Newsmakers

Accounting

Exact Tax & Accounting hired Jenny Keltner as account executive. Keltner holds a bachelor's degree in management and entrepreneurship from Missouri State University and has a background in the retail, medical, construction products and media industries.

Community

Todd Duncan, coordinator of youth services for The Kitchen Inc., was named to the board of directors of MINK Youth Services Network, a group of youth service agencies in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. Duncan oversees The Kitchen's Rare Breed Youth Services, which helps homeless and disconnected teens with housing, education and employment.

Richard Ollis, president and chief executive offiver of Ollis & Co., was elected president of the Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts Advisory Committee, and Michael Freelander of Freelander Industrial LLC was elected vice president of the committee.

Construction

Morelock-Ross Builders project managers David Ross and Robin Newhart achieved Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design professional accreditation. Ross and Newhart have been with the company for six years and eight years, respectively.

Education

Jun Luo, assistant professor of geography, geology and planning at Missouri State University, was awarded a $17,500 grant from Greene County Planning and Zoning to continue the Geospatial Science Development project. Luo's award pays the salary of a graduate student from the geography, geology and planning department, as well as funding geospatial equipment.

Dennis Kear, MSU dean of the College of Education, received a $5,000 grant from Missouri Assistive Technology for the Regional Demonstration Center. The annual grant, which has been renewed since February 2005, will be used for assistive technology and advertising disabled services with the goal of helping the disabled live independently, finish their educations and find and keep jobs.

Evangel University criminal justice alumni created the Justin Skaggs Memorial Criminal Justice Scholarship to honor the 2000 graduate who played in the National Football League and Arena Football League and died of a brain tumor at 28 years old in 2007. Skaggs, a criminal justice major, played football for Evangel's Crusaders 1997-2000.

Health Care

Dr. Joe A. Olivi joined St. John's Clinic-General & Trauma Surgery. Olivi received his education from Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica, West Indies. He was a general surgery resident with the University of Missouri hospitals and clinics in Columbia with a surgery critical care fellowship at the University of Missouri hospitals. He is a member of the American College of Surgeons, the Society of Laparoscopic Surgeons and the Society of Critical Care.

Speech therapists Casey DeWitt and Emily McArthur were hired at St. John's Hospital - Lebanon. DeWitt works with the evaluation and treatment of cognitive-linguistic skills, language, voice, articulation, fluency and swallowing disorders, and she is certified to conduct vision and hearing screenings. McArthur treats articulation disorders, language delay and feeding problems in children, as well as articulation, memory, language and swallowing disorders in adults.

Insurance

Jeff Eiserman joined Ollis & Co. as a risk adviser in the property and casualty department. His primary emphasis is designing programs to help medium- to large-size businesses control their risk costs.

Landscaping

Ozarks Technical Community College students Daniel Jacobs and David Prince joined the Professional Landcare Network. The association provides ongoing educational and safety programs and features a national certification program for its more than 100,000 members nationwide.

Law

Marshfield High School won the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Foundation's Ozarks Regional Mock Trial Competition, sponsored by Lathrop & Gage LLP. Teams competed to represent the southern Missouri region in the state competition in Kansas City. In individual competition, Marshfield students Joey Hohgrefe and Megan Harris won the awards for best defense attorney and best defense witness, respectively.

Sales

Jason Parker joined Murphy Tractor & Equipment Co. as territory sales manager. He is responsible for heavy equipment sales east and northeast of Springfield for the John Deere Construction Equipment dealer. Parker has 10 years of customer support, sales and management experience.

Technology

JMARK Business Solutions Inc. was named 142nd on Nine Lives Media Inc.'s second-annual MSPmentor survey of managed service providers. The report recognizes managed service providers based on a range of revenue and management metrics from feedback for MSPmentor's global online survey in 2008.