Summer 2005 - Hood College

Summer 2005
Hood Magazine 3
newsmakers
Excellence in
Teaching Award
Professor of Music Noel Lester was
presented an award for excellence
in teaching at a reception given by
the graduate school following the
May 21 Commencement. Faculty
members are nominated for the annual
award by students and the nominations,
with criteria, are evaluated by
a committee of the Graduate School
Advisory Council. Susan Ganley,
president of the Board of Associates
(at right), presented Lester with the
award, which was a $1,000 grant
for professional development.
New Trustee Chair,
Vice Chair Elected
The Hood College Board of Trustees
elected a new chair and vice chair at
its May meeting. Michelle Morton-
Schoeffel of San Diego, Calif., and
Ray Ramsburg, of Ijamsville, Md.,
will each serve a two-year term in those
positions. Morton-Schoeffel, a 1982
Morton-Schoeffel
Ramsburg
alumna of Hood, is president and chief executive officer of Pacific American
Securities, LLC, an institutional brokerage firm with offices in California, New
York, Ohio and Illinois. After working in the investment industry for 16 years,
she founded Pacific American Securities, LLC with her husband Tom Schoeffel
in 1997. Morton-Schoeffel is also president of Pacific American Advisers, LLC,
an accounting firm. Ramsburg, a well-known Frederick businessman and 1983
alumnus of Hood, is an insurance executive with BB&T Frederick Underwriters.
He served on Hood’s Board of Associates from 1996 to 2004, before being elected
to the Board of Trustees.
New Whitaker Chair Named
Susan Ensel, associate professor of chemistry and chair of the
department of chemistry and physics, has been appointed the
new Whitaker Chair in Chemistry. She succeeds Sharron Smith,
who retired at the end of the spring semester. President Ronald
J. Volpe confirmed Ensel’s appointment on the unanimous
recommendation of her department’s faculty, the concurrence
of the faculty personnel committee and the recommendation
of the dean of the faculty.
President Volpe Awarded
Highest Alumni Honor
President Ronald J. Volpe was recently honored with his alma
mater’s highest award given to an alumnus. At a ceremony April
16 President Volpe was named one of five distinguished alumni
from Gannon University in Erie, Pa. His selection was based on his
professional achievements in higher education. He graduated in
1967 from what was then the all-men’s Gannon College with a
bachelor of science degree in business administration with a concentration
in marketing. Positions he held at Gannon, the second
largest Catholic Diocesan university in the country, from 1969 to
1988 include: professor, dean of admissions, director of the
M.B.A. program and dean of the Dahlkemper School of Business.
Before his appointment as president at Hood he served as graduate
school dean, provost and interim president at Capital
University in Ohio.
Above: President Volpe (center) with Gannon University President Antoine
Garibaldi (left) and Russell J. Forquer, Gannon University Alumni Association
president.