At its annual meeting in June, Cape Fear Museum Associates Inc. honored retiring board members, elected officers and chose six new board members. 

Rob Cameron, Terry Espy, Lisa Leath, Karl Ricanek Jr. and Ronna Zimmer retired from the board after six years of service, according to a news release. Dan Owen retired after 12 years of service to Cape Fear Museum – six on the Advisory Board and six on the Associates Board. 

Officers for the coming year are Sara Izad, president; Toni Pence, vice president; Susan Hanna, secretary; and John Coble, treasurer, the release stated.  

New board members have each been elected to serve three-year terms on the Associates Board and are named below:

Stuart Borrett 
UNCW, Associate Provost for Research and Innovation 
Borrett is the chief research officer and leads the campus research & innovation enterprise and serves as the President of the UNCW Research Foundation. He previously served six years on the Cape Fear Museum Advisory Board.

Ginny Dunn
Maus, Warwick, Matthews & Co., Commercial Broker
Dunn has been visiting Wilmington all her life and moved to Wilmington three years ago to join family. Prior to relocating, she served as the economic director for the Lakeland Tennessee Chamber of Commerce, before she became a Commercial Real Estate Broker in 2017.

She is a founding member of the Cape Fear Professional Women in Building and currently serves on the Council. Dunn is the membership committee chair for Cape Fear CREW and a 2024 graduate of Leadership Wilmington. She has volunteered for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Make-A-Wish, and Work on Wilmington.  

Richard Formo
Modern Aviation, General Manager
Formo's company offers general aviation owners and operators, commercial airlines and military aircraft support services, ground handling, fuel and maintenance as one of the fixed base operators at Wilmington International Airport.

Wheat Holt
AI & Software Consultant
Holt is a software engineer working with small businesses, founders and entrepreneurs to improve processes and build new products by leveraging AI and technology. He’s been in software engineering for 10 years, with a degree in public relations from Auburn University.

Chip Rajca
Thermo Fisher, Senior Sales Operations Analyst
Rajca, an Army Veteran, works for Thermo Fisher Scientific on clinical and laboratory products and services. He leads the development of corporate-level sales enablement tools and processes. 

Judy Thornton
Community Volunteer
Thornton graduated from West Virginia University with a major in anthropology. Her career has been in radio advertising and non-profits. As a resident of Wilmington since 2018, she has served on the board of Wilmington Newcomers and co-chaired numerous satellite groups. She has been an asset and contributor to the Museum STEM fundraiser since its inception. 

Kate Baillon, museum director, stated in the release, “Each board member adds a rich diversity of backgrounds, talents and experience to the board and plays a crucial role in the oversight of our institution and efforts to build an exciting future for the museum.”

Cape Fear Museum of History and Science, a Smithsonian Affiliate, is located at 814 Market Street and is open Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m. Standard admission prices are $8 for adults; $7 for seniors, students, and military with valid ID; $5 for children 6-17; and free for children 5 and under and for museum members. New Hanover County residents’ free day is the first Sunday of each month. Cape Fear Museum is also a partner of Museums for All and offers free admission to SNAP benefit recipients when they present an EBT card. More information: www.capefearmuseum.com.