All Comfort Services Turns 50 This Year!

Help Us Celebrate Our 50th Anniversary

It’s 2023, All Comfort and the Davies are celebrating their 50th year of business in Madison with a very special gift to their employees, their customers, and our town. Larry Davies, owner of All Comfort Services, sold all of his 100% percent stock to his own employees on December 31, 2022, creating an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). In doing so, All Comfort Services joins a unique group of companies that are 100% employee-owned.

In 1973, Larry and Susan Davies started a company known today as All Comfort Services in their basement while raising their three children in Fitchburg and later McFarland.

Founded under the name Air Comfort, the Davies’ upstart focused on the repair of heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration equipment for residential and commercial customers. Life was good.

Like their children, the company grew quickly and the Davies’ soon relocated its headquarters from their basement to a building on Bjorksten Place in Fitchburg. Day after day, job upon job, the company earned a reputation for its focus on the customer and its growing fleet of bright yellow trucks.

In 2000, Air Comfort added electrical and plumbing divisions to complement its heating and cooling services. In 2004, the company changed its name to All Comfort Services to reflect its mission of taking care of a customer’s whole home to provide total comfort. With continued growth, All Comfort Services moved from Fitchburg to its current location on Voges Road in Madison.

In 2005 Kendall Richards was hired as president of the company. Under Kendall and Larry’s leadership, the company has grown to over 50 people.

Alan and Karyn Lord retired from Air Quality System in February 2022, Larry Davies, the owner of All Comfort Services, who had been 50% owner of Air Quality since the beginning and worked out an agreement to support and service Air Quality’s customers. Larry Davies and Alan have been working together for over 40 years.

In 2022, just one year from turning 50, the company rededicated itself to its customers, and revitalized the core values at the heart of its success: Community, Expertise, and Respect. To these they added a purpose statement to rally around: “create awesome experiences every day.”

Naviant Wins 3 Elite Hyland Partner Awards: Hyland Cloud Partner of the Year, Top Platinum Partner, and Diamond Support

Media contact: Jen Hein | jhein@naviant.com

Naviant Wins 3 Elite Hyland Partner Awards: Hyland Cloud Partner of the Year, Top Platinum Partner, and Diamond Support

Naviant, an OnBase reseller, was recently honored by Hyland for its outstanding cloud services, customer support, and partner performance by receiving the Cloud Partner of the Year Award, the OnBase Diamond Support Award, and achieving Platinum Partner Status.

“At Naviant, we are proud to provide the highest level of service and commitment to our satisfied customers, and we believe our +96% retention rate clearly reflects this dedication,” says Michael Carr, President and CEO at Naviant. “The best-in-class Hyland automation platforms have a direct and measurable impact on our clients and help them work more efficiently with less. These top Elite honors help set Naviant apart from the other OnBase partners.”

“Our partner program features industry leaders that provide cutting-edge technology to streamline processes, empower employees, and enhance customer connections. We congratulate Naviant’s dedication to customer success and outstanding achievement as a recipient of the Cloud Partner of the Year Award, Platinum Partner status, and Diamond Support Honors,” said Bob Dunn, Vice President of Global Partner Programs at Hyland.

Cloud Partner of the Year

Naviant, a long-time Hyland partner, was the recipient of the Cloud Partner of the Year Award for its dedication to structuring its team to align with the Hyland Cloud Platform Engineering team. Doing so has optimized how Naviant deploys, services, and supports its Hyland Cloud customers, which has resulted in a high-quality customer experience.

Platinum Partner Status

Additionally, Naviant has received Platinum Partner Status. This honor is only awarded to Hyland’s top-performing partners based on the criteria of digital transformation experience and sales revenues.

As a long-standing key partner of Hyland, Naviant is a part of the Authorized OnBase Solution Provider community, an exclusive partner network of more than 300 Hyland partners worldwide. OnBase Partners provide implementation expertise and hands-on support for OnBase customers. Together with Hyland, we also offer customers the highest level of technical support as they receive ongoing OnBase training and the backing of Hyland.

OnBase Diamond Support Award

Naviant has also been awarded the OnBase Diamond Support Award for 19 years in a row. The criteria for this prestigious award are based on the ratio of employees providing support to customers, training, customer retention, and the percentage of customers using the latest release of OnBase. Hyland also considers customer feedback, requiring that the winning partner has a customer retention rate of at least 95 percent, which is based on annual renewals and customer satisfaction surveys.

About Naviant

Naviant is a nationally recognized intelligent automation solutions integrator and business process consulting organization with over 30 years of experience. We help our clients do more with less by using technology to streamline processes and gain visibility into the data they need to make better decisions.

Our “process-first” approach emphasizes the importance of process improvement before implementing technology solutions such as OnBase, Brainware, the ABBYY intelligent capture platform, and Hyland RPA.

We are proud to be a top-tier partner for Hyland’s OnBase, a single enterprise information platform for managing content, processes, and cases. OnBase combines ECM, case management, business process management (BPM), records management, compliance, and capture functionality on a single platform. To learn more about Naviant, please visit naviant.com. Process focus. Excellence.

About Hyland

Hyland is a leading content services provider that enables thousands of organizations to deliver better

experiences to the people they serve. Hyland offers a range of cloud-based technologies, solutions, and services that help its customers navigate the complex digital ecosystem that is essential for any thriving, modern organization.

Additionally, Hyland has been recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms for 12 consecutive years. Gartner now also includes Hyland as a Representative Vendor in the new Gartner Market Guide for Content Services Platforms (CSP). Find us at Hyland.com.

WPS selects Wendy Perkins as its next President and CEO

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
DeAnne Boegli
Vice President of Communications
608-512-5754
deanne.boegli@wpsic.com

WPS selects Wendy Perkins as its next President and CEO
She will be the first female to lead in 76 years

MADISON, Wis.—March 15, 2023—Following a nationwide search, WPS Health Solutions has hired Wendy Perkins, its current Chief Management Officer, as its next President and CEO. Current President and CEO Mike Hamerlik announced his impending retirement last year after more than 10 years of service.

Perkins joined WPS in 2016 and has held varied positions of increasing responsibility, preparing  her to seamlessly transition to her new role as President and CEO. She has extensive experience in driving strategic growth and in leading high-performing teams to achieve key results. Her experience at WPS and with other major industry players makes her an expert at understanding how to successfully compete and perform in the health care and government sectors. Perkins is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. She also completed the Strategic Leadership Program at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. Prior to WPS she held leadership positions at Anthem and at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Wisconsin.

“The search and evaluation process over the past few months was extensive; we had many highly qualified and impressive candidates from across the nation,” Kristine Euclide, Chair of the WPS Board of Directors, said. “Wendy stood out as the right choice to lead WPS and move the company forward at this time.”

“I’m honored to be selected as President and CEO and value the trust the WPS Board and Transition Committee has placed in me,” Perkins said. “WPS is in a growth phase with rich opportunities on the horizon. WPS employees are driven to succeed, so I have no doubt we will achieve great things together.”

Perkins will take the reins on April 1, 2023. She will be the company’s fifth President and CEO since the company incorporated in 1977 and the first female to lead the company in its 76-year history.

Hamerlik said, “During my time at WPS, we’ve accomplished many things, from modernizing our systems and forging new partnerships to changing how we work and finding new ways to make health care easier for the people we serve. I know Wendy will continue to lead and support our employees as the company enters its next growth phase. Our customers, beneficiaries, business partners, and communities are in trusted hands.”

About WPS Health Solutions^®

Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation (WPS Health Solutions), founded in 1946, is a nationally regarded benefits administrator for a variety of U.S. government programs and a leading not-for-profit health insurer in Wisconsin. WPS Health Solutions serves active-duty and retired military personnel, seniors, individuals, and families in Wisconsin, across the U.S., and around the world. WPS Health Solutions, headquartered in Madison, Wis., has more than 2,600 employees. Within the enterprise, there are three divisions: WPS Government Health Administrators, WPS Military and Veterans Health, and WPS Health Insurance/WPS Health Plan/EPIC Specialty Benefits. For more information, please visit wpshealthsolutions.com.

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UW–Madison welcomes Eve L. Ewing for Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program and Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Media Contact: aryn kresol, Arts Residency Programs Coordinator at UW–Madison Division of the Arts, akresol@wisc.edu

URL: go.wisc.edu/Ewing 

Link to media assets: https://uwmadison.box.com/s/j03maxlwcrojyct38wxpe2dpb9qmalpg 

Link to article: https://artsdivision.wisc.edu/2023/03/13/ewing-iarp/ 

UW–Madison welcomes Eve L. Ewing for Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program and Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival

Madison, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of the Arts and the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) welcome writer, sociologist, poet and professor Dr. Eve L. Ewing as Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence and featured performer for the 2023 Line Breaks Festival.

An academic year-long partnership between the Division of the Arts and OMAI, the collaboration presents a series of short-term residencies with interdisciplinary artists who represent the three pillars of OMAI: academics, arts and activism. The residency series has brought Jay Adana and Zeniba Now, Jasmine Mans and Porsha Olayiwola to UW–Madison. 

The fourth and last in the academic year-long series, Ewing’s residency will be from March 30–April 1, 2023 and will include a public conversation with poet and UW–Madison faculty Paul Tran on Thursday, March 30, and feature and headline performances at the annual Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival on Friday, March 31 and Saturday, April 1.

OMAI’s Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival consists of performances, lectures and discussions by First Wave artist-scholars and invited professional artists engaging with the Madison community, on and off campus. Inaugurated through OMAI’s sponsored Interdisciplinary Arts Residency with Marc Bamuthi Joseph in the spring of 2007, the Line Breaks project culminated in a final performance of student work called “Just Bust!.” Now running for 15 years, “Just Bust!” has evolved into an open mic. Line Breaks brings the top new aesthetics in contemporary hip hop and interdisciplinary performance art to the UW–Madison campus and the surrounding community. It has evolved into a space for the investigation of contemporary American culture through the lens of hip hop performance. Line Breaks is now one of the largest hip hop-centered performance festivals in the Midwest and continues to be a space for the cultivation and presentation of independent and collaborative work by First Wave artist-scholars. Here, unique responses to common human experiences are explored. The narratives, myths and legends, specific to these diverse communities, are unearthed, distilled and presented in an environment that encourages discussion and continued investigation.

Public Events

Thursday, March 30 | 5:30–7:00 p.m.

Page & Stage: An Evening with Eve L. Ewing and Paul Tran

A Room of One’s Own (2717 Atwood Avenue)

UW–Madison’s Division of the Arts, the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives and A Room of One’s Own are thrilled to welcome Eve L. Ewing to Madison in conversation with poet and UW–Madison Assistant Professor of English and Asian American Studies Paul Tran. 

Register here. This event is all ages, free and open to the public. Space is limited: register to guarantee a spot. Masks are required at this venue.

Friday, March 31 | 4:30–5:30 p.m.

Pre-Show Reception

Sunset Lounge, Memorial Union (800 Langdon Street)

Join the Division of the Arts and the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) in celebrating the opening of the 2023 Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival! Doors for Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival Showcase open at 5:30 p.m. Register here for the Friday evening Showcase.

Friday, March 31 | 6:00–8:00 p.m.

Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival Showcase  

Shannon Hall, Wisconsin Union Theater, Memorial Union (800 Langdon Street)

Join the Division of the Arts and the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) for the 2023 Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival! This Friday night Showcase features performances by First Wave artist-scholars in the 15th Cohort; Diya Abbas (14th Cohort) and Azura Tyabji (13th Cohort); Jackson Neal (12th Cohort); and featured performances by guests of Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence Eve L. Ewing including Jamila Woods and Nate Marshall. The Showcase will conclude with a talkback with the featured performers and Eve L. Ewing, moderated by Amanda Torres.

Register here! This event is all ages, free and open to the public. Masks are encouraged.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

A pre-show reception will take place from 4:30–5:30 p.m. in the Memorial Union’s Sunset Lounge.

Saturday, April 1 | 6:00–8:00 p.m.

Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival Showcase  

Shannon Hall, Wisconsin Union Theater  (800 Langdon Street)

Join the Division of the Arts and the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) for the 2023 Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival! This Saturday night Showcase features performances by First Wave artist-scholars in the 15th Cohort; First Wave alumna, Shasparay Irvin; the First Wave Touring Ensemble; and headlining performance by Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence Eve L. Ewing. The Showcase will conclude with a talkback with select performers and OMAI Artistic Director Mark H. 

Register here! This event is all ages, free and open to the public. Masks are encouraged.

A post-show reception will take place 8–9:30 p.m. in the Memorial Union’s Sunset Lounge.

Saturday, April 1 | 8:00–9:30 p.m.

Post-Show Reception 

Sunset Lounge, Memorial Union (800 Langdon Street)

Join the Division of the Arts and the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) to close out the 2023 Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival! 

Learn more and register here for the Saturday evening Showcase.

About the Artist

Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a sociologist of education and a writer from Chicago. She is the author of a book for young readers, “Maya and the Robot,” the poetry collection “1919” and the nonfiction work, “Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side.” Her first book, the poetry collection “Electric Arches,” received awards from the American Library Association and the Poetry Society of America, and was named one of the year’s best books by NPR and the “Chicago Tribune.” She is the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of the play “No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks.” She also currently writes the “Champions” series for Marvel Comics, and previously wrote the acclaimed “Ironheart” series, as well as other projects. Ewing is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. Her work has been published in “The New Yorker,” “The Atlantic,” “The New York Times,” and many other venues. Currently she is working on her next book, “Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism,” which will be published by One World.

About the Presenters

The Division of the Arts’ Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program (IARP), originated through the Cluster Hiring Initiative of the Office of the Provost, brings innovative, world-class artists to the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. Since 1999, the program has hosted over 40 residencies involving more than 100 guest artists from 20 different countries, engaging over 60 university units and community organizations. 

All residencies center interdisciplinary arts, recognizing that interdisciplinarity can break down barriers and silos, advance intellectual artistic diversity and give opportunities to people who do not fit into the traditional modes of inquiry and practice (see the Division of the Arts’ guiding principle of The Arts for Everyone, Everywhere). The program often brings together artists, faculty, staff and students from various disciplines across the arts, sciences and humanities. Integrated with curricular activities, all arts residencies in this program are proposed by academic departments or officially recognized interdepartmental programs, centers or institutes at UW–Madison.

While in residence, artists teach interdisciplinary workshops and participate in public programming with campus and Madison communities. The program provides students with extended learning experiences with a working artist, including options to earn course credit; increases diversity of teaching staff on campus; and strengthens programmatic ties among individual departments, programs and other campus and community arts entities.

The Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) within the Division of Diversity, Equity, & Educational Achievement provides culturally relevant and transformative arts programming to promote positive social dialogue and to give cultural art forms a legitimate academic forum. By harnessing the broad cultural influence of spoken word, hip hop and emerging as well as traditional art forms, OMAI’s events and programming create learning environments that directly affect UW–Madison’s campus climate, improving retention and graduation success, preparing future leaders to reinvest in their communities. By continually refreshing this paradigm that integrates traditional academics and cutting edge arts activism, OMAI empowers transnational leaders with new tools for inclusive community building.

One of OMAI’s most prominent initiatives is the First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Learning Community, a cutting-edge multicultural artistic program for incoming students which offers a four-year full tuition scholarship to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Bringing together young artists and leaders from across the United States and beyond, the First Wave Learning Community offers students the opportunity to live, study and create together in a close-knit, dynamic campus community. First Wave is the first university program in the country centered on urban arts, spoken word and hip-hop culture.

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WPS Health Solutions partners with Milwaukee Brewers™ to offer the Senior Stroll and Senior Ticket Discount

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
DeAnne Boegli
Vice President of Communications
608-512-5754
deanne.boegli@wpsic.com

WPS partners with Milwaukee Brewers™ to offer the Senior Stroll and Senior Ticket Discount

MADISON, Wis.—March 10, 2023— The Senior Stroll and Senior Ticket Discount, both Milwaukee Brewers™ promotions presented by WPS Health Insurance®, are returning to American Family Field for select weekday afternoon games during the 2023 regular season.

Fans 60 and older can purchase tickets for 50% off, presented by WPS Health Insurance. They are then invited to stick around after the game to stroll along the outfield warning track. Stroll participants can enter to win a Brewers™ jersey or autographed baseball.

The Senior Stroll dates coincide with the team’s Senior Ticket Discount. To save 50% on tickets for these games, visit brewers.com/wps.

The discounts and Senior Strolls are scheduled for the following games:

• April 5 vs. NYM
• April 26 vs. DET
• May 10 vs. LAD
• May 24 vs. HOU
• June 8 vs. BAL
• June 21 vs. ARI
• July 3 vs. CHC (no Senior Stroll)
• July 4 vs. CHC (no Senior Stroll)
• July 26 vs. CIN
• Aug. 9 vs. COL
• Aug. 23 vs. MIN
• Sept. 14 vs. MIA

The postgame Senior Stroll line begins behind section 111, along the first-base side of the stadium on the Field Level.

“WPS Health Insurance began presenting the Senior Stroll and Senior Ticket Discount in 2019. We are eager to offer our seniors this unique and enjoyable benefit,” said Megan Willauer, Manager of Corporate Affairs at WPS. “It’s an experience of a lifetime for some of these individuals, and WPS is proud to partner with the Brewers to provide this opportunity.”

When fans complete their stroll, WPS employees will be on hand to thank them for their participation and offer them the chance to enter a drawing to win a Brewers™ jersey or a baseball signed by a Brewers™ player.

About WPS Health Insurance^®

As one of the largest health benefits providers in the state, Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation (WPS Health Insurance) offers a variety of services and coverage with Preferred Provider Organization health plans for individuals and groups, third-party administrator services, and Medicare supplement insurance plans. Headquartered in Madison, Wis., and with employees throughout the state, WPS Health Insurance is deeply committed to Wisconsin and its residents. Visit wpshealth.com for more information.

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