Legal
Chris Arnold has joined the Hope Trice O’Dwyer & Wilson law firm in Little Rock as an associate attorney practicing family, business and commercial, insurance, real estate and construction law. He was previously assistant general manager of Quality Petroleum Inc.
Lyn Pruitt, a partner at Mitchell Williams Selig Gates & Woodyard in Little Rock, has been named director of the International Association of Defense Counsel’s 2017 Trial Academy, a defense advocacy program founded in 1973.
Education
Bonnie Phillips has joined the Little Rock center of John Brown University as an assistant professor of counselor education. Phillips is a licensed professional counselor in the state of Arkansas and specializes in addiction and trauma therapy. Phillips received her master’s degree and doctorate in marriage and family therapy from the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
Fred Prior has been named the inaugural chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Medicine, effective Oct. 1. Prior comes to Little Rock from the Electronic Radiology Laboratory in the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where he has been director since 2003.
Rebecca Kee is the new director of procurement services for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. A Beebe resident who grew up in Cabot, Kee previously was a procurement administrator and chief procurement official for Little Rock Wastewater.
Greg Mock, Laura Mulvany and David Smith have joined the faculty of the College of Allied Health at Harding University in Searcy. Mock is the medical director of the physician assistant program; Mulvany is an instructor of communication sciences and disorders; and Smith is an assistant professor of physical therapy.
New faculty members at Harding’s College of Bible & Ministry are Alan Howell and Rachel Howell, visiting missionaries, and Ryan Russell and Clay Smith, lecturers. New in the College of Business Administration are assistant professors David Kee, Sarah McGaha and Josiah Smelser. Leeann Howard has joined the College of Education as an instructor. Greg Brooks is an associate dean in Harding’s College of Nursing, where Kim Cooper and Shari Wells are new assistant professors. New in the College of Sciences are Jason Holland, professor of mathematics; Sam Jeffery, assistant professor of criminal justice; and Grant White, lecturer in mathematics. Tannon Davis is an instructor and director of the Advance program in the Center for Student Success, and Loren Beason has been named associate director of Harding University in Greece.
Ryan Howard of Melbourne, an executive vice president of BancorpSouth Bank, has been appointed to a seven-year term on the board of trustees of Ozarka College. Mike Watson of Ash Flat has been appointed to a three-year term as chair of the Ozarka College Foundation board.
Health Care
Dr. Loverd Peacock has joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in the College of Medicine Department of Radiation Oncology. He also sees patients in the UAMS Radiation Oncology Center. A graduate of UAMS, he most recently served on the staff of Crittenden Regional Hospital and as medical director of Bethesda Cancer Treatment Center in West Memphis.
Dr. Frances Radkey, a board-certified internal medicine physician, has joined Baxter Regional Medical Center Family Clinic at Mountain Home. Radkey, who focuses on adult medicine, formerly practiced at Lincoln Paden Medical Group in Mountain Home.
Shawn P. Pierce, a medical buyer for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences at Little Rock has received the Senior Professional in Supply Management certification from Next Level Purchasing Inc. of Pittsburgh.
Financial Services
Tabitha Doddridge has been named the director of public relations and sponsorship development for Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff. Doddridge had worked since 2006 as the events and sponsorship director for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Ron McDaniel and Brian Zimmerman have joined Simmons First Investment Group. McDaniel has been named senior vice president and financial adviser for Simmons First Investment Group in Jonesboro. McDaniel has worked in banking and finance since 1969. Zimmerman is a new financial adviser in Conway, working out of the Simmons First National Bank office at The Village at Hendrix.
Real Estate
Ryan Gibson has joined the Little Rock office of Sage Partners as an associate. He was formerly a financial analyst for Windstream Holdings Inc. The commercial real estate firm recently moved to expanded space at 1 Allied Drive.
Insurance
Lenita Blasingame, Jay Bradford, the late George Frazier, the late Robert Carl “Bob” Hickman, Tad Krug, Allan E. Meadors, Walter “Jiggs” Ramsey and Steve Strange Sr. are the inaugural class of inductees in the new Arkansas Insurance Hall of Fame. They will be inducted Oct. 15 at the Farris Center on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas.
Blasingame, of El Paso (White County), is the retired deputy director of the Arkansas Insurance Department.
Bradford is the retired CEO of First Arkansas Insurance of Pine Bluff and also the immediate past commissioner of the AID.
Frazier, who died in 2013, was an owner of Anderson & Frazier Insurance Agency at Hope and the only Arkansan ever to serve as president of the Independent Insurance Agents of America.
Hickman, founder of Hickman Insurance Agency in Little Rock, was one of the top producers in the country with $500 million of life insurance in force. He died in 1989.
Krug was president and CEO of Ramsey Krug Farrell & Lensing Inc., a subsidiary of BancorpSouth Insurance Services Inc.
Meadors formed the Little Rock agency now known as Meadors Adams & Lee in 1964.
Ramsey founded Advisor Services of America Group of Little Rock, a wholesale distributor of life insurance and long-term care, disability and annuity products.
Steve Strange Sr. is the CEO of American Management Corp. of Conway, a managing general agency serving insurance carriers, petroleum companies, franchise operations and independent insurance agents and brokers.
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