Newsmakers

BKD LLP added Greg Helms and Emily Reese as staff consultants in its Springfield office. They perform general consulting services in the health care industry. Helms graduated from the California College for Health Science with a bachelor’s degree in health services management and earned his MBA in 2003. Reese is a 2004 graduate of the University of Tulsa with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

Stephen A. O’Dell and Donald L. Hagan partners of O’Dell & Co., CPAs, were named certified financial planners by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. This certification recognizes O’Dell and Hagan for meeting the experience and ethical requirements of the CFP board and having successfully completed financial planning coursework and testing.

Dentistry

Dr. Kevin Wallace, Springfield prosthodontist since 1990, received the 2005 Executive Director’s Award of Excellence from the Missouri Dental Association. The award was in recognition of his legislative efforts and his commitment to increase the number of dental hygienists in the state through his work with the Hygiene Distance Learning initiative.

Education

Larry Banks is retiring next summer as dean of Missouri State University’s College of Natural and Applied Sciences, a position he’s held since 1996. Following his retirement, Banks will continue to work part-time with the university’s Missouri Virtual School, a distance-learning program he initiated for K-12 students. A national search for his replacement is under way, and Banks will remain in the position until a successor is found.

Hospitality

Cindy Reed joined Rolling Oaks Hospitality Inc. as corporate director of sales. Reed has 25 years of experience in Springfield’s hotel and hospitality industry and most recently served as the sales account manager for the Sheraton Hawthorn Park Hotel.

Insurance

American National Property and Casualty insurance company announced its Leaders of the Quarter for the third quarter of 2005. Melba Throne is a manager of application development in the company’s information services division. Helen Barber is a claims support and development manager in the claims services division. John McCaskill is director of underwriting systems, projects and support.

Law

Shari L. Lockhart was elected a member of St. Louis-based Evans & Dixon LLC, as well as practice group leader of the Springfield office, where she’s worked since 2001. Her work focuses on workers’ compensation defense. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and a former assistant Missouri attorney general.

Real Estate

Murney Associates Realtors recently joined the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, a network of independent residential real estate firms. The network has 650 members representing 4,700 offices and 120,000 associates. Collectively, these firms sell 1.4 million homes annually.

Service

Grant Hornbuckle was promoted to general manager of the Springfield and Joplin locations of Two Men and a Truck. Hornbuckle earned his business degree from Missouri State University in 2002. His previous work experience includes management responsibilities with Dillard’s and field sales with Kraft Foods.

Experience Works Inc. named Dianne Chambers field operations coordinator for a 12-county area in southwest Missouri. Chambers has been with the company since 1980 and was previously the office administrator in the Missouri/Illinois regional office in Buffalo.

Secure Shred Inc. added Mike Adams as regional representative and promoted three others. John Hall was named Springfield representative, Mike Allen was named tri-state area representative and Curt Riekhof was named regional sales director.

Shelby Bowgen joined the sales team at LCS Kleen-Aire, where she will manage and develop residential accounts. Bowgen has 12 years of experience in customer relations, including a 10-year service position with Bowgen Fuel Systems and work as a Bank One customer service representative specializing in online banking.