UPDATED: Fri., Dec. 18, 2020

Spokane Center for Facial Plastic Surgery, a division of Columbia Surgical Specialists, has hired Brittany Martin, MSN, APRN, FNP-C. Martin graduated magna cum laude from Whitworth University and WSU College of Nursing, then completed graduate studies at Gonzaga University and graduated with honors. She is a Spokane native and worked at Columbia Surgical Specialists through her graduate studies. Martin will provide various in-office procedures, including Botox/Dysport injections, filler treatments, miraDry treatments, platelet rich plasma injections and intense-pulsed light therapy. She also will assist with post-op appointments.

Paul Merritt has been appointed as the CEO of Fatbeam, a fiber-broadband internet provider in the Coeur dAlene and Spokane areas. He has nearly 20 years experience in the telecom industry. Merritt recently served in the hyperscalers-business segment for Lumen, formerly CenturyLink, managing strategies for product and solution development and sales performance. Prior to his role at Lumen, Merritt directed all aspects of daily-sales operations for cloud, software, and infrastructure vertical teams at Zayo. He also has served as the regional vice president for Comcast Business and has held various positions with XO Communications, Qwest (CenturyLink), Redapt and Allstream.

Spokane Home Builders Association has hired Jennifer Thomas as the membership services director and Beth Hanson as office manager. Thomas previously worked with SHBAs advertising agency, QUINN, where she headed the digital advertising team. She has also been a strategist for multiple Spokane businesses. In her new role, Thomas will oversee member services, such as recruitment and retention efforts and member benefit programs. Hanson previously worked for Douglass Properties, serving nine years as a property manager and four years as the accounts payable processor, assistant to the financial controller and senior property manager. In her new role, she will handle office operations, database management and financial oversight. She will also serve as a staff liaison for the Finance and Education Committees and the Remodelers Council.

Numerica Credit Union has been honored as Outstanding Community Lender for the U.S. Small Business Administrations Seattle District, which includes all of Washington state and North Idaho. The award recognizes the community bank or credit union which closed the most standard SBA loans in the district during the SBA fiscal year, which ran from October 2019 to September . The award only measures traditional SBA 7 (a) loans, which provide assistance to small businesses. Loans and relief provided by banks and credit unions due to COVID-19 legislation, such as Paycheck Protection Program loans, were not included in the U.S. Small Business Administrations count of standard SBA loans for this award. Numerica is headquartered in Spokane Valley and has more than 158,000 members in Central and Eastern Washington and North Idaho. It manages $2.9 billion in assets.

Inland Empire Property Watch has earned accreditation from the National Home Watch Association. The NHWA is an organization that was founded in 2009 with the goal to create and maintain high-industry standards for Home Watch and absentee homeowner services throughout the United States and Canada. Home Watch is a visual inspection service for homes and other properties available to property owners who are not physically present to oversee their property. Inland Empire Property Watch is owned by John and Shari Miller who reside in Wilbur, Washington. Originally from Skagit Valley, Washington, they moved to Eastern Washington in 2012 and worked at Lake Roosevelt, where they operated the Keller Ferry and managed the Keller Ferry Marina and Campground for several years.

After meeting many seasonal residents in the area, they recently decided to open Inland Empire Property Watch.

The business serves Wilbur, Davenport, Republic, Seven Bays and Grand Coulee. Accreditation through NHWA ensures that owners and operators of Home Watch service providers have passed criminal background checks; maintain insurance coverage for general and professional liability and proper bonding; display truthful website and advertising content; and adhere to the NHWAs code of ethics and mission statement. NHWA also checks on the providers consumer complaints.

Plenty of us will be happy to see 2020 in our rear-view window come Jan. 1.

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Business beat - The Spokesman-Review