Colleen Wright-Riva has been named to serve as director of Cornell Dining and Retail Services, effective immediately, LeNorman Strong, assistant vice president for student and academic services at Cornell University, has announced.

Wright-Riva succeeds Nadeem Siddiqui, who left the position in May of this year. Having served as interim director since Siddiqui's departure, Wright-Riva was selected for the position following a national search.

Prior to her position as interim director of Cornell Dining, Wright-Riva was the general manager for West Campus and then North Campus Dining and Retail Services after having joined Cornell Dining in April 2000, and she has worked in every area of the organization. Before coming to Cornell, she served as a general manager for Cracker Barrel Old Country Corp. and as district manager of Burger King restaurants in the Rochester, N.Y., area. Wright-Riva has a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Brockport and is a candidate for a master's degree in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell.

"Colleen possesses a passion for quality in food and service, for staff development, for student service and involvement and for service to and involvement with the campus community," said Strong.

Wright-Riva is particularly interested in enhancing Cornell Dining's participation with faculty in support of student learning and is committed to fostering stronger partnerships with campus units, including the introduction of new food service programs and locations to better serve faculty, staff and students, Strong noted.

"We are extremely fortunate to have a person of Colleen's caliber on our team," Strong added. "It is extremely gratifying to have her qualifications recognized by evaluation to be equal to those of some of the best food service professionals in the country. Colleen is recognized nationally as a rising star in the university dining service segment of the industry. I'm delighted that her star has started to rise at Cornell, and join her colleagues in welcoming her to this important leadership position."

Related World Wide Web sites: The following site provides additional information on this news release.

• Cornell Dining: http://dining.cornell.edu/