Faces and places

Devan Tucking has been hired as a full-time office assistant at Highland Community College’s Perry Center. Tucking’s position was expanded from part-time to full-time because of growth at the center, which serves about 600 students. Before working at the center, Tucking worked for Valley Falls schools.

• Doug Wasson, owner of Sport Clips in Lawrence, and Tammy Brotherton, manager, attended the 2004 Sport Clips annual Huddle Convention May 2-5 in Las Vegas. Sport Clips All Star Haircuts markets to men and boys and provides haircuts in a sports-themed atmosphere.
• Lawrence Memorial Hospital announced that Narji Brecheisen, of the LMH Oncology Center, recently acquired the title of oncology certified nurse. OCN certification is available to nurses who have a registered nurse license and a minimum of 1,000 hours of oncology nursing experience. To maintain an OCN title, a nurse must accumulate an additional 100 hours in the oncology-related Continuing Education Units during a four-year period. OCN certification is valid for four years.
• Skanda Skandaverl, facilities management director at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, recently acquired the title of certified health care facility manager. The certification requires participants to meet certain requirements and pass an examination which tests competence in areas of compliance; planning, design and construction; maintenance and operations; finance; and administration.

Skandaverl, who has worked at LMH for 15 years, is the second Kansas resident to acquire the title. The certification is more prominent on the East and West coasts where it has become a requirement for certain positions. Skandaverl is the president of the Kansas City Area Healthcare Engineers and the president-elect of the Kansas Healthcare Engineers Assn.

• Cargill AgHorizons recently contributed $1,000 to the Slice of Ag program in Douglas County. The gift is being made in honor of the newly formed community involvement council at the company. More than 800 fourth-graders from the area participated in the program last year. The program teaches students about agriculture.
• George Wanke has joined Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center as an intensive outpatient therapist. Wanke previously worked as deputy commissioner of the Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority. His expertise includes family therapy, mood disorders, domestic abuse issues, disruptive behavior disorders and services to individuals with severe and persistent mental illness. Wanke received a master’s degree from Kansas University.

Catherine Pawlicki has joined Bert Nash as an advanced registered nurse practitioner. She will be responsible for providing medication evaluation and prescription. She most recently served as program manager for the Valeo Behavioral Health Care Community Residence Program. Pawlicki received a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

• Steven Reed, of A-1 Plumbing, was presented an award and bonus on April 23 for his 10 years of service with the company. Reed mainly works as a service electrician and HVAC technician. Reed has a journeyman license in electrical, plumbing and mechanical.

Honors and awards

A team of four first-year master’s degree students in business administration at Kansas University earned recognition at the University of Oklahoma Price College Invitational MBA Case Competition in Norman, Okla.

The KU team was ranked in the top three in the MBA case competition. KU’s School of Business gave each team member a $700 scholarship for outstanding work in a competition designed primarily for second-year MBA students.

The team members and scholarship recipients were Gene Kevin Liu, Lawrence; Barbara Elaine Ballard, Lecompton; Joseph Michael Bush, Smith Center; and Jason Rath, Newton.

The competition required students to solve a business problem and then present their solution to five judges.

• The Kansas Restaurant and Hospitality Assn. recently honored Sonya Anders with its Teacher of the Year award for her contributions to the hospitality industry. Anders, a 1979 Lawrence High School graduate, is a teacher at Chapman High School. She also was selected as one of 15 teachers nationwide to participate in the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation’s ProStart Teacher and Training Development awards. She will represent the KRHA and Kansas this month in the NRA Teacher Excellence awards in Chicago.
• Golf Course Management, the monthly magazine of the Lawrence-based Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, was honored May 2 with eight awards for its design, photography and writing by the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Assn. at its annual meeting in Seattle.

The magazine swept three award categories, winning both the first-place and merit awards in each, including the prestigious Overall Magazine Design award for GCM’s design team of Roger Billings, art and production manager; Becky Drager, designer; and Kelly Neis, prepress and production specialist .

Terry Ostmeyer won a merit award in the Writing for Commercial Publications: Product Information Article category for his article, “Nature’s Elixir or Witch’s Brew?”

Freelance writer Mark Leslie won a merit award in the Writing for Commercial Publications: Environmental Stewardship Article category for “Sublime Signature.”

Ed Hiscock, GCM editor in chief, was elected to TOCA’s board of directors.

Others who serve on the magazine staff are Scott Hollister, editor; Bunny Smith, managing editor; Angela Nitz, senior associate editor; Teresa Carson, science editor; Seth Jones, associate editor; Scott Wogomon, associate editor; Amy Bird, newsline editor; and Shelly Howard, coordinator.

• Tom Pollard and Mike Conner, both of Lawrence, were honored by Farmers Insurance Group for outstanding sales achievements during 2003. They have been invited to attend the 2004 annual meeting of Farmers’ top sales producers.

Coming events

Kansas wheat producers are invited to attend Kansas Wheat Day on Wednesday at the K-State Ag Research Center in Hays.

Biotech wheat and the latest wheat research at the center will be discussed. A report will be given on the possible cooperative agreement between the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and the Kansas Wheat Commission.

Bill Nicholson, director of the Canadian Wheat Board, will discuss Canadian bio-tech issues. Bickram Gill, director of the Wheat Genetics Resource Center at Kansas State University, will review research activities at K-State. A tour of wheat test plots at the center will be given.

For more information about the event, click on www.wheatonline.com or call John Morris, director of communications for the KAWG, at (785) 825-2755.

• The Kansas Land Trust will present a seminar, “Private Land Conservation: A CLE Seminar” from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. June 4 at the Johnson County Central Resource library, 9875 W. 87th St., in Overland Park. RoxAnne Miller, executive director of Kansas Land Trust, will present the seminar. It is designed to teach participants how to protect private land for conservation purposes. It will discuss the law of conservation easements, benefits and incentives for conservation easements and related tax laws.

For more information about the free seminar, call the Kansas Land Trust at (785) 842-3297.