Foundation

Amy Michelle Gross has been appointed to replace Robert W. Schaefer as executive director of the France-Merrick Foundation, the Baltimore-based charity announced Tuesday. Schaefer is retiring after 17 years leading the area's fourth largest charitable organization with more than $200 million in assets. Established in 1959, the foundation is charged with improving Baltimore's quality of life. "It is a bittersweet time for our foundation," said Wally Pinkard, president of the France-Merrick Foundation, in a statement.

Maravene Loeschke has the full support of the Towson University Foundation, Inc.'s board of directors. In her role as president of Towson University, she is required to ensure that the school is compliant with all federal laws and fiscally responsible academically as well as athletically. These decisions are difficult and sometimes very painful. As stewards of the philanthropic funds coming into the university, the board is responsible for the investment, management and use of those funds and has an obligation to ensure that funds are administered properly and compliant with all laws in the furtherance of the mission of Towson University.

Pixelligent Technologies, a maker of miniscule crystal additives used in electronics and plastics products, said Friday it has raised more than $5.1 million in new funding from the Abell Foundation and others. The funding will allow the Baltimore company to increase manufacturing capacity and hire application, engineering and business development employees, Pixelligent said. The company, which got its start in a College Park incubator, now has more than 30 commercial customers and hopes to open additional plants in Baltimore, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's chief of staff will step down in May to head the Goldseker Foundation in Baltimore, the nonprofit plans to announce today. Matt Gallagher, who has worked with O'Malley for 13 years and ran Baltimore's CitiStat operation, will succeed the retiring Timothy D. Armbruster. Armbruster ran Goldseker for 34 years, focusing its philanthropy on neighborhood revitalization and economic development. "I've always felt a strong connection to the city, and this was a particularly exciting opportunity that hasn't been available in a generation," said Gallagher, 40. O'Malley expects to announce Gallagher's replacement today.

Two officers have been given awards for valor by the Baltimore County Police Foundation for their role in an incident in which one shot and killed a Texas man allegedly involved in a Dundalk burglary. North Point Precinct officers Jacob T. Heins, a 12-year veteran, and Phillip G. Twisdale, with six years on the force, have returned to their jobs after county prosecutors declined to charge them in the incident that killed 22-year-old Joshua Michael Lopez. Both were hailed at an awards dinner in Hunt Valley "for their bravery and heroism during a life or death struggle," according to the program of the Tuesday event held by the foundation.

A Washington-based nonprofit group has offered to test for toxic contamination in city park land that borders a new casino being built in South Baltimore, but City Hall says it's not interested. The Inner Harbor Stewardship Foundation, which bankrolled a lawsuit seeking to block work on the Horseshoe Casino until more cleanup is required on the site, wrote Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Monday saying that it would pay for testing of soil and ground water at Gwynns Falls Trail Park.

The William J. Sacco Critical Thinking Foundation presented 21 Harford County mathematics students and teachers with awards on March 10. More than 175 students, teachers and foundation sponsors walked through the doors of Liberatore's in Bel Air to gather for the second William J. Sacco Awards Banquet. Dressed to the nines, the anxious scholars awaited the results. The 2013 set of scholarships included all 10 Harford County public schools and The John Carroll School - expanded from just C. Milton Wright and Bel Air high schools.

Bridget Ellen Mooney Spence, who raised funds for the Susan Komen Foundation, died of complications from breast cancer Thursday at her home in Sudbury, Mass. The former Baltimore resident was 29. Born in Baltimore, she was the daughter of William J. Mooney, an accountant, and Dorothy Hermann Mooney, a retired Gilman School teacher. Raised in Pinehurst, she was a 2001 Roland Park Country School graduate. She earned a cum laude degree in international relations from Boston University.

Last September, Van Brooks walked for the first time in eight years. A wobbly video, recorded on a smartphone and posted on Facebook, shows the lower body of an undeterrable young man. Legs violently shaking as he refuses to accept his initial diagnosis, Brooks clings to a walker while his weight is supported by a harness attached to the ceiling. Wearing white tube socks and a pair of Converse All Stars, Brooks slowly takes a small step forward. His left foot quivers as he strains to straighten it and complete the step.

Colleges Terps drop series finale to N.C. State in baseball Maryland surrendered seven runs in the first two innings and lost to host North Carolina State, 9-4, in the series finale Sunday. The Terps (15-12, 4-8 Atlantic Coast Conference) were undone by nine Wolfpack hits and three errors in the first two innings. N.C. State (19-10, 5-7) recorded 18 hits compared to the Terps ' 10. Matt Bosse and Charlie White each had two hits for Maryland. Blake Schmit went 2-for-5, including a solo home run, his team-leading second of the year.