Newsmakers – April 14, 2014

Arnold named head of Fort Worth Country Day Upper School

After a nationwide search, Bill Arnold, a teacher and coach for the Upper School at Fort Worth Country Day School, has been named the head of the Upper School, replacing Rob Hereford who has accepted a head of school position in California. Arnold will begin his role as Upper School division head in the 2014-2015 academic year. He will become the ninth head of Upper School in FWCD’s 50-year history. The announcement was made by Evan D. Peterson, head of school, during announcements period on April 8. A 1986 graduate of FWCD, Arnold commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. He left the military to teach and coach at his alma mater in 1994. After 9/11, Arnold joined the Marine Reserves and in 2004, he took a seven-month sabbatical from Fort Worth Country Day to command a Marine Scout platoon in the Middle East. He returned to civilian life and teaching in 2005. Arnold received the Bayard H. Friedman HERO Award for the most outstanding North Texas history teacher. He also held the James S. Garvey Chair in History. Arnold and his wife, Debby, have two children currently attending Fort Worth Country Day.

Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations PAVLOV Advertising added five new staff members. Cassie Kruemcke, an 18-year, award-winning designer, has been appointed design director. She also owned her own design studio, mint ink. Alina Newson has been hired as a production artist. Megan Dobbertien joins as an account executive, providing account service and project management for the firm’s largest client, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. She previously worked as an account executive at Uproar! in Dallas and as an assistant account manager at GSD&M in Austin. Andrea Condori has been hired as a public relations and social media coordinator. Anthony Garcia is a front-end developer, responsible for building Web-based applications by collaborating with PAVLOV’s designers.

Banking & Finance Cory Coker joined Colonial Savings F.A. as senior relationship manager, responsible for portfolio development and maintenance and commercial loan origination. He will also assist with the cultivation of Colonial’s small business banking in the D-FW area. Coker most recently served as senior vice president/relationship manager for Southwest Securities in Southlake.

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Boards & Organizations Larry Lutz and Jill Spencer were elected to the River Legacy Foundation board. Lutz is retired from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he had a variety of management, strategic planning and training positions from 1985 to 2009. Spencer has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, most recently serving as interim president and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta. The Fort Worth Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators elected the following board for 2014-2015: President, Susan Morgan, Bakutis, McCully & Sawyer; President-Elect, Lisa Boyd, Brackett & Ellis; Vice President-Membership, Ranita Smitherman, Law, Snakard & Gambill; Secretary, Sylvia Coatney, Bush, Rudnicki & Shelton; Treasurer, Tim McKay, Harris, Finley & Bogle; At Large Director, Amy Flowers, Decker, Jones, McMackin, McClane, Hall & Bates; Past President, Rick Cruz, Cantey Hanger. Section Chairs: Financial Management, Tim McKay, Harris Finley; Human Resources, Sylvia Coatney, Bush, Rudnicki & Shelton; Operations Management, Tony Lansford, Cantey Hanger; Business Partners, Kathy Madeja; Newsletter, Rick Cruz, Cantey Hanger; and Website, Tony Lansford, Cantey Hanger. Fort Worth Sister Cities appointed Greg Irwin, BBVA Compass Bank, and Rae Hyatt, community volunteer, to lead the business, educational and cultural efforts of the Trier, Germany, and Mbabane, Swaziland, committees, respectively.

Education Meharvan “Sonny” Singh, PhD, has been named dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. Singh, who has served as interim dean since January, joined UNTHSC in 2001 as an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience and rose to the rank of professor in 2010. He served as chair of the department from 2011-2013 and as interim director of the Institute for Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease Research from 2012-2013. He also leads a $5.8 million research project funded by the National Institutes of Health examining whether hormone treatments for women reaching menopause can benefit their brains. Shirley Little, former government relations manager for the city of Fort Worth, has been hired as director of advancement for Lake Country Christian School. She will focus on fundraising and also assist with alumni outreach and external communications as well as in the school’s strategic planning efforts. Little also served as chief of staff for five Fort Worth mayors between 1992-2012, and was campaign manager for Congresswoman Kay Granger.

Honors & Awards Kelly Decker, a shareholder with Decker, Jones, McMackin, McClane, Hall & Bates, has been elected to membership in the Fellows of the Texas Bar Foundation. The Fort Worth Housing Authority has received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for its 2012 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. This is the 11th year the agency has earned this honor.

Manufacturing David Wright joined Eklund Inc. as sales manager. Based in the company’s Southeast office (Houston), he will manage the sales team and spend time at Eklund’s Northeastern, Midwestern, Western and Southern facilities. Wright has nearly 20 years of experience in sales and business development management, most recently serving as the business development director for Whirlwind Steel.

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Send newsmakers to Betty Dillard at bdillard@bizpress.net

National health care education leader appointed UTA nursing dean The University of Texas at Arlington named Anne Bavier, a nationally recognized health care leader who has had posts at top ranked universities and at the National Institutes of Health, as the new dean of the College of Nursing. Bavier will join the university on Aug. 1. Bavier previously served as dean of the University of Connecticut School of Nursing and also as dean of nursing at Saint Xavier University in Chicago. She is president-elect of the National League for Nursing, which includes more than 39,000 members. “Dr. Bavier will lead us into a new era of national recognition and influence as we work together to improve health and the human condition across Texas and around the world,” said UT Arlington President Vistasp Karbhari. Bavier will lead one of the nation’s largest and most successful nursing programs with a current enrollment of nearly 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students on campus and in online programs. More than 90 percent of UTA nursing graduates pass their initial state licensure exam on their first attempt. The college boasts a 94-percent graduation rate. Bavier will oversee the merger of the Department of Kinesiology into the College of Nursing during the 2014-2015 academic year. The combined college will include nearly 350 faculty members. Bavier earned her undergraduate degree in nursing from Duke University and a master’s degree in nursing from Emory University, where she specialized in oncology. She received a doctoral degree from Duquesne University. In addition to her experience in higher education, Bavier worked as a program director in the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute and as deputy director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health in the National Institutes of Health. Bavier has received numerous awards and honors. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the Institute of Medicine of Chicago and was the first recipient of the Edith Moore Copeland Award for Excellence in Creativity from Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She also is the recipient of a Director’s Award from the National Institutes of Health, the agency’s highest award, for exceptional leadership in creating the Research Enhancement Awards Program.