People in the News

Education

Evangel University announced three staff additions.

Michael Bartel and Angela Bryant have joined Evangel as residence directors of Scott Hall and Spence Hall, respectively. Bartel is a graduate student in religious studies at Southwest Missouri State University, and Bryant holds a master's degree in counseling.

Dennis Whaley joined Evangel as director of university relations, which is a newly created position. Whaley's responsibilities include planning, developing and conducting an annual giving program, and planning and implementing programs and events for the Association of Evangel University Family and Friends.

Financial Services

BKD Financial LLC and Olive Corporate Finance have merged as BKD Financial LLC, a wholly owned subsidy of BKD LLP with offices in Springfield, Kansas City and Indianapolis.

Steve Blumereich serves as BKD Financial president and has more than 20 years of experience in mergers, acquisitions and divestitures.

Bill Hammitt Jr. is vice president and director of BKD Financial. Pat Hayes serves as senior financial analyst and assistant vice president, and Dave Hesford holds the position of senior financial analyst.

BKD LLP announced several staff changes.

David C. Fields was promoted from staff ac-countant to senior ac-countant. Fields provides audit and counseling services for health care pro-viders. He holds a bachelor of science degree in accounting from South-west Baptist University.

Jerry M. Laflen was promoted from senior ac-countant to supervisor. Laflen provides audits, reviews and compilations for businesses in the manufacturing, distribution and construction industries. He is a graduate of Drury University and holds a bachelor of arts degree in business administration and accounting.

M. Aaron Little and Nathan G. Van Gender-en were promoted from senior consultants to su-pervising consultants. Lit-tle specializes in reimbursement consulting ser-vices for home health agencies and nursing homes, and Van Genderen assists organizations with decision support, strategic planning, mergers, acquisitions and financing as-sistance services.

Hotels

Lou Weckstein was named president of John Q. Hammons Hotels. Weckstein previously was senior vice president of hotel operations for Windsor Capital Group based in Los Angeles. He is responsible for the overall strategic development of the company.

Law Enforcement

The Springfield Police Department promoted the following 23 officers to the rank of corporal: Jason Bisby, Greg Wheelen, Patrick Haenni, Brian Crum, Scott Umbarger, Jeff Schwerdt, Kevin Grizzell, Darrell Kingore, Rick McCrea, Justin Gargus, Chad White, James Dougherty, Steven Pratt, Mike Ander-son, Ben King, Todd King, Bruce Water-man, Jim Edwards, Rebecca Hosiner, Chad Eutsler, Vance Holland, Tad Pe-ters and Scott Steck.

Medicine

Cox Health Systems announced two staff additions.

M. Douglas Brockman, MD, and Norman P. Knowlton, MD, joined the Diagnostic Clinic. Brockman earned his medical degree from the University of Kansas, and Knowlton earned his medical degree from St. Louis University School of Medicine. Both are board-certified in internal medicine.

Technology

Tom Smith joined Technology In-novations as business development manager. He works with small and medium sized businesses to develop their computer network technology. Smith has 26 years of experience in management and business ownership.