Power moves: So many changes across the sector in Jan. and Feb.

1. Annie Allman becomes the general manager of the Reading Terminal Market Corporation.

3. Sari Bernstein becomes staff attorney at Public Interest Law Center.

In early February, Sari Bernstein joined the Public Interest Law Center as a staff attorney focused on housing and environmental justice.

Bernstein previously served as housing staff attorney in the civil division of The Legal Aid Society; as an associate at Jacobs and Hazan; a legal fellow at Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment; and a legal intern at the Brennan Center for Justice, among other posts in New York City.

Bernstein holds a bachelor’s degree from New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study and a law degree from Brooklyn Law School.

4. Suzanne Biemiller named executive director of the newly formed Audubon Mid-Atlantic regional office.

In February, the National Audubon Society announced a merger between two of its state programs — Audubon Pennsylvania and Audubon Maryland-DC, introducing the Audubon Mid-Atlantic regional office, and announcing that Suzanne Biemiller was named the executive director of the new regional office.

Before joining Audubon,, Biemiller served as a senior program officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts; as chief of staff at the American Board of Internal Medicine; and as first deputy chief of staff for former mayor Michael A. Nutter. She also founded the policy-focused consulting firm, Highland Strategies.

She has served on the board of directors of the Philadelphia Outward Bound School, The Discovery Center, the Community College of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, among others.

Biemiller holds a bachelor’s degree from Williams College and a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.   

5. Jenna Collins becomes Community Legal Services’ first director of training and professional development.

Jenna Collins, who first joined Community Legal Services as a Harvard Law Skirnick Fellow. has been named the organization’s first director of training and professional development.

Prior to assuming this management position,  Collins practiced at CLS in the area of Pennsylvania utility policy and represented low-income clients with utility issues. Before joining CLS, Collins served as a housing attorney at the AIDS Law Project of PA, and as a visiting professor in Drexel’s Community Lawyering Clinic. She currently co-chairs the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Municipal Court Committee.

6. Margo DelliCarpini named new chancellor and dean of Penn State Abington.

Margo DelliCarpini was named the chancellor and dean of Penn State Abington in January.

Before joining Penn State Abington, DelliCarpini served as vice provost for strategic educational partnerships and dean of the College of Education and Human Development at The University of Texas at San Antonio, and as professor and dean of the College of Education at Morehead State University in Kentucky.

Earlier in her career, she taught at Lehman College of the City University of New York, first as an assistant professor in 2005, as associate professor in 2010, and full professor in 2013. She served as the chair of the department of middle and high school education during the last three years as professor.

DelliCarpini was also the editor for an award-winning, 14-volume reference series, the “TESOL Encyclopedia of English” (Wiley, 2018).

DelliCarpini holds bachelor’s and master’s degree, as well as a doctorate, from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is a licensed English as a Second Language educator and school district administrator through the New York State Education Department.

7. Jaqueline Dunn appointed permanent City Treasurer.

Jaqueline Dunn, who has served as acting City Treasurer since September 2020, was recently appointed to the position permanently. “Jackie Dunn has distinguished herself in a number of crucial roles with the City’s Finance Department, including her tenure in the City Treasurer’s Office,” Mayor Jim Kenney said in announcing the appointment. “With the financial uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the functions of the Office of the City Treasurer are more important than ever. Philadelphia is fortunate to have Jackie Dunn to lead these crucial operations.”

Before her appointment as acting city treasurer, Dunn served as the first deputy city treasurer.

Dunn began with the City’s Finance Department as an assistant finance director in 2014. In 2016, she was appointed chief of staff to the director of finance. Prior to joining the City, Dunn worked for Public Financial Management and the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.

8. Mohannad Ghawanmeh becomes Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture’s new executive director.

Founding Executive Director Hazami Sayed stepped down from Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture‘s leadership at the end of 2020, and Mohannah Ghawanmeh, who had been named the organization’s executive director in November 2020, assumed the role this January.

A teacher of communications and media for 25 years, Ghawanmeh is the co-founder of the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, curator of the first editions of the Arab American National Museum’s film festival and the Minneapolis/St. Paul Italian Film Festival, as well as the series Melnitz Movies at University of California at Los Angeles.

Born to Palestinian refugees and an immigrant to the United States, Ghawanmeh has lived in Egypt, Japan, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and holds a doctorate from UCLA.

9. Laurie Ortega-Murphy named managing director of Pig Iron.

In early February, Laurie Ortega-Murphy became the managing director of Pig Iron — “Philadelphia’s acclaimed creators of unpredictable performances, and founders of the University of the Arts/Pig Iron School M.F.A. program in Devised Performance.”

Ortega-Murphy most recently served as the director of customer success for Trackers Earth in Portland, Oregon, and as the managing editor of the Yale Theater Management Knowledge Base. They also served as program director for the Boy Scouts of America.

In addition to positions at the Yale Repertory Theatre, Ortega-Murphy has served as the artistic programming fellow at the New Victory Theater in NY and as a board member for Tellin’ Tales Theatre in Chicago.

Ortega-Murphy is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

10. Nikia Owens becomes deputy executive director of family supports and basic needs at the Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity.

Dr. Nikia Owens has been named deputy executive director of family supports and basic needs with the Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity, where she will continue her “mission of service and fighting poverty.”

“I am reminded of the words of Nelson Mandela,” she told Generocity in an email, ” ‘Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is manmade and it can be overcome and eradicated by the action of human beings,’  and therefore, we must never get discouraged but be encouraged particularly as the call has become greater given the challenges presented by the pandemic.”

Owens served for the past four years as the managing director of financial empowerment at the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, and as director of income and financial stability (community impact) for three years before that. She also previously served as director of housing and basic needs at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galvestorn-Houston, and held various other management positions at nonprofits in the Houston-area.

Owens has also been a participant in Generocity’s Power Breakfasts since their inception in 2019.

Owens holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Howard University, and a doctorate from Clark Atlanta University.

11. Bishop Dwayne Royster named executive director of POWER Interfaith.

The board of directors of POWER Interfaith announced that Bishop Dwayne Royster was named the executive director of the statewide racial and economic justice advocacy group in January, after having served in that capacity on an interim basis in 2020.

Royster is the senior pastor of Faith United Church of Christ in Washington, D.C., where he has ministered for more than three years. Before that he was the senior pastor at Living Water United Church of Christ.

In addition, Royster has served as interim executive director and national political director for Faith in Action, where he will now continue as the northeast regional director. Earlier in his career he served variously as the host of “Solutions on WURD“, the general secretary of Higher Ground Christian Fellowship International, and as councilman at large for the municipality of Norristown.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Geneva College and a master’s degree from Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.

13. Joel TeBeest appointed chief financial officer of Philadelphia Corporation for Aging.

Philadelphia Corporation for Aging recently announced that Joel TeBeest will be joining PCA as the organization’s new CFO.

Most recently, TeBeest served as the CFO for A-1 Limousine, Inc. Prior to joining A-1 in 2014, he served as the finance director for the New Jersey Department of Human Services, where he earlier served as assistant finance director.

Earlier in his career, TeBeest was revenue systems manager for the New Jersey Division of Developmental Disabilities, where he also served as information systems business analyst and contract administration supervisor.

TeBeest holds a bachor’s degree from the College of New Jersey.