Submitted by Whatcom Community College
Gov. Jay Inslee has appointed Bellingham resident and retired medical doctor Diane Staves to Whatcom Community College’s Board of Trustees. Staves began her five-year term March 7, 2016. She fills the position vacated by brand marketing and communications consultant Sue Cole on the five-member board. Cole’s term expired in 2014, and she is stepping down after a decade of service to the College.
The trustees are appointed by the governor and serve five-year terms and/or until their successors are appointed, and must reside within the College’s district boundaries. The board’s duties include setting the College’s strategic direction, establishing policy, awarding tenure, approving the operating budget and hiring the College president.
“We are pleased to welcome Dr. Diane Staves to Whatcom. Her broad experience as a physician in this community, as well as worldwide, will be a significant asset as we expand our leadership in offering quality education for the health-care professions,” Board Chair Steve Adelstein said.
Staves retired in 2013 as an internist with the Nooksack Health Center in Everson. She was the medical director from 2009 to 2011. Her professional experience includes similar roles at the Interfaith Clinic and Western Washington University Health Center in Bellingham as well as with non-profit clinics in Connecticut. Staves, who speaks French and Spanish, has served as an advisor with international medical relief organizations in countries such as Venezuela, North Korea, Haiti and Mexico City. She has a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and a medical degree from the University of Connecticut. She attended the master’s program in molecular genetics at the University of Washington and the master’s program in public health at Yale University School of Medicine, specializing in international public health. She is board certified in internal medicine and has taught at the university level.
Staves volunteers as a facilitator for the Whatcom Alliance for Health Advancement, the Whatcom Medical Reserve Corps and has participated in medical relief work in Latin America and India. Her board experience includes the Slum Doctor Programme, Whatcom Day Academy and King Low Heywood Thomas School in Connecticut. She has lived in Bellingham since 1999.
Other members of WCC’s Board of Trustees are Steve Adelstein, attorney at law, Adelstein, Sharpe & Serka; Barbara Rofkar, counselor and mediator in private practice and with Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center as well as part-time faculty at Western Washington University; Tim Douglas, retired, former mayor of Bellingham; and John Pedlow, a retired business executive.
