Business & People Notes April 2020

Children’s Advocacy Centers of Oklahoma (CACO) welcomes Carrie Little as executive director. She assumed duties in March 2020.
Little brings with her more than 19 years of experience in the social work field including leadership roles in child welfare and domestic violence prevention in the states of Oklahoma, California, and Colorado. She has experience in non-profit leadership, and left her role as Vice President of Administrative Affairs for The Parent Child Center of Tulsa to join CACO. Little has lived in Tulsa for over 10 years, and served as the Executive Director of the Child Advocacy Center in Canadian County before moving to Tulsa in 2009.
There are 20 accredited Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) in the Oklahoma. CACO serves as the CACs’ State Chapter, providing the Centers with training and technical support in their efforts to provide services to suspected or confirmed victims of child abuse and neglect.
Arvest Bank has announced James White has been promoted to mortgage production center sales manager in Tulsa.
White joined Arvest in 2003 and has served in a variety of roles, and has been part of its mortgage division since 2006. In his new role, White manages the production center’s sales team and is responsible for advising on an array of products for residential loans, among other duties.
“James brings a wealth of experience, expertise and leadership skills to this new role,” Arvest mortgage sales manager Shawn Karnes said. “His passion for helping customers and finding solutions for their individual needs is evident, and we believe this new position will be great not just for our mortgage division, but more importantly, those customers.”
White earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Central Oklahoma. Among numerous civic endeavors, he volunteers on behalf of the American Heart Association, The City Lights Foundation of Oklahoma, Habitat for Humanity and BattleCreek Church. White and his wife, Melissa, have three children.
CareATC, a leading health management company providing innovative primary care services for self-insured employers, announces managerial appointments. Scott Strickland has been named president and chief operating officer. Strickland most recently served as COO for a healthcare technology business in the physical therapy sector, and prior to that, as senior vice president of therapy services for U.S. HealthWorks. Earlier in his career, Strickland held leadership roles at Select Medical Corporation and Outreach Senior Healthcare and also served in private practice as a masters-degreed physical therapist.
Lisa Ness joins CareATC as chief revenue officer, bringing 30 years of sales experience in healthcare including directing sales efforts for companies such as Proactive MD, Premise Health and Pfizer. She is also a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator.
“Our industry-leading organic growth is a testament to the talented and dedicated team at CareATC and our commitment to offering leading edge population health solutions to employers,” states CareATC’s CEO, Greg Bellomy.
Additionally, Ann Stoeppelwerth, who has been part of the executive team at CareATC since 2015, takes on the new mantel of Chief Engagement Solutions Officer. Stoeppelwerth will focus on narrowing emerging risk and improving outcomes for clients through population health communications, patient activization and member engagement. Paul Keeling, the company’s Chief Business Development Officer with more than 15 years of experience at CareATC, will now lead the company’s commitment to client retention and continued growth and scalability of existing customers.
Palmer Continuum of Care has named Liz Neas as its new executive director. Neas will succeed Greg Sneed, longtime executive director for Palmer.
The change in leadership comes after Sneed, who served children, women and their families at Palmer for nearly 20 years, announced plans to retire. Sneed will continue to support Neas and the nonprofit’s mission as an advisor to the organization’s board of directors until his retirement later this year.
“The board is very excited to have found Liz. We’re confident that her strong leadership and passion for our mission will help take Palmer to the next level,” said Tiffany Hatcher, president of the board of directors for Palmer Continuum of Care
Neas, a nonprofit professional who most recently served as a director for Tulsa Educare, is now leading Palmer’s efforts to provide trauma-informed, gender sensitive, age appropriate and culturally competent substance abuse treatment.
Through serving the Tulsa community for nearly 30 years, the newly named executive director brings experience from several local nonprofit organizations including the YMCA of Greater Tulsa, Emergency Infant Services and Big Brothers Big Sisters, as well as Youth Services of Tulsa. 
“I am honored to have the opportunity to lead Palmer and its dedicated team of staff,” said Neas.  “I look forward to being a part of such an important effort to make a positive difference for even more women and children who struggle with substance abuse and chemical dependency.”
Neas holds a master’s degree in human relations from University of Oklahoma, as well as a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Southern Nazarene University. She also obtained an associate’s degree in Early Childhood Development from Northeastern Oklahoma A & M Jr. College.
She is also a 2016 graduate of the Tulsa Area United Way’s neXtulsa Leadership Program.