Business briefs: Nevada Rural Housing Authority promotes Victoria Blanford

Nevada Rural Housing Authority promotes Victoria Blanford

Victoria Blanford has been promoted to the position of rural Nevada mortgage and marketing specialist for the Nevada Rural Housing Authority, a role in which she’s responsible for educating lenders, realtors, homebuyers and builders about NRHA’s Home at Last programs.

Blanford has been with NRHA since January. She previously served in the role of human resources and administrative assistant and worked in the foreclosure auction business for five years before joining NRHA.

When not helping Nevada families find their way home, Blanford volunteers with community theater programs in Reno, including Reno Little Theater and the Sierra School of the Performing Arts, stage-managing six productions this year.

Local insurance agency participating in national study group

Meridian Insurance Services, 216 N. Minnesota St., is participating in the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big “I”) “Best Practices” Study Group.

Annually since 1993, IIABA and Reagan Consulting, an Atlanta-based management consulting firm, study leading agencies in six revenue categories. The agencies in the study groups are selected every third year through a comprehensive nomination and qualifying process and awarded a “Best Practices Agency” designation. The selected “Best Practices” agencies retain their status during the three-year cycle by submitting extensive financial and operational data for review each year. To be chosen, the agency had to be among the 35-45 top-performing agencies in one of six revenue categories.

For more information, contact Linda Valerius of Meridian Insurance Services at 775-883-8880.

Pets of the Homeless redesigns website

Pets of the Homeless, a nonprofit that feeds and provides basic emergency veterinary care to pets of the homeless, redesigned its website to provide more information about how to find services for homeless people and their pets in the United States.

The website features a new resources section and interactive map that shows where to find food and supplies, shelters, donation sites and resources. The map can detect the user’s location and find services near them. The donation page accepts major credit cards. The site also features responsive design, friendly for the nearly 50 percent of users who visit the site using mobile devices.

The site is at www.petsofthehomeless.org.