People on the move 6/27/11

Two travel companies merge

Shari Elfrink, president of 1st Class Travel Inc. and Cynthia Schutt, owner of All Around Travel LLC, have merged their companies and will operate as 1st Class Travel Inc. Schutt is working at 1st Class Travel's existing location, 3443 William St., Suite B, in Cape Girardeau. The merger pools more than 35 years of expertise in vacation and business travel, Elfrink said. Schutt is a certified Sandals specialist in destination weddings and honeymoon planning. 1st Class Travel was established in 1996 and has been recognized this year as a top-selling agency for Apple Vacations, FunJet Vacations and MLT Vacations.

Nurse group opening 2 sites

Midwest Family Care, a nurse practitioner group, will open at two locations July 11. The facilities. staffed by nurse practitioners Deborah Seeger, Kathy Arnzen and Bernita Bell, are at 36 Doctors' Park in Cape Girardeau and 2387 W. Jackson Blvd. in Jackson. Midwest Family Care will provide care for patients of all ages and will accept all major insurances. Open houses from 4:30 to 7 p.m. will be held in Jackson on July 5 and in Cape Girardeau on July 7.

Area DJ wins state award

Rick Sinclair, operations manager of Pure Country C-106.1, was named Medium Market DJ of the Year by the Missouri Broadcasters Association during its annual awards banquet at Lake of the Ozarks. Sinclair has been on the air, from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m., on C-106.1 since March 2009. This is the seventh DJ award he has received since starting at KSIM in Sikeston, Mo. in 1983. Sinclair is the only person in the history of the Missouri Broadcasters Association that has received Small Market DJ of the Year six times. He previously won top honors for complete newscast while performing as morning host on KSIM in Sikeston and KWOS in Jefferson City while working for Zimmer Radio Group. Sinclair is also a broker/real estate agent with Century 21 Ashland Realty in Cape Girardeau.

Cape woman joins Woods staff

Keisha Panagos of Cape Girardeau has been hired to join the team of adjunct instructors at William Woods University. She will be teaching graduate level education courses in the master's and doctoral program. In May 2011, Panagos graduated with her Ph.D. in educational studies from St. Louis University. From 2008 to 2010 she worked as a graduate assistant at St. Louis University, where she taught undergraduate courses in foundations of language and literacy, methods of elementary reading, and action research. During her assistantship she worked collaboratively with Hodgen Elementary, which serves as the professional development school for early childhood, elementary and middle school literacy and math. She has been the assistant editor for The Missouri Reader since 2008 and is an active member in various professional organizations including Show-Me Curriculum Administrator's Association, Learning Forward, American Educational Researcher Association, International Reading Association and Missouri Reading Association. Panagos is currently the K-12 curriculum director and A+ coordinator at Scott City School District.

Cape man joins dental practice

Cody W. Bell of Cape Girardeau has joined the Kaelin Dental Group in Cape Girardeau. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry with a doctor of dental surgery degree. He received numerous awards and honors, including dean's list for seven semesters and a score of 90 or above on Part I and Part II of National Board Dental Examinations. He was a senior departmental advanced studies program participant in oral surgery, was inducted into the Omicron Kappa Upsilon National Dental Honor Society and received the American Academy of Gold Foil Operators Award.