Baton Rouge area

Investar Bank, National Association recently promoted two executives to financial leadership roles. Rachel Cherco has been promoted to treasurer. She will manage the bank’s investment portfolio and borrowings, and will perform investment analyses and manage liquidity. Cherco has been with Investar for 15 years, serving as chief financial officer and chief accounting officer. She earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from LSU.

Candace LeBlanc, who has served as director of financial reporting for the past seven years, has been promoted to chief accounting officer, executive vice president. She will oversee the accounting department and collaborate with the chief financial officer on various financial strategies. LeBlanc holds a bachelor's degree in finance from Southeastern Louisiana University and a master's in accounting from The George Washington University School of Business. She is a certified public accountant.

Larry Conner has been named chief financial operating officer for Regymen Fitness and The Covery.

Conner brings more than 30 years of experience in the health and fitness industry. He served as chief financial officer/controller for Elmwood Fitness Center, manager of the Pelican Athletic Club on the north shore, general manager of another gym of Franco’s Athletic Club and helped build Stone Creek in Covington.

The Water Institute of the Gulf has appointed three new members to the board of directors: Earthea Nance, Merritt Lane III and William J. “Bill” Merrell.

Nance, associate professor in the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University, is a certified flood plain manager and a registered professional civil engineer with more than 15 years of experience as an environmental engineer. She served as director of disaster management and planning for New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, raising and managing over $59 million in recovery related grants. She has an additional 14 years of experience in academia. Nance served as an assistant professor of environmental planning and hazard mitigation at the University of New Orleans.

Lane, president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Canal Barge Co., has been involved in inland waterway management in Louisiana and across the country for decades. Lane has served as chairman of the American Waterways Operators and the Waterways Council Inc. and serves as a board member of the National Waterways Foundation and the U.S. Coast Guard Foundation.

Merrell, Regents Professor in marine sciences at Texas A&M University at Galveston, has nearly four decades of work focusing on large-scale ocean physics, coastal processes, hurricane impacts and more recently, coastal sustainability, disaster mitigation and recovery. Merrell is the only person to have been awarded the Distinguished Service Award of the National Science Foundation twice. His knowledge and experience in Texas and around the country will be a tremendous addition to the board of directors.

New Orleans area

Lakeview Regional Medical Center, a campus of Tulane Medical Center, has hired Candice Verke as the new labor and delivery manager. Most recently, Verke worked at West Florida Hospital in Pensacola, Florida. 

Verke holds an associate degree in nursing from the University of South Dakota and is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree.

The UNO Research and Technology Foundation and The Beach at UNO, A Sandbox for Collaboration, has promoted four team members.

Greg Hammarstrom is vice president and chief operating officer, where he will oversee strategic planning and operations.

Troy Carmichael is director of operations, overseeing all facilities and engineering.

Darlene Fredricks is property coordinator, where she will lead tenant relations and real estate services.

Blair Bourgeois is project manager, where she will serve as administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency grant benefiting the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration Program.

Around Louisiana

Dr. William T. Freeman of Prairieville was sworn in as the 141st president of the Louisiana State Medical Society at the organization’s annual House of Delegates meeting. A native of Natchitoches, Freeman earned his undergraduate degree in premedicine from the University of Louisiana in Monroe. He graduated from the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans, and completed his residency at the LSU Earl K. Long/Baton Rouge General Medical Center. 

Elected to serve as the organization’s president-elect was Dr. John W. Noble Jr., of Lake Charles. Noble is a board certified orthopaedic surgeon who graduated from the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans. He will assume the presidency at the 2022 House of Delegates meeting.

Other physicians assuming leadership roles:

• Dr. Katherine L. Williams, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Covington, immediate past president.
• Dr. George Ellis Jr., an ophthalmologist from New Orleans, vice president.
• Dr. Richard Paddock, a urologist from Marrero, treasurer.
• Dr. T. Steen Trawick, chief executive officer of Christus Shreveport-Bossier Health System, speaker of the house.
• Dr. R. Reece Newsome, a radiologist from Baton Rouge, vice speaker.
• Dr. David Broussard, an anesthesiologist from New Orleans, chair of the council on legislation.

Physicians elected to represent LSMS districts and sections on the Board of Councilors:

• Dr. Donnie Batie, family medicine, Baton Rouge.
• Dr. Andy Blalock, nephrology, Lafayette.
• Dr. Robert Chugden, emergency medicine, Marrero.
• Dr. James Connolly, otolaryngology, Covington.
• Dr. Blake Denley, internal medicine, New Orleans.
• Dr. Brian Gamborg, family medicine, Lake Charles.
• Dr. Gwen Jackson, obstetrics/gynecology, Monroe.
• Dr. Richard “Rick” J. Michael, internal medicine and pediatrics, Shreveport.
• Dr. Amberly Nunez, anatomic pathology, Baton Rouge.
• Dr. Marcus Pittman, family medicine, Covington.
• Dr. Michael Roppolo, nephrology, Baton Rouge.
• Dr. Bennett Schmidt, internal medicine, Covington.
• Dr. Maurice Sholas, pediatrics, New Orleans.
• Dr. Vicki Steen, obstetrics/gynecology, Madisonville.
• Dr. Lance Templeton, urology, Alexandria.
• Dr. Allen Vander, nephrology. Thibodaux.
• Dr. Nick Viviano, dermatology, Mandeville.
• Brittany Wagner, medical student, LSU Health, Shreveport.