10/24/09 OIC

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Longtime local educator Steve Mitchell has been named chief executive of the Yakima-based Opportunities Industrialization Center of Washington, more commonly known as OIC.

He succeeds the organi-zation's co-founder, Henry Beauchamp, who retired earlier this month.

Mitchell was born and raised in Yakima, attended public schools here and received his bach-elor's degree in education from Central Washing-ton Univ-ersity. He also has a master's in educational administration from Heritage University.

He has served as principal of Eisenhower High School, assistant superintendent of human resources with the Yakima School District, deputy director of OIC and most recently chief operations officer and interim chief executive with EPIC, an early-learning nonprofit organization.

OIC's board issued a news release saying that under Mitchell, OIC "will continue to provide excellent service to its clients."

OIC, which has an annual budget of about $9.8 million, operates health, housing, educational, human services and economic development programs. It recently received $1.4 million in federal stimulus money to expand its weatherization program to help low-income
people make their resid-ences more energy efficient.

Beauchamp, who suffered a stroke earlier this year, was Yakima's first black mayor.