BUSINESS PEOPLE

ACCOUNTING

Hogan Taylor LLP has announced promotions at its Arkansas offices. They are: Randi Chambers, CPA, Senior Manager, Assurance, Little Rock; Sarah Knight, CPA, Senior Manager, Tax, Fayetteville; Eric McGraw, CPA, Senior Manager, Tax, Little Rock; Samantha Akers, CPA, Manager, Tax, Fayetteville; Casey Ball, CPA, Manager, Tax, Little Rock; Rebecca Hale, CPA, Consulting Manager, Business Advisory, Little Rock; Landen Cummings, Senior, Tax, Fayetteville; Caci Dvorak, Senior, Tax, Little Rock; Spencer Freyaldenhoven, CPA, Senior, Tax, Little Rock; Michael Gallaway, Senior, Tax, Little Rock; Catherine Kennedy, Senior, Assurance, Little Rock; Melissa McDowell, Senior, Assurance, Little Rock; Matthew Schneider, CPA, Senior, Tax, Little Rock; Kasey Street, Senior, Tax, Little Rock; Sarah Terry, Senior Consultant, Business Advisory, Little Rock; Kara Turner, Senior Consultant, Business Advisory, Little Rock; Meghan Widner, Senior Consultant, Business Advisory, Little Rock; Zac Mason, Desktop Support Technician III, Core Business Services, Little Rock. HoganTaylor LLP is one of the largest business advisory and public accounting firms in Oklahoma and Arkansas.

ARTS

Mary Kennedy has been named as the director of the new Windgate Museum of Art at Hendrix College. The Windgate Museum of Art will be part of the Miller Creative Quad, which is scheduled to open in spring 2020. She was chief executive officer and executive director of Mid-America Arts Alliance/ ExhibitsUSA in Kansas City, Mo.

COMMUNICATIONS

The Arkansas Economic Development Commission has named Mitch Chandler as director of executive communications. Chandler was its communications director from Nov. 2003-Feb. 2007. For the last three years, he has worked as sales director for the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, managing a network of lottery retailers. U.S. Rep. French Hill, RArk., has named Steven D. Smith as his office’s new communications director.

CONSTRUCTION

Roger Marlin of North Little Rock’s Hydco, Inc. has been elected to serve as the 2019 president of AGC Arkansas, the association of general contractors.

HIGHER EDUCATION

Diana Arn, vice chancellor for academic services at the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton, will become interim chancellor. She will replace Larry Davis, who is retiring as chancellor effective Jan. 31. Arkansas State University has named Aaron Shew as inaugural holder of the R.E. Lee Wilson Chair of Agricultural Business. The Wilson Chair, established in 2015 through a $1 million gift from the R.E. Lee Wilson Trust Foundation. Shew is a postdoctoral research scholar at Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, working in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agricultural Research Service and the University of Arkansas Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies. Manami Ishimura, a native of Tokyo, Japan, has been selected as the first artist in residence at Arkansas Tech University. She will teach a three-hour studio course, produce a body of work that includes a piece for display on campus, engage faculty and students in explorations of new artistic methods, and contribute to the community through activities that will include lectures and open studio hours. John Post, director of public information at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, will become director of academic communications at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. In the interim, Rachel Putman will be assuming the role of UA-Fort Smith public information director.

JUSTICE

Stephanie Potter Barrett, a prosecuting attorney for Miller and Layfayette counties, has been appointed to serve as a member of the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association Board of Directors. The Texarkana Police Department has promoted two officers. Sgt. Scott Megason becomes a lieutenant, and Officer Rick Cockrell becomes a sergeant.

LAW

Kutak Rock LLP has elected new partners in Arkansas: Amy C. Bagnall, Little Rock; Frederick H. Davis, Little Rock; and Allissa L. Sims, Fayetteville.

STATE

Chief Justice John Dan Kemp of the Arkansas Supreme Court has named Annabelle Imber Tuck, a retired associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, to the Independent Citizens Commission. The commission sets salaries of elected constitutional officers of the executive department, members of the general assembly, justices, judges and prosecuting attorneys. Kevin Murphy, the acting director of Arkansas Community Correction, has been named director of the agency. Arkansas Community Correction is responsible for adult parole and probation supervision and the operation of six facilities that are licensed residential treatment centers. Assiah Lewellen of Little Rock has been promoted to program and outreach manager at the Arkansas Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities, a federally funded state agency that promotes integration, inclusion and independence for Arkansans with developmental disabilities. She was previously the grants and outreach coordinator.