AEROSPACE AND DEFENSE
Novaria Group has announced that Bonnie Peat and James Riley have joined its board of directors. Peat most recently served as Vice President of the Engine Business for Parker Aerospace, where she was responsible for leading the strategy, business development and relationship management for OEM engine customers worldwide. Riley most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Consolidated Precision Products (CPP), a leading provider of castings for aerospace and defense end markets.
EDUCATION
Rear Adm. Sylvia Trent-Adams, U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, will join The University of North Texas Health Science Center (HSC) at Fort Worth as Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, President Michael Williams announced.
Trent–Adams, who served as Acting U.S. Surgeon General from April 2017 to September 2017, will start at HSC in October.
Trent-Adams, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, has held numerous leadership positions at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
From 2015 through 2018, she was Deputy Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a uniformed service branch of more than 6,000 officers on the front lines of public health. She was a key advisor to the Surgeon General to combat the opioid addiction crisis, also a focus for HSC.
Before she joined the Office of the Surgeon General, Trent-Adams worked in the HIV/AIDS Bureau managing the $2.3 billion Ryan White Program, which funds medical care, treatment, referrals and support services for uninsured and underserved people living with HIV.
She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Meritorious Service Medal for leadership during the Commissioned Corps response to Ebola in West Africa and the International Red Cross Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest international honor given to a nurse.
Trent-Adams is the second high-ranking HHS official to join HSC in the past year. David Mansdoerfer, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, joined the university in September 2019 as Special Assistant to the President.
Sam Petty, a Fort Worth native passionate about giving back to her hometown, has recently become manager of strategic philanthropy and communications for Tarrant To & Through (T3) Partnership.
The T3 Partnership is a new initiative that aims to ensure more Tarrant County students have the training and skills they need to thrive in today’s workforce.
Petty previously was executive director of the USS Fort Worth LCS-3 Support Committee, a non-profit focused on the achievements of the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat ship named after Fort Worth. Petty continues to serve on the board under Hannah Bell, the new executive director.
Launching in Fall 2020, the T3 Partnership will provide a variety of programs designed to inform and engage students and families about college and career pathways.
Petty also co-chair of the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts Alumni Association and stays involved with the Tarrant Transit Alliance.
Krause received his Ph.D. in Strategic Management and Organization Theory at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University in 2013. Since then, he has published 17 top-tier journal papers, for many of which he is the first author.
ENTERTAINMENT
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX), the world’s largest regional theme park company and the largest operator of waterparks in North America, has announced that Esi Eggleston Bracey and Enrique Ramirez Mena have been appointed to its board of directors, expanding membership to nine. These appointments represent the fourth and fifth new directors added this year. The company also announced that Richard Roedel and Kurt Cellar have advised the board of directors of their intention to retire and not stand for re-election at the company’s next annual meeting of stockholders.
LEGAL
Fort Worth personal injury lawyer Jason Stephens has moved his Fort Worth practice into a new office on South University Drive. The new office is located at 1300 S. University Drive, Suite 406, Fort Worth, next to University Park Village and less than a mile away from the Fort Worth Zoo. Stephens, founder of Stephens Law Firm PLLC, has been in practice for more than 22 years.
GOVERNMENT
The Bedford City Council voted unanimously Aug. 11 to make Jimmy Stathatos the new city manager. His first day is set to be Sept. 14.
Stathatos will replace Assistant City Manager, Cliff Blackwell, who has served as Interim City Manager for more than six months. Blackwell will return to his original duties once Stathatos begins.
Stathatos has been working for local governments since 1994, when he began work as a purchasing analyst for the City of College Station while attending Texas A&M University, the city said in a news release.
He then worked as a management intern at the City of Euless and assistant to the city manager in Ennis before becoming the City Manager for Roanoke. He served there for about 15 years before becoming Flower Mound’s Town Manager in 2013.
The Board of Trustees of the Fort Worth Employees’ Retirement Fund has announced that Derrick C. Dagnan has been selected as the fund’s chief investment officer, effective Oct. 1. Organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry assisted in the nationwide search.
Anna Tinsley Williams, a veteran reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has been named communications officer for the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
Tinsley Williams replaces Samantha Jordan, who left the office to become director or marketing and communications with the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). Tinsley Williams, a graduate of Baylor University, has been a senior reporter for the Star-Telegram more than a decade covering local, state, and national politics. She has more than twenty-eight years of experience as a reporter.
HEALTH CARE
Cook Children’s Health Care System CEO Rick Merrill announced Aug. 10 that Winifred King, Assistant Vice President of Public Relations, Corporate Communications and Social Media has been promoted to the newly created position of Chief Diversity Officer.
As part of the executive leadership team, King will help guide Cook Children’s in building a more diverse organization, while furthering efforts of equity and inclusion.
This promotion comes after King’s more than 13 years of service to the system.
“It is hard to put into words what this decision and investment means to people of color and anyone who has ever felt different or excluded,” said King. “For all of us who may have experienced inequities and mistreatment in our lifetimes, it is comforting to be a part of an organization that accepts our differences, our failures, and is willing to look inward and truly examine what is at the heart of our culture.”
Before joining Cook Children’s, King was employed by Texas Southern University in Houston and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, where she worked in brand marketing, promotions and public relations for 11 years. She is also a former broadcast journalist and plans to use her storytelling skills in her new role.
Jamie Inman, Director of Nursing at Weatherford Rehabilitation Hospital, recently earned the Certified Rehabilitation Registered Nurse (CRRN) certification. Nurses who achieve this credential demonstrate knowledge, experience, and commitment to excellence in providing comprehensive care to individuals with physical disabilities and chronic illnesses.
LAW
Shackelford, Bowen, McKinley & Norton LLP has added four attorneys in its Texas and Tennessee offices, bolstering its entertainment and construction litigation and transactional practices.
Commercial/construction litigation partner Matt Motes and associate Bryan Kelly join the Fort Worth office, and transactional associate Jackie Wilhite joins in Houston. Joining the firm’s Nashville office is entertainment transactional partner Christian Barker.
Motes represents general contractors, builders, subcontractors, developers, suppliers, and owners in real estate and construction litigation. He is a former chair of the Tarrant County Bar Association Construction Law Section and is a member of the National Association of Home Builders, Texas Association of Builders, and the Greater Fort Worth Builders Association. He joins the firm from Decker Jones.
Kelly’s construction practice touches all areas of construction law from commercial entities to single-family and large, multifamily residential project clients. He joins Shackelford from Decker Jones.
HONORS
Pavlik and Associates has won five top awards in the Hermes Creative Awards 2020 International Competition, based on the evaluation of the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals’ (AMCP) judges.
Pavlik received a platinum award, the highest possible honor, for its marketing video for Westworth Falls, a luxury residential development in the heart of Fort Worth. The firm also received gold awards for printed marketing materials for Westworth Falls and a magazine placement for Decker Jones, P.C. Additionally, Pavlik received gold awards for a video and a newspaper placement, both for The Morris Foundation.
The firm was in competition with 6,500 entries from creative professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of traditional materials and programs, and emerging technologies..
Ben E. Keith Foods recently named Paul Terrell to the 2020 International Foodservice Distributors Association (IFDA) Truck Driver Hall of Fame. Terrell has been a driver with the broad line foodservice distributor for 25 years and is based out of the Mid-South division. There are over 130,000 foodservice distribution drivers currently on the road, but only those with the best safety records and longevity of service qualify for the IFDA Truck Driver Hall of Fame.
The 2020 Hall of Fame inductees will be honored at the IFDA Distribution SoluNetions Conference on Oct. 28.
Irving restauranteur David Cole, co-owner of i Fratelli Pizza, has been named to the Texas Restaurant Association’s (TRA) Hall of Honor along with Tracy Vaught, owner of H-Town Restaurant Group in Houston, the association said in a news release.
Twelve Aggies – four of them from North Texas – have been selected as the 2020 recipients of the highest honor bestowed upon a former student of Texas A&M University, the Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Area alumni include Dr. C. M. Cocanougher ’53 of Decatur; Weldon Jaynes ’54 of Arlington; Mike Hernandez III ’83 of Fort Worth; and Charean Williams ’86 of Arlington.
Others honored: Lt. Gen. Randolph W. House ’67 of College Station; R. Sam Torn ’70 of Houston; John D. White ’70 of College Station;; Dr. R. Bowen Loftin ’71 of Bryan; Carol E. Jordan ’80 of Lexington, Kentucky; Willie T. Langston II ’81 of Houston; Tim Leach ’82 of Midland; and Thomas J. Saylak ’82 of Scarsdale, New York.
Since the inception of the award in 1962, only 303 of Texas A&M’s 527,000 former students have been recognized with the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Awarded jointly by Texas A&M and The Association of Former Students, this honor recognizes those Aggies who have achieved excellence in their chosen professions and made meaningful contributions to Texas A&M University and their local communities, the university said.
Hernandez III is the owner and CEO of D&M Leasing, one of 2019’s Top 100 Places to Work rated by the Dallas Morning News, among the Fort Worth Business Press’ Top 5 privately-held companies and Dealer Rater’s Top Leasing Company in America.
He founded the Brownsville Scholars Program at A&M and is president and founder of the Hernandez Foundation, which has provided significant support to schools and scholarships, and has supported ventures that boost opportunities in Cameron County.
In 2019, Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him as a member of The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents. He was recognized as one of Fort Worth’s top CEOs in 2014; in 2016, he was named Brownsville’s “Person of the Year” and in 2017, he was Rio Grande Valley’s Citizen of the Year, Honorable Mention. He is a member of the advisory committee for A&M’s McAllen campus and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s advisory committee on workforce training.
Williams ’86 became the first woman to enter the writers’ wing of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018 when her peers voted her the 50th recipient of the Dick McCann Award for a long and distinguished career covering professional football. The 2020 season is her 27th covering the NFL, including more than a decade as a Dallas Cowboys beat reporter.
She became the first female Pro Football Hall of Fame selector in 2007 and the first female president of the Pro Football Writers of America in 2009. She has reported on the NFL for the Orlando Sentinel, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and currently NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk website.
Jaynes was chairman, CEO and majority shareholder of Priester Supply Co., which he spent more than 40 years building into a prominent southwest U.S. regional distributor for electric and gas utilities. He also created Repcom International, a national telecommunication company. He is a past president (now called chair) and trustee of the 12th Man Foundation who helped start its Major Gifts Department, a recipient of its E. King Gill award and member of its Diamond Champions Council
Cocanougher built a successful veterinary practice in Wise County and served as a Decatur City Council member and civic leader who helped draw employment to the area during a downturn, supported the hospital system and gave decades of scholarships to high school and A&M students; he and wife Jo Ann endowed 10 A&M veterinary school scholarships.
He was named an Outstanding Alumnus of A&M’s College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences and 1985’s Citizen of the Year in Decatur.
NONPROFITS
Trinity Collaborative Inc. has elected three new members of the Board of Directors, as well as three new members to its advisory committee.
The board consists of representatives from the community and its four founding organizations, Tarrant Regional Water District, Fort Worth Park and Recreation Department, Junior League
of Fort Worth and Streams and Valleys.
Elizabeth Knuckley is the Junior League representative, where she is president-elect. Knuckley is also on the Children’s Council of First United Methodist Church in Fort Worth and previously volunteered at Mayfest.
Tiesa Leggett joins the board a community member and is the Vice President of
Advocacy with The North Texas Commission. Leggett was recently named a 40 Under
40 by the Fort Worth Business Press and was awarded the Next Generation
Leadership award by Visit Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Black Chamber. She is also a
member of the Fort Worth Chapter of The Links Incorporated and founding president
of BRIDGE Fort Worth.
Walker Turney, a Fort Worth native and lifelong resident, comes to the board as a
community member. Turney has accomplished designations and certificates from the
National Association of Realtors as a Seller Representative Specialist, Accredited
Buyers Representative and Accreditied Luxury Home Specialist. He participates in the
SteerFW Keyholder’s Program and has served on the host committee for the Kimbell
Kids Education Program at the Kimbell Museum.
They join the Board of Directors’ President Teri McGuill, Vice President Rachel Phillips,
Treasurer Larry Kardaras, Secretary Natalie Martin and members Katie Briggs, Janet
Bubert, JD Granger, Randle Harwood, Kat Hopkins, Cassie King, Darlene Mann,
Jennifer Massey, Nestor Martinez, Stacey Pierce, Amber Robertson, Eric Schrader,
Bart Tucker and Richard Zavala.
Debbie Boudreaux, Tyler Grant and Matt Tucker were also elected to the Advisory
Committee and join members Larry Anfin, Harriet Harral, Joy Ann Havran, Jim Oliver,
Bob Riley and Kathy Saunders.
Trinity Collaborative Inc. recently completed a strategic plan that reflects the
organization’s expansive operations to produce other future events and programs in
addition to the annual Mayfest festival.
Lighthouse for the Blind of Fort Worth has announced that Daniel Pinkerton has joined the sales team as the product development specialist. He will be responsible for product and contract development with federal, state and commercial opportunities, working in conjunction with partners Workquest and National Industries for the Blind.
Pinkerton received both his bachelor of political science and master of public administration degrees from Tarleton State University.
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SALES
Conner Industries Inc. has added Art Lewis III as vice president of sales and newest member of the executive leadership team, the company said in a news release.
Lewis will lead the company’s sales and business development efforts across all of its product lines, including industrial lumber, custom wood packaging, 3PL services, and engineered packaging.