Pasadena Human Resources Chief Named

Suelar Patterson Whitfield, personnel manager for the last three years for the city of Bakersfield, will begin working March 4 as Pasadena’s human resources director.

Whitfield, 43, will be responsible for affirmative action and personnel matters.

Whitfield has a master’s degree in management from Pace University in New York and also has worked in management with Newsweek Inc. and the Bristol-Myers Co. in New York City.

She fills a job that has been vacant since last February, when former Director Kermit Francis resigned. Ramon Curiel had been acting human resources director.

Martin Bovill has been appointed Pasadena’s capital improvement projects administrator. He will oversee the city’s new construction and major renovation projects. The position was created after cost overruns occurred on the city’s police and Hale buildings.

Bovill, 38, coordinated more than $300 million of new construction during the past three years as manager of design and construction for Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. in Los Angeles. He is an architect and member of the American Institute of Architects and the Design Advisory Committee of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency.

Ted Vail, a former World Vision employee, has been selected by the Food for the Hungry program to spend three years in Kenya helping Nairobi farmers displaced by drought to obtain loans and start businesses.

Vail, 37, of Pasadena, has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Denver. He is raising pledges equal to $950 monthly to support himself during the three-year stint, to begin in mid-May.

The nonprofit Food for the Hungry program, which provides development programs for people in 20 of the world’s poorest countries, is based in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Duane Dishno, superintendent of schools for the Bonita Unified School District, has been named president of the board of the nonprofit Assn. for Retarded Citizens, San Gabriel Valley chapter.

Dishno also serves as United Way schools division chairman for the Mt. Baldy Region and is a member of the board of directors of the San Dimas Chamber of Commerce.

Kenneth K. Chan of South Pasadena has been appointed to the National Cancer Advisory Board. Chan is an associate professor of pharmacy at the USC School of Pharmacy and a science adviser to the federal Food and Drug Administration in Los Angeles.

Dr. Earl L. Lewis has been named chief of staff at Alhambra Community Hospital. Lewis is an ophthalmologist with a practice in San Marino.

Dr. Duane W. Styles has been named president of the medical staff at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. Styles has a family practice in Pomona.