Business recognitions and promotions for the week of July 21, 2024

Gretchen Beedle, Katheryn Pascal, and Tara Wiedeman have been appointed to the Roanoke Higher Education Center’s Foundation Board.

The RHEC Foundation is a 501©(3) dedicated to enhancing the mission of the Roanoke Higher Education Authority.

Beedle, a financial adviser with The Conner Group, has worked with a select group of individuals, families and businesses in the greater Roanoke region since 2017.

She has been an active board member for United Way, Downtown Roanoke Inc., and Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge and a founding committee member for the Blue Ridge Marathon.

Her accomplishments include starting the Gallop for the Greenways 5K race with Valley Forward, a young professional’s organization, and helping to raise more than $125,000 for Pathfinders for Greenways.

Pascal is the owner of Pascal Strategies LLC and KP Strategies Agency; co-founder of Farmburguesa; and founder/CEO of Spotless America LLC.

In addition to her businesses, she has board memberships in Latinas Network, Nuestro Comercio Latino (NCL), The Spot on Kirk and Vinton Chamber of Commerce.

Pascal also contributes as a Roanoke Regional SBDC Hispanic business adviser. She volunteers for Roanoke Area Ministries, Feeding America Southwest Virginia, and Goodwill Industries and actively advocates for the Hispanic/Latino community.

Pascal does fundraising for causes like Family Service of Roanoke Valley and the Susan G. Komen/Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation. Her instructional roles include being a food safety instructor in Spanish, Roanoke Regional SBDC Hispanic Business adviser, and SerCap — Entrepreneurial Mindset Facilitator.

Wiedeman is senior director for talent acquisition and development for Carilion Clinic.

She has more than 25 years of experience in health care and has served in consultation and leadership roles throughout her career.

Wiedeman also has responsibility for Carilion Affirmative Action, Immigration, and Travel Services. She is the past chair of the Leadership Excellence Networks for the National Center for Healthcare Leadership.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Science in organizational communication.

Prior to health care, she worked with quality departments in manufacturing organizations.

Jay Ellison is Roanoke College’s new vice president for Student Success and the Roanoke Experience. In this role, Ellison will foster partnerships across campus to create environments and support services that facilitate student success, relationships and well-being.

Ellison has more than two decades of experience fostering educational experiences for students. He most recently served as the interim special assistant to the vice president for Student Success and Enrollment at Trinity College.

Prior to Trinity, Ellison served as the dean of students at the University of Chicago and as both associate and assistant dean of Harvard College at Harvard University from 2005 to 2014. He has also served as a lecturer, teaching fellow and instructor at Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, Boston College and the University of Chicago.

Ellison earned a Doctor of Philosophy and a Master of Arts in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible and biblical languages from Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida.

He will join the college’s senior leadership team on Aug. 5 and report to President Frank Shushok Jr.

Virginia Tech’s Board of Visitors has named Rachel Miles, research impact coordinator and assistant professor in University Libraries, as a new faculty board representative this fall.

The board has also announced that Janice Austin, assistant dean and director of admissions and academic progress in the Graduate School, and LaTawnya Burleson, executive assistant to the vice president for information technology, will renew their terms as administrative and professional (AP) faculty and staff representatives, respectively.

The board established the faculty representative position in 1988 to create a channel for more direct communication.

Jennifer Munson, a biomedical engineer who studies the biophysical setting of brain cancer, has been named director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC’s Cancer Research Center in Roanoke.

A fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering and the Biomedical Engineering Society and a professor of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, Munson collaborates with clinicians, veterinarians, engineers, and biologists.

She is also a faculty member of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics of the Virginia Tech College of Engineering and was recently named a co-director of the newly designated Focused Ultrasound Foundation Center of Excellence at the university.

Her work is supported by the Red Gates Foundation, the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute on Aging, and the Ivy Foundation among others.

Her lab particularly focuses on finding ways to make tumors more vulnerable to standard of care therapies.

Munson will promote and encourage cancer research while also helping to mentor early career cancer research faculty team leaders.

The Pamplin College of Business has appointed Dustin C. Read as department head for the Blackwood Department of Real Estate. He will begin the role Aug. 10, succeeding Kevin Boyle, who announced earlier this year that he would be stepping down.

Read is returning to Tech, where he led the Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. In 2021, he transitioned to Clemson University as professor and director of its Master of Real Estate Development program. His career includes extensive consulting with public and private sector organizations to promote socially responsible real estate development.

Read is the NAIOP Research Foundation/Thomas J. Bisacquino Distinguished Fellow, an inductee into the Institute of Real Estate Management’s Academy of Authors, and a nine-time honoree by the American Real Estate Society for his contributions to real estate theory and practice.

Roanoke College has named 2003 alumnus Nathan “Nate” Stewart its new vice president for Advancement.

He will be responsible for providing vision and strategic leadership for a comprehensive fundraising and engagement strategy designed for 21st-century donors and a rapidly changing higher-education environment.

Stewart currently serves as associate vice president and chief operating officer for Development and Alumni Engagement at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.

He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in health and human performance from Roanoke College, where he was also a standout on the men’s basketball team. He went on to earn a Master of Science degree in health and physical education from Marshall University while beginning his career in athletics as a graduate assistant for men’s basketball.

After graduate school, Stewart continued coaching, serving alongside Frankie Allen as an assistant coach at Radford University, and at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Stewart developed fundraising experience in subsequent administrative roles at Eastern University and Carthage College.

He will join the college’s senior leadership team and report to the president with a tentative start date of Aug. 5.

Ridge View Bank has hired Tiphanie Rasnick as vice president, commercial office manager of the bank’s headquarters on Franklin Road.

In this role, she will manage the buildout and oversight of a team, nurture career development opportunities, business development, and engage with the community to enhance corporate presence and social responsibility efforts.

Rasnick has more than two decades of banking experience within the Roanoke Valley, most recently serving as vice president and financial sales manager at First Citizens Bank. She also worked nearly 15 years at SunTrust Bank, holding multiple positions including branch manager.

An active member of the community, Rasnick has served on the board of directors for the Botetourt County Chamber for two terms, serves as a financial education instructor at the Rescue Mission of Roanoke, participates in the Campaign Cabinet for Healing Strides of Virginia, and volunteers with the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and the BNI Group-Business First Roanoke.

Rasnick resides in Catawba with her husband, Allen. They manage several businesses, including Little Creek Corral, Little Montana Ranch, and The Highland Homeplace.

Muncy Fine Photography is celebrating Bruce W. Muncy’s career accomplishment of 50 years as a professional photographer.

Muncy graduated from the Ohio Institute of Photography’s commercial photography program on July 24, 1974.

His honors and accomplishments include: Master of Photography from the Professional Photographers of America; Fellow of Photography from the Virginia Professional Photographers Association; and three editions of “Bed & Breakfast and Unique Inns of Virginia.”

Elizabeth A. McClanahan, chief executive officer of the Virginia Tech Foundation Inc., and Amy Stoakley Sebring, Tech’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, have received 2024 Women in Leadership Awards from Virginia Business.

After nearly 20 years in private legal practice, McClanahan became Virginia’s chief deputy attorney general and then served a combined 16 years on the Court of Appeals and as a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia.

She retired from the bench in 2019 and became president and dean of the Appalachian School of Law. In 2020, she was named CEO of the foundation. McClanahan teaches “Legal, Financing, and Ethical Issues for Entrepreneurs” at Pamplin College of Business.

Sebring’s responsibilities include oversight of the university’s administrative, financial, physical, technological and operational infrastructure, as well as support for its teaching, research, and outreach missions.

She joined Tech in 2022 and has worked to expand the university’s role in Roanoke as a hub for health sciences innovation and education, serving on the university’s Northern Virginia Steering Committee as Tech expands its presence in the region.

Sebring has more than 25 years of experience in government and higher education. She previously worked at Virginia Commonwealth University and the College of William and Mary after having served in nonpartisan staff positions in the executive and legislative branches of Virginia government.