SUPERINTENDENT AND EXECUTIVE
LEADER SEMINAR SERIES
School Construction Projects:
From Referendum to Ribbon-Cutting
SPEAKER BIOS
co-sponsored by
the University of Delaware’s
Institute for Public Administration
and
Delaware Academy for School Leadership
Speaker Bios
H. Alan Brangman
University Architect and Campus Planner
University of Delaware
Alan Brangman joined the University of Delaware in November 2010 as University Architect and Campus
Planner. He advises University administration on policy, specifically related to matters of the Campus
Plan, architectural character, and aesthetics on campus including landscaping, wayfinding, graphics,
lighting, site selection, urban design and related elements of the integrated Facilities Master Plan.
Prior to joining the University of Delaware, Mr. Brangman served as the University Architect for
Georgetown University, a position he had held since 1994. During his tenure at Georgetown, Mr.
Brangman also served as Mayor of the City of Falls Church, Va., and in the Falls Church City Council
from 1994-1998. Mr. Brangman also served on the Falls Church Planning Commission from 1992-1994.
Prior positions include Deputy Director Design Arts Program, National Endowment for the Arts, 19911994; Director of Downtown Development, The Oliver Carr Company, Washington, D.C., 1983-1991; and
Project Manager, RTKL Associates, Inc., Baltimore, Md., 1977-1983. Mr. Brangman received a Bachelor
of Architecture degree from Cornell University and an executive master’s degree in Leadership from
Georgetown University.
Nash M. Childs, P.E.
Executive Vice President
Bancroft Construction Company
Nash Childs is a principal and partner of Bancroft Construction Company, located in Wilmington, Del.
Bancroft specializes in commercial and industrial projects and offers clients a wide array of services and
project-delivery systems including construction management, design-build, program management, and
general contracting. During his 24 years with the firm, Bancroft has grown in annual volume from $3
million to over $100 million. Mr. Childs has served the firm in the capacities of Project Manager, Sr.
Project Manager, Commercial Construction Division Manager, and now Executive Vice President. The
firm has managed projects ranging in size from $500,000 to over $85 million.
Mr. Childs is a seasoned professional with over 35 years experience in construction management and
related disciplines. His leadership skills and hands-on experience are highly respected by customers and
colleagues alike and often cited as integral elements of a project’s success. He maintains an exceptional
network of both industry and non-industry resources, whose cooperation is essential especially during
the planning and pre-construction phase of a project. As a licensed Professional Engineer with extensive
experience in site development, licensing and permitting, and the subdivision process, Mr. Childs also
combines his technical expertise and project management experience to play a critical role in achieving
project objectives.
He has been a member of the Delaware Association of Professional Engineers since 1981 and has served
as President of both the Delaware Contractors Association and the Associated Builders & Contractors. He
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Speaker Bios
continues to serve these organizations through boards and committees and also donates his time to
charitable groups such as the American Diabetes Association, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Delaware
Hospice and Delaware Humane Association. He serves on the New Castle County Executive’s Advisory
Council and is a past Chair and charter member of the New Castle County Economic Development
Council. In 2010 Mr. Childs served as Chair of the National Board of the American Diabetes Association,
topping off his more than 26-year commitment of service to the organization.
E. Andrew DiSabatino Jr.
Chief Operating Officer
EDiS Company
During his career, Andrew DiSabatino has overseen the construction of the New Castle County
Courthouse, the development and construction of the 455,000-sq.-ft. PNC Center in downtown
Wilmington, the evolution of nearly all of Delaware Technical and Community College’s statewide
campuses, and the resurgence of Delaware State University’s campus modernization and expansion
plan. He is well respected within the industry and one of the leading experts on cost. A graduate of
Bradley University, his understanding of construction costs and modeling methods to predict costs have
helped land EDiS Company in Engineering News Record’s National Top 100 listing and on the cover of
Design, Cost and Data magazine.
Mr. DiSabatino is current the Chairman of the Delaware State University, School of Management
Advisory Center, Executive Advisory Council; Chairman of the Delaware Contractors Association's Labor
and Nominating Committees; President of Delaware State Housing Partnership; Board member of
Peninsula Composting Company, the largest organic waste recycler east of the Mississippi; Member of
the Delaware Business Roundtable, Past Chairman; Director of the Delaware State Chamber of
Commerce; Co-chair of the Career and Technical Review Committee at New Castle County Vocational
Technical School District; Advisory Board Member at Opera Delaware; and Member of the Curriculum
Advisory committee for Wilmington University.
Mr. DiSabatino has served in the past as the President of the Delaware Contractors Association; Board of
Director of Commerce Bank; Board of the Mid-Atlantic Construction Management Association; Director
of the Committee of 100; and as an Advisor to the Delaware State University Business program.
Brian DiSabatino
President
EDiS Company
Brian DiSabatino’s responsibilities include the planning, operations and business development for all of
the EDiS companies (EDiS Company, EDiS Building Systems, EDiS Development, EDiS Interior
Construction and Asset Management Alliance). In his professional capacity, Mr. DiSabatino has
overseen the planning and implementation of the companies’ plans for the sales, revenue, and
geographic growth.
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Speaker Bios
Mr. DiSabatino was the 2009 Recipient of the Bank of America Outstanding Community Builders award,
the 2009 Governor’s Outstanding Volunteer Award for Healthcare, and the 2009 Catholic Charities Msgr.
Thomas J. Reese Award for Outstanding Community Service.
Mr. DiSabatino’s outside corporate activity include serving as Chairman of the Board of Delaware
Sterling Bank and Trust Company, which he co-founded and was purchased by PNC Bank. Additionally,
he served as Chairman of the National Advisory Council for Butler Manufacturing of Kansas City, Mo.
Mr. DiSabatino has actively served the community for 24 years. He is currently the Chairman of the
Grand Opera House’s $10 Million “Imagine Your Grand” Campaign. He is the former Chairman of the St.
Francis Hospital Foundation and an Executive Committee member of the St. Francis Hospital Board of
Directors. In this capacity, He designed and has led a fundraising effort that has facilitated a historic
turnaround at St. Francis. Once considered an out-of-date and declining community Hospital, St.
Francis became a leader in several service lines. The St. Francis Hospital Foundation created funding for
this reemergence and has raised over $30 Million. Mr. DiSabatino is Vice Chairman of the Grand Opera
House Board of Directors, immediate Past Chairman of the Chester County Chamber of Commerce in
Malvern, Pa., and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Delaware Contractors Association. He is
also a Trustee of the American College in Dublin, Ireland.
James S. Green, Sr.
Director
Seitz, Van Ogtrop & Green, P.A.
James Green is a founding member and Director of the Wilmington law firm Seitz, Van Ogtrop & Green,
P.A. He is a 1969 graduate of Princeton University and a 1972 graduate of Villanova Law School, where
he received his J.D. He is admitted to practice in Delaware, Pennsylvania, the United States District
Court for the District of Delaware, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme
Court. Mr. Green is a member of the Delaware Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the
ABA Forum Committee on the Construction Industry. He has been elected as a Fellow in the American
College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the International Society of
Barristers. He has extensive experience in construction-related litigation and arbitration proceedings.
Dr. Tony J. Marcio
Former Superintendent (retired)
Appoquinimink School District
Tony Marchio recently retired from the Appoquinimink School District, where he served as
Superintendent of Schools from 1995 to 2011. Currently, he is an adjunct faculty member at both
Wilmington University and the University of Delaware. He earned a B.S. in Secondary Education and an
M.A. in Education Administration from West Virginia University and a doctorate from Wilmington
University.
Prior to his role as a superintendent in Delaware, Dr. Marchio was Superintendent of Schools for the
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Speaker Bios
Randolph County Schools in West Virginia. He was also a principal at two high schools in West Virginia
as well as an assistant principal at another. Prior to his role in leadership, he served as a high school
teacher in West Virginia and Florida.
Currently, Dr. Marchio is a member of the American Association of School Administrators, the Delaware
Association of School Administrators, and the Middletown/Odessa Rotary Club. He was also a board
member for the Appoquinimink Boys and Girls Club and United Way of Randolph County, president of
the Harrison County Principals Association, vice president of the West Virginia English-Language Arts
Council, and vice president and secretary of the Harrison County Council of Teachers of English.
Dr. Marchio has served on many education committees while in Delaware. Some of the committees he
has served on are the State Assessment Task Force, Vision 2015 Steering Committee, Achievement Gap
Committee, Delaware Council on Economic Education, Delaware Professional Standards Board, and the
Delaware Parent and Family Involvement in Education Committee. In addition, he was the President of
the Delaware Chief School Officers Association.
In 2003 and 2007, Dr. Marchio was named Delaware Superintendent of the Year. He was also named
Advocate of the Year by the Delaware Foreign Language Society (2010), the 2008 Delaware Mentor of the
Year, and Administrator of the Year by the Delaware Library Association (1999). In 1992 he was named
by Executive Educator magazine as one of North America’s 100 Top Educators. While in West Virginia,
Dr. Marchio was named West Virginia Principal of the Year (1991-92), received the Distinguished Service
Award from the West Virginia Secondary School Principals Commission, and received the Esteemed
Colleague Award by the West Virginia English-Language Arts Council.
Dr. John Marinucci
Director of Administrative Services
Woodbridge School District
Dr. John Marinucci is a product of the vocational and technical school districts in Delaware, having
attended Kent Vo-Tech and pursued the study of electrical construction trades. After receiving his
undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Delaware State University in the early 1980s,
John went to work for the State of Delaware in the field of auditing and finance. In the early 1990s,
during his tenure as a tax auditor for the state, Dr. Marinucci received his MBA from Wilmington
University. He remained involved in the construction industry by co-owning and operating an electrical
contracting business as well as working intermittently in the electrical trades.
Dr. Marinucci managed the finances of the Division of Highway Operations, the largest division of
DelDOT, before he transitioned to the K-12 education field as Milford School District’s Director of
Operations. Among his many duties at the Milford School District, he directed and managed the
construction of a new elementary school and multiple renovation projects. In 2005 he earned his
doctorate in Educational Leadership from Wilmington University and assumed the responsibility for
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Speaker Bios
educational-facilities planning and construction at the Department of Education (DOE) in 2006. Dr.
Marinucci served as the interim Director of Finance for DOE for approximately 18 months while
retaining his capital-construction duties. He left DOE in 2011 to serve as the Director of Administrative
Services at the Woodbridge School District and manage the construction of Woodbridge’s new $52
million high school.
Dr. Marinucci has managed several of the State of Delaware’s largest operating and capital budgets and
is widely regarded as one of the foremost authorities in K-12 capital planning and education facilities
construction in Delaware.
Stephen M. Mockbee
President
Patriot GS, Inc.
Stephen Mockbee is the founder and President of Patriot GS, Inc. (PGSI) and has more than 36 years of
construction experience in the Delaware area. His primary responsibility is for the overall strategic
management of PGSI.
Mr. Mockbee, a United States Marine, volunteered for duty in Vietnam in 1967. A member of the 9th
Marines, 3rd Marine Division, he spent his time in Vietnam in the DMZ. He was responsible for
establishing communications throughout the area and was in Vietnam during the Tet offensive of 1968.
His time was cut short due to an injury on August 8, 1968, in an area near Khe Sanh. He was honorably
discharged in December of 1968 as a disabled Veteran with a Navy Achievement Medal for his five major
combat missions.
Mr. Mockbee attended the University of Delaware where he received a bachelor’s degree in Business. In
the early 1970s, he took a job with a local contractor where he developed a passion for construction.
Finding his roots in the construction industry led him to create Bancroft Construction Company in 1975.
Through his 34-year tenure as President & CEO, Mr. Mockbee led Bancroft Construction Company to be
one of Delaware’s leading Construction Management firms with an annual volume of $110 million. In
May of 2008, he accelerated the sale of his interest in Bancroft Construction Company (completed in
early 2009) in order to start a new construction services company, Patriot GS Inc. (PGSI), under the
requirements of the U.S. Government’s Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned small-business initiative.
With the inception of PGSI, Mr. Mockbee entered into a market about which he is very passionate. As a
disabled Marine Combat Veteran and a leader in the construction industry, he is excited about the
opportunity to serve his country once again through PGSI. “Everything we do for the military supports
the troops that protect our country,” he says. “It is a great feeling to be a part of that again.”
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Speaker Bios
Kelli Winkler Racca
Chief Operating Officer
Christina School District
Kelli Winkler Racca is a Delaware native and attended public schools in the Brandywine Hundred area of
New Castle County. She earned a B.A. in Architecture from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte
and an M.A. in Urban Affairs & Public Policy – Historic Preservation from the University of Delaware.
Upon completing her architectural degree, Ms. Racca began her career in New York City working for
several firms specializing in commercial and private educational facilities. As a team member, designer,
and, ultimately, project manager for construction projects located in Manhattan as well as in several other
large cities, she gained experience completing high-profile, fast-paced, and often complex projects fueled
by significantly large budgets, layered-approval processes, and constituent groups with varied agenda.
A licensed architect since 1990, Ms. Racca returned to Delaware and has worked with several firms in the
Wilmington/Newark area, managing larger commercial, sports, and educational projects. While an Associate with Design Exchange in the mid-1990s, the firm was selected to execute several renovation projects
for the Christina School District, Ms. Racca bearing responsibility for planning and project management.
While working on these projects with the Christina School District, she developed strong relationships with
the district and an even stronger personal commitment to improving public schools, assuring successful
school projects for the thousands of students and their families who count on these facilities every day.
Ms. Racca joined the Christina School District in 2002 as Supervisor for Major Capital Projects after the
Christina community approved a large-scale capital bond referendum designed to renovate nine
elementary schools, upgrade HVAC systems in nine schools, and build two new schools—a capitalimprovements program totaling roughly $150 million dollars funded by state and local bonds. She
managed multiple teams of architects, contractors, and internal staff to plan, design, construct, and
complete these projects while all schools across the district remained occupied and in session.
Since that time, the Christina School District has continued to renovate, upgrade, and build. As an example,
Christina hosts two statewide programs, Delaware School for the Deaf, and the Delaware Autism Program.
Ms. Racca worked closely with the Department of Education for several years in planning and executing
significant expansions for both programs. Planning for the new Delaware School for the Deaf project
began in 2003, and the new school opened its doors this past fall in 2011, overcoming many hurdles along
the way, including multiyear funding, siting, and building consensus on program design goals.
In 2005, Ms. Racca became Christina’s Director of Facilities Services responsible for district-wide strategic
planning, including program expansion/locations, school capacities and feeder pattern design, major and
minor capital improvements, special projects, and all maintenance/custodial operations across the
district’s 40 buildings or roughly three million square feet of facilities. Currently, she is Chief Operating
Officer and, in addition to her responsibilities for Facilities Services, also addresses district-level legal
issues, student assignment/educational options, and provides oversight for Christina’s RTT grant funding
and planning. She maintains her professional registration as a practicing architect, is a member of the AIA,
and regularly attends the AIA’s National Committee on Architecture in Education’s conferences in Chicago
to stay tuned into the changing landscape of effective and sustainable design for educational facilities.
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