Kathleen Draskovich, Lawrence, recently earned the designation of certified coding specialist for physicians from the American Health and Information Management Assn.

Coding specialists keep medical records private by assigning code to medical diagnoses and sending them to an insurance company or the government for expense approval. Credentials are earned by passing a test administered by the association.

Draskovich works at Lawrence Orthopedic Surgery. She has a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy and a certified professional coder credential from the American Academy of Professional Coders.

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Marybeth Mermis, a Mary Kay independent senior sales director, earned the use of a new Pontiac Grand Prix. Mary Kay career cars are earned through outstanding sales and team building. Mermis picked up her seventh career car at Dale Willey Automotive, Lawrence.

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Area producers who suffered losses in 2001 or 2002 due to natural disasters have until Jan. 30 to sign up for assistance under the Crop Disaster Program. For more information, contact Johnathon Alley, executive director of the Douglas County Farm Service Agency, at 843-4260.

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Karen Andregg, clinical audiologist, has joined the practice of Lawrence Otolaryngology Associates. Andregg recently returned from Tampa, Fla., where she attended a three-day course on assessment and treatment of the balance-disordered patient.

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Brandon Skidmore, Lawrence, and Linda Meisenheimer, Overbrook, graduated Wednesday from the Kansas Public Health Certificate Program. They attended classes on public health fundamentals, population health, environmental health and community development. The program is sponsored by the Kansas Association of Local Health Departments, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and Kansas University Public Management Center.

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Rebecca Willmott, Lawrence, recently became a consultant for Tastefully Simple Inc., a national direct sales company based in Alexandria, Minn. As a consultant, Willmott conducts in-home presentations of upscale, convenience-driven gourmet foods.

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Mark Humphrey has become vice president of tax for Koch Industries. He has served as director of tax services for Koch since 2000 and also has been assistant treasurer for the company. He joined Koch in 1995 after working at Hallmark Cards. He is a graduate of Kansas University’s School of Law and earned a master’s degree in taxation from the University of Missouri in Kansas City.

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Girls Scouts of Kaw Valley Council has partnered with the Douglas County Community Foundation to leverage dollars to benefit Douglas County youths. The partnership allows the Douglas County Community Foundation to bring new money into the community through a program funded by the Kansas Health Foundation. The Douglas County Community Foundation will match 10 percent of the money received for the Girl Scout endowment through the end of the year. In addition, the Kansas Health Foundation will match 50 percent of the money received. For more information, contact Girl Scouts of Kaw Valley Council at (800) 432-0286.

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The Kansas Department of Health and Environment Bureau of Environmental Remediation, through its partnership with accessKansas, offers Kansas dry cleaners a new option for completing their annual registration. Dry cleaners can now register and submit their registration fee online at www.accesskansas.org/dryclean/registration.html. This application provides Kansas dry cleaners the ability to register and renew registrations by the Internet.

In addition, solvent distributors and consumers can now verify dry cleaners’ registration and contact information online at www.accesskansas.org/dryclean/verification.html.

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Lawrence resident Rebecca Barbour has joined Lawrence-based Prosoco as a customer care representative. Barbour works with the company’s distributors to help them ensure smooth, timely delivery of Prosoco products to construction sites nationwide. She has worked as an office manager at Labor Finders’ former location in Overland Park, and as a customer service representative at the Lenexa location of Ohio-based Relizon Co.

Prosoco is an international manufacturer of products for cleaning, protecting and maintaining concrete, brick and stone.

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FirstBank announced the recent promotions of Karla Benkula and Elizabeth Hinkle.

Benkula has several years of banking experience, joining FirstBank last year. She has been promoted to the position of personal banker in charge of new accounts.

Hinkle has been a teller at FirstBank for more than four years. She has been promoted as the manager of the local tellers in her new position as lead teller. Hinkle attended Kansas University.

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Tiffany Fabriz has completed her licensing as a certified nursing assistant and certified medical aide. She is medication program coordinator at Health Care Access Clinic. Fabriz is responsible for obtaining free medication through pharmaceutical company programs for qualifying uninsured patients.

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Kansas University and Cerner Corp. have teamed up to create a software engineering laboratory. The new facility allows students to work with software engineering tools used in the industry.

The Kansas City, Mo.-based company provided funding for the Cerner Software Engineering Laboratory. It features software applications, tools and computers, giving students hands-on experience through the entire software development life cycle. The lab is affiliated with KU’s Information and Telecommunication Technology Center and is home to Software Engineering Tools, a course offered by the department of electrical engineering and computer science.

Honors and awards

Harris Construction Co., Lawrence, recently received the 2003 Best Design/Build Project — Building/Facility/Construction over $5 million by the Design/Build Institute of America, Mid-America Chapter. Harris received the honor for its work on Prosoco Inc, an 82,000-square-foot manufacturing facility which they completed in 1999. They recently completed a 57,211-square-foot warehouse addition for Prosoco. The award recognizes the firm for exhibiting true design/build implementation, project difficulty, design and functionality, submittal completeness, schedule and project status reporting.

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Forthe 11th consecutive year, Edward Jones ranked No. 1 in Registered Representative magazine’s annual survey of the nation’s seven largest financial-services firms. The magazine randomly selects brokers nationwide and asks them to rank their firm in various categories, including work environment, quality of the firm’s support, quality of the products offered and overall management of the firm. Edward Jones operates offices in Lawrence.

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Overland Park-based Sprint has been recognized by G.I. Jobs magazine as the second most military-friendly company among Fortune 500 companies. In its December issue of G.I. Jobs, the magazine ranked the “Top 10 Most Military-Friendly Companies in America” based on the strength of company military recruiting efforts, the percentage of new hires with prior military service and the company policies toward National Guard and reserve service.

Currently, nearly 10 percent of Sprint employees are military veterans; 133 are on active duty.

Coming events

The Lawrence Chamber of Commerce is having a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house Friday at 734 Vt. The ceremony will be at 11:30 a.m., and the open house will be from noon to 3 p.m.

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Kansas producers considering a value-added enterprise, such as processing the products they raise, might be interested in an upcoming workshop on the requirements for an inspected and approved facility, often called a certified kitchen.

The Dec. 17 workshop in Salina will help gardeners, vendors and other interested producers learn the basics of a certified kitchen. Session topics will include food safety and labeling, equipment, and rules and regulations.

Registration costs for the workshop are $10 and include lunch. For more information or to register, call Karen Pendleton at 843-1409.

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The Twilight Chapter of the American Business Women’s Assn. will meet Monday at the American Legion in Lawrence. Networking begins at 6 p.m., and dinner is at 6:30 p.m. There will be a guest speaker and holiday ornament gift exchange. Cost is $11. For more information, call Wanda Easterwood at 841-1552 or e-mail her at wanda.easterwood@faa.gov.