People in the News

Education

Deirdre K. Hirner, PhD, was named the new vice president for development and alumni relations at Drury University, effective Jan. 1. She now serves as deputy chief of staff to Missouri Gov. Bob Holden. Hirner holds a PhD in land use planning, management and design from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. She earned her bachelor and master of science degrees in recreation and park administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Finance

Village Bank announced three promotions and a staff addition.

Joan Williams was promoted to assistant vice president. She has been with Village Bank since it opened in 1997. Williams has more than 20 years of banking experience and she continues in her current capacity as corporate board secretary. With her promotion, Williams assumed additional human resources responsibilities.

Rhonda Butcher was promoted to assistant vice president. She is responsible for development of personal and commercial business, and she is coordinator of Village Bank's senior program. Butcher has 30 years of banking experience.

Lynne Mitchell was promoted to assistant vice president. She has been with Village Bank for five years, and she has 15 years of banking experience. She is operations manager for Village Bank's west branch and is responsible for the bank's Internet banking and debit card programs.

Vicki Schaper joined Village Bank as assistant vice president and Bank Secrecy Act officer. She has 27 years of banking experience. Schaper is responsible for lobby operations and supervision of the teller area. She also is involved in the areas of business development and consumer lending.

Health care

Gerald Haynes joined St. John's Health System's ethics program as a staff ethicist. Prior to joining St. John's, Haynes was a physician's assistant and senior pastor at Princeton Bible Church in Virginia. Haynes is a graduate of Baylor College of Medicine. He earned master's degrees in theology and divinity with an emphasis in the Old Testament and ethics from Gordon Conwell Seminary in Charlotte, N.C. Haynes is studying bioethics at the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity in Chicago.

Dr. Brad Lewis, an optometrist, joined the Vision Clinic, which has locations in Springfield and Nixa. Lewis completed undergraduate studies in biology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He earned his optometric degree at the University of Missouri-St. Louis School of Optometry. Lewis' specialties include contact lenses and bifocal contact lenses, pediatrics, sports vision and ocular disease.

Law

S. Jacob Sappington joined the Springfield office of Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin LLP, in its litigation department. Sappington earned a bachelor of arts degree in communication and political science from the University of Missouri-Columbia, graduating magna cum laude. He interned in the Boone County Prosecuting Attorney's Office in 1998 and 1999, and received his juris doctor degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law in 2002.