Business Digest: Longview financial advisor earns recognition

Business Digest: Longview financial advisor earns recognition

Published 5:40 am Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Shane Sherwood, a private wealth advisor with Sherwood Wealth Partners in Longview, has qualified for Ameriprise Financial Services’ Circle of Success annual recognition program and will be honored for this achievement in 2026.

Sherwood Wealth Partners is  a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services.

To earn this achievement, Sherwood established himself as one of the company’s top advisors.

For information, contact Sherwood at (903) 297-9800, visit the Ameriprise office at 911 W. Loop 281, Suite 113 in Longview or visit SherwoodWealthPartners.com.

Kilgore College faculty receive excellence awards

Kilgore College has selected three faculty members to receive the 2026 National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) Excellence Awards.

The honorees are Stacie Smith, business instructor; Curtis Ivory, biology instructor; and Meghan Potter, theater instructor.

NISOD Excellence Awards recognize men and women each year who demonstrate an outstanding commitment and contribution to their students and colleagues.

The program began in 1989 in connection with a University of Texas at Austin national study of teaching excellence. The response to that first ceremony led NISOD to establish what has become the largest annual recognition program for community and technical college faculty, administrators and staff.

“These three instructors represent the very best of Kilgore College,” said Donny Seals, vice president of instruction at KC. “Their dedication to student success, innovative teaching and service to the college community make them truly deserving of this honor. We are proud to see their work recognized on a national level.”

Engineering professor earns national research award

Dr. Prabha Sundaravadivel, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at The University of Texas at Tyler, received the American Society for  Engineering Education 2026 Curtis W. McGraw Research Award–Non-PhD Granting Program Category. This is UT Tyler’s second McGraw awardee in four years.

The award recognizes Sundaravadivel’s significant research achievements and outstanding research  abilities, trajectory and potential. She will receive a certificate along with a $1,500 honorarium.

“We congratulate Dr. Sundaravadivel for earning this outstanding honor from the American Society  for Engineering Education,” said Dr. Javier Kypuros, dean of the UT Tyler College of Engineering. “This is a well-deserved recognition of her great work and commitment to engineering research.”

Sundaravadivel’s research focuses on edge artificial intelligence, embedded systems and robotics,  with a sustained emphasis on translating research outcomes into deployable, real-world  technologies. Currently, she is working on four funded projects from the U. S. Department of  Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service to help enhance drones-based frameworks for imagery  and crop monitoring on large farms.

A senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Sundaravadivel directs the UT Tyler Center for Robotics and Intelligent Systems and advises the university’s IoT student club. She joined the UT Tyler College of Engineering in 2018.

Sundaravadivel will be recognized in March at the annual business meeting of the ASEE Engineering  Research Council during the 2026 Research Leadership Institute to be held in Alexandria, Virginia.

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