Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
BUSINESS PEOPLE
Steve Williams has resigned as dean of the College of Business at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. He has accepted the position of dean of the College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Texas A&M University-Commerce. Margaret Tanner, professor of accounting, was appointed interim dean of the College of Business at UAFS. Latisha Settlage, associate professor of economics, was selected as interim department head for the Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance.
Williams headed the UAFS College of Business since 2008, helping it earn accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. He was selected as a National Society of Collegiate Scholars distinguished member in 2006. Previously, he served as dean of the College of Business and Leadership at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kan. His doctorate in business administration is from the University of Nebraska.
Gene Pharr of Lincoln was elected to a four-year term on the board of directors for Farm Credit of Western Arkansas, an agricultural credit association with 20 branch locations. He and wife, Cindy, are full-time farmers with a cattle and five-house broiler operation in Washington County. He earned an animal science degree from the University of Arkansas and worked in the poultry industry for more than 27 years, retiring in 2002.
Pharr is serving his third term as an Arkansas Farm Bureau state director and has headed the Washington County Farm Bureau. He also serves on the Arkansas Beef Council and is secretary of the Illinois River Watershed Partnership.
Steven C. Ricke, director of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Center for Food Safety, was reappointed to serve on the Food Safety Scientific Advisory Council of United Egg Producers. The national cooperative of egg farmers represents the ownership of about 99 percent of the nation’s egg-laying hens. Its food safety-related activities have included efforts to reduce salmonella, a research specialty of Ricke.
Cody Villar, IT Services security analyst at the University of Arkansas, earned the designation of certified information systems security professional. He began at the university in February. His career in information technology security began in 2009, and he has held positions such as IT security project manager and director of IT security for a computer research firm. With a bachelor’s degree in criminal
justice and a master’s degree in information systems, Villar also holds certifications as a document imaging architect and for information technology infrastructure library foundation.
Nan Smith-Blair, an associate professor of nursing at the University of Arkansas, has been elected president-elect of the Southern Nursing Research Society, which covers 14 states. She will become president of the organization in February 2016 for a two-year term. Smith-Blair joined the faculty of the UA’s Eleanor Mann School of Nursing in the College of Education and Health Professions in 1992. She holds a doctorate from the University of Kansas School of Nursing and has taught in higher education since 1985.
Patrick Sinyard, Washington County ranger, and Russell Huskey, Sebastian County ranger, were among 10 professionals statewide honored Dec. 13 by the Arkansas Forestry Commission as District Employees of the Year. Larry Nance of Conway received the commission’s top honor, the Spencer Fox Award. He is a Siloam Springs native who has worked for the commission for 35 years, currently as deputy state forester in the Little Rock office.
Tom Wing, assistant professor of history at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, was named to a four-year term on the board of the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas, a nonprofit organization founded in 1981 to educate, advocate and assist in preservation efforts across the state. Wing is also director of the Drennen-Scott Historic Site, which opened to the public in May 2011, serving as a museum and educational facility for the university. In 2006, Wing received an award for excellence in preservation education from the alliance. In 2012, it selected the Drennen-Scott project for an award for excellence in historic preservation.
Marc McCune of Van Buren was presented the Sidney S. McMath Sword of Justice Award by the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association. McCune is the prosecuting attorney for the 21st Judicial District and president of the association. He graduated from law school at the University of Arkansas in 1993. He is one of 28 elected prosecutors in Arkansas, and was first elected in 2002.