Friday Kudos: New Hires And Promotions Dot Landscape

A new state historian, several promotions and a few new hires dot the business landscape across Arkansas.

NEW STATE HISTORIAN
Dr. Lisa K. Speer has been hired as the new State Historian and Director of the Arkansas History Commission. Speer succeeds Dr. Wendy Richter, who resigned in December 2012. The Arkansas History Commission is the official state archives, with research facilities in Little Rock, Powhatan, and Washington, Arkansas.

Born in Fayetteville, Speer grew up near Malvern, graduated from Glen Rose High School and then from Ouachita Baptist University in 1988 with a degree in History. She earned an MA and PhD in American History from the University of Mississippi, where she worked as Curator of the Mississippi Collection in the University’s Archives and Special Collections.

She then earned an MA in Library and Information Studies with archival certification from the University of Alabama, where she worked as an archival technician. For just over a dozen years, Speer has directed the Special Collections and Archives at Southeast Missouri State University.

LEE JOINS IMPACT MANAGEMENT GROUP
Impact Management Group has hired Laurie Lee as Senior Account Executive.

Lee joins IMG with over 20 years of business experience in grassroots organizing and political consulting. She previously served as a field representative for American Majority before being named the Arkansas Grassroots Director for Americans for Prosperity. Most recently, Lee served as a partner at Southern Meridian.

Lee has advised political campaigns and non-profits as well as educating and mobilizing conservatives across Arkansas to build a grassroots infrastructure. At IMG, Lee will be working in the political consulting, public affairs, and government relations practice areas.

MASINGILL PROMOTED AT DELTA DENTAL
Melissa Masingill has been promoted to vice president of public affairs at Delta Dental of Arkansas. Masingill joined Delta Dental of Arkansas in 2009 as director of communications and government relations.

In her new role, Masingill will continue to direct communications and government relations and provide oversight for the Delta Dental of Arkansas Foundation, which guides the company’s philanthropic activity.

In addition, Masingill will be responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with key industry stakeholders and positioning Delta Dental for the 2014 health care reform implementation.

MAINSTREAM TECHNOLOGIES HIRES VAN NOY
Mainstream Technologies has hired Laurie Van Noy to its IT staff. She will be directing clients’ work orders to the appropriate engineers, overseeing event logs for security compliance, and making routine visual inspections of hardware in the data center to ensure proper functioning.

Additionally, Van Noy will be responsible for maintaining controlled access to the data center.
Her prior experience includes 16 years at Dillard’s where she began in a Level 1 support center position, and then moved on to Level 2, specializing in the IT systems that involve merchandise turnover. Van Noy then moved to the Network Group, where her most recent position was Network Operations Analyst, which involved the monitoring of all network and data connections between headquarters and individual stores.

ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE HIRE LeMASTER FOR MARKETING POST
The Winthrop Rockefeller Institute has hired Jeff LeMaster as director of marketing and public relations. His responsibilities will include overseeing all marketing efforts, including brand management, program and conference promotion, and media relations.

“We’re excited to have Jeff on board,” CEO Christy Carpenter said. “We expect his background of working both in and with media to give greater visibility to our programs and our conference facilities.”

LeMaster previously worked as a media specialist for the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care and for more than five years as the editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s zoned editions.