• Elizabeth Hoppe, OD, MPH, DrPH, founding dean of the College of Optometry at Western University of Health Sciences (Pomona, California), has been appointed a secretarial appointee on the Rehabilitation Research and Development Scientific Merit Review Board of the Department of Veterans Affairs. She will serve on the Subcommittee for Visual/Hearing Impairment for a term ending Sept. 30, 2011. Western University of Health Sciences is a non-profit health professions university.

• Lori Vatcher has been named chief operating officer for Pacific Partners Management (Foster City, California), a developer of managed care information technology. Vatcher has worked with Pacific Partners since 1998, as a healthcare consultant, Director of Contracting and Provider Services, and most recently as Executive Director of Managed Care.

• Steven Kane has been named chairman of the board of SurgiCount Medical (Temecula, California), a division of Safety Technologies. Previously, Kane was precent/CEO and a director of Protalex. SurgiCount Medical, a division of Patient Safety Technologies, manufactures the SurgiCount Safety-Sponge System, a patented FDA 510k approved turn key solution to retained surgical sponges.