Chambers
Annika Jackson, vice president of the Enchantment Group, has been named to the Sedona Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Jackson also serves as vice president and managing director of Enchantment Resort and Mii amo, a destination spa within the 70-acre Enchantment Resort. Her two-year term began in February.
Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Jackson has 18 years of experience working in the hotel and travel industry in Europe, the Caribbean and the United States.  Jackson, a 13-year resident of Sedona, lives in West Sedona with her husband, Phil, and their 20-month-old son Niklas.
Legal
  Meagan Breeze has joined Calderón Law Offices as an associate attorney, practicing in the commercial, education and civil litigation areas.
Breeze earned her juris doctorate from Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU in 2006. During law school and after receiving her degree, she worked for several civil litigation and commercial law firms before joining Calderón Law Offices.
Mark Hiegel has been named a managing partner in R&R Partners’ Phoenix office. Hiegel, who has been leading the Phoenix office for eight years, will be responsible for the development and performance of R&R’s Arizona operations.
Hiegel has more than 25 years of experience in corporate communications, sales, advertising and marketing. Before joining R&R Partners, he was president and CEO of Lavidge Hiegel Baumayr Advertising and Public Relations in Arizona. Prior to this, he had a distinguished 10-year career with PepsiCo.
Government
Rep. Cloves Campbell of central Phoenix and Rep. Tom Chabin of Flagstaff were honored April 8 at the Capitol with Arizona Afterschool Legislative Champion Awards presented by The Arizona Center for Afterschool Excellence.
The Democrats were recognized for their efforts to increase the resources for these programs across the state.
Rep. David Schapira received the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Public Service Award April 14 at the department’s Lifesavers Convention in Portland, Oregon.
The Tempe Democrat was honored for his work in the last legislative session during which he sponsored and promoted legislation requiring all those convicted of a DUI to install ignition-interlock devices in their vehicles.
Foundations  
Dr. William Harris, president and CEO of Science Foundation Arizona (SFAz), has joined the Maricopa Partnership for Arts and Culture Board of Directors. Harris is leading SFAz in its mission of spurring new innovation in Arizona and developing a diversified, robust knowledge-driven economy.
Prior to joining the foundation, Harris was founding director of Science Foundation Ireland.
Johann Zietsman, executive director of the Mesa Arts Center and director of arts and culture for the city of Mesa, has also joined the MPAC board as a representative of the arts and culture community. Zietsman has served as an arts leader in South Africa and the United States, where he most recently served as CEO for the International Society of the Performing Arts.
Awards
ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus has won a 2008 Outreach Scholarship W.K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award in the western division. Scholarship winners are awarded $6,000 and move on to compete for the 2008 C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Award presented annually by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, A Public University Association.
The Outreach Scholarship and Magrath Awards recognize four-year public universities that have redesigned their learning, discovery and engagement functions to become sympathetically and productively involved with their communities. ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus is one of five educational institutions throughout the U.S. to be granted outreach scholarships.
Rick Simonetta, METRO CEO, received the Arizona Transit Association’s Outstanding Individual of the Year Award at the association’s annual conference in Tucson on April 2.
Simonetta, recognized for his leadership of the agency responsible for the design, construction and operation of the 20-mile METRO project, has spent 35 years in the public transportation industry.  Before assuming leadership at METRO, Simonetta headed the MARTA system in Atlanta where he helped the agency prepare for the transportation demands of the 1996 Olympic Games, which involved moving more than 25 million passengers in 17 days.
Abalos & Associates, PLLC has been named the No. 1 accounting firm in the state for the sixth consecutive year by Ranking Arizona.  The firm was recognized at the 2nd Annual Best of the Best Awards on April 3 at the Camelback Inn Resort & Spa. 
Ranking Arizona’s “The Best of Arizona Business” is the outcome of the largest business opinion poll in Arizona and identifies more than 200 business and leisure categories based on quality of product, service and customer satisfaction. Arizona Business Magazine publishes the ranking yearly with polling from the previous year.
Hon. Frederic Dardis, a commissioner assigned to the Family Law Bench at Pima County Superior Court, will be recognized June 19 during the State Bar of Arizona’s annual convention with the 2009 Foundation for Justice Award presented by the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education.
The honor is “awarded to the attorney who has devoted expertise and time to changing the justice system to promote access and opportunity for those most vulnerable.”
Organizations
Norris Nordvold has been named the first executive director of the Friends of the West Valley Recreation Corridor (FWVRC). Ten years in the making, this appointment is a landmark event for the organization, exemplifying its commitment to providing the West Valley with a 42-mile, multi-modal trail system along the Agua Fria and New rivers.
As executive director, Nordvold will be responsible for membership development, fundraising and stakeholder and government relations, as well as overseeing the many facets of the corridor adoption into city development plans. He will also serve as the organization’s community liaison, increasing awareness and developing public support for the project.
Herb Paine, a nonprofit executive and business consultant, has been announced as the new executive director of the Arizona Humanities Council. Paine will begin May 1 and work with retiring executive director Juliana Yoder through the month until he fully assumes his new position on June 1.
Paine brings the council his 19-year experience as president of Paine Consulting Services, specializing in organization development, strategic planning and marketing, governance, mergers and collaboration, and interim executive management.
Yoder has been with the AHC since 1987, and has served as executive director since July 2005.