Business briefs – December 31

Leadership group to host conference

Leadership Johnson County will host a Women in Leadership workshop on Feb. 24 at Franklin College.The workshop will be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will feature guest lecturers from Indiana University Kelley School of Business: Kelly Watkins, MBA, and Carolyn Goerner, PhD. Additional speakers include Indiana University Alumni Association Executive Director Caroline Dowd-Higgins and Franklin College Director of Leadership Development Dale Rebhorn.

The workshop will focus on career management for women.

Dowd-Higgins is a coach, author, speaker and media host who specializes in career reinvention and empowerment for women.

Watkins works with companies that want to increase profitability by developing their employees and with high-level professionals who want to be more effective leaders.

Rebhorn is the director of leadership development at Franklin College and a former IBM executive.

Goerner is the director for the Kelley Women in Business Initiative through the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

Tickets are $99 per person, including lunch. The event is being underwritten by South Grove Eye Care, Promise Advisory Group and Jobea Trefny with Carpenter Realtors.

For more information, contact Kelsey Kasting at 317-738-8794 or visit leadershipjohnsoncounty.org.

Firms join locally ‘Grown’ initiative

The Indiana Department of Agriculture’s Indiana Grown initiative announced the addition of Suzy’s Teahouse & Bakery and Sugar Creek Farm Market of Franklin to the organization.With the membership, the businesses will expand their reaches to both consumers and retail partners, taking advantage of additional marketing support, event opportunities and more.

Suzy’s Teahouse & Bakery offers a large selection of teas and freshly baked goods at a shop in downtown Franklin. Sugar Creek Farm Market is a family owned and operated farm. The farm raises all-natural, hormone- and antibiotic-free grain-fed goats and cattle.

For more information on Indiana Grown or to apply for membership, visit IndianaGrown.org.

College honors employees for service

Franklin College honored two employees with awards of excellence and recognized several employees for milestone years of service at the 23rd annual Employee Appreciation and Holiday Celebration on Dec. 16.

Katie Wehner, assistant dean for academic affairs and director of the Academic Resource Center and Disability Services at Franklin College, was recognized as the recipient of the 2016 Margaret Hommell Staff Service Excellence Award.

Wehner joined the Franklin College staff in 2005. She serves as a board member of the Franklin Education Connection. She resides in Franklin.

Kristin Wasielewski, assistant professor of modern languages, was recognized as the recipient of the 2016 Franklin College Adjunct Faculty Excellence Award.

Wasielewski began teaching at Franklin College in the spring of 2002-03 as a lecturer in French. She was promoted to assistant professor of French in the fall of 2011.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Wasielewski serves as the director of the Modern Language House and advises students from the modern language department as well as the psychology department. She lives in Franklin with her husband, Richard Erable, Ph.D.

Full-time employees honored for their years of service with the college include the following:

Five-year awards: Connie Ables-Rigsbee (Carmel), Amy Bracken (Indianapolis), Meredith Clark-Wiltz (Franklin), Amanda Eaton (Franklin), Allison Fetter-Harrott (Indianapolis), Agueda Formosa-Mayan (Indianapolis), Andrew Hendricks (Franklin), Jessica Mahoney (Franklin), Elizabeth Manson (Greenwood), Laura Morefield (Franklin), Raymond Price (Franklin), Steven Scheer (Franklin), Maureen Smith (Franklin) Annette Snyder (Bargersville), Tom Stubbeman (Franklin)

10-year awards: Doug Burker (Morgantown), David Cunningham (Indianapolis), Renee Knight (Trafalgar), Maureen Pinnick (Franklin), Gordon Strain (Franklin)

15-year awards: Dan Andrews (Franklin), Sara Colburn-Alsop (Franklin), Elizabeth Deckard (Franklin), Keri Ellington (Franklin), Richard Erable (Franklin), Ellis Hall (Franklin), Jill Radford (Franklin), Benton Sammons (Shelbyville), Marti Schrock (Franklin), Brooke Worland (Franklin)

20-year awards: Svetlana Rakic (Bloomington), Kerry Smith (Indianapolis)

25-year awards: Alice Heikens (Franklin), Tom Patz (Indianapolis)

30-year awards: Tim Garner (Whiteland), Sam Rhodes (Franklin)

35-year award: David Chandler (Franklin)

45-year award: Cheryl Stewart (Franklin)

Part-time employees honored for their years of service with the college include the following:

Five-year awards: Grant Bellak (Indianapolis), Bud Boughton (Greenwood), Larry Mordan (Greenwood), Denny Ramsay (Shelbyville), Butch Zike (Whiteland)

10-year award: Jay Hunsucker (Franklin)

New director named for masters program

Franklin College has named Rhonda Feldman as program director for its master of science in physician assistant studies.The college is seeking approval and accreditation from the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant and anticipates enrolling its first graduate students into the program in fall of 2019.

Feldman comes to Franklin from the University of New England, where she serves as the physician assistant program director and an assistant clinical professor. She brings with her 20 years of clinical work in family and internal medicine with specialty experience in orthopedic surgery, psychiatry and emergency medicine.

Feldman worked in rural health clinics before transitioning to internal medicine with experience in cardiology, nephrology and the medical management of patients with acute and/or chronic psychiatric disorders. Her experience also includes working in orthopedic and emergency medicine prior to moving into academia full-time.

The master of science in physician assistant studies is made possible by a nearly $1 million grant awarded to the college in 2014 from the Lilly Endowment. It is the second master’s program launched by the college.

Ellen Fredbeck-Ramírez
Ellen Fredbeck-Ramírez

Local law firm hires new attorney

The law firm of Deppe Fredbeck & Boll, LLP has hired Ellen Fredbeck-Ramírez as an associate attorney. She joins her father, Eric, in a practice established by her grandfather, Melvin, who formed the firm in 1957 with Dick LaGrange.Fredbeck-Ramírez will have her office in the firm’s Franklin location and will handle estate planning with wills and trusts, estate and trust administration, municipal law, business law, family law and general legal issues.

She received her Juris Doctor from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in May where she took a special interest in information privacy and nonprofit corporation law.

Deppe Fredbeck & Boll, LLP has a general practice with concentration in the areas of estate and trust planning and administration, guardianships and disability planning with powers of attorney.