Success and Service: Peterson is chief of hospice board

Carolynn Peterson, vice president and chief clinical officer of Community Hospice in Modesto, is serving as president of the board for the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association.

The organization, headquartered in Sacramento, is an advocacy group that supports hospice care providers in California and Nevada. Her one-year term began in January.

She will work with the board to support the organization's mission, set policy and influence key areas that include advocacy, the changing regulatory environment and membership education.

Les Porter, a Stanislaus Consolidated Fire District captain, will be named one of America's Top 10 Animal Defenders by the Animal Legal Defense Fund during National Justice for Animals Week 2013, which starts Monday.

The week is an annual event dedicated to raise awareness nationwide about how people can work within their communities to achieve justice for animal victims and to honor law enforcement, prosecutors and legislators who give teeth to laws protecting animals.

David Thomas, 54, of Modesto has been appointed chairman of the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, where he has served since 2010.

Thomas has been a business representative at the Northern California District Council of Laborers since 2009, a position he also held from 1994 to 2001. Thomas worked at Laborers Local Union 73 as a business agent from 2001 to 2009 and a business representative from 1987 to 1994. He has served as secretary-treasurer of the San Joaquin Building Trades Council since 2004.

This position does not require Senate confirmation. The compensation is $100 per diem. Thomas is a Democrat.

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