Banking & Finance Deanna Williams is the new director of operations at Rogers Wealth Group Inc. Williams joined the firm in 2013 as financial operations associate. Amanda Atcheson has been promoted to assistant director of operations with the firm’s Advisor Services Division following her tenure as administrative associate for the Retirement Plan Services Division. Chris Manross and Austin Lewis are new additions to the associate financial advisers team.
Boards & Organizations Cancer Care Services elected Christine Dittrich, a consultant, as chairman of the 2014 board. Other officers include Chairman-Elect Steve Newton, Baylor Health Care System; Immediate Past Chairman Donna Mayes, Rylander, Clay and Opitz; Treasurer Leslie Crites, Rylander, Clay and Opitz; Secretary Zach Fullerton, First Financial Bank; Vice President of Client Programs April Ciccarello, JPS Health Network; Vice President of Development Nancy Farrar, Farrar Public Relations; and member-at-large Frank Testa, Cook Children’s Health Care System. New members are Marcela Gutierrez, University of North Texas Health Science Center; Sandra Head; Sally King, Cook Children’s Medical Center; Michelle Smeller, The Process Advisors; Mark Smith, U.S. Trust, Bank of America; and Katherine Stephens. Returning board members are Diane Ayres, Fort Worth, Texas magazine; Blair Chappell, UNT Health Science Center; Pat Dohoney, Patrick S. Dohoney & Associates; Linda Fulmer, Fulmer & Associates; Ann Greenhill; Angela Hoyt, Cotten, Schmidt & Abbott; Anne Syler; and Taryn Wilson, Virginia Cook Realtors.
Engineering & Construction Joining the leadership team at Baird, Hampton and Brown Inc. as principals are Ian Bost – and Richard Watters. Bill Baird,founding principal, is chairman and Konstantine Bakintas – is president. Ken Randall, lead for the electrical group, is now the COO, overseeing the daily operations of BHB’s three office locations. Mike McIlraith, mechanical group leader in his 21st year with the company, is senior vice president. Promoted to senior associate are Austin Baird, Ottis Lee and Kevin Miller. Promotions to associate include Mark Arnold and Larry Jones. Gene Capps, Candy Hone, Tom Kellogg and Chesna Myers are the newest members of the Project Management Team.
Honors & Awards The American Council on Education selected Victoria Farrar-Myers, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, for its 2014-15 class of the ACE Fellows Program. Farrar-Myers was named a 2013-2014 ACE Fellow, but her appointment was postponed due to her 2013-2014 appointment as Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Political Science at Flinders University in Australia. Tom Brown and Florentino Castrellon were honored during the WasteExpo in Atlanta. Brown, a retired waste industry professional, was inducted into the national waste and recycling industry’s Hall of Fame. Brown was president and COO of Progressive Waste Solutions and served in several capacities with the National Waste & Recycling Association, including a decade as chairman of its Texas Chapter. Castrellon, a driver for Republic Services Inc., was named the National Waste & Recycling Association’s Driver of the Year in the Large Industrial Category. He has driven in Fort Worth for 15 years and was selected from among 908 nominees from across the country.
Law David R. Seidler, a mediator and arbitrator, has again joined Shannon, Gracey, Ratliff & Miller LLP as a partner in the Fort Worth office. Christian Ellis also joined as a partner in the Fort Worth office. Seidler’s practice focuses on alternative dispute resolution and commercial litigation. Ellis represents owners, design professionals, general contractors, subcontractors and suppliers in construction cases involving construction defects, design errors, delay claims, cost overruns, lien and bond claims, and bid disputes.
Real Estate Northern Realty Group added Brandy O’Quinn as a commercial real estate broker. She brings 20 years of public policy experience to her new role. Since 2007, she has provided economic development consulting with her independent firm, Urban Strategies of Texas. O’Quinn, a certified economic developer, served on the city of Fort Worth’s Zoning Commission for nearly four years. She previously was president of the Camp Bowie District, where she founded and produced the Jazz By The Boulevard Music and Arts Festival for seven years. She also was director of business development with the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce from 1994-2000.
Send newsmakers to Betty Dillard at bdillard@bizpress.net
Lillie Biggins named to Texas Women’s Hall of Fame Lillie Biggins, the president of Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth, is a member of the newest class in the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. Other 2014 inductees include Nandita Berry, Joanne Herring, Col. Kim Olson, first lady Anita Perry, Dr. Ann Stuart, Senfronia Thompson, Deborah Tucker and Carolyn Wright. Biggins, a Fort Worth native, graduated from John Peter Smith School of Nursing in 1971 and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Arlington and a master’s degree from Texas Woman’s University. She was an assistant clinical professor in hospital administration at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas for six years and currently is an adjunct faculty member at UT Arlington. Before joining Texas Health Fort Worth, Biggins was chief nursing officer at Columbia Plaza Medical Center of Fort Worth and vice president of east campus operations at Plaza Medical Center of Fort Worth. She has 21 years of nursing leadership experience between John Peter Smith Hospital and Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. “I’m a critical care nurse at heart,” she said. “Leaving the bedside to take an administrative role was not an easy decision, but I felt called to do something more. You can make a bigger impact the higher up you go.” Biggins joined Texas Health Fort Worth in 1997 as vice president of operations, overseeing major departments including emergency, trauma and restorative services. She was promoted to president in 2012 with responsibility for enhancing the hospital’s performance in cost effectiveness, clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction. “In the 20 years I have known Lillie, I’ve watched her inspire and motivate those around her,” said Barclay Berdan, chief operating officer for Texas Health Resources. “She believes in helping others and making her hospital, her community and the world a better place. She’s a visionary leader who always keeps our patients and their families at the forefront of every decision she makes. She offers wise counsel to those around her and is a personal hero to many for seemingly being able to effortlessly do it all as a working mother and grandmother.” Biggins has served on the boards of Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County, the Texas Hospital Association Committee on Trauma, North Texas LEAD, CareFlite Emergency Services and the University of Texas at Arlington Nursing Advisory Board. She was appointed to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Board in May 2005 and recently was named chairman for the second time. She has received numerous awards and honors from local and national associations including: The President’s Volunteer Call to Service Award, the nation’s highest honor for volunteer service, in 2006; University of Texas at Arlington’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007; Health Industry Council’s Top 12 Women in Health Care in North Texas in 2012; Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce’s Circle of Excellence Award in 2013; and Distinguished Service Award from the Greater Fort Worth Area Negro Business & Professional Women’s Club in 2014.
Boards & Organizations Stanley Block, a member of Calloway’s Nursery Inc.’s board since the company went public in 1991, has retired and David L. Alexander has been elected to fill the unexpired term. Block is currently emeritus professor of finance at Texas Christian University. He was named Outstanding Instructor twice in the MBA program and earned the Dean’s Teaching Award and the Distinguished Teacher Award for the M.J. Neeley School of Business in 2002. In 2006 he received the Chancellor’s Award as the University’s Outstanding Professor. Alexander, a CPA, is president and founder of TCOBIZ Corp. He currently serves as advisory director to several enterprises and is chairman of the membership committee of the Full-Time MBA Program of Texas A&M University.
Add to – Honors & Awards Paul Dorman, Charles “Chuck” Hoffman and Diane Davis Gerber were honored during the 63rd Multicultural Alliance Annual Awards Dinner May 6 in Fort Worth. Dorman is chairman and CEO of DFB Pharmaceuticals, a Fort Worth-based holding company. Hoffman and Gerber received Lifetime Achievement Awards for their service to MCA and to Camp CommUNITY. Omar Ramos, principal at Fort Worth Independent School District’s Trimble Tech High School, is the recipient of the 2014 Bayard H. Friedman Hero Award presented by the Fort Worth Safe Communities Coalition and Score A Goal In The Classroom school incentive program. Ramos is recognized as being the most outstanding school principal in North Texas. Kenneth Roemer, an English professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, is one of five faculty members who will be inducted this year into the University of Texas System Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Roemer is an expert in American Indian and Utopian literatures. He was honored in 2011 with the UT System Regents’ Outstanding Teacher Award and previously has been honored as a UT Arlington Distinguished Scholar Professor and as a Distinguished Teaching Professor.
Footwear Tony Lama Boots promoted Cole Carter to national sales manager. Carter joined the brand in 2010 as an independent sales representative and was responsible for the Florida and Georgia territory for Tony Lama Boots. He will expand his role to focus on growing the existing customer base, leveraging existing and introducing new distribution channels for the brand and working alongside the sales force to enhance the brand on a national scale.
Nonprofit Organizations Amanda Stallings, executive director of Gill Children’s Services since September 2004, has been named the executive director of the JPS Health Foundation. Stallings previously served as a probation and parole officer with the Department of Corrections and the Tarrant County Supervision and Corrections Department. She has chaired the Cook Children’s Oral Health Coalition since 2005. Megan Boschini, Gill board member, will serve as interim executive director while the organization searches for Stallings’ replacement.