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COMPANY NEWS
The Relocation Center of St. Francisville has expanded and spun off two complementary businesses, Simplify Accommodations and SimplifyREO. As a result of the expansion, the company has opened an office at the Celtic Media Centre. Simplify Accommodations is owned by Missy Higgins (TRC CEO), Miles Higgins (TRC chairman), Melissa Higgins and Stephanie Clarke. The new company provides corporate housing, hotel accommodations and luxury housing to corporate clients and the entertainment industry, both locally and nationally. Simplify REO, which is owned by Miles and Missy Higgins, assists financial institutions with managing all aspects of their real estate-owned/bank owned property.
Alabama-based Legacy Hospice has announced that it has merged with Louisiana-based Doctor's Hospice to form Legacy National Hospice, doing business as Legacy Hospice. As part of the merger, Legacy Hospice retained the staff of Doctor's Hospice, allowing for a continuation of care for patients and their caregivers. The merger adds four locations, including one in Walker, to the Legacy Hospice family of companies, which now serves patients in seven states from 21 locations.
The Louisiana Culinary Institute recently finished two additions, including a separate wing for classes in the Advanced Baking and Pastry concentration, and an additional wing with two classrooms, project kitchen, and dry storage. The interior construction is complete, and the school is about 40,000 square feet. LCI continues to expand its curriculum and recently added three new instructors: Derrick Beverly, Angela Wilson and Clark Ellis.
ACCREDITATIONS/CERTIFICATIONS
Charlotte Edmonston of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has been recognized for professional leadership and advanced knowledge by the Society of Certified Insurance Counselors, a national insurance professional organization. Edmonston was awarded a certificate marking more than 15 years of participation as a designated CIC, which requires annual completion of advanced education and training.
The Healthcare Financial Management Association has awarded Sue Knight of St. Elizabeth Hospital in Gonzales the certification of “Fellow,” or FHFMA. Knight, an HFMA member since 1997 and HFMA Louisiana Chapter participant, earned this designation by demonstrating expertise, service, and commitment to transforming the health care finance industry. Knight is the chief operating officer for St. Elizabeth Hospital and St. Elizabeth Physicians. To be awarded the FHFMA distinction, applicants must be credentialed as a certified health care financial professional; be an HFMA member for at least five years; complete a bachelor's degree or 120 semester hours from an accredited college or university; and volunteer in HFMA or the industry. Fewer than 1,200 individuals have received this honor in the organization's 65-year history.
Ann Wise, director of Louisiana's Division of Administrative Law, organized and presided over the national Administrative Law Central Panel Directors Conference. Wise was selected to be the group's national chair for 2012. The American Bar Association's Judicial Division appointed Wise as its liaison with the Central Panel Directors Conference. The organization is composed of directors and chief administrative law judges of the centralized state administrative law courts around the United States. The Division of Administrative Law serves as Louisiana's centralized administrative law court and handles more than 20,000 cases annually for several state agencies.
Mary Hester of Taylor Porter has been named a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Hester's experience includes estate planning and administration, federal estate and gift taxation, trust law, making charitable gifts through charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, private foundations, supporting organizations, or private operating foundations, and counseling nonprofit organizations. Hester is a fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel as well as a board certified estate planning and administration specialist, has served on the Conditional Charitable Donations Committee, the UPMIFA Committee and the Charitable Trust Law Revision Subcommittee of the Louisiana State Law Institute, and serves as secretary of the Estate Planning and Administration Law Advisory Commission for the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization.
AWARDS/HONORS
Troy Villa of Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson has been named as the “Baton Rouge Lawyer of the Year in Mergers & Acquisitions Law” by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2013. Only a single lawyer in each practice area and designated metropolitan area is honored as the “Lawyer of the Year.” Lawyers are not allowed to pay a fee to be listed.
Paul S. West, shareholder in the Baton Rouge office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC has been named Baton Rouge's “Gaming Law Lawyer” by The Best Lawyers in America 2013. Best Lawyers is based on a peer-review survey in which more than 36,000 leading attorneys cast almost 4.4 million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas.
Launch Media's Wes Kennison was part of a team that earned a Best Cinematography Award for their work at the 2012 New Orleans 48 Hour Film Project. Kennison is credited as director of photography on the short film Friends of the Saturn Bar. The film was written, shot, edited, and scored in 48 hours. The contestants are given a character, a prop and a line of dialogue to include in their movie. They are also given a genre into which the movie must fall. The team of which Kennison was a part, “Patois,” was given the genre of time travel.
LSU Boyd Professor and Vice Chancellor of Strategic Initiatives Isiah Warner has been selected as the 2013 recipient of the American Chemical Society's Award in Analytical Chemistry. Warner's research involves fundamental studies in analytical chemistry as well as the development and application of new methods—chemical, instrumental and mathematical—for analytical measurements. He has served LSU for 20 years as one of the leading experts in his field and as a mentor to hundreds of students.
LSU College of Art & Design students, faculty and staff from the top-ranked Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture scored significant recognition in the 2012 awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects. Those honored include 2012 bachelor of landscape architecture recipients Joshua Brooks and Chad Caletka, who each won honor awards for their capstone projects. Brooks won in the analysis and planning category for “Microcosm of America,” and Caletka was recognized in the general design category for “ReWilding City Park.” Associate professors Brad Cantrell and Wes Michaels were recognized with an Award of Excellence in the communications category for their recently published book, Digital Drawing for Landscape Architecture: Contemporary Techniques and Tools for Digital Representation in Site Design.
Postlethwaite & Netterville was again named one of the top 100 accounting firms in the United States by INSIDE Public Accounting magazine. With more than $41 Million in net revenue, P&N was ranked the 72nd largest firm in the United States. P&N is the only Louisiana-based firm to make the list.
Teri Fontenot, Woman's Hospital president and CEO, has once again been named to the “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” ranking by Modern Healthcare magazine. This is her second year in a row on the list, ranking No. 61. Fontenot is the only Louisiana leader to be so named. She shares this status with President Barack Obama (No. 4), Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts (No. 1), Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (No. 3) and other prominent figures. Fontenot is also currently serving as the 2012 chair of the American Hospital Association.
Annette Yancy, the University's Center for Advising and Counseling academic counselor and Summer Scholars coordinator at LSU, has been selected as the Outstanding Advising Award Winner from the National Academic Advising Association as part of the 2012 Annual Awards Program for Academic Advising. This award is presented to individuals who have demonstrated qualities associated with outstanding academic advising of students or outstanding academic advising administration, whose primary role at the institution is the direct delivery of advising services to students.
LSU professor of English and Atlantic Studies Keith Sandiford was awarded the 2012 Frantz Fanon Prize for Lifetime Achievement by the Caribbean Philosophical Association in recognition of his overall contribution to Caribbean thought. The awards committee reached its decision by unanimous vote, and the CPA conferred the honor at its international meeting at the University of the West Indies in St. Augustine, Trinidad.
Livingston Parish Chamber of Commerce was named the Louisiana State Small Chamber of the Year by the Louisiana Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives. A panel of out-of-state judges scored chambers based on organizational development, community development and professional development. Criteria included programs that make the chamber a stronger organization, key roles in positive community participation, and distinguishing professional and community leadership through excellence in chamber management.
Dr. Joseph Bordelon was awarded the 2012 Laureate Award from the Louisiana chapter of the American College of Physicians, the national organization of internists. The ceremony was held during the LA/MS Chapter scientific meeting in Point Clear, Ala. Bordelon practices pulmonary and sleep medicine in Opelousas and sleep medicine in Baton Rouge. He has also served on the Louisiana Medicare Carrier Advisory Committee; he helped formulate and foster Louisiana's policy for outpatient sleep studies.
The Baton Rouge Lodging Association has honored its member housekeepers at an awards luncheon. The honorees include Samuel Hemmings, Hotel Indigo; Sandra Arnold, The Cook Hotel & Conference Center at LSU; Margie Murray, Hilton Garden Inn; Chiquita Evans, Homewood Suites; Arcenia Crayton, Courtyard Baton Rouge/Acadian Thruway; Johnsea Boyd, Advantage Personnel; Carlisa Brown and Michelle Phillips, Hyatt Place Hotel; Marilyn Slack, Holiday Inn South; Exie Hills of Microtel Inn & Suites Airport; Claudia Fredericks, Embassy Suites; Charlene Simmons, Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center; and Carolyn Saylor, Nottoway Plantation.
PUBLIC SECTOR
The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry released its 2012 legislative voting record. The purpose of this document is to provide the business community and other interested parties with a measure of how each member of the Louisiana Legislature voted on a range of legislation. The annual scores include votes on business topics such as education reform, workforce development, civil justice reform and employee relations. The LABI voting record tracks votes on 16 such bills; the results are on LABI.org. LABI members and the site's subscribers will also be able to see the bills chosen by LABI that represent business interests, legislator's individual votes on the bills, campaign finance reports for each legislator, as well as demographic data from each legislators' district.
GRANTS/PHILANTHROPY
The Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded a $3,500 youth literacy grant to LSU Community University Partnership. The grants are awarded to implement new or expand existing youth literacy programs; purchase new technology or equipment to support youth literacy initiatives; or purchase books, materials or software for youth literacy programs. CUP will use the grant funding to launch a new literacy program titled “Literacy Lagniappe,” seeking to improve reading performance at Buchanan Elementary School.
The LSU Black Male Leadership Initiative Fellows Program kicked off the fall semester with “Sneakers and Suits,” a benefit gala hosted by the Tyrus Thomas Foundation and LSU. Former LSU basketball player Tyrus Thomas, who now plays for the Charlotte Bobcats, founded the nonprofit organization bearing his name in 2009. The gala benefited the foundation, whose aim is to strengthen Greater Baton Rouge, Charlotte and Chicago communities through promoting community development and supporting other organizations with similar initiatives and goals. The foundation partnered with BMLI to support initiatives to improve the recruitment, retention, graduation and participation rates for black male students through mentoring, leadership development and academic support.
Cox Enterprises, in partnership with the James M. Cox Foundation, announced a combined cash donation of $100,000 to the American Red Cross to assist the relief and recovery efforts of the communities affected by Hurricane Isaac. Cox Enterprises' cable subsidiary, Cox Communications, operates in Louisiana and in Florida, where Hurricane Isaac's impact was felt. Cox's impacted employees also have the opportunity to receive support through the Cox Employee Disaster Relief Fund. Created in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the fund provides essential assistance to Cox employees and their families who are impacted by disasters. To date, CEDRF has provided more than $3 million to assist more than 1,500 employees affected by hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires and other devastating events.
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