Newsmakers

AdSmith Communications, owned by Angela Smith and Gail McKinney, was elected to membership in the American Association of Advertising Agencies. Membership has been awarded to less than 10 percent of the more than 13,000 ad agencies in the United States.

Finance

Jamie Nelson has joined City Utilities Employees Credit Union as a mortgage specialist. He has three years of experience in the mortgage industry and a background in customer service. Nelson holds a bachelor’s degree in administrative management from Southwest Missouri State University. In his new position, he provides mortgage services for people who live or work in Greene or Christian counties.

Kathryn E. Wiechert, director of client services and marketing coordinator for Eric K. Peterson, CFP, LLC, a financial services firm, recently returned from the sixth annual Securities America University at the home office of Securities America Inc. in Omaha, Neb. The two-day intensive workshop provides assistants and support staff the opportunity to increase their knowledge in the areas of technology, compliance, operations, customer service and practice management. The training sessions combine theory with hands-on use of Securities America technology.

Joe Cleveland, assistant trust administrator with Springfield Trust Co., recently completed Cannon Financial Institute’s personal trust course. The course provides a complete overview of personal trust services and estate planning.

Health Care

Dr. John Duff has been named administrator of Cox North, effective Dec. 15. He succeeds John Mentgen, who accepted a position as vice president with St. John’s Hospital-Joplin. In addition to his leadership role at Cox North, Duff will have systemwide responsibilities for emergency and trauma services and ground and air ambulance. He also will continue his responsibilities as CoxHealth’s chief information officer. Duff completed medical school and residency training at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and more recently he earned a master’s degree in business administration from Washington University in St. Louis. Duff, an internal medicine physician, practiced medicine for 15 years, most recently with CoxHealth’s Diagnostic Clinic. He assumed the position of medical director for CoxHealth Regional Services in 1997 and accepted the chief information officer position in 1999.

Dr. Shachar Tauber, director of eye research at St. John’s, will be a guest speaker at the second annual Unite for Sight International Conference April 2-3 at Harvard University. Tauber is a member of the medical advisory board for Unite for Sight, a national nonprofit organization that empowers communities to improve eye health and eliminate preventable blindness. The International Conference is for health professional students, doctors, professors, public health professionals, nurses, patients, philanthropists, volunteers and leaders in ophthalmology, public health, academia, corporations and policy.

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