People You Should Know features new hires, promotions and awards involving top executives and organizations. For consideration, email [email protected]. Guaranteed placement is provided only to partners of SiouxFalls.Business.

Augustana University

Augustana University has named Dr. Andrew Ellsworth of Brookings as its Horizon Award recipient. The Horizon Award recognizes young alumni who have quickly demonstrated outstanding vocational achievement and have provided faithful service to their community or church. Since 2012, Ellsworth has been a board-certified family physician with the Avera Medical Group and Brookings Health System. He serves on the boards of directors of the South Dakota Academy of Family Physicians and the Brookings Health System. Ellsworth also volunteers with South Dakota Broadcasting to produce the “On Call With the Prairie Doc” show. Ellsworth graduated from Augustana with a major in biology in 2005 and attended the USD School of Medicine.

Sanford POWER Basketball Academy

Shane Hennen

Shane Hennen has been named coordinator of the Sanford POWER Basketball Academy at the Sanford Pentagon. He has been a coach and trainer since 2015 with Hennen Workouts and the Bartlett Basketball Academy, holding skill camps across the Midwest. Hennen holds multiple career records at Minneota High School and played basketball for four years at Morningside College, where he was part of two NAIA DII national tournament teams.

South Dakota Biotech

South Dakota Biotech has presented its annual awards.

Dave Link is the recipient of the LIVE award, recognizing Leadership, Innovation, Vision and Excellence. Link’s 20-year tenure as executive vice president of Sanford Health helped created a foundation of strategic development and research that has positioned the health system as an international leader. Most recently, his work at Dakota State University has been critical to creating a center of research, education and ultimately economic development around cybersecurity.

Dan Engebretson was honored with the Distinguished Collaborator Award for his work at the center of connecting higher education and industry in South Dakota. As chair of the biomedical engineering program at USD and director of the GEAR Center, his work is critical to fostering biotech talent and business growth in South Dakota.

Dakota Business Finance

Dean Nielsen

Trisha Viss

Dakota Business Finance has presented its annual awards.

Lender of the Year: The First National Bank in Sioux Falls.

Individual Lender of the Year: Trisha Viss of Dacotah Bank.

Friend of Dakota Business Finance: Dean Nielsen.

Jake Quasney

Heath Kooiman

Steve Carnes

New members have been elected to the board of directors for Dakota Business Finance: Steve Carnes, Dacotah Bank in Brookings; Heath Kooiman, Woltman Group PC; and Jake Quasney, Lloyd Cos.

Jasmine Leonard

Holmes Murphy

Jasmine Leonard, a senior client service consultant at Holmes Murphy, has been named customer service representative of the year by the Independent Insurance Agents of South Dakota.

South Dakota Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals

The South Dakota Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals has presented its annual awards as part of National Philanthropy Day.

Outstanding Philanthropists of the Year: Larry and Diane Ness of Yankton for their support of education, the arts, children’s and social services, athletics and other initiatives.

Outstanding Philanthropic Corporation: Sammons Financial Group. Last year, the Sioux Falls office  donated more than $3.6 million to organizations, and employees contributed more than 6,800 volunteer hours.

Outstanding Philanthropic Community: Yankton. The Yankton Area Foundation has raised more than $860,000 and distributed almost $435,000 back into the community. The Yankton School District has partnerships with the local Boys and Girls Club, and many local donors support the district by providing additional support. The city’s biggest partnership has been the Dive in Yankton campaign, which raised $2 million for the Huether Family Aquatics Center. Yankton County also contributed more than $2 million to local causes this past year.

Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser: Dave Brende of Sioux Falls. Through his leadership as president of the local ABATE group, more than $130,000 has been raised through motorcycle poker runs for the Children’s Home Society.

Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy: Ben Connor of Howard. Connor led the Tigers Step Up 2 Cancer campaign through the Howard Student Council to raise awareness and money to help cancer patients in Miner County.