Construction & design
Jason L. Brunson has joined the Electrical Group of CSHQA, an architectural firm.
Brunson has 12 years of industrial, commercial and nuclear-power distribution design experience. As an electrical design engineer for XL Engineering, Idaho Falls, he has worked on projects for the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security and other industrial and commercial clients. At North Wind Inc., Idaho Falls, he designed systems for NASA’s Mid-Plume Interception and Treatment System to remediate groundwater contamination.
Brunson earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Idaho in 2000. He is licensed in Idaho and Wyoming.
Education
Boise State University’s College of Business and Economics has maintained its accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business through 2016. The accreditation is held by less than 5 percent of the world’s business-school programs.
Founded in 1916, AACSB International is the longest-serving global accrediting body for business schools that offer undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees in business and accounting. Boise State’s master’s and undergraduate business programs have been accredited since 1979. The accountancy program was first accredited in 1991.
Paul Joyce has been appointed dean of the College of Science at the University of Idaho.
Joyce, a professor of mathematics, statistics and bioinformatics, has served as interim dean since June.
The dean’s duties will include strengthening collaborative and participatory processes to develop integrative solutions, continuing to build strong relationships with stakeholders and donors, emphasizing the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math) at the university, and working to help faculty succeed.
Joyce earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics at Montana State University and his doctoral degree in mathematics at the University of Utah. He did postdoctoral work at the University of Washington and the University of Southern California before joining the U of I faculty as an assistant professor in 1991. He was promoted to associate professor in 1994 and became a full professor in 2001.
Joyce has served as the director of the graduate program in bioinformatics and computational biology. In addition, he also served as vice chair and chair of the Faculty Senate.
He is a principal investigator on a $1.2 million, multiyear grant from the National Institutes of Health to study patterns of adaptive evolution. During his tenure, he has worked as collaborative investigator on competitive grants he earned that have totaled more than $25 million.
Joyce’s research interests include statistics; probability and stochastic modeling, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary research involving statistical inference in population genetics; molecular evolution; molecular ecology; systematic biology; molecular biology; and bioinformatics.
He has received three Alumni Awards for Excellence, the Distinguished Faculty Award and the Donald Crawford Graduate Faculty Mentoring Award. He is active in the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the Society of Mathematical Biology. He served a one-year term as the chapter president of the American Statistical Association.
Engineering
Phil Bandy and Doug Bergey have joined the Boise office of the multidisciplinary civil engineering and environmental consulting firm Forsgren Associates Inc.
Bandy is a senior scientist for Forsgren’s Environmental Services Department. He will focus on mining services and will provide expertise across Forsgren’s client base.
An Idaho native, Bandy has been deputy director in the Boise State University Department of Geosciences, mayor and councilman for the city of Eagle, deputy director of the Idaho Department of Agriculture, deputy division administrator and water quality analyst for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, and exploration geologist for Mobil Oil.
Bergey, formerly co-owner and president of ALS in Middleton, is survey manager. For 35 years, Bergey has provided surveying services for municipal, private-sector and international clients, including the Ada County Highway District and Idaho Transportation Department. A licensed professional land surveyor, his background includes services for power substations and dams, hydroelectric projects, canal control gates, power houses and tail races, and mine sites.
Financial services
Vince Skinner and Creig Ohman have been promoted at D.A. Davidson & Co., an investment firm.
Skinner was promoted to associate vice president of information security and business-continuity manager; and Ohman to senior financial consultant.
Government
Rich Jackson has been named chairman of the Idaho State Tax Commission by Gov. Butch Otter, succeeding David Langhorst.
Jackson, a CPA who was appointed to the Tax Commission in July 2011, will preside over day-to-day operations of the agency and deliberations with his three fellow commissioners. He is a former chairman of the Idaho Legislative Compensation Committee, former treasurer of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee, a former member of the Idaho Manufactured Housing Board, and former treasurer of the Idaho House of Representatives’ Republican Caucus.
Dr. David McClusky of Twin Falls has been appointed to a vacancy on the State Board of Correction by Gov. Butch Otter. He succeeds Jay Nielsen of Twin Falls, whose term expired.
The three-member board oversees and sets policy for Idaho’s prison system.
McClusky, a general surgeon who previously served on the State Board of Medicine and the State Board of Pharmacy, will serve a six-year term, subject to confirmation by the Idaho Senate.
A Twin Falls native, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Idaho and his medical degree at Northwestern. He is an Air Force veteran who has been active in civic and charitable organizations in the Twin Falls area and practices at St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center.
Hospitality & service
Shore Lodge resort in McCall has been recognized as an AAA Four Diamond establishment for the first time since opening in 1948.
The rating is received by fewer than 5 percent of the 31,000 properties and restaurants rated annually by AAA. Shore Lodge is one of three resorts in Idaho to achieve Four Diamond status in 2013.
Law
Karen Sheehan has joined the Boise law firm Gjording Fouser PLLC.
Sheehan is a civil-litigation attorney who focuses her practice on employment law, insurance defense, bankruptcy and tort. She also has extensive business and corporate law experience.
Sheehan earned her law degree from George Washington University Law School, graduating cum laude. She held a senior attorney position with the law firm of Lee & McShane PC in Washington, D.C., where she specialized in employment and business law along with civil litigation. She relocated to Boise in 2005. Most recently, Sheehan was an attorney at the Law Offices of Jeffrey T. Sheehan PLLC, where she developed a legal practice in civil litigation, bankruptcy and employment law. Sheehan has also worked for Hall, Farley, Oberrecht and Blanton PC and the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office.
Corporate attorney Nicole Snyder is the new administrative partner of Holland & Hart LLP’s Boise office.
In addition to overseeing strategic development, Snyder will manage recruiting and marketing efforts and other responsibilities related to the firm’s partnership. Snyder represents clients in matters involving mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, debt and equity financing, venture capital, restructurings, and other complex business transactions. She also counsels businesses on all types of employment law matters. She is president of the board of trustees of the Boise Art Museum.
Joseph N. Pirtle has become a shareholder at Elam & Burke P.A.
Pirtle practices in commercial and business litigation and insurance defense, with significant experience in business-entity formations and transactions. He is a member of the Idaho and Oregon Associations of Defense Counsel, is a graduate of the inaugural class of the Idaho Academy of Leadership for Lawyers, and is the secretary of the Litigation Section of the Idaho State Bar.
Pirtle is licensed to practice law in Idaho and Oregon and before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Nonprofits
Steve White will take over as chairman of the board of the Better Business Bureau serving the Snake River Region, succeeding Intermountain Gas Vice President Scott Madison.
White is chief financial officer of Berkeley Inc. in Boise, a registered investment adviser with $158 million in assets under management.
White is an honors finance graduate of the University of Georgia and is a chartered financial analyst. He earned his MBA from the Harvard Business School. He has 19 years of experience in the industry, including investment management, investment banking and finance consulting. He joined Berkeley Inc. in 2003.
Board leaders include: Ted Sermon, chair-elect, Sermon Service & Electric, Idaho Falls; Joan Stephens, vice chair, Stronghold Remodeling, Boise; Ken Carroll, vice chair, c2 Consulting, Boise; Matt Porter, secretary, Cornerstone Financial, Idaho Falls; Julie Armes, member at-large, Premier Insurance, Boise; Damond Watkins, Melaleuca, Idaho Falls; and Madison.
The Better Business Bureau offers consumers and businesses resources including business and charity reviews and complaint mitigation and resolution.
Real estate
Shane Jimenez has acquired an interest in Lee & Associates, Idaho, and become a principal in the firm.
Jimenez was formerly a partner in Thornton Oliver Keller Commercial Real Estate, senior vice president of operations for Velocitus (an Idacorp company) and co-founder and president of RMC Holdings Inc. a telecommunications holding company sold to Idacorp Inc., the parent of Idaho Power Co.
Lee & Associates is a broker-owned commercial real estate firm with more than 700 brokers and 46 offices nationwide.
Mia Gray and Gerald St. John have joined Silverhawk Realty.
Gray is a full-time, second- generation Realtor with 20 years’ experience. She is a graduate of Smith College with a degree in economics.
St. John has 14 years of experience in real estate and mortgage banking.
Other businesses
Zamzows Inc. donated $6,540.63 to the Boise Rescue Mission’s Veterans Transitional Living Program. The program helps homeless veterans regain their independence.
Linda Handlos has been promoted to director of operations at Milligan Events, a Boise events-management company.
Handlos will oversee management of all operations, including finance, business development, administration, sales and marketing.
Handlos joined Milligan in 2009 as director of business development, where she focused on sales and marketing, fostering and developing client and vendor partner relationships and executing the company’s strategic-marketing efforts.
Before joining Milligan, Handlos’ background included 18 years in market research, and sales and marketing in the banking, financial-services and food-and-drug industries.
Milligan Events manages high-profile events for Fortune 500 companies around the world.
