The Montgomery County Community College (MCCC) Foundation is pleased to announce it has added six new members to its Board of Directors.

Tanya Bamford, Richard Buttacavoli, Dana Johnson, Linda LaVay, Christopher McDermott and James A. Sortino have volunteered and been nominated and voted to the Board to offer strategic development of the Foundation, facilitate and assist in fundraising efforts and govern on issues related to the policies and procedures of the Foundation.

The Montgomery County Community College Foundation is an approved non-profit 501c3 organization that benefits Montgomery County Community College and its students through private philanthropy from individuals, groups, organizations, corporations, foundations, and more.

The Foundation functions through the efforts of the Advancement team and the Foundation Board of Directors. The Advancement team is composed of College employees dedicated to the day-to-day operations of the Foundation, building relationships with philanthropic constituents, and aligning the resources of the Foundation with the needs of the College.

Tanya Bamford

Bamford is a graduate of West Virginia University who comes to the Foundation Board of Directors with more than 25 years of experience in marketing and management. She is the managing director at R/A Marketing, Inc., a boutique agency serving the marketing and advertising needs of residential remodeling and custom home building companies across the United States.

Bamford previously served as president at TCB Marketing LLC in Montgomeryville, helping plan and execute marketing strategies for small and medium sized businesses throughout the region. Her work earned the company the Small Business of the Year Award from the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Montgomery County where she later went on to serve on the Board of Directors.  

Along with her husband and two teenaged sons, Bamford resides in Montgomery Township where she serves as the chair of the Montgomery Township Board of Supervisors. 

Richard Buttacavoli

Buttacavoli is a 1987 MCCC alum who graduated with an associate’s degree in liberal studies, before earning a bachelor’s degree in merchandising and buying operations/visual production from LIM College in New York. Buttacavoli is currently self-employed through Pride Partners, LLC., which provides Pride consulting, event production, planning and promotion. Prior to that, they worked six years as a producer with Maestro Event Productions.

Buttacavoli is also the founder and president emeritus of the Montgomery County LGBT Business Council, which promotes success and expansion of LGBT/allied owned and managed businesses in Montgomery County and beyond.

Dr. Dana Robinson Johnson

For nearly 20 years, Dr. Johnson has worked as a physical therapist, providing compassionate patient care, leading teams, and facilitating staff and patient education. Previously she was the spinal cord injury team leader at Shriners Hospitals for Children – Philadelphia, a role she held for over a decade. She currently juggles roles at Shriners – Philadelphia and Weisman Children’s Rehabilitation Hospital in Marlton, NJ. She also practices clinical research in spinal cord injury at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

A Montgomery County resident, Dr. Johnson holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, and a doctorate in physical therapy from Temple University.

Linda LaVay

For the past year, she has been heavily involved in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion committees at both Univest Bank & Trust Company in Doylestown and with the National Association of Estate Planning Councils, especially in learning and development and connecting with other DE&I professionals. She currently holds the title of DEI liaison.

Prior to that, LaVay worked over four decades of experience in banking and finance, including her time as Senior Vice President, Wealth Trust Advisor at Univest.

LaVay is a current member, previous board member and past president of the Montgomery County Estate Planning Council. She also is a member of the Philadelphia Estate Planning Council and the Eastern Montgomery County, Greater Montgomery County and Main Line chambers of commerce.

Christopher McDermott

McDermott has spent over 45 years in the banking and finance industries, where he started in 1975 counting pennies in the coin room and moving up to assistant branch manager at Girard Bank, to his current role as senior vice president, commercial lending at Centric Bank in Doylestown, Pa, where he is responsible for development and management of a commercial lending portfolio.

McDermott is a previous member of the advisory board and was an executive committee member for the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Chestnut Hill for 24 years, whose primary mission was to raise funds to support older members of the community as the community aged. He is a current member of the advisory board and finance committee member of the Norwood Fontbonne Academy in Chestnut Hill. He’s also on the Board and Treasurer for the Eastern Foundation, supporting scholarships for students graduating from the Eastern Center for Arts and Technology. Chris also took a course at MCCC with his son, while his son was pursuing an associate’s degree. 

James A. Sortino

Sortino is a life-long resident of Montgomery County, and graduate of Bishop Kendrick High School. Sortino is also an alumnus of MCCC and Temple University, where he graduated with a business degree.

Sortino worked in the hospitality industry for many of his early years, holding several positions at the Broad Axe Tavern. After high school, he ventured into the industrial cleaning industry in the late 1980s and then into a career at Penn Valley Chemical, rising through the ranks from customer service to sales and sales/marketing management to senior leadership positions on the board of directors at Penn Valley and eventually the owner of the company in 2012. He sold the company in 2021 and is now in sales at Aramsco.

The new appointees join Chair Joseph W. Gallagher, Vice Chair Richard D. Cottom, Treasurer/Secretary Andrew James, and Board members Kenneth D. Baker, MCCC President Dr. Victoria L. Bastecki-Perez, Jaisri Chety, MCCC Board of Trustees Chairwoman Varsovia Fernandez, Lena Tella Gelenberg, John A. Koury, Jr., Giovan Lane, Trustee Donald Lyons, George Marin, Michael Moore, Brian Nelson, Allison Risko, James Sanders and Bill Vitiello.

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