Name: JoAnne A. Epps
Title: Dean, effective July 1
Company: Temple University Beasley School of Law
Education: Trinity College, bachelor’s degree, 1973; Yale University School of Law, 1976
Career History: associate dean of academic affairs, Temple Law (1989-present); professor, Temple Law (1985-2000); assistant U.S. attorney, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1980-85); deputy city attorney, City of Los Angeles (1976-80)

What do you see being the biggest pending change in legal education in the coming years?

I think one of the big changes in legal education is going to be to ensure legal education fully prepares our students to be practicing lawyers. We’ve had the same educational model for nearly a century. All legal educators will be asking themselves how we can improve on that model.”

Do you think law schools need to add more classes to prepare students for the business aspect of practicing law? Or does that take away from legal education?

I’m not entirely sure that law schools must include a course on the business of practicing law, althoiugh I do think it is important that students do acquire that education. I am not against it, but I don’t think that it’s urgent or mandatory. I am of the view that what’s needed is more introduction to practicing law, not introduction to the business of practicing law, including the handling of moral and ethical dilemmas, understanding how to take our place as leaders in the community, understanding collaborative problem solving. For all of that law schools are ideally suited. Part of my hesitation in thinking of the business of practiing law is that we can intellectualize that topic and we can seek to help our students, but the practicing part will be a better teacher than we can.

What effect does the high cost of law school education, specifically the prohibitive loans students are saddled with, have on students making choices about which school to attend and what career path to pursue afterwards?

I don’t think legal education, when compared to other education, is particularly expensive. I think education in general has gotten costly, but, with that said, it is really clear that to obtain a legal education, one will need to expend substantial expenses, which effects both those choosing a legal career and those who earn a law degree and have to choose what to do with it. One advantage Temple has is we’re a true bargain. That’s something about which we’re very pleased. I also think, in general, the legal profession offers a secure job. So while legal education may seem costly, I think law students have a much better chance of paying back their loans than some students with advanced liberal arts educations.

What has been the biggest positive change in legal education since you joined the Temple Law faculty?

About Temple I can say the credentials of our entering students have never been better. We are teaching really bright and engaging students. A change in legal education is the breadth of opportunities that our sudents are able to pursue. The world has gone global; we have gone global. Fifty years ago, a law student might enter a small professional association, would work that job for life. That’s a completely different paradigm in 2008. The career options are extremely broad.

How has Drexel University’s new law school changed the competitive landscape locally in terms of trying to attract students?

Actually, thre are plenty of bright law students to go around, so we wish Drexel well and expect they feel the same way about Temple. I dont think that they’re a rival means we have to compete because there are a lot of bright law students.

Temple Law is known nationally for its trial advocacy program but still has not improved its overall rankings in U.S. News & World Report in recent years. Why? And what does Temple Law need to do to take its reputation to the next level?

I would like to say, that our international law program was ranked 16th. To be in the Top 20 is really an achievement, and we’re really proud of that. But, I don’t believe a focus on rankings is the way to go. I think it makes you crazy, but I do think that everyone is mindful of their existence. We want to continue to achieve national prominence and hope that our increasing reputation catches up to our work. I am focused on those programs, not rankings.

What are a few other main objectives you would like to accomplish as dean?

I probably have a longer list than you ‘d like to hear or can fit in your newspaper. I want to continue to attact top faculty… I’m very interested in adding a focus on two or three areas, like business, maybe health law, things I’d really liike to pursue. …I’d really like to think of us putting some emphasis on being known for three or four things not just two.

Your predecessor Rob Reinstein had served for nearly 20 years, how do you hope to differentiate yourself from his tenure?

He achieved unbelievable accomplishments, achieved wonderful heights, so I don’t feel like there is anything about him that I need to differentiate from. But, I see the world from different eyes. You can look at us and see how different we are in background… So I’ll follow different directions, set different priorities, but not because I am seeking to differentiate myself.

Reinstein also served as senior vice president for international programs and grew up Temple’s law program in Beijing. Do you hope to expand on Temple law’s international presence?

He has really put Temple on the international map and for that the law school is extremely grateful. And yes, I do intend to not only continue our involvement but expand it. There is a limit to the number of full fledged programs any institution can absord, otherwise to best grow internationally, we’ll need partnerships, like what we have with a university in Ireland. There are two places I most want to expand: South America and Africa. …Given the profliferatin of Hispanic peoples in this world, it is our responsibility to provide more opportunities for our students to learn about these cultures and… to bring more Hispanic students to Temple. And we have a legacy in Africa. We had a program in Ghana before it was stopped because of some political instability there. But it seems to me, given our connection with that country and what that means as a developing nation and region, it provides our students that legacy, that type of experience. … If we could establish those and have programs in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa I would be very proud.

Do your professional successes take on more meaning because there are so few black women leading major law schools like yourself?

I think inevitably I do, although they are not front and center in my consciousness. I recognize the responsiblity that I have. I recognize that I have a relatively unique position I will be assuming, and I understand that others, and perhaps others more than me, will see not just a dean, not just the dean of the Temple Law schoool, but [Temple’s] first women dean and an African-American dean, so I bring all of that to any encournter. I understand it and accept it. I don’t walk into a room with that on my sleeve.

What can the city’s law firms do to improve recruitment and retention of minority law students?

Those are two different questions that require two different strategies. The recruitment strategy I think is not specifically where law firms are failing. I think they’re doing a good job recruiting. I think the work on the recruitng end needs to start in junor and senior year in high school. I don’t challenge them for recruiting an inadequate number of minority students because there are an inadequate number of law students of color. The retention is entirely in their ability to resolve. I do think there they have to decide how sincerely it matters to them. I don’t, in that comment, mean to imply a lack of sincereity on their part. If you want something that’s hard to get, you have to ask yourself how much you want it. I think law firms really do want law students of color, but they need to figure out just how important it is to them. Their assocaites are different, so their success strategies have to be different. Not the critieria, just strategies, and be willing to support those differences.

Your first job was as a cashier at Temple’s bookstore. What does that mean to you?

I think there’s a wonderful sense of being at home being here at Temple. But I also think what I would say about that full circle is that I started at a job of service. I really loved being a cashier, helping people from getting what they wanted and getting out the door. My mother was a secretary [at Temple], so she taught me that message… I think being a law school dean is a job of service, with a product of tremendous value. In many ways, it’s the same job, different place.

See similar profiles for the Philadelphia Business Journal here. See other examples of my reporting here.

I am currently traveling. This was forward-posted on May 6.

As filed – without edits – for last Friday’s edition of the Philadelphia Business Journal.

IF PHILANTHROPY ALWAYS HAD this much to do with meatballs, everyone would get involved.

Looking for a new way to raise money for Susan G. Komen Philadelphia Race for the Cure, Linda Rosanio enlisted her mother “Mama” Nancy Catelli to sell her homemade meatball sandwiches in the cafeteria of the Star Group, a marketing and communications company in Center City.

“I don’t think she realized how many sandwiches she would have to make,” Rosanio, who is CEO of the company, said of her 82-year-old retired mother.

They sold better than 120 sandwiches on April 9. Combine that with some other treats sold by other staff members and the company raised more than $1,000 for the cause.

It should come as no surprise that the event revolved around good eats and became a family affair.

Rosanio, one of seven children, has plenty of both around.

“We grew up on great Italian food,” she said. Rosanio and her husband own the Catelli Restaurant in Voorhees, N.J., and her brothers are behind Catelli Brothers, a Collingswood, N.J. supplier of veal and lamb.

“My mother was the conduit for all of us,” she said.

Rosanio’s sister Lisa Fellman is a breast cancer survivor, so Susan G. Komen is a personal choice, too.

“This was a family thing,” Rosanio said. “At the least we kept my mother busy.”

It went so well, they might make it an annual fundraising, Rosanio said.

“Next year my mother might have to make 200 sandwiches.”

Photo courtesy of the Star Group. From left, Linda Rosanio, Nancy Catelli, Lisa Fellman, Karen Catelli, Maureen Moyer, and Michael Catelli. See other examples of my reporting here. See similar pieces for the Philadelphia Business Journal here.

I am currently traveling. This was forward-posted on May 6.

YOUR LOCAL TV NEWS usually isn’t all that local.

Anchors travel from market to market, like Susan Barnett did, geography be damned.

She had worked in Miami, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Champaign, Ill. But the new co-anchor of CBS 3’s 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts has finally landed the big spot in her native region.

“You have to travel all over the country and earn your stripes, especially when you come from a huge city like Philadelphia, it is hard to get here at all,” the Bucks County native said. “Making it to this level is really the ultimate for me.”

Barnett grew up in Levittown, graduated the University of Delaware and now lives with her husband in Delaware County, but does her job better here because she’s done it elsewhere, she said.

“The Philadelphia news style was ingrained in me,” she said. “But, in my travel, I got to see how news is reported around the country.”

She started here as a morning news anchor in January 2006 and began filling in as Larry Mendte’s nightly co-anchor in February, Barnett said.

The move was made official April 17, but she is excited to use what she has learned climbing the ranks of TV news.“In order to be a good anchor, you need to be a good reporter,” she said.

She’s had plenty of experience during her time in Philadelphia.

In November Barnett followed police to Miami in their pursuit of John Lewis, wanted in the shooting death of Officer Chuck Cassidy. She was the only reported to accompany Lewis on his flight back to Philadelphia.

“I sat across the aisle from him,” she said.

She was on the ground when Pope Benedict visited New York City last month and was on-air with Mendte during the 3-hour standoff between police and Johnny L. Reed, who stopped his SUV on the Walt Whitman Bridge in March with his child.

Barnett is ready to tell these stories.

“Growing up here, I feel like I know the area, and I connect with the people, she said. “The ultimate goal is to get the people of Philadelphia to connect with me.”

See other examples of my reporting here. See similar pieces for the Philadelphia Business Journal here.

Barnett fills the role of the departed Alycia Lane. While that was certainly a high profile departure, I couldn’t find an appropriate way to make mention of it. Still, I asked Barnett of the situation and she was gracious in her response.

I bring my completely unique and individual set of values, and I just hope to move forward and don’t look back.”

I am currently traveling. This was forward-posted on May 6.

WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE are students in the supermarkets.

That’s a healthy level of community involvement Rae Scott-Jones might tell you.

Scott-Jones, who was named assistant vice president for government and community relations at St. Joseph’s University, has lived in the school’s Wynnefield neighborhood for nearly a quarter century.

“I want more students in the community. I think that’s important because we all live here. The more we interact the more we are likely to get along and develop some understanding. We are less likely to antagonize individuals than groups,” she said. “We live and work here. It’s critical that we live and work here together.”

So Scott-Jones left her position as executive vice president and general counsel for the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority.

“It seemed like a good time because I have a vested interest in what goes on here,” she said. “My background and perspective help me to help grow with St. Joseph’s.”

The native of West Philadelphia has grown a lot with this city’s largest universities.

Prior to her work with the Convention Center, Scott-Jones led a nonprofit, community revitalization group in West Philly that partnered with the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. Her community work had her counseling with Temple University, from which she got her law degree.

“It’s really about communication. People want to know what’s going on, want to be involved. That’s on both sides,” she said. “There’s a give and take that I hope to improve upon here at St. Joseph’s.”

She started in late March.

“I have been busy since,” she said.

The school hosted South African Cleric and 1984 Nobel Peace Prize honoree Archbishop Desmond Tutu and is in the midst of developing its 54th Street corridor with new retail space, something she’d like to see continue.

“There’s so many good things going on at St. Joseph’s,” she said. “We are educating young people to go out into the world. This is where young people are learning to care.”

She has the unique perspective of working at the university in the day and living in the community at night.

“I can walk to work now… I’m talking to my friends in the neighborhood about challenges,” she said. “I want to see the community and the school grow with each other.”

See similar profiles for the Philadelphia Business Journal here. See other examples of my reporting here.

As filed – without edits – for today’s edition of the Philadelphia Business Journal.

BRINGING A PROFESSIONAL SOCCER TEAM to Chester may have little to do with bringing professional soccer to Chester.

In February, Philadelphia was officially granted Major League Soccer’s 16th franchise, to be played in a 20,000-seat, soccer-specific stadium that is leading a major waterfront renovation in Chester. The Sons of Ben, a group of soccer fans eager for Philadelphia to join the growing league that formed in January 2007, led the excitement that surrounded speculation preceding the announcement. Now that their mission to bring the world sport to the city has been completed, they’ve taken to bettering the community of 36,000 that will house their still unnamed Philadelphia soccer franchise.

“Once it was announced that the stadium would be in Chester and the funding would be all set, we reached out for a way to get involved,” said Bryan James, Sons of Ben president and founding member.

The soccer group found a benefactor for their charitable interest with Chester in the Bernardine Center, which has provided food to needy residents since 1986.

“That’s a cue from other great sports club in the MLS,” he said. “They’re always involved in charity, whether it’s their team’s charity, soccer outreach, or something thats personal to a leader in that group.”

In December, the group raised $1,500 and donated 560 pounds of canned goods. In March, the group raised another $2,300 from more than 250 people. They made a $1,000 contribution and spent $1,300 in hams for the Easter holiday.

“I think because, unlike other sports where you buy a season ticket and you’re around some people you like and some people you don’t like and some people you don’t know and are there for different reasons, here you’re with a few thousand people focused on one thing.”

Currently the group, which has nearly 2,600 members, meets twice-weekly and is involved in charitable works and group trips and events. On June 8, 170 members are headed to East Rutherford, N.J. to cheer on the American team during its friendly match with Argentina, a week before World Cup qualifying begins. For the Sons of Ben, heading to Giants Stadium is a precursor for what is expected to be a heated rivalry between the Philadelphia franchise and Red Bull New York, which was an inaugural MLS team as the New York New Jersey MetroStars.

“They’ve had some unkind things to say to us, but that’s one of soccer’s great traditions,” he said. “You try to be witty. Just as insulting as Eagles fans, but doing it more creatively is the fun.”

In August, they’re planning another road trip to an MLS game.

“To jeer our rivals,” he said.

While the group’s interests surely lie in the sport, they’ll keep active in other ways.

“We don’t have a team to support for the next two years, but we’re already laying the ground work,” said James, a native of Wilmington, Del. who now works in Center City. “We’re happy to be part of the Chester community and happy to give back.”

Their team doesn’t even take the field until 2010.

“Our goal is to continue to build our momentum in any way we can,” he said. “Fortunately, the team gets it. They involved us in the team announcement.”

For James, 35, soccer came to him late.

“I didn’t get into soccer until college,” said James, who went to Elon University in Elon, North Carolina. “I was completely hooked. I was bummed that Philadelphia didn’t have a league, but the league is more mature now so we can cotninue to grow exponentially.”

James took a 10-hour round trip to see D.C. United play its inaugural home game in 1996.

“I still can’t play it very well, but i love it,” he said. “I’ve been a Philadelphia sports fan since I can remember… both passions can come together.”

The Philadelphia region is better for it, but the focus on Chester goes beyond soccer.

“The idea of giving back, while having fun, that is something that’s very applicable to any group of sports fans,” he said. “It’s a very captive auience, very caring people if it speaks to them. So we were happy to reach out to Chester to make it an impact there.”

See similar profiles for the Philadelphia Business Journal here. See other examples of my reporting here.

Image courtesy of Soccer in Silicon Valley.

As filed – without edits – for last Friday’s of the Philadelphia Business Journal.

THE SPIRIT OF PHILADELPHIA partnered with the Kelly Anne Dolan Memorial Fund on April 20 to benefit families in the region with seriously ill or disabled children. Four hundred patients and their loved ones were aboard the Spirit of Philadelphia, along with Miss Philadelphia Brintha Vasagar and Miss Pennsylvania Rachel Brooks. The cruise was also meant to honor the Dolan Memorial Fund, which has raised more than $7 million and helped with the uninsured needs of more than 17,000 families in its 31-year history. The nonprofit has treated more than 2,000 children and their families by welcoming them onto the Spirit of Philadelphia over the past six years.

See similar profiles for the Philadelphia Business Journal here. See other examples of my reporting here.

As filed – without editing – last week for yesterday’s edition of the Philadelphia Business Journal.

SCA Americas has gone green with its educational advocacy.

The Swedish consumer goods and paper company with U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia celebrated Earth Day last week by donating a book with a message to elementary schools in Philadelphia.

“For SCA, sustainability goes beyond environmentalism,” said Amy Bellcourt, vice president of communications for SCA Americas. “It goes to creating sustainability communities.”

The company donated 10 copies of “Earth Day Hooray” by Stuart J. Murphy to each of Philadelphia’s 170 public elementary schools, some of which were visited by SCA employees on April 21.

“This is a great opportunity to learn how to make stronger environments where they live,” she said.

The book, which is the story of children who recycle cans to pay for flowers to plant in a local park, is meant to teach the importance of conservation, cooperation and even math, as the children in the book are surprised how quickly their can money accumulates.

“It’s a lesson in local activism,” she said. “When we moved into Philadelpia, we set a bar for ourselves that we were going to be practicing the strongest level of sustainability.”

When SCA first moved its U.S. headquarters to Philadelphia from Eddystone two years ago, its offices in the Cira Centre near 30th Street Station was certified as a LEED-CI Gold interior space, for things like using local lumber for its hardwood floors and ceiling tiles made from reusable materials.

“SCA is relatively new to the Philadelphia area, but we have a decades old focus on sustainability,” Bellcourt said.

The company, which has more than 150 employees in Philadelphia, makes its paper products from 100 percent recycled materials, she said, so working with so many schools to celebrate environmentalism is a natural fit.

“I am confident that each and every Earth Day,” she said. “SCA will be doing something to raise awareness around sustainbility.”

See similar profiles for the Philadelphia Business Journal here. See other examples of my reporting here.

IN 1999, JANET DeARMOND FOUNDED Customer Service Review Inc., a consulting firm specializing in customer service training in Wayne. Somewhere after spending 14 years as the company’s president, she left.

She’s back.

“There was an opportunity. I know the company. I love it. Probably the most engaging years of my career i spent here,” DeArmond said. “I know the clients. I know the business.  I really missed it.”

So after to attend to personal obligations, Liz French, the company’s current president and CEO, who was a vice president under Dearmond, brought her back into the fold.

“I’ve always stayed in contact with Liz. We both have a lot of respect for each other,” she said. “There are no strong egos here.”

It started on a consulting basis in December. Things have gone so well that DeArmond has come on full time to  lead training and development efforts.

“Being gone for three years gave me a different perspective on things,” she said. “I’ve learned how much I really enjoy this business.”

The company depends on a staff of 50, most of whom work from home, keeping overhead down. In the few years since DeArmond was at the helm, technology-use has ballooned in the industry, making their virtual office easier to realize.

“It has really changed in the last three years,” she said. “Liz has done a great job.”

In her new role, DeArmond wants to bolster the staff and improve their product.

“My biggest goal is for us to continue to grow and make sure the talent pool that we have enables us to do that,” she said.

For a company that develops customer service talent, training programs and offers third-party monitoring, there are many directions from which expansion can come.

“There’s a lot of room for growth out there.”

Does DeArmond think she’ll ever find her way back to leading the company she founded?

“Maybe one of these days.”

See other examples of my reporting here. See similar pieces for the Philadelphia Business Journal here.

IT IS DISTURBING JUST HOW often you think you have heard the story.

How an 18-year-old finds a drive after the prom to be her last.

Last year Lacey Gallagher was a senior at Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls, at Lycoming Street and 10th near Hunting Park.

She died one year ago Monday. And it was hard. But, Lacey’s parents wanted to find good out of tragedy. People on the1600-block of East Eyre Street in Fishtown find good out of tragedy. They implored support for Pennsylvania House Bill No. 163, which would increase the phased licensing of young drivers in Pennsylvania. They raised awareness of the dangers of teenage drivers, particularly during late night drives in crowded cars on prom night.

The family wanted a more permanent way to keep Lacey’s memory alive, so they have launched a scholarship fund and are in the process of establishing a nonprofit in Lacey’s name.

“It is about going on our own and establishing our own name,” said Denise Gallagher, Lacey’s mother. “We want this to last.”

Just before 3 a.m. on that Saturday morning, April 28, 2007, Lacey was en route with six friends to a post-prom Poconos weekend when their 2001 Suzuki SUV hit a cement lane divider and flipped on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near mile marker 40 of the Northeast Extension in Milford. Lacey died at the scene. Severe injuries were sustained by all other passengers, among them three of Lacey’s Little Flower classmates. There was no evidence of drug or alcohol use, though the then-17-year-old driver may have fallen asleep, and none of the passengers appeared to be wearing seat belts.

Still, the details have become largely secondary. Lacey has not.

Tonight 30 Philadelphia-area eighth graders will be awarded $1,000 scholarships towards Catholic high school in Lacey’s name, 18 of whom are destined for Little Flower.

“Lacey loved her education. She truly did. She was a great student. Our Catholic education was very important to her. ” Denise Gallagher said. “Lacey herself was awarded scholarships. Coming from a working-class family that meant the world to us… The schools have been so supportive. We’re helping families as they helped us.”

By chance, tonight Little Flower is also hosting its first senior prom after the accident in the Ballroom at the Ben at 8th and Chestnut Streets. Time must move on, but Lacey will surely be remembered.

“So many people care. It is unbelievable,” Denise said. “It is a great way to keep Lacey’s legacy going. We are so overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity.”

That generosity, including more than $60,000 in October alone, has come from community groups, schools, labor unions and businesses.

Philadelphia law firm Blank Rome, Hollywood Tans, Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar and the Home Depot on Castor near Aramingo Avenue in Port Richmond gave money. SugarHouse Casino has been among the largest contributors. Donations from corner bars, family construction companies and neighborhood delis spoke to what remains of a community some may have thought had been lost in Philadelphia. Donations from places like the Aramingo Diner, Murph’s Bar, JJT’s Deli, Hall Electric and the Fishtown Pizza Truck. Businesses you’ve never heard of. Businesses on the smallest, perhaps the most meaningful scale.

“So many people truly care and are touched and are behind us,” she said. “It has been overwhelming. They understand the tragedy our family is going through. They’re behind education. I truly don’t even know why, besides kindness.”

Lacey is remembered as quiet and kind, in love with soccer and destined to play for Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill College.

In youth, she played for a handful of recreation centers in the city, including Penn Academy and the Fishtown Athletic Club, for which donations were made in lieu of flowers for Lacey’s funeral. She made Little Flower’s varsity soccer team as a freshman, though she quit her senior year after dealing with the loss of her two grandmothers, with whom she was close. Still, she had looked forward to returning to the field for Chestnut Hill, her mother said, though she had also been accepted by Cabrini College and Immaculata and Holy Family Universities.

A day after her death, a MySpace memorial group had been formed. In launching the scholarship fund and their campaign to pass House Bill No. 163 – called ”Our Promise to Lacey” – the Gallagher family launched a Web site, www.thelaceyfund.org. On both, friends of Lacey recalled she wanted little more than the perfect prom experience.

She danced that night away, in a custom-tailored dress of her dreams, topped with a tiara, a lasting memory.

Tomorrow, the group is hosting a golf benefit at Ron Jaworki’s Valleybrook Golf and Country Club in Blackwood, N.J., and they expect to be just a few months removed from receiving their 501c3 status. They’ve recently partnered with Cosmo Girl magazine for a “Students for a Safe Prom Promise” campaign. More than 600 young people signed an online promise outlining safe prom behavior. See it here.

“It grew bigger than we anticipated it would in the beginning,” Denise Gallagher said.

Additionally, Lacey, who was born and raised in Fishtown and attended Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Grade School before Little Flower, is the focus of the push to pass HB No. 163, though it has stalled for months in the Pennsylvania House appropriations committee.

Among the bill’s other measures, it requires teens seeking a driver’s license to first complete at least 65 hours of practice driving, including no less than 10 hours of supervised nighttime driving and no less than five supervised hours of driving in inclement weather. Currently Pennsylvania law requires 50 hours of unrestricted practice driving. The bill also forbids junior drivers from having more than one person under 18 in the vehicle.

Denise wants to make other parents aware of the dangers, in the hopes of saving other young lives, with her daugher’s memory to power her message.

“So many people didn’t know how special she was,” Denise Gallagher said. “Lacey was just a well-rounded girl with a lot of hopes and dreams.”

See other examples of my reporting here. See similar pieces for the Philadelphia Business Journal here.

As filed – without edits – for today’s edition of the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Chet Zoltak has taken on another time committment after the workday and still can’t believe he’s at his Philadelpia home so much.

Zoltak, minted as president of the Philadelphia Human Resources Planning Society in November, spent 2005 commuting to a job as global leader of learning and talent development for the Timken Co., a friction management and power transmission manufacturer in Canton, Ohio.

“Two weeks there, one week here,” he said. “Sometimes I’d jump on a plane. Sometimes I’d drive… 7 1/2 hours.”

He took the position in late 2004 after operating his own consulting firm in the region, after being contacted by a headhunter.

“It was an opportunity to build a new function, which is something I love to do,” he said.

But midway through 2005 the commuting drained him and he and his wife wouldn’t move. So, it came as no surprise when, in January 2006, he took the position of corporate director of organization development for the AmerisourceBergen Corp., a pharmaceutical company in Valley Forge.

“I am developing key leaders,” he said. “It’s talent acquisition and management.”

The transition must be going well, if his being nominated and elected to lead Philadelphia’s 300-member affiliate of the national professional society for the human resources field is any indication.

“We are senior hr professionals in the area who get together,” Zoltak said. “They are charged with the same things i do.”

Zoltak plans to use his two-year term to bolster membership to add corporate sponsorship to develop better programing, he said.

“Which builds membership. It feeds itself,” Zoltak said. “It’s my mantra.”

He’s working on all those parts of the “three-legged stool.

”Most notable might be the programming, as the society offers bimonthly events to its members.The group hosts speakers, uses case studies or fits their own members into themes that are affecting the human resources community in the region.

“We’re always looking for great programs that will bring in new members and drive corporate sponors.”

It is about professional development.

“They’re out to build and develop the companies they work for,” he said. “And we do it through people.”

Currently, Zoltak is overseeing a membership survey, so they can even better serve their audience after the results come in by mid-May.

In October, the group is hosting an event open to all human resources professionals and corporate leadership.“We try to create an event that is beneficial to both the business side and the people side,” he said.

The event’s keynote speaker is Jim Kouzes, a well-known voice on leadership and leadership development.

“We try to bring in best practices,” he said. “The most progressive methods we can find.”

It’s extra work, but definitely less than an 8-hour commute, Zoltak said. He and his wife are Chestnut Hill empty-nesters now, so he might have had too much free time, and there are other benefits, too.

“It’s part of my own professional development.”

See similar profiles for the Philadelphia Business Journal here. See other examples of my reporting here.