chapel Hill Street run by Juan Delarosa and Marti Collins. Currently, it is set up for take-out, but plans for a dine-in café are in the works.
  • M&F Bancorp acquired Mutual Community Savings Black Enterprise for about $3.18 million in stock as part of an overall strategy to become a $1 billion bank by 2015.
  • Westwood Baptist Church at 2031 W. Club Blvd. has changed its name to Journey Fellowship

·         The stage at the new Durham Performing Arts Center will be named the Mildred & Dillard Teer Stage.

  • Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, in a move to bolster its cancer-drug pipeline, has reached a deal to buy Durham's Serenex Inc.


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