December 18, 2009

Greetings!

I want to take the opportunity to welcome some new members to the DRI Team and let you know about a few more who will be joining us soon.

Corey Owens, electro-mechanical technician joined DAS working in the Environmental Analysis Facility. Owens completed two tours of duty for the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf, where he served as a Submarine Service Nuclear Power Trained Electronics Technician.

Linda Pierson, financial assistant III, joined DRI with more than 15 years of accounting and budget experience including work for several other Nevada agencies: the Department Of Health And Human Services; Division Of Health Care Financing and Policy; Mental Health & Developmental Services, Sierra Regional Center; the Nevada Department of Taxation and the University of Nevada, Reno.

John Mejia, Ph.D., joined DRI as a postdoctoral fellow working in DAS on climate modeling. Meja earned his Ph.D. in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale and his master's degree in water resources management from the University of Columbia, Medellin.

Monique Edwards, joined DRI's Southern Nevada Science Center as a receptionist. Edwards has many years of customer service and program experience as a mortgage loan officer, a program manager for Nevada NSF/EPSCoR and a financial aid advisor.

Karen Severin, executive assistant to the vice president for development, will be based out of the Southern Nevada Science Center. Severin has more than 12 years of administrative experience, with a strong emphasis in organization, communication and writing skills. She earned a master's degree in history from UNLV and works as a history instructor at the College of Southern Nevada.

Brandon Peterson, will join DRI as data security analyst working in information technology. Peterson previously worked for Swift Communications as Corporate IT Manager/System Administrator.

Richard Swanson, with 40-years of accounting experience, will join DRI as the manager of grants and contracts accounting. Swanson earned master's degrees in business administration and public accounting from Texas A&M University. Swanson worked as the comptroller for Del Mar College and St. Mary's University.

Sincerely,

Dr. Stephen Wells
DRI