Newsmakers: June 13-19, 2016

Advertising
ADsmith Marketing and Advertising promoted Celeste Skidmore to general manager from executive vice president. She runs daily operations and has worked for the agency since 2006, starting as an account executive.

Education
Missouri State University named its 2016 Wall of Fame for former faculty and staff: Don Aripoli, Wayne Bartee and Michael Smith, as well as Lawrence Banks Jr. and William Daggett, posthumously. Aripoli, vice president of student affairs, oversaw the construction of the enrollment management office and was honored for student advocacy; Bartee, a history professor, served as a department head and supported faculty research; Smith was the director of news and production coordinator at KSMU; Banks was one of the first physics professors at MSU and served as dean of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences; and Daggett was the first librarian and men’s basketball coach.

Southwest Baptist University’s Enactus team was one of 20 teams nationwide to reach the semifinal round at the Enactus USA national competition. The SBU team won a regional competition in Rogers, Ark., which advanced nearly 200 teams in the national round.

College of the Ozarks presented its Eugene Charles Wittick Teaching Excellence Award to Professor of Agriculture Mark Hubbard. The award honors professors’ impact on students, improvements in teaching and their example of working in line with the school’s goals. Hubbard has worked at College of the Ozarks since 1994.

Government
The 31st Judicial Circuit in Greene County has met the time standards established by the Missouri Supreme Court for processing cases. The local court system beat expectations for domestic relations cases by four months and associate civil cases by six months in fiscal 2015. The standard for both areas is to have 95 percent of the cases disposed within 14 months.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency selected the Missouri Career Center in Springfield to receive a $200,000 grant to recruit, train and place local unemployed and underemployed individuals in full-time sustainable jobs in environmental fields. The grant is one of 18 distributed through a $3.5 million package from the federal Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training program.

The Associated Students of the University of Missouri selected Sen. Mike Parson, R-Bolivar, for its Legislator of the Year Award recognizing support of measures benefiting students at public universities. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Parson helped secure a 4 percent performance funding increase for the state’s public universities.

The Springfield Police Department honored four graduates of its lateral academy: Nick Brasser, from the Butler County Sheriff’s Office; Casey Broadway, from the Christian County Sheriff’s Office; Isaac McPheeters, from the Kansas Highway Patrol; and Jeffrey Stieff, from the Lebanon Police Department. The officers, who received 160 hours of training to acclimate them to the SPD, have been assigned to six weeks of on-the-job training.

Health Care
Citizens Memorial Hospital added clinical neuropsychologist Robert Denney at the Missouri Memory Center in Bolivar. A 20-year forensic psychologist and clinical neuropsychologist at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, he has a master’s degree and a doctorate in psychology from Forest Institute of Professional Psychology.

The CoxHealth Foundation added two members to its board of directors: Jeremy Loftin, vice president and relationship manager of Central Trust Co., and Andy Bartholomy, owner of Bartholomy Bowling Centers and Andy B’s Entertainment Center.

Human Resources
Candida Arvizu of HR Advantage Inc. earned the senior professional in human resources certification from the HR Certification Institute. To take the exam, a minimum of four years of professional experience is required.

Manufacturing
Tuthill Vacuum & Blower Systems hired Larry Merritt as vice president of finance. Merritt, who worked most recently as North American controller for CRC-Evans Pipeline International in Tulsa, Okla., has a bachelor’s in accounting from Clemson University and he’s pursuing an MBA from Cameron University.

Media
Mid-West Family Broadcasting named Jeff Andrews program director for 92.9 The Beat. With a bachelor’s in business management from University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, his programming portfolio includes stints in Chicago, Sacramento, Calif., Nashville, Tenn., and Kansas City.

Nonprofit
Leadership Springfield named its 2016-17 board officers: Andrea Brady of Great Southern Bank, president; Mike Brothers of Drury University, vice president; Jeff Cumley of the Springfield-Greene County Park Board, past president; Luke Westerman of Computer Recycling Center LLC, treasurer; and Julie Jones of Mercy, secretary.

Retail
The National Association of Music Merchants named Springfield Music Inc. a Top 100 Dealer to be recognized in June as part of a national event in Nashville, Tenn. The award honors customer service and efforts to foster music appreciation.