Business Milestones

■ Kate Mewhinney, a clinical professor at Wake Forest University School of Law, recently participated in a United Nations program in Bonn, Germany. It was the U.N.'s first Expert Group meeting on the subject of aging and human rights. Mewhinney presented an overview of laws affecting older adults in the United States regarding healthcare, housing, age discrimination, abuse and neglect. She led a session that discussed some of the things the United States is doing well when it comes to the elder population and areas where the country is weak.

■ Meyressa Schoonmaker of Winston-Salem was recently inducted into the N.C. Bar Association's General Practice Hall of Fame. She was admitted to the North Carolina State Bar in 1968 and has been in private practice in Winston-Salem since 1968 as a partner in an all female firm, as a solo practitioner and as a board certified specialist in family law. She has served as the assistant to the president for legal affairs, associate general counsel and adjunct professor of law at Wake Forest University. She concentrates her practice in the areas of estate planning, wills and estate administration.

■ State Farm said that Dennis McNeil, an agent in Kernersville, has received the Golden Triangle award. This award recognizes agents who align their agencies with the long-term quality growth of all State Farm product lines. They are actively engaged in servicing policyholders, providing loss control guidance and developing a quality staff to serve their customers. McNeil's State Farm Insurance Agency opened in July 1988.

■ Art & Artifacts, a contemporary art gallery, has opened at 159 Sunset Drive in Blowing Rock. The gallery features about 20 artists in all media, including sculpture, watercolors, oils, wood, glass, photography and jewelry. The owners are Judi Russell, an artist who lives in Winston-Salem, and Lynn Hill, a Realtor in Blowing Rock.

■ 311 Tire & Automotive Inc. at 7610 Walnut Cove Road in Walnut Cove is celebrating 25 years in business. Mark White is the owner.

■ David Pishko, a partner at Elliot Pishko Morgan P.A. in Winston-Salem, has been elected the president of North Carolina Advocates for Justice, an association of attorneys. New members of the association's Board of Governors are W. Thompson Comerford and C. Douglas Maynard of Winston-Salem; and Camille Payton and Joe Williams of Greensboro.

■ Inmar Reverse Logistics, a provider of reverse logistics and supply-chain-management solutions in Winston-Salem, has been named to the 2009 Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100. Inclusion in the list recognizes Inmar's leadership as a solution and service provider that is helping supply-chain executives position their organizations to meet urgent business needs in the current downturn and to thrive as the economy recovers. Findings from this year's "100" process will be published in the June/July 2009 issue of Supply and Demand Chain Executive.

■ Betty P. Taylor, the area director and chief executive of CenterPoint Human Services, has been voted president elect of the N.C. Council of Community Programs. The council focuses on improving the quality and management of mental health, developmental disabilities and substance-abuse services throughout the state.

■ The American Health Lawyers Association has ranked Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough as having the ninth largest healthcare practice in the United States, jumping from its 15th spot in 2008. The rankings were published in Modern Healthcare magazine. Nelson Mullins has more than 400 attorneys practicing from 11 offices in the country, including in Winston-Salem.

■ Allegacy Federal Credit Union, based in Winston-Salem, recently received recognition for its youth financial education and community service efforts at the 74th Annual Meeting of the North Carolina Credit Union League in Pinehurst. Allegacy received the statewide Desjardins Youth Financial Education Award, which recognizes leadership within the credit union movement on behalf of youth financial literacy. The credit union also received an honorable mention for the Dora Maxwell Social Responsibility Award.

■ Sheetz Inc. has been named one of the Best Employers in North Carolina. This first annual program was created by the North Carolina Chamber, NC Magazine, the N.C. Society for Human Resource Management – State Council and Best Companies Group. The Best Employers in North Carolina survey and award program is designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in North Carolina, benefiting the state's economy, its work force and businesses.

■ Dr. Keith A. Walter has invented a surgical tool called the EndoSaver Corneal Endothelium Delivery Instrument for Descemet's Stripping Endothelial Keratoplasty surgeries, a corneal transplant procedure where surgeons remove only the diseased innermost layer of a host cornea and replace it with healthy cornea tissue from a donor. Walter is an ophthalmologist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. The purpose of the tool is to make it easier for eye surgeons to insert living donor tissue without damaging tissue or crushing cells.

■ Joan Bahner, a native of Winston-Salem and senior consultant for Lighthouse Counsel, based in Franklin, Tenn., has received the 2009 Alumni Achievement Award for Service to the University from The General Alumni Association of Fisk University. Bahner has 20 years of leadership experience in strategic planning, special projects, policymaking, problem solving, public relations, fundraising and communications.

■ Carolyn Couch, an associate director of Career Services at Wake Forest University, will spend two weeks in Germany this fall as a Fulbright Scholar. She is one of 25 scholarship recipients nationwide chosen to participate in a group seminar on German higher education and society through the U.S. State Department's Fulbright International Education Administrators Program. The group will visit universities in Berlin and other cities.

■ Prudential Carolinas Realty has named Lisa Rhead a director of relocation and business development. She will lead relocation efforts for Prudential Carolinas Realty in the Triad and Charlotte regions and in the Triangle for Prudential York Simpson Underwood Realty. Rhead has been in the relocation industry for 14 years. She most recently was a director of relocation for a real-estate firm in Charlotte.

■ Elizabeth Shields has joined MediaFit Inc. in Lewisville as the manager of business development. She will present custom comprehensive-marketing plans to businesses throughout the United States, focusing on building long-term growth for companies.

Also, Glen Kelley has become the director of sponsorship development with MediaFit Strategic Sports Marketing. He will present custom marketing plans to businesses that center on motorsports sponsorships with a high return on investment.

■ Leonard Ryden Burr Real Estate in Winston-Salem said that Eva S. Johns, a Realtor, has joined the firm as a broker sales associate. She was a broker at Prudential Carolinas Realty for six years.

■ Natalie Foreman of Fleetwood has been promoted to assistant editor at McFarland and Co. Inc. Publishers in Jefferson. She joined McFarland in 2004 as an editorial assistant. Founded in Jefferson in 1979, McFarland is one of the country's largest scholarly and reference book publishers with some 4,000 titles to date.

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