NW BUSINESS PEOPLE

Dr. Mary Nell Ford joined Fayetteville Diagnostic Clinic and will practice internal medicine. She served for more than 20 years as staff physician at Church Health Center in Memphis and is a diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine. Ford earned her bachelor’s degree from Hendrix College in Conway and her doctorate in medicine and her internal medicine residency from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Freddie Young, environmental health specialist for Benton County, received an award of excellence during the annual meeting of the Arkansas Public Health Association. Young and Mathew Hicks, a specialist in Crawford County, helped the association initiate a mosquito trapping and surveillance program.

Mark Wallenmeyer will start as the dean of the Health Professions Division at Northwest Arkansas Community College on July 1. He received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo.; his certificate of nuclear medicine from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston; and his master of business administration in health care from the University of Phoenix. He began working in nuclear medicine in 1992 and is program director of the Nuclear Medicine Advanced Associate and Nuclear Medicine Imaging Sciences Program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Jonathan Boelkins was named to The New School’s Board of Trustees for the 2017-18 academic year. He is a licensed commercial pilot, an award-winning architect and an instructor at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Penn., and a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Arkansas. He also completed a master’s degree as a Danforth Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis in advanced architectural design and is the principal of Jonathan Boelkins Architect.

Hannah Besanceney was named to The New School’s Board of Trustees for the 2017-18 academic year. She is a nonprofit leader with a background in volunteer board management and as a board member for multimillion-dollar organizations. She began her career working as a staff assistant to two congressional committees and a legislative assistant to a member of Congress. She managed fundraising, events and marketing for Georgetown University’s Office of Alumni and University Relations before joining the National Society of Professional Engineers as the primary staff liaison for 53 state/territory societies and more than 400 chapters.

Dr. Peter Daut was named to The New School’s Board of Trustees for the 2017-18 academic year. He attended Rockhurst College in Kansas City, Mo., earned his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 2000 and completed his residency at the Louisiana State University Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans. Daut is a board certified ophthalmologist at Henry Eye Clinic and is a fellow in the American Academy of Ophthalmology, a member of the Arkansas Ophthalmology Society and a member of the New Orleans Academy of Ophthalmology.

Monica Kumar was named to The New School’s Board of Trustees for the 2017-18 academic year. She is the executive director of Downtown Bentonville Inc. She moved to Bentonville in 2014 from the Silicon Valley where she worked in community development and program positions. Kumar attended law school and practiced family and human rights law in London and corporate and commercial law in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Dr. Jeff Johnson was named to The New School’s Board of Trustees for the 2017-18 academic year. He is an orthopaedic surgeon at Ozark Orthopaedics. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss., and his medical degree and residency certificate in orthopaedic surgery while at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He completed a fellowship in hand and upper extremity surgery with the Philadelphia Hand Center and Thomas Jefferson University. Johnson a member of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, American Medical Society and the Arkansas Medical Society.

Stephanie Whitaker was promoted to chief nursing officer of Sparks Health System. Whitaker has nearly 20 years of nursing experience and has served as the assistant chief nursing executive since August. She joined Sparks in 2015 as director of emergency and clinical services. Whitaker earned a bachelor of science in nursing from Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C., and a master of science in nursing leadership and administration from Western Governors University in Salt Lake City.

Jennifer Bonner, a nurse practitioner for the stroke care program at Washington Regional Medical Center, received the clinical excellence award from NETSMART, an international neurovascular fellowship she recently completed. Bonner joined Washington Regional in 2001. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Western Governors University in Salt Lake City and graduated from the University of Arkansas as a doctor of nursing practice and is a dult-gerontological acute care nurse practitioner-board certified. She also earned certification as an advanced neurovascular practitioner from the Association of Neurovascular Clinicians.

Briefs are for people in Northwest Arkansas who are new hires, were promoted, received an award from outside their organization or received a certification. Email: cswanson@nwadg.com or send your item to: Christie Swanson, P.O. Box 7, Springdale, AR. 72765. Information must be received by noon Wednesday prior to the Sunday the item is to be published.

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