Home 40 Under 40 Archive by category The Class of 2017 (Page 2)

The Class of 2017

Sedale Williams

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40 Under 40 The Class of 2017

Doctoral Student, Springfield College; Project Coordinator, ParaDYM Inc.; Age 30

Sedale Williams

Sedale Williams

When he was young, Sedale Williams never dreamed he would be able to attend college. But today, he is finishing his doctorate and has dedicated his life to helping young and underprivileged individuals realize their potential.

“An adolescent’s confidence is fragile, and they need to know they are capable, can set goals, and can realize their dreams,” said Williams, who grew up in several neighborhoods in Springfield and didn’t get the encouragement he needed in school, but set his sights on a doctorate in psychology after taking a course in the subject at Central High School.

Several months ago, Williams left his job as a clinician at BHN Carson Center for Human Services in Westfield to finish the doctoral program at Springfield College. He will return to Carson in August and is currently project coordinator for ParaDYM Inc. in New Britain, Conn., which serves at-risk youth.

Williams worked with the homeless in San Diego from 2010 to 2012 and saw a high incidence of underlying mental-health issues, which he said are often repressed in the African-American community. He served in AmeriCorps to support the Springfield College School Turnaround Initiative, was a peer advisor at Westfield State University, and has volunteered and worked on special projects at UConn, University of Hartford, United Way of Pioneer Valley, Hampden County Sheriff’s Department, Carl Robinson Correctional Institute, Springfield Academy for Excellence, and Veritas Prep Academy.

He is on the board and steering committee for Brothers United to Inspire Lifestyle Development, helps facilitate the annual Constructing Kings Male Youth Summit, and collaborates with Springfield youths and the community to lower the dropout rate. “I like working with middle-school students because that’s when you see a dropoff in interest in schooling,” he said.

In 2015, Williams was a speaker at the United Way of Pioneer Valley’s 93rd annual celebration and feted with its Youth Generate Presidential Service Award, presented at the 15th annual Boston College Diversity Challenge, was awarded the Key Program’s Deborah Feldstein-Bartfield Memorial Scholarship, and will speak at the 125th national conference of the American Psychological Assoc. in August.

Williams’ family has always supported him, and Springfield College advisor Peiwei Li has helped him stay motivated.

“I take on a lot that’s challenging,” he said, “but I want to pay it all forward.”

—Kathleen Mitchell

Jessica Dupont

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40 Under 40 The Class of 2017

Director of Risk Adjustment, Health New England; Age 33

Jessica Dupont

Jessica Dupont

Jessica Dupont is passionate about hockey. Really passionate.

That’s quite evident from the manner in which she can talk about everything from the ‘Broad Street Bullies,’ those famous Philadelphia Flyers teams that won Stanley Cups a decade before she was born, to the Vegas Golden Knights, the NHL’s latest expansion team, but not, she believes, its last, due to the sport’s ever-rising popularity.

Dupont, the highest scorer among the 150-plus nominees for the 40 Under Forty class of 2017, is also passionate about giving back to the community, which she does through involvement with organizations ranging from Dress for Success Western Mass. to Square One. So she was really enjoying herself last month at a unique fund-raiser for Dress for Success called Hockey in Heels, undertaken in conjunction with the Springfield Thunderbirds. The event was staged this year just prior to the March 11 tilt against the Hartford Wolf Pack.

“That event,” she explained, “brings my two favorite things together: Dress for Success and creating programs that will empower women to re-enter the workforce, and hockey, which is my favorite thing ever — NHL, AHL, you name it.”

Dupont is quite passionate about something else, too. That would be health insurance (a most unlikely career choice for this sociology major from Mount Holyoke College) and the broad goal of making sure those who have it understand it and get the most out of that critical benefit.

When asked what she does as the Director of Risk Adjustment, there was a noticeable sigh, because the explanation — at least to those not in the business — doesn’t come quickly or easily. She summed it up this way:

“I work with the physicians in our community to make sure the care they’re delivering to their patients is properly documented and coded, so that we have accurate data to build our clinical strategies around,” she explained. “We can only build interventions, do work, and make sure we’re getting paid appropriately if we know what’s going on with our membership base.”

Slicing through all that, she said her work involves making sure health insurance works for all the parties involved — HNE, those who provide the care, and, especially, those receiving the care. And she finds that work, and the company’s “holistic approach,” rewarding.

“We’re very member-focused,” she said. “And we try to take care of our members, because they live in our communities: they’re our neighbors, they’re our family members; they’re not just a number.”

—George O’Brien

Molly MacMunn

By
40 Under 40 The Class of 2017

Special Events & Tourism Planner, Yankee Candle Village; Age 34

Molly MacMunn

Molly MacMunn

Molly MacMunn often finds it difficult to attend events.

That’s because staging events for Yankee Candle is what she does for a living. It’s not a job, really, but a passion. So when she’s merely attending a gathering, she’s usually not focused on enjoying herself; instead, she’s observing, taking mental notes, and gauging what works and what doesn’t, always with an eye toward making her next event better.

It will be the same at the Log Cabin on June 22 when she accepts her 40 Under Forty award, but she vows to allow herself to have a good time.

“Events can be hard for me because I’m always looking at things from a different perspective,” said MacMunn, who noted that events are big part of the experience at the Yankee Candle complex in South Deerfield. They occur year-round, but the pace picks up when the leaves start to turn, and it stays that way through the holidays.

“Early fall … that’s when we put our running shoes on,” said MacMunn, who must wear them almost all day those months, because she is now a marathoner — she’s competed in several to date — and member of a Deerfield-based running club called Wicked Early.

By running in the St. Jude Marathon in Memphis, Tenn., she has even managed to meld this new interest with yet another passion, giving back to the community — work that takes many forms, from staging events for Franklin County Young Professionals to judging the spelling bee at her daughter’s school.

In many ways, MacMunn said, it is her daughter Isabelle’s autism — or, more specifically, the manner in which many have helped her cope with this challenge — that has inspired her work within the community.

“I was a really young single mom, I was in college, I was working … I just felt lost,” she explained. “My sister, whom I’m very close to, said, ‘you’ll never be given more than you can handle, but that doesn’t mean you have to handle it alone.’ And I took that to heart.

“I found myself in a vulnerable position, and I relied on my community of friends and family,” she went on. “Now that my daughter is much older and I’m in a better place in my life, I feel there are many people who are given a lot to handle, and I would like to be part of the solution.”

Needless to say, she has succeeded in that quest.

—George O’Brien