New Facilities Staff Hired
Guest Pastor’s Note written by Olivia Phillips, Director of Operations
Whatcom Catholic is pleased to announce that the county has hired a new Regional Director of Facilities, Keri Cleary. She will be taking over the previous position of Bert Bertschinger, who will be retiring near the end of this month. Keri will work on a part-time basis and be responsible for the administrative tasks associated with the Regional Director of Facilities. Keri will supervise all parish family maintenance employees, serve as the project manager for all facilities projects, and work to ensure compliance with local and Archdiocesan policies. Keri will also help with establishing best practices across the county and creating facilities maintenance schedules. Keri comes to the county with a wealth of non-profit project management and emergency management experience. Keri served as the interim emergency manager and emergency & safety specialist at the Swinomish tribe. She also served as the transportation and emergency manager for the Nooksack Indian tribe.
In addition to Keri, the county is pleased to announce that we have hired Ryan Wittig as a Regional Maintenance Person. Ryan will serve in his position full-time. Ryan will work throughout the county providing hands-on maintenance to the buildings, grounds, and equipment across the parish family. Ryan previously served as Maintenance Director for Christ the King and owned his own construction company.
Keri, Bert, and Ryan will be overlapping for the next 2 weeks until Bert retires. While Ryan’s work will be primarily hands-on, he will have a desk in the regional office annex in Lynden. Keri’s office is based out of Church of the Assumption.
We are so thankful for Bert and his dedication and service to the county, and hope he enjoys his retirement with hopefully fewer emergency facility phone calls.
Please join us in welcoming Keri and Ryan—we are so thankful to have them aboard the Whatcom Catholic parish family.
Fr. Moore 