Foundation Executive Committee Profiles: Darryl Hart and Joe Brumit
Darryl Hart, Chair of the Foundation Board, is a lifelong resident of Asheville. He is the son of Louise Gallego Hart and the late Osborne M. Hart. He graduated from Asheville Country Day School, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Science degree, and Gupton-Jones College of Funeral Service with an Associate of Science degree.
He received his Funeral Service License in 1985, and is currently active in numerous trade organizations. He is a member of Western District Funeral Directors and Morticians Association of NC, Funeral Directors and Morticians Association of NC, the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association, North Carolina Funeral Directors Association and the National Funeral Directors Association.
He is vice president and General Manager of Hart Funeral Service, Inc. and also very active in the community where he lives. His professional philosophy is to "be determined, persistent, and be the best that you can be. Be true to your profession."
Hart serves on the Foundation Board to support the community. "It's always good to give back to the community. This is an educational institution that's interested in the people here in this community. It gives people an opportunity to re-group and change the path they may be going," Hart said. "It provides the element that can be helpful to residents of Buncombe and Madison counties.
Joe Brumit, Vice Chair of the Foundation Board, has been in the fast food business since his junior year in high school in 1968. He has owned the regional Arby's since 1988. He spent 11 years with Burger Chef then moved over to Burger King for another nine years, while moving up the corporate ladder of both. Hardees recruited him in 1987 as a regional general manager supervising around 600 restaurants in parts of seven states.
Shortly thereafter, he began working on the deal to purchase the original 13 Arby's in August 1988. He is the President and CEO of the corporation, and the owner, with his wife, of the corporation. They have another company, which is an additional operating company of a few restaurants they have another partner in. They have grown to 37 locations since they bought the original 13 restaurants in 1988.
"My personal philosophies run parallel to the values that we have used in our business, and continue to teach - Dream Big, Work Hard, Play Fair, Have Fun, Make a Difference, and Get it Done. These have worked very well for us and continue to do so," said Brumit.
"I volunteer for A-B Tech as I do for many other organizations because I believe in the mission of A-B Tech. It is a wonderful organization that serves a great service and function for our community. A-B Tech is made up of one of the best teams, or family if you will, that I have ever had the pleasure to serve with. The leadership is outstanding, and that leadership trickles down throughout the whole organization," he said.
A-B Tech, Partners Receive $10,000 Center For Nursing Grant to Develop Education Program
President K. Ray Bailey accepts a $10,000 check from Billy Bevill, associate director for recruiting and retention with the North Carolina Center for Nursing. From left are Sharon Metcalfe, assistant professor at Western Carolina University; Ned Fowler, dean of Allied Health and Public Service Education; Bevill; Susie Garland, clinical affiliate coordinator for Mission Hospitals; Libby Hodan, Foundation Development Officer; Anita Metcalf, executive director of the Foundation and vice president of College Relations; President Bailey; Karylee Clark, associate director, Department of Nursing Education at MAHEC, Ramona Whichello, vice president/nurse executive for Mission Hospitals.
A-B Tech, in partnership with 10 other agencies, has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the North Carolina Center for Nursing to help put more registered nurses on track to becoming nursing faculty.
In addition to A-B Tech, the collaborating agencies include Haywood, Blue Ridge, Southwestern, and Tri-County community colleges, Western Carolina University, MAHEC, Mission, Spruce Pine and McDowell hospitals. The partners will use the one-year planning grant to develop a model program of realistic educational tracks for nurses to obtain academic coursework to meet the new faculty requirements of the North Carolina Board of Nursing.
Nursing today faces a perfect storm, according to Billy Bevill, associate director for recruiting and retention with the center. "Nursing programs struggle to expand fast enough to meet demand for care due to lack of faculty. Because of the nursing faculty supply bottleneck, every year nursing schools in North Carolina turn away thousands of applicants because the scarcity of qualified faculty restrict the ability to expand capacity."
"The need for qualified faculty to help address the predicted shortage of nurses and other allied health practitioners cannot be overstated. This collaboration between colleges, universities, hospitals and the area health education center can be a central feature of the effort to address the need for qualified nursing faculty," said Ned Fowler, dean of Allied Health and Public Service Education at A-B Tech.
The project will create a plan to increase the number of nurses available to assume clinical faculty and educator positions within the community colleges, university, AHEC and inpatient care settings. When completed, the results of the project will be shared throughout the state.
"The appropriate educational preparation of current and potential faculty members is critical to the efforts of educational institutions to identify, recruit and retain qualified teachers," said Fowler.
"The collaborative effort that this grant will support will help all the nursing education programs in the western region of the state by creating a menu of options for nurses to seek the academic preparation necessary to become effective teachers, mentors, and role models for the nurses of the future. These will be the nurses that will provide health care for the population of baby boomers that will be retiring in the coming decades and who will become the largest population of senior citizens our nation has ever known."
The Recruitment and Retention Grant Program is funded by the North Carolina Center for Nursing, a state-supported agency charged with nurse workforce planning and addressing issues of nursing supply, demand, recruitment and retention.
Sanders Celebrates Daughter's Graduation 16 Years After Her Own
Kathy Sanders was featured on the cover of the 1989-90 A-B Tech Catalog.
Kathy Sanders graduated from A-B Tech in 1989 with a degree in Civil Engineering Technology. Fast-forward 16 years later, and her daughter Taran Bowditch has graduated with a diploma in Surgical Technology.
Sanders works for the City of Charlotte as a fleet/office manager for the Solid Waste Services Department, a position she has held for six years. Her career with A-B Tech started in 1987, when she would bring her daughters, Taran and Brittany, to the daycare on campus and head to school. When she wasn't in classes, she would work in the Learning Lab with the girls' aunt, Ilka McDowell.
"I had a really good time there. I enjoyed myself there. It was a good program," she said.
After finishing her studies at A-B Tech, she worked for George Jensen Engineering and Consulting Firm full-time. Sanders then transferred to UNC-Charlotte to earn her bachelor's degree. She graduated in December of 1990 from UNC-Charlotte. "I applied for jobs here (in Charlotte) after graduating, but it was during the Gulf War and there wasn't anything available."
Sanders returned to Asheville and worked as a scribe at A-B Tech for three months, when the N.C. Department of Transportation offered her a job in Charlotte, where she has lived with her daughters since.
Bowditch, her oldest daughter, started college in Charlotte, but was not as successful as Sanders thought she should be. "I felt like if she came to Asheville and lived with family, she would be more focused in her studies," Sanders said. "I told her I would pay for her to go to school. I brought her up here in December and she started in January 2004."
Bowditch was employed in the general OR at Memorial Mission Hospital even before she graduated. "She will probably stay in Asheville for a number of years. I talk to her almost daily. She's doing well and she likes it, but she's 20 so she could change her mind any moment," Sanders said.