Nancy Creed Named New Director of Springfield Regional Chamber

SPRINGFIELD — Nancy Creed, vice president of Marketing and Communications for the Springfield Regional Chamber, has been tapped to succeed Jeffrey Ciuffreda as president of that institution. She will be the first woman chief executive in the chamber’s more than 125-year history.

Creed has more than 20 years of leadership experience and has served in her current position for more than four years. She had previously served in a similar role with the chamber from 1992 to 2001. She played an integral role in the recent chamber restructuring and was responsible for its rebranding effort.

The chamber has received the Best Chamber of Commerce honors by the Republican/MassLive Reader Raves poll since the inception of the category in the public online poll; has received higher than national averages for membership retention, renewal, and satisfaction; and has developed programs which have tripled in attendance and yielded a 95% satisfaction rate.

Prior to rejoining the chamber in 2012, Creed owned N.F. Creed Communications, a strategic communications consulting firm, specializing in public-relations campaign development and management, grassroots cultivation, media relations, crisis communications, and government/community affairs, where her clients included local and regional nonprofit and for-profit companies as well as Fortune 500 companies.

She also served as the manager of Corporate Communications for Western Massachusetts Electric Co. (now Eversource). During her tenure, the company was awarded the top ranking in the Eastern Region by JD Power & Associates for communications in its annual Business Customer Satisfaction Survey, and was awarded the Utility Communications International Gold Award for Single Magazine Advertising.

Creed is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, is certified in nonprofit-organization management through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Organization Management, a graduate of the chamber’s Leadership Institute, and a certified company facilitator of the Pacific Institute’s Imagine 21 – Fast Track to Change.

She has been named to the Top Ten Women in Business in the Pioneer Valley by the Women Business Owners Alliance and was named a Woman to Watch in Advertising by Western Mass Women magazine. She is currently president of the board of directors for Dakin Humane Society, a member of the board of directors for the Valley Press Club, and a former board member of the Ad Club of Western Massachusetts.

Ciuffreda has announced that, after 29 years with the chamber, he will retire from his position, effective Aug. 5.

“Jeff has been an invaluable asset to the chamber throughout these many years, providing steady leadership over the years, including steering the organization through its most recent restructuring, positioning the chamber as the go-to organization for legislative advocacy, and working hard on behalf of our more than 700 members and for the region at large,” said chamber board chair Daniel Keenan, senior vice president of Government and Community Relations with the Sisters of Providence Health System. “I know I speak for the entire board in expressing my thanks for Jeff’s leadership, his commitment and dedication to the organization, and his distinguished career with the chamber.”

Ciuffreda joined the chamber in 1987 as its vice president of Legislative Affairs and became president in 2011. Under his leadership, the chamber has been a strong voice for business, increased its regional presence, helped shape policy on Beacon Hill and in Washington, helped drive economic growth in the city of Springfield and the region as a whole, and worked to build a prosperous and healthy economic climate for those who live and work in the region.

Prior to joining the chamber, Ciuffreda served as a legislative aide and district director to the late U.S. Rep. Silvio Conte for eight years. Prior to that, he served as a deputy director of the U.S. Peace Corps program in the country of Lesotho, where he oversaw the administration of the program and was responsible for the programming and training of volunteers. From 1972 to 1975, Ciuffreda served as a volunteer in the Peace Corps in the country of Liberia.

Ciuffreda received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Boston College and is certified in nonprofit organization management through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Organization Management. He serves on numerous boards, including the Mass. Assoc. of Chamber of Commerce Executives, Friends of the Homeless, and the United Way of Pioneer Valley. He is a former selectman in the town of Williamsburg, a position he held for more than 17 years.