Sherri Bennett has been named executive director of the YWCA Clark County, Y officials announced Monday. Bennett, currently the director of programs at the YWCA, was selected by the organization’s board of directors following a national search.

You know the drill: as you approach the podium for your presentation you mentally rehearse your catchy opening, visualize your main points and corresponding examples, and remind yourself to allow time for a spirited discussion at the end of your one-hour session. Hold on a minute. You don’t have an hour this time. You have ten minutes. That’s right, ten minutes. And you’ve submitted ten PowerPoint slides that will advance automatically, one per minute, when the session facilitator displays your first slide.

Seven years since graduating from Western Washington University, Bickford is being recognized as an exceptional teacher in a book recapping 20 years of success stories through Teach for America. The national education corps draws and trains top college graduates to become skilled teachers.

HB Hansen is under a $110,000 contract for the work, which includes filling the pond and installing a stormwater vault, swale and rock gallery to catch and treat stormwater. The treatment method is based on a model being tested by Western Washington University.

It's difficult to believe that the poised and well-spoken young woman sitting across from you at the family dining table has just turned 19. Lauren Caster's confidence and manner cloak her chronological age. Her maturity perhaps explains why Caster, who lives with her parents on SPCA property just off Highway 68, has had some remarkable experiences over the past year. After she completed her high school education, Caster deferred attending college for a year so she could spend two months hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Then she spent three months living and trekking in the mountains of Bolivia and Peru.

Jacob Colburn, 18, was among a handful of former campers who volunteered to return to work with this year’s adolescents, who ranged from 8 to 18 years old. Colburn was raised by his grandparents in Lakewood, but said financial constraints prevented them from keeping his three younger siblings, who were spread from rural Pierce County to Port Angeles. He said the opportunity to reunite with them during the Northwest camp in 2007 gave him a sense of completion. “It was a great experience and I decided I wanted to start giving back to something that has given me so much,” said Colburn, who plans to major in Behavioral Neuroscience this fall at Western Washington University.

Part of the supply issue is due to the July slowdown in post-tax-credit sales, said Julia Hansen, an economics professor at Western Washington University. She agreed with Crellin about the importance of jobs. "Much will depend on the pace of local employment growth, which affects confidence levels of potential homebuyers, as well as affordability," she said in an e-mail.

The Western Washington University men's cross country team was ranked sixth in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) preseason national rankings for Division II. The men finished last season ranked fourth in the nation.