Awards
• LifeLock, a Tempe-based consumer information protection company, is being considered for an inaugural Red Herring 100 Global 2007 Award. LifeLock, most famous for its $1 million service guarantee and the company’s CEO, Todd Harris, giving out his Social Security number in national advertisements, aims to render its customers’ personal information useless to thieves.
Red Herring, based in Belmont, Calif., is a global media company uniting the world’s high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision-makers in a variety of forums.
Education
• Bradley Appelhans, Ph.D, has joined University of Arizona’s College of Medicine in Phoenix as an assistant professor teaching behavioral science. The College of Medicine is a partnership with ASU.
Appelhans earned his doctorate at ASU and also trained at the University of Illinois-Chicago and at Northwestern University. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology from Southern Illinois University and ASU before doing his internship in clinical psychology (rotations in health psychology and neuropsychology) at Illinois-Chicago.
• Sourav Ghosh, Ph.D, has also joined University of Arizona’s College of Medicine in Phoenix as an assistant professor.
Ghosh first studied zoology at the University of Calcutta in India and obtained a master’s degree before earning his doctorate in molecular sciences at the University of Tennessee’s Memphis campus in 2000. For the next seven years, Ghosh was a research associate at the renowned Salk Institute for Biological Studies, in La Jolla, Calif.
• Rayna J. Gonzales, Ph.D, a vascular physiologist with an emphasis in cerebrovascular pharmacology, has also joined University of Arizona’s College of Medicine in Phoenix as an assistant professor.
She received a master’s of science degree in comparative physiology and a doctorate in biomedical sciences from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. Her post-doctoral work in cerebrovascular physiology and pharmacology was done at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine.
• The Helios Education Foundation, a non-profit organization with offices in Arizona and Florida, has donated $763,986 to the Maricopa Community Colleges Foundation to support the colleges’ ACE (Achieving a College Education) program.
The ACE program focuses on helping at-risk students graduate and achieve higher education success. The foundation is dedicated to enriching the lives of individuals by creating opportunities for success in postsecondary education. Since its inception in 2004, Helios has invested nearly $25 million into education-related programs and initiatives in Arizona and Florida.
• Joseph W. Crockett, of Clifton Gunderson’s Phoenix office, has earned his Certified Public Accountant designation. He serves as an associate with the firm’s Valuation and Forensic Services team.
Crockett has been with the firm since March 2005, and began his service with the Valuation and Forensic Services team in June 2007. He earned his B.S. in accountancy from ASU in 2006 and his Master of Accountancy and Information Systems from ASU in 2007.
Clifton Gunderson is the nation’s 14th largest public accounting and consulting firm.
Legal
• Jonathan Ariano has become a partner of Phoenix law firm Osborn Maledon, P.A., where his practice focuses on representing growth-oriented and entrepreneurial clients.
• Shannon Overcash has also become a partner of Phoenix law firm Osborn Maledon, P.A., where she practices chiefly in the areas of business transactions and corporate governance matters.
• Osborn Maledon, P.A., has also hired Michael Catlett, Sharad Desai, Robert Weeks and Kristin Wright as litigators.
• Matthew Meaker has joined Lewis and Roca LLP as an associate in the firm’s construction practice group, where he will offer his expertise in all construction-related matters and litigation.
Meaker currently serves as a regent emeritus for the Arizona Board of Regents, assisting with ASU’s initiatives and strategic planning. He is also the chairperson of the Programming Committee for EMPACT-SPC, a local mental health care provider.
Meaker earned his JD from the UofA, James E. Rogers College of Law in 2003 and his BA in communications and psychology from UofA in 2000.
Associations
• Darlene Kracht has joined the Arizona Association of School Business Officials (AASBO) staff as its membership services coordinator. Her duties began Nov. 27.
Kracht has spent the last 12 years working with Arizona School Health Insurance Program (ASHIP), Ashton Tiffany, L.L.C., and Mullen & Associates. Her experience includes serving as a customer service manager and trainer with school districts, event and meeting planning, financial and cooperate accounting for non-profit companies, development of training manuals and materials for school districts and exhibiting at trade shows.
She fills this position vacated by Michelle Hamilton, who left to join the Purchasing Department staff at Mesa Public Schools.

• The Arizona Chamber Executives (ACE) elected the following members as board officers and directors for 2008 at their annual fall meeting in Wickenburg.
Chairman: Marnie Uhl, president/CEO, Prescott Valley Chamber of Commerce
Chairman-Elect: Donna Eastman, president/CEO, Williams-Grand Canyon Chamber of Commerce
Treasurer: Don Rinehart, president/CEO, Glendale Chamber of Commerce
Past Chairman: Jerry Bustamante, president/CEO, North Pima County Chamber of Commerce
Director: Dave Maurer, CEO, Prescott Chamber of Commerce
Director: Kelly Gunnels, executive director, St. Johns Regional Chamber of Commerce
Director: Ed Stolmaker, president/CEO, Marana Chamber of Commerce
Director: Jim DiGiacomo, executive director, Green Valley/Sahuarita Chamber of Commerce
Director: Beverly Stepp, executive director, Pinetop-Lakeside Chamber of Commerce
Commissions
• Tim Berg, managing partner of Fennemore Craig’s Phoenix office, has been appointed chairman of the Arizona Uniform State Laws Commission by Governor Napolitano.
The commission, whose members are appointed by the governor for six-year terms, reviews national efforts to make state laws uniform and makes recommendations regarding enacting uniform laws or amending such laws to the state legislature and the governor.
State commission members also serve on the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, an organization that studies and reviews state laws to determine which areas of law should be uniform.