This week’s People You Should Know feature includes news from Augustana University, Meta Financial Group, Sanford Health, South Dakota Biotech, AIA South Dakota, First Bank & Trust, HenkinSchultz Creative Services and MSH Architects.

Augustana University

Augustana University has been ranked in Forbes’ America’s Top Colleges 2017, a listing of the top 650 colleges in the U.S. Among schools in the Midwest, Augustana comes in at No. 98. According to Forbes, the methodology favors variables such as alumni salary, graduation rate and student satisfaction.

Meta Financial Group

Sheree Thornsberry has joined Meta Financial Group Inc. as an executive vice president and the head of payments. Thornsberry will be responsible for the prepaid, debit, correspondent and ATM business lines, including sales and business development, corporate marketing, partner management and product development teams. Her 15 years of experience in the payments industry includes leadership positions at InteliSpend and Blackhawk Network. At Blackhawk Network, Thornsberry was general manager of Hawk Incentives, where she was responsible for leading 600 employees and contributed $2 billion in sales to the enterprise.

Sanford Health

Sanford Health researcher Haotian Zhao has been awarded a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health over the next five years to look for new ways to treat childhood brain tumors. Zhao is an assistant scientist with the Pediatric and Rare Diseases Group and assistant professor of pediatrics at the Sanford School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota. Zhao will look at how the tumors form and how to best target them with less debilitating therapies than those being used now.

Sanford Health has earned full accreditation from the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Program. The nonprofit accredits organizations that conduct or review human research. To earn accreditation, organizations must show that their protections exceed the safeguards required by the U.S. government.

South Dakota Biotech

Christoph Bausch, chief scientific officer of SAB Biotherapeutics, has been named to the board of directors of South Dakota Biotech, the state affiliate of the international BIO organization.

AIA South Dakota

The American Institute of Architecture South Dakota has honored two architects with new annual awards.

Andrew Eitreim, vice president and principal architect of Architecture Incorporated, received the Young Architect Award. The award recognizes Eitreim’s strong work ethic, his ability to find innovative solutions to problems and his active involvement as an AIA board member and with other community organizations.

Alan Richard “Dick” Dempster, founding principal architect and partner of Architecture Incorporated, received the Legacy Award. Dempster has devoted his career to community service and architectural stewardship, helping to preserve the Shoto Teien Japanese Gardens, the Soo Square building, First Congregational Church and the former Masonic Library that now serves as Architecture Incorporated’s Sioux Falls office.

AIA South Dakota honored three members with President’s Awards.

Michelle Klobassa of TSP Inc. received a President’s Award for Exceptional Leadership and Service for developing the AIA South Dakota Design Awards into a celebration event.

Dave Van Nieuwenhuyzen of JLG Architects received a President’s Award for Exceptional Leadership, Service and Mentorship for his service as board president and past president, and for the co-development of a professional-to-student mentorship program.

AIA South Dakota executive director Angela Lammers of Cetera Services LLC received a President’s Award for Exceptional Service and Guidance for strengthening the organization to better serve members.

AIA South Dakota has elected new officers and board members: president, Patri Acevedo, JLG Architects, Rapid City; vice president, Thomas Hurlbert, Co-op Architecture; secretary/treasurer, Michelle Klobassa, TSP Inc.; immediate past president, Gene Fennell, Fennell Design Inc., Rapid City. New board members are Allison Dvorak, Koch Hazard Architects; Jenn Johnson, TSP Inc., Rapid City; and Sienna Wegehaupt, Puetz Construction, Mitchell.

Three architecture firms took home six AIA South Dakota Design Awards.

Co-op Architecture won an Honor Award for Architecture and the People’s Choice Award for its design of the K.O. Lee Public Library in Aberdeen. Co-op also won a Merit Award for Historic Preservation and Adaptive Reuse for its renovation of the Minneapolis & St Louis Railroad Depot into its new Aberdeen office.

Koch Hazard Architects won an Honor Award for Unbuilt Architecture for its ARCH house design for Affordable Housing Solutions and a Merit Award for Architecture for its design of Stockwell Engineers’ Sioux Falls office.

Ciavarella Design Architects of Mitchell won a Merit Award for Architecture for its design of El Columpio restaurant in Mitchell.

First Bank & Trust

Rob Oliver has joined the board of directors for First Bank & Trust. Oliver recently retired as the president of Augustana University.

HenkinSchultz Creative Services

HenkinSchultz Creative Services has added two graphic designers.

Derek Soukup has 12 years of design and marketing experience in Sioux Falls, leading and working on national brands in the food/restaurant and tourism categories.

Julie Vu recently graduated from Augustana University with a double major in art and journalism.

MSH Architects

An MSH Architects project, the performing arts center for Mitchell High School, was featured in American School & University’s 2017 Educational Interiors Showcase. The showcase is an annual honoring excellence in educational interiors and facility planning. MSH Architects designed the 65,000-square-foot performance venue that features a 1,200-seat auditorium, black-box theater and rooms for choral, instrument and performing arts instruction and practice.