Movers & Shakers (Feb. 13, 2012)

Agriculture
Tom Barber, extension cotton agronomist with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, received the Extension Cotton Specialist of the Year Award during the 2012 Annual Beltwide Cotton Conferences. The ceremony is sponsored by Bayer CropScience.

Architecture
Jeffrey Huber, an architecture professor at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, was awarded the 2011-12 new faculty teaching award by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and the American Institute of Architecture Students. Huber was one of three recipients this year.

Financial Services
Dean Whittle and Belinda Grigsby are the newest tax managers at S.F. Fiser & Co. in Springdale. Whittle has 22 years of experience in public, corporate and military accounting and is a certified public accountant, certified valuation analyst and a certified fraud examiner. Grigsby has 12 years of experience in public accounting for nonprofits, health care and manufacturing.

Mitzi Ferguson and Melanie Page have joined the ranks of Pear Tree Wealth Management LLC, a Little Rock financial planning and wealth management firm. Ferguson comes on as the new director of financial planning services, and Page is the new director of client services.

Government
Dharmin Patel, T.J. Anderson, Stacey Leder, Jacklyn Powell, Chris Davis, Jonathan Bull, Shawn Dunham, Lance Nutt, Scott Smith, David Bartlett Jr., J.D. Chambliss, Jordan Hurst and Jordan Patterson have received promotions at the Arkansas State Bank Department. Patel is now a commissioned senior examiner. Anderson, Leder and Powell are now certified bank senior examiners. Davis, Bull, Dunham, Nutt and Smith are bank senior examiners. Bartlett became a bank junior examiner, and Chambliss, Hurst and Patterson are now bank assistant examiners.

Kara Bushkuhl, director of finance for the city of Fort Smith, has received an Award of Financial Reporting Achievement from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States & Canada, which also recognized the city for excellence in financial reporting for the 26th consecutive year.

Nonprofit
Josh Masters, senior audit manager for Beall Barclay of Fort Smith, has been named treasurer of the Dover Public Education Foundation Inc., a newly recognized nonprofit formed to raise funds and provide grants to the Dover School District for various educational needs.  

Mac Stroud, former senior vice president at Martin-Wilbourn Partners LLC, has joined Goodwill Industries of Arkansas in Little Rock as its vice president of human resources. Stroud has more than 35 years of experience in leadership development, behavior management, compensation strategy, employee relations and employee communications.

Real Estate
Little Rock Realtor Chuck Goodrich is the recipient of the L. Wayne Camp Award for his support of the Arkansas Special Olympics. The award is given annually by the Arkansas Realtors Association to an Arkansas Realtor for "continuing and outstanding volunteerism" and is the association’s highest public relations award.