Larson Companies is pleased to the addition of a designated Marketing Project Manager stationed at its Home Office. As Project Manager, Jill Brenner will be learning about past sales and marketing success and defining future needs. While she is a new addition to the marketing effort, she has spent the past seven years as Director of Marketing and Corporate Sponsorships for Chippewa Valley Music Festivals. 

McMahon, Schleifer & Wood, LLC, Certified Public Accountants, is pleased to announce the addition of Brian Riley to the firm. Brian earned his Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree in accounting from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and has worked for a firm in Menomonie, Wisconsin for the past five years where he focused on tax and accounting. Brian is also a member of the Young Professionals of the Chippewa Valley.

​EO Johnson Business Technologies was recognized at the 2017 Marketplace Governor’s Awards, winning the 2017 Wisconsin Women Business Enterprise Award – Outstanding Large Business. The Marketplace Governor’s Awards recognize Wisconsin businesses owned by minorities, women and service-disabled veterans in a number of categories. More than 400 business of all backgrounds and sizes applied for the 2017 awards, and 21 finalists were chosen. Three businesses, including EO Johnson, were finalists for the Outstanding Large Business award that recognizes established businesses that have demonstrated the capacity to grow over the past five years and have plans for continued expansion in the future. EO Johnson Business Technologies has been certified as a woman-owned business by the State of Wisconsin Department of Administration Division of Enterprise Operations since 2014.

Care Partners Assisted Living and Memory Care announced that it is expanding into the west side of Eau Claire with a 60-bed assisted living community with 40 beds for assisted care and 20 beds for memory care. Construction is underway and expected to be open in the summer of 2018. Care Partners will be located across the highway from Menards Regional Office at 5110 Stonewood Drive in Eau claire. Residents will enjoy an array of homelike areas including an open kitchen floor plan like many of our homes now. Also, included in the community are large living room spaces, activity room, library, and sun porches for the resident to enjoy visiting with family and friends. Care Partners is a provider of high-quality assisted living and memory care communities throughout Wisconsin that specializes in small home like settings that provide personalized services and quality resident care.

Three HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital colleagues recently earned advanced certification in their respective fields. Teresa Loftsgaarden, MSN, RN, OCN, who provides cancer navigation services for both Sacred Heart Hospital and Prevea Oncology, recently earned her Oncology Nurse Navigator-Certified Generalist credential. She is also certified as an oncology nurse. 
Robin Miller, certified registered nurse in the hospital’s women and infants department, recently earned her Inpatient Obstetric Nursing certification, which means that she is certified in inpatient obstetric care. This certification is an evaluative process that provides the opportunity for nurses in the obstetric, gynecologic and/or neonatal specialty to demonstrate publicly what they know and to be recognized for the special knowledge they possess. Katie Sarver, licensed professional counselor in the hospital’s palliative care department, recently earned her National Certified Counselor credential. This is the premier certification for the counseling profession. Sarver holds a master's degree in counseling, and has met high national standards for the practice of counseling. 

Ashley Kosharek of AMK Cleaning Services was included on new report on the state of women’s entrepreneurship in the United States, which was recently released by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the lead Democrat on the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship. “Tackling the Gender Gap: What Women Entrepreneurs Need to Thrive” features new interviews with female entrepreneurs who share their business journey and how they overcame adversity on the way to building successful companies. Kosharek was one of the entrepreneurs featured. The Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship report, is available here.

Junior Achievement (JA) of Wisconsin, Inc. Northwest and Coulee Region Districts received $15,000 from the Market & Johnson (M&J) Employee Impact Fund managed by the Eau Claire Community Foundation. The employee fund’s goal, which was created in 2015, is to find an appropriate way to direct M&J employee donations to charities that make an impact in the communities in which they build. This generous donation will help JA continue to reach area youth with programs teaching them about work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy. These skills help area youth own their own economic success. 

Mid-State Truck Service is proud to be in its 10th year of giving back to the less fortunate youth within the communities they serve. This holiday season they have expanded their annual efforts and teamed up with additional partners, their employees and the local Toys for Tots program coordinators to help make a greater impact!  Mid-State Truck Service is donating $5,000 towards its Truckers for Tots shopping event, which supports the area’s Toys for Tots Programs; $2,500 to Eau Claire County and $2,500 to Chippewa Falls County.  

​RMM Solutions has finalized an agreement to acquire the Enterprise division of Dedicated Computing. This agreement offers business growth for the community, stability for the current employees and creates new technology solutions for both customer bases. By adding Dedicated’s Enterprise division to the RMM Solutions team, RMM expands its client base, gains a knowledgeable team of employees and increases its recognition in the Milwaukee and Appleton markets. 

A recent update to Nursing Home Compare by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) designates local healthcare provider Dove Healthcare with an overall five-star rating  for each of their six skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities. This rating is based on quality measures, staffing ratios and annual health inspection results. Star ratings are assigned to each of these categories and the categories are combined to calculate an overall rating. In August 2017, the average star rating for Wisconsin skilled nursing facilities was 3.6 and nationally it was 3.3. More information can be found on the website: 

WESTconsin Credit Union’s CEO, Lora Benrud, recently participated in a meeting for the Board of Governors’ Community Depository Institution Advisory Council in Washington, D.C. Members of this council are from financials with total assets of less than $10 billion to provide information, advice, and recommendations from the perspective of community depository institutions. After serving on the council for two years, Benrud was appointed by the Minneapolis Fed president to serve a two-year term as chair of the Minneapolis Council representing the Reserve Bank’s Ninth District. The Minneapolis Fed serves the six states of the Ninth Federal Reserve District:  Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, 26 counties in northwestern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. At the meeting, Benrud reported on small business lending practices, economic conditions, and regulatory items.

HSHS Sacred Heart and St. Joseph’s hospitals’ Clinical Education Departments recently added two mannequins and multi-faceted simulation labs that mimic the clinical setting. The technology in the “sim labs” enables the hospitals’ clinical educators to assign mannequins numerous real-life health situations for recently graduated nurses and nursing veterans alike to detect, troubleshoot and treat. Situations such as cardiac arrest, an open wound, a seizure, neurological issues, allergic reactions and more.  Though not new, the hospitals also have mannequins that mimic a woman going into labor and giving birth, as well as newborn mannequins.

Royal Credit Union recently received Wisconsin Forward Award Challenger Recognition from The Wisconsin Center for Performance Excellence (WCPE). The awards were presented at the recent 20th Annual Wisconsin Forward Awards gala in Madison. Royal was recognized at the Challenger level, which is the first step in the award sequence. The Challenger application is a snapshot of the organization, the key influences on how it functions, and the competitive environment it operates in. Wisconsin Forward Award uses the Baldrige Excellence Framework™ established by the national Baldrige Performance Excellence Program as its evaluation tool. The award program helps organizations continuously strive to implement the best practices in the industry or sector. Royal plans to continue its journey to achieve the highest level of performance excellence by following the Wisconsin Forward Award path. Wisconsin Forward Award is one of 34 state-based quality programs in the country dedicated to raising productivity.A recent update to Nursing Home Compare by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) designates local healthcare provider Dove Healthcare with an overall five-star rating  for each of their six skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities. This rating is based on quality measures, staffing ratios and annual health inspection results. Star ratings are assigned to each of these categories and the categories are combined to calculate an overall rating. In August 2017, the average star rating for Wisconsin skilled nursing facilities was 3.6 and nationally it was 3.3. More information can be found on the website.