People & Changes
Published Sunday, June 6, 2004
Mary Toothman

READ POLK MEMBERS Bill Fenton, READ Lakeland, Betsy Gauss and Rosemary Blake, Lake Wales Literary Council, attended the Annual Regional IV Adult Literacy Providers Symposium in Sarasota recently.

RAYMOND EPPERSON JR. has joined Citizens Bank as vice president for commercial lending. Epperson will be responsible for commercial lending and business development for the Winter Haven and Haines City markets.

EVELYN J. NELSON of Evelyn's Forensic Eye Production Inc., 321 Imperial Blvd., No. 150, Lakeland, is now a fellow in the American Guild of Court Videographers, the nation's largest legal video organization of its kind.

KAREN L. WOLGAST, CPA, recently joined the firm of Baylis & Company, P.A., CPAs. Wolgast is a tax specialist and has been in public accounting for six years.

FRANCISCO CUSTOM PAINT AND BODY was named the Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce May Small Business of the Month. Opened in April 1988, Steve Francisco now employs 21 and is primarily a collision repair service that uses original equipment manufacture and factory paints.

MEGH SINGH, Ph.D., University of Florida professor of horticulture at the Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred, was named Outstanding Weed Scientist by the Florida Weed Science Society at an awards banquet in Vero Beach recently.

MICHAEL ROGERS, Ph.D., University of Florida assistant professor of Entomology at the Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred, was awarded a National Science Foundation travel grant to attend the XXII International Congress of Entomology in Brisbane, Australia, in August.

DEBRA HENSON, Lakeland Police Department, will serve as chair-elect for Leadership Lakeland Class XXIII under current chair, Bill Mutz, president of Lakeland Automall.

ASC GEOSCIENCES INC. is the recipient of the 2003 Project of Outstanding Technical Achievement given by David Luft, acting president of the Ridge Chapter of the Florida Engineering Society. ASC was recognized for its involvement on the eight-story "B" wing addition at Lakeland Regional Medical Center. D.S. "Sax" Saxena is president of ASC.

FAYE DOPPELHEUER of Babe's Shoes and Apparel, Southgate Shopping Center, Lakeland, recently attended a three-day retail education retreat in Myrtle Beach, S.C. She was one of 20 speciality shop owners from nine states and Canada to take part in the event.

LISA KAISER HICKEY, CEO of Douglass Screen Printers Inc., was elected the National Association of Women Business Owners' next vice president of corporate and economic development. Hickey currently serves as director at large on the NAWBO board.

Notices from the East Polk area appear in the East Polk section of The Ledger on Tuesdays. Send announcements and photos from all areas to Lynne Maddox, The Ledger, P.O. Box 408, Lakeland, Fla. 33802. Fax number: 863-802-7826; e-mail lynne. maddox@theledger.com. Deadline is Wednesday noon.