People on the Move: Aug. 2

People on the Move is a rundown of recent hirings, promotions, appointments and other notable movements by professionals in the state. If you’re interested in submitting an entry, please contact news@delawarebusinesstimes.com.

Governor John Carney has appointed Caesar Rodney High School student Sage Sawhney to serve on the State Board of Education. He has reappointed Megan Szabo, the assistant principal at Magnolia Middle School, to serve a third term on the board.

Megan Szabo | PHOTO COURTESY OF MMS

“We need students and educators to be at the table when we are making important decisions about Delaware schools,” Governor Carney said. “I want to thank Sage for taking on this role and sharing his perspective on behalf of Delawareans, and I want to thank Dr. Szabo for her willingness to continue to serve our state.”

A senior at Caesar Rodney High, Sage serves as chapter president of the international mathematics honor society Mu Alpha Theta and is the varsity tennis captain. He is an active volunteer, teaching and mentoring in several community organizations, including as a senior SAT tutor with Schoolhouse through Khan Academy. He established the PEER tutoring program in collaboration with University of Delaware.

Szabo is a veteran educator and Delaware’s 2015 State Teacher of the Year. Prior to her role as an administrator with the Caesar Rodney School District, Szabo was the Achievement Liaison Teacher at Magnolia Middle School and a part of the leadership team that opened the building in the fall of 2021. She worked for over a decade at Postlethwait Middle School as a science teacher and at the Caesar Rodney School District Office as the K-12 science resource teacher for five years.

Beebe Healthcare welcomed Omar Mahmoud, MD and Serena Harris, APRN, NNP-BC, both trained to provide specialized care for patients with critical healthcare needs.

Dr. Omar Mahmoud | PHOTO COURTESY OF BEEBE

Dr. Mahmoud is a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician who offers the full spectrum of pulmonary care for adult patients with respiratory diseases such as asthma, pulmonary fibrosis, and lung cancer at Beebe Pulmonology Lewes. Board-certified in internal medicine, he also cares for critically ill patients admitted to Beebe’s intensive care unit who are suffering with severe life-threatening illnesses.

Dr. Mahmoud earned his medical degree at the Università Degli Studi di Brescia in Brescia, Italy, and then completed his internal medicine residency at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. He completed his fellowship training in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Dr. Mahmoud is a member of the Society of Mechanical Ventilation, the American College of Chest Physicians, the Society of Critical Care, and the American Thoracic Society (ATS). In addition to English, he is fluent in Italian.

Harris is a board-certified neonatal nurse practitioner who manages care for newborns from the time of their birth through discharge from the hospital. She specializes in care for high-risk infants, with focus on stabilizing newborns for transport to home and higher acuity facilities. Additionally, Harris serves as an education resource for parents as well as nurses.

Serena Harris | PHOTO COURTESY OF BEEBE

Harris began her career as a clinical staff nurse in the medical intensive care unit at Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center in New York, later serving as a clinical nurse and nurse practitioner in the Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). She held this role, while also working on a per diem basis as a neonatal nurse practitioner at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. This experienced prepared her well for the transition to Sussex County, and her role at Beebe.

Harris earned her Associate of Science in Nursing from the Borough of Manhattan Community College and her Bachelor of Nursing degree from the University of Phoenix. She completed her Master of Science, Neonatal Nurse Practitioner degree from the University of Connecticut.

Cushman & Wakefield of Delaware, Inc. announced the recent hiring of Rob Stenta. In his new role, Stenta will be working as a commercial real estate broker, responsible for lease and sales transactions across numerous asset types including office, industrial and retail in Delaware, as well as portions of southeast Pennsylvania.

Stenta is a native Delawarean, having attended Archmere Academy and the University of Delaware. He has been licensed to practice real estate in Delaware and Pennsylvania since 2005, with the majority of that time working as the director of office and Industrial Leasing in-house for one of Delaware’s largest and most active commercial developers.  In Stenta’s time as a commercial real estate broker, he has represented a large variety of commercial tenants ranging in size from small mom-and-pop shops to large corporations. Over the course of his career, he has transacted on a myriad of asset types, including medical offices, labs, daycares, auto repair shops, fitness centers, parking lots and call centers. Stenta prides himself on his understanding of the nuanced complexities of negotiating a commercial real estate transaction and his ability to navigate them on behalf of his clients. Stenta recently served as the President of the non-profit Commercial and Industrial Real Estate Council, Delaware’s largest commercial real estate trade group, from 2020-2022, and is still an active member of the Board.

The Delaware BioScience Association (Delaware Bio) announced the election of Natalia Rivera-Torres, Ph.D., of ChristianaCare’s Gene Editing Institute and Bruce Sachais, M.D., Ph.D., of the Blood Bank of Delmarva and New York Blood Center Enterprises to its board of directors.

Rivera-Torres is a principal investigator and co-leader of translational research within Christiana Care’s Gene Editing Institute. Dr. Rivera-Torres is considered a rising star in the field of human gene editing whose work has led to a fundamental understanding of how gene repair is carried out in human cells. She was a major force in discovering how the natural diversity among patients can modulate the success of gene editing in human cells. She is also credited with the discovery of a process known as ExACT (EXcision And Corrective Therapy), which is currently being developed as a therapeutic modality. She received her BA in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras campus, her MS in Biology from Delaware State University and her Ph.D.  in Medical and Molecular Sciences from the University of Delaware.  She currently holds faculty appointments at the University of Delaware and Mayo Clinic, where she has taught and serves on graduate student thesis committees.

Sachais is Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for The New York Blood Center Enterprises, as well as the Medical Director for the Blood Bank of Delmarva.  He also directs the Translational Research and Development Laboratory located in Newark Delaware. He was recently appointed as an Affiliated Professor in the Department of Medical and Molecular Sciences at the University of Delaware and continues to serve on the advisory board for that department. After receiving his BA in Chemistry from Lehigh University, he earned his MD/PhD (Neuroscience) from Washington University in St. Louis.  He completed his clinical pathology residency and his transfusion and apheresis medicine fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he remained as faculty, attaining the rank of Associate Professor before moving to NYBC. He has co-authored over 85 peer-reviewed publications and is a past member of the AABB CTMC.

“Delaware Bio’s continued success supporting our member organizations and growing the life science ecosystem relies on ensuring we bring new, diverse talent and expertise to the Board,” Chris Yochim, Delaware Bio board chair, said. “Bruce and Natalia’s expertise in clinical medicine and cutting-edge gene editing and their understanding of the importance of translational medicine will greatly strengthen our ability to support companies, researchers and entrepreneurs developing innovative therapies and technologies that benefit patients and society.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]