New staff members

Cara Luechtefeld has joined The New Look Salon.

Rebecca M. "Becky" Colker has been appointed chief financial officer for St. Mary's Hospital.

Deborah Warren has joined Busey Bank as assistant banking center manager of the north facility located at 2505 N. Water St.

Steven Mayo has joined Investment–Planners Inc. and will be partnering with Illinois-based Thomas Ealy to work as primary advisers for IPI East Coast clients.

Announcements

Dale Edgecombe of Decatur Mutual Insurance Agency has been elected president of Pekin Life Insurance Company's Inner Circle Club.

Achievements

Morgan Distributing Inc. and its employees received the top honor in the Exxon-Mobil Circle of Excellence in its Lubricant Division for North America during a ceremony in New York City.

The Herald & Review won several awards in statewide newspaper contests, including a third place for general excellence and a sweepstakes award for photo excellence.

The newspaper took the top honor for its circulation category in the Illinois Associated Press Editors Association Photo Excellence contest. For the sweepstakes award, all the first-place photos for each category are pooled and judges pick a "best of a show." Chief photographer Kelly J. Huff earned first place in sports action, which also won the sweepstakes.

Staff photographer Stephen Haas finished third place for photos in two categories, general news and sports feature.

The newspaper took first place in the special section category for its Outlook section with a "Links to Lincoln" theme. Staff writer Kenneth Lowe was first in the government beat writing category, Life editor Jeana Matherly was second in the Lifestyle section category, and Huff placed second for a photo series.

The newspaper's Web site, www.herald-review.com, earned an honorable mention for best Web site. Other honorable mentions went to copy editor Heather Hall in headline writing, entertainment editor Tim Cain for an original column and Haas for a spot news photo.

In the Illinois Associated Press Editors Association Editorial Excellence contest, Cain won first place in nondeadline news writing, staff writer Tony Reid took second in feature writing, former staff writer Alicia Spates finished second in entertainment news, and copy editor Shari Cain was third in headlines.

Promotions

Marcus Brown has been named interim vice president of Student and Academic Services at Richland Community College.

Hickory Point Bank & Trust has announced the promotions of Anthony Nestler and Brett Swallow to executive vice presidents.

Business Clips are abbreviated versions of paid announcements that have appeared in the Business Achievements section, which appears Mondays in the Herald & Review. View the complete announcement or submit your business' or employees' achievements at herald-review.com/app/secure/businessach.