COMMUNITY NEWS THREE VALLEY RESIDENTS NAMED TO STATE POSITIONS BY GOVERNOR.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed three San Fernando Valley residents to state posts.

Chad Charton, 22, of Northridge will join the Student Aid Commission. Charton, an undergraduate at California State University, Northridge, has been a marketing representative for FMS Financial Partners since 2002. Charton was also president and chief executive officer of CSUN Associated Students.

D. Timothy Daze, 57, of Woodland Hills will join the California Board of Pharmacy. Daze has been a Los Angeles deputy city attorney since 2002 and previously was an attorney in private practice. He also was general counsel of Burbank Aeronautical Corp.

Diane Fazzi, 44, of La Canada, will join the Advisory Commission on Special Education. Fazzi has been a faculty member at California State University, Los Angeles, since 1992 and chairwoman of the division of special education and counseling there since 2004. She was previously an adjunct faculty member at CSULA from 1989 to 1992, a teacher at the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind from 1988 to 1989 and a special education teacher for the Los Angeles County Office of Education from 1986 to 1988.

Moorpark College philosophy professor Janice Daurio earned the college's 10th annual Distinguished Faculty Chair award earlier this month. Daurio has taught at Moorpark for 10 years.

Faculty members make the nominations, and a board of past winners and the Faculty Senate selects the recipient based on excellence in teaching and service to the college and community.

Daurio will take a sabbatical during the fall semester to write a book, tentatively titled, ``Faith and Reason: Applying Critical Thinking to Popular Ideas About Religion.''

California State University, Northridge, professor Steven Oppenheimer is offering a Biology of Cancer class this fall for students as well as members of the community.

``This course helps people understand a disease that's often misunderstood,'' Oppenheimer said. ``I open it up to the community as a public service because of the fear and interest in the disease.''

Oppenheimer has enlisted experts, including Eugene Gierson, breast cancer surgeon; Bernard Raskin, skin cancer expert and dermatologist; and Richard Gaynes, former director of medical photography from the Medical Center of Tarzana.

Oppenheimer has taught the class for 28 years. It has received the Public Education Award from the American Cancer Society.

Interested community members are invited to attend the course, which starts Sept. 5 and will be held Mondays from 6 to 7:40 p.m. in the university's Eucalyptus Hall, Room 2132.