VENTURA COUNTY BUSINESS : VENTURA COUNTY PEOPLE

* Attorney Loye M. Barton of Ventura, a partner in the firm of Norman, Dowler, Sawyer, Israel & Hancock, has been elected chairwoman of Easter Seals Tri-Counties California. Barton has been affiliated with the Easter Seal Society since 1996.

She recently served as president of the Ventura Soroptimists.

* Robert H. Bartlein has been elected for a second term as president of the American Lung Assn. of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties for 1999-2000. He is president of Bartlein & Co., a property management firm.

New board members from Ventura County are Carolyn Hedgepeth of RHI Management Resources; Ross F. Hoffman of Hoffman & Assoc.; Mark S. Manion, deputy city attorney for the city of Oxnard; and Jody Sasaki of Sasaki Kenpo Karate Studio.

* Gerald Yeung and Ken Birkett, both of Oxnard, have completed their communication and leadership projects to become Competent Toastmasters. Yeung is an associate actuary with the National Council on Compensation Insurance Co. in Westlake Village and Birkett is parts manager for Santa Paula Chevrolet.

Next Step Toastmasters, to which Yeung and Birkett belong, meets at 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays in the Oxnard Public Library, 2nd and B streets.

* Sultan Al-Hejailan, a criminal justice major at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, received an award of recognition from Microsoft at a recent computer convention in Los Angeles. His company, Monarch Interactive of Chatsworth, was recognized for producing an interactive driver software package named “Pass and Drive.”

The software provides a tutorial on legal and safety issues to help students learn to drive.

* Beth Sutherland and Carolyn Hoffman have joined the board of directors for WISE (Women Involved in Sports Evolution), a nonprofit organization devoted to supporting the advancement of women’s sports.

Its headquarters is at the Pierpont Racquet Club in Ventura.

* Scott A. Hunter has joined the Ventura law firm of Myers, Widders, Gibson & Long. He will be practicing community association law, construction defect and general litigation.

Hunter is a graduate of Brigham Young University and Ventura College of Law.

* Kathleen McCreary has been hired as marketing and sales director at the Fillmore & Western Railway Co. She previously worked at the Casa Sirena Hotel & Marina in Oxnard.