{"id":36181,"date":"2026-08-09T22:07:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T22:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=36181"},"modified":"2026-08-09T22:07:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T22:07:20","slug":"swaaae-announces-board-of-directors-election-results-and-annual-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/national-news\/swaaae-announces-board-of-directors-election-results-and-annual-awards\/%20","title":{"rendered":"SWAAAE Announces Board of Directors Election Results and Annual Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 2026-28 Board of Directors election was held in late July in conjunction with the 80th Annual SWAAAE Summer Conference in Palm Desert, CA. Below are the results of the election, as well as Board member advancements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Andrew J. Swanson<\/strong>, C.A.E., of Palo Alto Airport\u00a0advanced from 1st Vice President to President<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Alex Smith<\/strong>, A.A.E., C.A.E., of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Authority advanced from 2nd Vice President to 1st Vice President<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cole T. Hartfiel<\/strong>, C.M., ACE, of Sacramento County Department of Airports\u00a0was elected to 2nd Vice President<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Gladys D. Brown<\/strong>, C.A.E., C.M., of Yuma International Airport &amp; Rolle Airfield\u00a0advanced from President to Immediate Past President and President of the SWAAAE Foundation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Brett J. Godown<\/strong>, A.A.E., C.A.E., of County of San Bernardino Department of Airports\u00a0was appointed to Director to represent Southern California for a one-year term<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Benjamin Westergren,<\/strong>\u00a0C.M., of Santa Barbara Municipal Airport\u00a0continues his term as\u00a0Director to represent Southern California<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>James Cullison<\/strong>, C.M., of Sacramento County Department of Airports\u00a0was elected as Director to represent Northern California<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Francisco Partida<\/strong>, C.M., C.A.E., USAP, of City of Fresno, Airports Department\u00a0continues his term as\u00a0Director to represent Northern California<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Graham Ritz<\/strong>, A.A.E., C.A.E., ACE, of Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority continues his term as Director to represent Nevada<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Sarah Demory<\/strong>, A.A.E., ACE, of City of Phoenix Aviation Department was re-elected as Director to represent Arizona<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Tim O&#8217;Keeffe<\/strong>, C.M., ACE, of San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport continues his term as Director At-Large<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Stephanie Sampson<\/strong>\u00a0of Accenture was elected as Corporate Director<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Brett Shank<\/strong>\u00a0of RS&amp;H continues his term as Corporate Director<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Chad Makovsky<\/strong>, A.A.E., C.A.E., of City of Phoenix Aviation Department continues his term as AAAE Director<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mark Witsoe<\/strong>, A.A.E., C.A.E., of Napa County Airport continues his term as AAAE Director<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Andrew Solsvig<\/strong>, A.A.E., of City of Redding Airports continues to serve as the Chapter&#8217;s AAAE Board of Examiners Representative<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Jennifer Maples<\/strong>, A.A.E., C.A.E., ACE, of City of Phoenix Aviation Department continues to serve as the Chapter&#8217;s AAAE Nominating Committee Representative<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>SAJ Joins SWAAAE in Congratulating Their 2026 Chapter Award Winners and SWAAAE Foundation Scholarship Recipients<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SWAAAE was pleased to recognize the recipients of their&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/swaaae.org\/Awards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Chapter Annual Awards<\/a>. During the President&#8217;s Banquet on Tuesday, July 21, they proudly honored the following individuals with this year&#8217;s awards:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lifetime Achievement &#8211; The Wanamaker Award:\u00a0<strong>Michael D. Hill<\/strong>, DBIA, CPC, LEED AP, Sundt Construction<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Aviation Excellence Award:\u00a0<strong>Katherine Bales<\/strong>, C.M., ACE GA, C.A.E., Napa County Airport<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Airport Executive of the Year:\u00a0<strong>Charlene Reynolds<\/strong>, John Wayne Airport<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>President&#8217;s Award:\u00a0<strong>Anita Cobb<\/strong>, MBA, Mead &amp; Hunt<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>President&#8217;s Award:<strong>\u00a0Z\u00d8\u00d8 Visual &amp; Audio Production Committee<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Award of Distinction:\u00a0<strong>Alice Bimrose<\/strong>, A.A.E., ACE, C.A.E.,\u00a0PSM\u00b2<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Outstanding Committee Service Award:\u00a0<strong>Erica Ledesma<\/strong>, C.A.E., City of Livermore<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mentorship &amp; Leadership Award:\u00a0<strong>Lisa Watada<\/strong>,WSP<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Volunteer of the Year:\u00a0<strong>Katherine Bales<\/strong>, C.M., ACE GA, C.A.E., Napa County Airport<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SWAAAE Member of the Year:\u00a0<strong>Whitney Robare<\/strong>, C.A.E., Monterey Regional Airport<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Emerging Leader:\u00a0<strong>James Bui<\/strong>, City of Palo Alto<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Operational Excellence and Community Spirit:\u00a0<strong>Loriann Chace<\/strong>, C.M., ACE, ASC,\u00a0Sacramento County Department of Airports<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Aviation Partner Award:\u00a0<strong>KCA Association and Event Management<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><strong>New Certified Airport Executive Chapter Members<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SWAAAE is pleased to announce&nbsp;<strong>Erica Ledesma<\/strong>, Property Manager for Livermore Municipal Airport,&nbsp;<strong>T.J. Chen<\/strong>, PE, CM,&nbsp;Senior Program Manager at AtkinsRealis, and&nbsp;<strong>Donald Williams Jr.<\/strong>, Operations Manager of Monterey Regional Airport District,&nbsp;were recently awarded the SWAAAE designation of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/swaaae.org\/Certification\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Certified Airport Executive<\/a>&nbsp;(C.A.E.). This designation is a testament to expertise and commitment to excellence in airport management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SWAAAE also congratulates the following&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/swaaae.org\/Scholarships\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SWAAAE Foundation Scholarship<\/a>&nbsp;recipients:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>2026 Summer Conference Scholarship Recipient:\u00a0<strong>Andrew Solsvig<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2026 Summer Conference Scholarship Recipient:\u00a0<strong>Max Bloom<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2026 Summer Conference Scholarship Recipient:\u00a0<strong>Purdina Guerra<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Academic Scholarship Recipient:\u00a0<strong>Mst Nahar<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Accreditation Scholarship Recipient:\u00a0<strong>Mohammed Jaweed<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For more information regarding the awards, please visit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/swaaae.org\/Awards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Chapter Annual Awards<\/a>\u00a0 &#8212; https:\/\/swaaae.org\/Awards\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/swaaae.org\/Certification\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Certified Airport Executive<\/a>\u00a0 &#8212; https:\/\/swaaae.org\/Certification<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/swaaae.org\/Scholarships\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SWAAAE Foundation Scholarship<\/a> \u00a0&#8212;\u00a0 https:\/\/swaaae.org\/Scholarships<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2026-28 Board of Directors election was held in late July in conjunction with the 80th Annual SWAAAE Summer Conference in Palm Desert, CA. Below are the results of the election, as well as Board member advancements: SAJ Joins SWAAAE in Congratulating Their 2026 Chapter Award Winners and SWAAAE Foundation Scholarship Recipients SWAAAE was pleased [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36182,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36181\/revisions\/36182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}