Banking

Jim Everett, CEO of the Treasure Valley YMCA in Boise, has been recognized by U.S. Bank as an advisory board director of note. This honor is bestowed on two U.S. Bank Advisory Board members annually. They are selected from a pool of more than 1,200 advisory board members nationwide.

Everett has been a member of the U.S. Bank Western Idaho – Eastern Oregon Advisory Board for 10 years.

Mercy Housing Northwest – Idaho will receive $100,000 and help from Wells Fargo to rehabilitate and resell homes to low to moderate-income families in Canyon County.

The grant is part of Wells Fargo’s Leading the Way Home Priority Markets program, a nationwide effort to increase the availability of affordable housing while stabilizing and rebuilding distressed neighborhoods.

Mercy plans to expand the program to Gem and Elmore counties and the Magic Valley.

Terrance Green has joined Home Federal Bank as vice president and commercial relationship manager. Based in Meridian, Green is responsible for developing and managing commercial relationships throughout southern Idaho.

Green has spent nine years working in banking and finance, most recently as vice president and business banking client-development manager at a large national bank. He received his bachelor of science degree from Montana State University.

Thomas A. Vander Ploeg has been appointed executive vice president and chief credit officer of Idaho Independent Bank.

Vander Ploeg will oversee and administer the bank’s lending. He will develop and execute the bank’s lending strategy, and he will serve as the principal executive officer for credit risk management and lending activities.

Vander Ploeg brings 35 years of banking experience, most recently as executive vice president and chief credit officer of a community bank in central California. He is a graduate of San Jose State University with a degree in accounting and is a graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School. Vander Ploeg has been an instructor of Bank Management Simulation at the Pacific Coast Banking School since 2007.

Bank of the Cascades has granted $1,000 to Senior Solutions Inc.

The funds will provide services to an increasing number of elderly people who need help to remain living independently. During 2011, Senior Solutions provided assistance and resource information to 8,730 senior citizens and their families and provided intensive assistance to at least 659 people.

Education

Valerie “Val” Heusinkveld of Boise has been elected to the board of directors of the University of Idaho Foundation Inc.

Heusinkveld is the chief financial officer of CradlePoint in Boise. She has more than 30 years of experience in financial leadership positions with public and private companies. Heusinkveld earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Idaho’s College of Business and Economics

Local directors continuing their terms on the foundation board include Andrew Emerson, Michael Fery, Karen Gowland, Peggy Jo Jones, Peter McDonald, Douglas Oppenheimer and Michael Sullivan, all of Boise.

Government

David G. Wallace, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and former aerospace executive, is the new deputy director of the Planning and Projects Division for the Ada County Highway District.

Wallace has 37 years of management and executive experience, including 25 years of U.S. Air Force service. Most recently, Wallace served as a Baltimore-based program manager, overseeing Northrop Grumman Electronics Systems’ F-16 radar-program development for U.S. and allied air forces.

Wallace will manage 32 employees in ACHD’s division responsible for developing strategic-planning products, establishing the design of ACHD’s projects, confirming and acquiring right-of-way access for those projects, implementing them and coordinating with utility companies in advance of road construction.

Wallace received a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Southern California and a bachelor of science degree in history and international affairs from the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Health care

Heidi Traylor has been chosen to be executive director of Terry Reilly Health Services.

Traylor has served in a variety of leadership roles at Terry Reilly in her 17 years there. Most recently, she led the Behavioral Health Division, including SANE Solutions, as well as the management of Allumbaugh House.

Terry Reilly is a 41-year-old nonprofit dedicated to providing affordable primary medical, dental, and mental-health services, especially targeting those with economic or other barriers. Services are available to all, regardless of insurance status.

Jacquie Elcox, Debbie Page, Mary Tadlock and Paul Redmond of Treasure Valley Hearing & Balance were honored by Audigy Group, a member-driven organization established to assist private, independent hearing care professionals.

Recognition was given in three key areas with four members of the staff receiving awards:

The 2012 Most Improved Business was received by Elcox, recognizing financial growth year over year.

Page and Tadlock received the 2012 Front Office Staff Most Valuable Player Award, recognizing contributions of the front office staff to consistently provide a superior level of service to patients as measured by mystery shoppers.

The 2012 High Achievement Awards were given to Elcox and Redmond, recognizing their personal contributions to the growth of the business.

Treasure Valley Hearing and Balance has served the Valley as an audiology clinic since 1990.

West Valley Medical Center was awarded an “A” Hospital Safety Score by The Leapfrog Group. This independent national nonprofit, run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits, published its Hospital Safety Score of U.S. hospitals based on preventable medical errors, injuries, accidents and infections. More than 2,600 hospitals were included in the national scoring, including nine in Idaho. West Valley was the only hospital to earn an “A” grade, and did so for the second time this year.

Law

Stoel Rives LLP, a business law firm, has received a rating of 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2013 Corporate Equality Index and is listed as one of its “Best Places to Work.” The report provides a detailed review of policies and practices by U.S. businesses regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees. Stoel Rives is among only 71 law firms nationwide to achieve the 100 percent ranking.

Nonprofits

Nora Carpenter has been selected as CEO and president of United Way of Treasure Valley.

Carpenter, who has been the executive director at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Idaho for more than two years, succeeds Derick O’Neill, who recently was named the Planning and Development Services director for the city of Boise.

Born in Caldwell, Carpenter earned her bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Idaho. In 1993 Carpenter took over as CEO of the Better Business Bureau in southwestern Idaho. In 2007 she was promoted to senior vice president of the national Council of Better Business Bureaus in Arlington, Va.

Real estate

Mark Schlag, retail specialist with Thornton Oliver Keller Commercial Real Estate, has earned the certified leasing specialist designation offered by the International Council of Shopping Centers. The CLS credential is designed to raise professional standards in shopping-center leasing.

A graduate of Seattle University, Schlag has been involved in commercial sales and leasing since 1993. An investment and retail brokerage specialist, Schlag is also a certified commercial investment member. He focuses on investment sales, retail landlord and tenant representation, and development consulting services including site assemblage, acquisition and disposition.

Thornton Oliver Keller Commercial Real Estate is a Boise commercial real estate company offering brokerage and property management services.

Mindy Gronbeck, director of property management for Hawkins Cos. in Boise, has been appointed a regional vice president of the nearly 19,000-member Institute of Real Estate Management, an international community of managers across all property types dedicated to ethical business practices and maximizing the value of investment real estate.

She will serve a two-year term beginning immediately, providing oversight for the activities of IREM chapters in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, California and Hawaii.

Gronbeck has 15 years of experience in retail real estate management. She earned her certified shopping center manager designation in 2012. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business management in 2003.

Gronbeck oversees a staff of four at Hawkins Cos. that manages 3.5 million square feet of retail and office space in 23 states. Previously, she managed an outlet mall for S-Sixteen, a subsidiary of the J.R. Simplot Co., and worked in retail and tourism for many years before entering the commercial real estate market.

She has been a member of IREM since 2005, serving as the Idaho Snake River Chapter No. 107 president from 2010 to 2012. She received the 2012 John T. Riordan Professional Educational Scholarship Grant from the International Council of Shopping Centers. She serves as a member IREM’s Legislative and Public Policy Board and its Industry Standards Advisory Board.

Hawkins Cos. specializes in shopping center development and management.

Other businesses

Vincent Muli Kituku of Eagle, founder of Caring Hearts and Hands of Hope Inc., has been nominated by the Kenyan ambassador to the U.S. for national honors conferred by the president of Kenya for his organization’s contribution in providing tuition and fees for orphans, children of widows and other destitute students in high school.

Kituku is a member of the Treasure Valley YMCA board of directors and serves on the St. Luke’s Foundation Committee.

He assists in coordinating sponsors for the Boise Noon Optimist Football League and has sponsored several teams throughout the years. He has served as chair of the Boise Rescue Mission and continues to support other local charities.

Kituku established Caring Hearts and Hands of Hope to help needy children obtain a high school education.

Merchants Moving & Storage Inc., an agent for Atlas Van Lines, was presented two quality awards and a sales award at the annual Atlas Van Lines Convention in Rancho Mirage, Calif. The Hauling Excellence Award is based on customer satisfaction and excellence in operations.

The Milton M. Hill Quality Award is the highest quality award presented to Atlas Van Lines agents. Merchants also received the President’s Club Award, million-dollar level, in honor of agents who have generated at least $1 million in sales in the past year. Merchants is locally owned and has been in business in Boise for 68 years.

Monte Asche has been promoted to supervisor at the Downtown Boise location of Metro Express Car Wash.

Asche was hired four months ago. He supervises attendants, enforces safety rules and ensures overall customer satisfaction and efficient function of the car wash during his shift.

Previously, Asche was a caregiver for people with dementia.

He also served a tour of duty in the Idaho National Guard in Kirkuk, Iraq, in the 145th Support Battalion as a cook, and he served in the California Air National Guard as a crew chief for C-130 aircraft assigned to rescue duty.

Asche is working toward a degree in social work at Boise State University.