• Shreveport Lands Call Center, 600 New Jobs

Advanced Call Center Technologies (ACT) is investing $1.5 million to develop a new customer care center in Shreveport that will create 600 direct new jobs. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project will result in 314 indirect jobs, for a total of more than 900 new jobs in Louisiana’s Northwest region.

ACT is moving into the East Ridge Plaza business center in Shreveport and will renovate the site with infrastructure upgrades, equipment installation and additional parking. Philadelphia-based ACT provides multi-channel customer service support, fraud and dispute management, claim processing and other services. The new customer care center capacity has room for over 1,000 new teammates, including work from home or onsite positions. Hiring for new positions will begin in February 2022.

• 318 Climb Introduces Brand

318 Climb, an indoor rock-climbing gym in Shreveport, is introducing itself to the community and pledges to take the sport of indoor rock climb to the next level. Formerly G-Rock Climbing Gym, new owners Sarah and Casey Rose endeavor to grow interest in the sport. Property updates and improvements are under way and new programs are being offered. Their climbing league is open to anyone over 16. Student athletes from 8-18 can learn the fundamentals of climbing and grow their skills. 318 Climb has options for experiencing climbing for a day, multiple visits – or regularly through monthly or annual memberships. 318 Climb is located at 731 American Way, Shreveport. Visit www.318climb.com for more info.

• Medical Society Honors Rozeman

Phillip Rozeman, MD, a founding physician of Willis- Knighton Cardiology, is the recipient of the 59th annual Distinguished Service Award given by the Northwest Louisiana Medical Society. The award recognizes individuals for their outstanding contribution in medicine.

In addition to being a founder and president of Willis-Knighton Cardiology and Minden Heart and Vascular Center, Dr. Rozeman is past chief of staff of Willis-Knighton and Minden Medical Center and previous president of the Shreveport Medical Society.

Dr. Rozeman is active in multiple areas of community service locally and statewide. He currently serves on the board of the Louisiana Committee of 100, Louisiana Association of Business, Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, Louisiana Policy Institute for Children, LSUS and Bossier Parish Community College Foundations and the Magnolia K-12 Charter School.

He has been named Business Leader of the Year by both the Shreveport and Minden Chambers of Commerce and is a member of the Northwest Louisiana Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame. He received the John Miciotto Healthcare Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bossier Chamber of Commerce and the “Spirit of Martin Luther King Award” from the city of Shreveport.

He is past chairman of the Shreveport Chamber of Commerce, Blueprint Louisiana, Alliance for Education, Education’s Next Horizon, and the Caddo-Shreveport Master Plan Advisory Board.

Over the last 25 years, he has received the annual community service awards of the Northwest Louisiana and Acadiana United Way, LSUS, Shreveport Bar Association, March of Dimes and the Council for A Better Louisiana (CABL)

• Kim to Lead Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Dr. David Kim, professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) at LSU Health Shreveport (LSUHS), has been selected through a national search to serve as the chair of the department. David Kim, DMD, MD, FACS, has served as the interim chair since April of 2021.

Dr. Kim brings 25 years of rigorous clinical and academic experience to the position having served as an OMS instructor while at the University of Baltimore, as the LSUHS OMS residency program director from 2005 - 2014, and as the LSUHS director of the Head and Neck Surgery and Microvascular Reconstruction Fellowship for the past 15 years. Kim will continue serving as chief of the Division of Head and Neck Oncology and Reconstructive Surgery, which he established in 2014.

Dr. Kim earned his dental degree from the University of Pittsburg School of Dental Medicine followed by a medical degree from the State University of New York (SUNY) Health Science Center in Brooklyn. He also completed a general surgery and oral and maxillofacial surgery residency at SUNY followed by a fellowship in head and neck surgery and microvascular reconstruction at the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

• Dr. G.E. Ghali Joins Willis-Knighton

Willis-Knighton Health System announced that renowned oral and maxillofacial surgeon G.E. Ghali, DDS, MD, FACS, FRCS(Ed), has joined the Willis-Knighton Ghali Physician Network and will continue seeing patients and performing oral and maxillofacial surgical procedures at Willis-Knighton’s South, North, Pierremont and Bossier hospitals.

Dr. Ghali came to Shreveport to attend medical school after earning his undergraduate degree at Dallas Baptist University and completing dental school at Baylor College of Dentistry. He received his medical degree here in Shreveport in 1994. Following a four-year residency in oral and maxillofacial surgery at Parkland Hospital/ UTSWMC, Dr. Ghali completed a one-year head and neck surgery fellowship at Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Oregon. He rose through the ranks of the Departments of Surgery and Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery. He was named chair of the newly created Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in 2004. In 2016, he was appointed chancellor of LSU Health Shreveport and dean of the LSU School of Medicine – Shreveport.