Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — When BusinessWest launched its 40 Under Forty program in 2007, it did so to identify rising stars across our region — individuals who were excelling in business and through involvement within the community — and celebrate their accomplishments.

In 2015, BusinessWest announced a new award, one that builds on the foundation upon which 40 Under Forty was created. It’s called the Alumni Achievement Award (formerly the Continued Excellence Award). As the name suggests, it is presented to the 40 Under Forty honoree who, in the eyes of an independent panel of judges, has most impressively continued and built upon his or her track record of accomplishment.

To nominate someone for this award, visit businesswest.com/40-under-forty/40-under-forty-alumni-achievement-award. Only nominations submitted to BusinessWest on this form will be considered. The deadline is Friday, April 23 at 5 p.m., no exceptions. The 2020 honoree will be announced at the 40 Under Forty gala in June.

Candidates must be from 40 Under Forty classes prior to the year of the award — in this case, classes 2007 to 2020. For your convenience, a list of 40 Under Forty Alumni can be found at businesswest.com/40-under-forty/40-under-forty (scroll to the bottom).

Past winners include: 2020: Carla Cosenzi, president, TommyCar Auto Group (40 Under Forty class of 2012), and Peter DePergola, director of Clinical Ethics, Baystate Health (class of 2015); 2019: Cinda Jones, president, W.D. Cowls Inc. (class of 2007); 2018: Samalid Hogan, regional director, Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (class of 2013); 2017: Scott Foster, attorney, Bulkley Richardson (class of 2011), and Nicole Griffin, owner, ManeHire (class of 2014); 2016: Dr. Jonathan Bayuk, president, Allergy & Immunology Associates of New England (class of 2008); 2015: Delcie Bean, president, Paragus Strategic IT (class of 2008).

Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Bacon Wilson announced that Lisa Carpenter has joined the firm as the new executive director. She comes to Bacon Wilson with more than 20 years of experience in legal administration and management in the Kansas City area, with specialized skills and expertise in law-firm management and operations. She works directly with Bacon Wilson’s managing shareholder, Kenneth Albano, on all aspects of directing the firm’s five offices.

“Joining Bacon Wilson at this particular time — in the middle of a pandemic and during an important phase of the firm’s growth — is an exciting challenge,” Carpenter said. “I received a very warm welcome from the attorneys and staff, and I’m gratified to say that my prior experience in operations management has allowed me to hit the ground running on Bacon Wilson’s many projects.”

Before joining Bacon Wilson, Carpenter served as office administrator for Littler Mendelson P.C.’s Global Service Center in Kansas City, Mo., as well as its Kansas City local practice office. Littler Mendelson P.C. is an international labor and employment law firm with offices in more than 70 U.S. locations and 15 countries. Prior to that, Carpenter worked for 14 years in operations management at the Kansas City headquarters of Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP, a large international product litigation firm with more than 16 locations.

Carpenter holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Friends University and is a member of the Assoc. of Legal Administrators (ALA), where she has published multiple articles, including “Five Steps to Forming Business Partner Relationships” for Kansas City ALA publication the Hearsay, as well as “Nothing to be Afraid of … Successfully Requesting Vendor Proposals,” a piece on the request-for-proposal process for the ALA national publication ALA Currents.

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HOLYOKE — Holyoke Community College (HCC) student Miren Neyra Alcántara is the recipient of a Newman Civic Fellowship, which recognizes college leaders who demonstrate a commitment to finding solutions to challenges facing communities locally, nationally, and internationally.

Alcántara will join 212 college students from 39 states, Washington, D.C., and Mexico to form the 2021 cohort of Newman Civic Fellows, a program administered by Campus Compact, a Boston-based nonprofit working to advance the public purposes of higher education. The Newman Civic Fellowship is a year-long program for students from Campus Compact member institutions.

Alcántara — who was a finalist earlier this year for BusinessWest’s People’s Choice Young Woman of Impact Award — is a Latinx studies major at HCC and president of the college’s Latinx Empowerment Assoc. The LEA Club, as it is otherwise known, recently launched a book drive to stock a ‘Little Free Library’ the club is putting together for low-income families in the Holyoke Flats, one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

As LEA president, Alcántara spearheaded “Celebrating the Latinx Community,” a social-media campaign, and developed student-led panel discussions in collaboration with HCC’s Black Student Alliance and Holyoke’s Wistariahurst Museum.

She is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and the college’s Student Advisory Board. She works as a peer tutor and volunteers with community organizations including Climate Change Theater Action, Common Share Food Co-op, and SPARK Reproductive Justice Now. She also teaches English to Central American immigrants through a program called Planting Literacy, an HCC collaboration with Head Start in Springfield.

She was nominated for the award by two of her professors, Vanessa Martinez and Raúl Gutiérrez.

“We’re very proud of Miren,” said Gutiérrez, coordinator of HCC’s Latinx Studies program. “HCC is lucky to have her. Her academic endeavors combined with her involvement and leadership in the community make her a necessary agent of change. She truly embodies the essence of an activist scholar. Her academic abilities, compassion, and leadership make her exactly what is needed in this world.”

Alcántara plans to graduate from HCC in December.

“I am so excited about the fellowship and this opportunity,” she said. “I plan to continue working on the LEA Club’s Little Free Library project. We are hoping to expand on it, add some workshops with the children, and adapt it in a way it becomes sustainable through the years as more students join and continue the club. I am also continuing my work with immigrant advocacy and Planting Literacy, as well as my recent involvement as a volunteer with the Women of Color Health Equity collective.”

Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C. recently welcomed attorney Jeremy Forgue and two paralegals, Jonathan Applefield and Tracy Belanger, to its team.

“It’s an exciting time of growth for us, and we are fortunate to find such exceptional talent to add to our team,” said attorney John Gannon, a partner at the firm. “Our recent hires bring a depth of experience to our firm and our clients. Employment and labor laws are ever-changing, and the pace has increased over the past year. Jeremy, Jonathan, and Tracy will allow us to keep our clients abreast and compliant with the latest regulations and look after their best interests.”

Forgue received his law degree from Western New England University School of Law, where he was drawn to business and employment law and was the managing editor of the university’s Law Review. Prior to joining Skoler Abbott, he was a law clerk for the Massachusetts Housing Court. He enjoys preparing employers for new and changing laws to prevent compliance issues, such as reviewing existing policies for vulnerabilities and assisting in open-forum discussions.

As a paralegal, Applefield provides broad administrative support to the attorneys and their clients. Before joining the firm, he worked for 16 years as a legal assistant in Manhattan, a job he held while earning graduate and postgraduate degrees in art history at Columbia University. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College in Maine.

Belanger, also a paralegal, earned her associate degree in administration of justice and a certificate of achievement with an emphasis on the law and public policy at Pasadena City College in California, where she was a member of the Alpha Gamma Sigma honor society. She then pursued her bachelor’s degree in criminology, law and society from the School of Social Ecology at the University of California Irvine, followed by completion of an ABA-accredited paralegal studies program and an externship at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.