Difference Makers Archives - Page 4 of 4

Difference Makers

John Davis, senior trustee of the Davis Foundation, and Mary Walachy, executive director

John Davis, senior trustee of the Davis Foundation, and Mary Walachy, executive director.

Mary Walachy called it “extemporaneous philanthropy.”
That was the phrase she chose to describe Irene E. Davis’s approach to giving back to the community — at the least the model she used for most of her life.
An orphan for much of her childhood, Irene — who married George A. Davis, first a salesman for American Saw & Mfg. and then owner of that company — was, later in her life, very generous when it came to donating money to groups that would help those less-fortunate, especially children, said Walachy, executive director of the foundation that bears the Davis name. However, there was little, if any, structure or organization to her giving, she continued, noting that donations were often in cash and given at the spur of the moment.

To illustrate the way in which Irene was “personally philanthropic,” Walachy relayed a story from around 1970 that she’d heard many times, knew she couldn’t retell as well as Davis family members, but tried anyway.

It seems that Irene Davis had become impressed with the work of Downey Side (the adoption agency that was started in Springfield and now has offices across the country), and stopped by the offices of its founder, Father Paul Engel, to find out more. After listening to him for some time, she got out her checkbook and wrote him a check — for $30,000.

“But he didn’t even look at it to see how much it was for,” Walachy explained, noting that Engel was being polite, but also didn’t know Davis and wasn’t at all sure of who was dealing with. “He just put in his desk drawer. When he took it out later, he was shocked; he thought, ‘this is a crazy lady,’ or ‘she doesn’t know what she’s doing … this is going to bounce.’ He didn’t even take it to the bank.

“The next morning, she calls him, and he thinks, ‘here it comes,’” Walachy continued. “She said, ‘this is Irene Davis. I gave you a check yesterday — how much was it for?’ When he told her the amount was $30,000, she said, ‘I’m sorry, I meant to make it $50,000; I’ll be down later with the other 20.’ He said he never had a day like that in his career and that this was such a poignant moment in his life.”

It wasn’t long after this episode, according to family lore, that Irene Davis’s son, Jim, recommended that she form a foundation to bring some order to her philanthropy, to keep records of which groups were sent money and to perhaps monitor whether money was spent in the manner intended, said Walachy. At first, she refused, thinking such a step was mostly about taxes and gaining deductions, which she wasn’t interested in. But when Jim told her it was a way for her to keep on giving to the community long after she passed on, she eventually agreed.

And so the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation was born, with an initial $350, and for 40 years, its giving has been anything but extemporaneous — although it can act swiftly and with great flexibility, said Walachy, adding, quickly and repeatedly, that this institution exists to do much more than simply award grants, or give.

Instead, she told BusinessWest, the foundation also initiates, convenes, unifies, collaborates, finds facts, analyzes, tests, evaluates, advocates, and more. And what it’s really doing through the sum of all this is “causing change,” she continued, especially in the broad realm of early-childhood education and development.

“The majority of our time and attention is absolutely local,” she explained, “and with a significant lens in education and particularly the passion around ensuring that children, especially those in the urban core who are disadvantaged, reach their full academic potential in order to be successful in both school and in life.

This focus on education, young people, and causing change, as she put it, is part of what Walachy called a “maturation” of the Davis Foundation — something that has dominated her time with the organization, which started in 1996, and which is still very much ongoing. And it’s part of her efforts to adopt best practices involving many of the leading foundations in the country, and also be far more proactive than reactive when it comes to philanthropy.

“As we’ve grown and matured over the years, we have realized that, in order to be impactful, we need to be somewhat more strategic,” she continued, noting efforts such as the foundation’s Cherish Every Child program and its Reading Successfully by the Fourth Grade program. “And that strategy is largely in the broad rubric on education and investments in young children, because we firmly believe that investing early is where we get the greatest return.”

However, the foundation understands that resources are limited in Western Mass., and that there are simply not as many charitable foundations here as there are in Boston, she went on, adding that funds are also awarded to groups that assist the elderly, the mentally challenged, and many other constituencies.

When asked to list just some of the groups to which the foundation has awarded grants over the years, Walachy thought for a minute, shook her head, and then said, “just about every nonprofit group in this area.”

But, again, she said that giving money is only a part of the equation. In recent years, a perhaps-bigger part is that ability to convene, which is part of the maturation process, and something made possible because the Davis Foundation supports so many nonprofit groups.

“In order for us to advance and move some of the social-change issues that we care about, we need to lend our name, we need to lend our voice, we need to use our convening power, and we have to use our credibility,” she told BusinessWest. “That is more powerful, in my estimation, and we’ve come to see that come true as we’ve stepped out in a leadership role around change issues.”

Walachy noted that, while one can see the Davis name on a few plaques or walls across the region — the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Baystate Children’s Hospital is one example — this family isn’t big on having things named after it.

“People will say, ‘if you give us $1 million, we’ll put your name on the building,’” she said. “That’s not an incentive for us.”

Rather, the real incentive comes in getting a chance to be impactful, to cause change, which is how it chooses to serve the region and carry on the work of Irene and George Davis.

The family’s methods of philanthropy have changed considerably since Irene’s cash gifts and random check-writing. But the impact is still the same. The foundation is still making for the best days in many nonprofit administrators’ careers, and creating innumerable poignant moments in their lives.

—George O’Brien

James Goodwin

By BusinessWest Staff February 2, 2010

Class of 2010 Difference Makers

President and CEO of the Center for Human Development

Jim-Goodwin-Standing Jim Goodwin says that too many people, especially some in the business community, look upon human services work as a “drain.”
As he uttered that word, he paused for a second, as if to convey that maybe it was too strong a term, but then forged ahead, convinced that it wasn’t.

“They understand that it’s a service, and they see some value in it,” he explained. “But they look at it as an expense, and not as a benefit, not as an investment. They’ll say, ‘I’m glad someone’s doing it, but I wish we didn’t have to pay for it.’ They don’t realize that, in many ways, this is something that benefits their employees, and, therefore, it benefits them as business owners.”

In many respects, Goodwin’s work as president and CEO of the Springfield-based Center for Human Development (CHD) boils down to changing those perceptions he described. And it is because of his success in convincing others that programs in areas ranging from disability resources to the mentoring of young people; from homelessness prevention to post-incarceration services, are, in fact, investments in the community, Goodwin — and, ostensibly, the 1,300-member team he manages — is a member of the Difference Makers Class of 2010.

And Goodwin, who has been with CHD for 30 years, or almost from its beginnings in 1972, repeatedly stressed this element of teamwork as he talked about his organization’s work with children, adults, the elderly, the mentally retarded, the mentally ill, and the chemically addicted — or what he called “probably the most downtrodden people out there.”

Together, members of this team carry out programs that fall into several categories, including:

• Children & Families, which includes such initiatives as Big Brothers Big Sisters, CASA (court-appointed special advocates), an emergency adolescent shelter, foster care, and many others;

• Community Resources and Services, including a disability-resource program, an HIV/AIDS law consortium, and occupational-therapy initiatives;

• Homelessness Prevention, which encompasses a number of programs;

• Mental Health and Addiction Services, which includes child and adolescent mental-health services, outpatient and behavioral-health services, therapy and counseling, and many other programs; and

• Social Enterprises, which are entrepreneurial programs, such as A New Leaf flower shop and Riverbend Furniture, that offer real jobs to people with mental illness, developmental disabilities, or histories of trauma, abuse, or addiction that often keep them from working in traditional settings.

Summing up all of this work within CHD, the largest nonprofit, multi-program human services agency in New England, in a few moments or a few sentences is quite difficult, so Goodwin talked generally about the sum of the dozens of specific programs within the organization.

He said that, collectively, they help to make people with various physical and mental disabilities productive members of society, and not drains, as they are often perceived. “When you help people to the point where they’re employable, where they can work and get things done, and where they no longer look upon themselves as a burden, everyone’s a winner.”

This is accomplished — again, in broad terms — by creating what Goodwin described as “hybrid services” a term he would use repeatedly as he talked with BusinessWest, because it is the cornerstone of CDH’s basic operating philosophy.

And by hybrid, he means a combination of clinical and social services.

“Today, a successful human-services agency has to be able to operate a continuum that deals with the social issues that people are confronted with, along with the medical issues,” he explained. “If you’re providing counseling, psychiatry, and nursing services to people who don’t have a roof over their heads and don’t have enough to eat, you’re not going to get anywhere.”

Goodwin, who brings to his work master’s degrees in both psychology and business — a mix he says has proven quite effective — has a number of accomplishments attached to his name and title of CEO at CHD:

• Fiscally, he’s maintained and improved the financial health of the organization over the past several years, leading the agency to 21% growth and a total surplus of $540,000;

• He’s overseen the development of a sophisticated database that measures treatment and programmatic outcomes and that serves as a reporting tool to funding sources and stakeholders;

• He’s developed an electronic quality-assurance system that allows programs and corporate administrative services to provide performance feedback to each other on a monthly basis;

• He developed supported-housing models in the early 1980s that were duplicated nationally and led to major expansion and distinction for CHD; and

• Overall, he’s developed an extensive system of creative client businesses that produce high-quality products, teach vocational skills, and provide jobs to hundreds of clients in a rehabilitative atmosphere.

But he told BusinessWest that what he considers his greatest accomplishments are building CHD into one of the region’s largest, and best, employers — one with a 95% retention rate among management-position holders, a remarkable number in the human-services industry — and ongoing work to take that word ‘drain’ out of the lexicon when it comes to work his team does.

And the workplace element is vitally important to the equation, he explained, returning, again, to that notion of teamwork.

“You need a highly motivated workforce,” he explained. “You must create a situation where people are excited about the work, and where they understand how it fits in with improving the society that they live in and the city where they live.”

As an example of the work CHD does, how it does it, and why this work is so challenging — and frustrating from a funding perspective — Goodwin pointed to an initiative called PACT, or the Program for Assertive Community Treatment. Unfortunately, this is a program for which the state recently cut funding.

“That’s a program that basically serves people in Springfield and Holyoke who are severely mentally ill and have had tremendous difficulties,” he said. “They’ve been hospitalized many times, incarcerated, that sort of thing, and have been a real strain on the community.

“This program was set up with a team of workers, including a psychiatrist, nursing staff, a vocational specialist, a housing specialist, peer specialists … and these people take the service into the community,” he continued. “They have kept these people functional and outside the institutions — the hospitals and the jails — at an incredible rate. To keep someone in this program for 365 days a year costs $15,000; without it, these people would have four or five major hospitalizations a year, at a cost of $600 to $800 a day. Anyone can do the math, and that’s how it works with all of our programs.”

Recognizing the need to become visible within the community and to allow people to more easily answer the question ‘what does CHD do?’ the agency recently hired a marketing firm to create a new profile-raising brand. It includes the tag line, ‘CHD — good people, good work.’

That’s another way of saying that that this organization — and its long-time CEO — are true Difference Makers.

—George O’Brien

Carol Katz

By BusinessWest Staff February 1, 2010

Class of 2010 Difference Makers

Carol Katz
Chief Executive Officer of Loomis Communities

Upon hearing that more than a few of the many people who nominated her for the Difference Makers Class of 2010 wrote that she “transformed care for older adults,” Carol Katz chuckled before saying that she found such language flattering, if also a little excessive.

“I would hardly call myself transformational, but that is a term that’s used in our industry in some ways,” said Katz, CEO of the South Hadley-based Loomis Communities, before quickly acknowledging that she obviously played a lead role in that organization’s drive to stay atop — and well above — the curve when it comes to adopting the more-patient-centered model of care now being embraced across the country (more on that shortly).

“And besides,” she continued while explaining this concept and why and how it was incorporated at Loomis, “I certainly didn’t do it all by myself. It’s been a total team effort.”

Elaborating on the patient-centered model, Katz said that, as the name suggests, it puts the patient at the center of care initiatives. As logical as that sounds, she told BusinessWest, until about a decade ago, the staff at long-term-care facilities such as nursing homes was in the center, in the so-called ‘patient-care’ model.

“Traditionally, care has been provided in a very institutional way, and nursing homes in particular, like hospitals, are staff-driven, with things done for the convenience of the institution and as far from home life as it can possibly be,” she explained. “There’s been a movement afoot for some years now, in nursing homes but also other facilities, to really change the culture to what they call person-centered care.

“It’s not enough just to make it more home-like,” she continued. “It’s placing the patient at the center of the care, not the staff. Instead of bringing in extra people on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and that’s when everyone gets their showers, you ask the patient, ‘do you like to take a shower or a bath, and would you like it in the morning or the evening? It’s not what’s convenient for the staff; it’s what the patient wants.”

As a result of the teamwork Katz mentioned, Loomis Communities became one of the first institutions of its kind to receive state grants to implement this new way of providing care, and Loomis House was just the second nursing home in North America to receive person-centered-care accreditation.

But these transformational efforts comprise just one of the realms for which Katz has been called a Difference Maker. Others include her work to expand the Loomis Communities, her service to innumerable nonprofits in the area, and her ongoing efforts to create a culture of giving back at all of the Loomis facilities.

When she arrived in 1989 after stints with skilled-nursing facilities in Wisconsin and Agawam, Loomis had one facility — Loomis House in Holyoke — with a second, Loomis Village, under construction.

Recognizing the need to continually expand to better meet its mission, but also understanding that new construction wasn’t (and still isn’t) needed because of demand levels, Loomis has grown through acquisition.

The first such move was Applewood in Amherst, and the second was Reed’s Landing in Springfield, the bankrupt facility that was acquired late last summer. There, Katz has led a change in the fee model that has put that facility within reach of far more area residents.

While expanding Loomis Communities and changing its model of care, Katz has also volunteered her time, energy, and expertise to organizations ranging from the Holyoke Chamber of Commerce to PeoplesBank; from Westfield State College to her synagogue; from the United Way to the Holyoke Rotary Club.

She says she finds nonprofit governance to be “fascinating,” and, over the years, became very interested in the subject of nonprofit management, while becoming what she called a “board junkie.” However, she says she limits her work, and the number of ‘yeses’ given those who ask her to serve, to areas that have relevance to her professionally or personally, “or something I think I can help make a difference.”

And she has made giving back to the community part of the culture of life at all of the Loomis communities. Indeed, residents have contributed to a number of causes and charitable events. For example, they have sold decorative Valentine’s Day cookies to benefit the American Heart Assoc.; sold daffodils and participated in the Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society; walked, raised money, and sold more than 183 dozen blueberry muffins to benefit the Alzheimer’s Assoc. Memory Walk; staged blood drives for Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Mercy Medical Center, and the American Red Cross; sold Brightside Angels at the Holyoke Mall; and wrapped gifts for the hospice program of the Holyoke Visiting Nurse Assoc.

“Our five-year strategic plan has five focus areas, and the first one is community integration, and that means both having events on our campuses that bring the public in and engaging our residents in the broader community,” she said, noting that many residents in each Loomis facility are from the community in question. “Just because you move from an address in South Hadley to Loomis Village doesn’t mean you stop being a citizen of South Hadley.

“We’re involved — and one of the reasons I’ve gotten involved with so many civic organizations over the years is because it’s the right thing to do; it’s the way I was brought up,” she continued. “We rely on the community to give us residents and give us services, and we owe back to the community.”

The sum of all this work across several different fronts prompted the many who nominated Katz — a group that included some who work with her at Loomis, a few of the organization’s board members, others who serve with her on boards and commissions, and some who simply admire her work — to stretch their vocabularies and find phrases such as these:

“She has the uncanny ability to recognize the most important issues and figure out logical and effective ways to deal with them.”
“She does not just volunteer; she always seems to rise to leadership positions that place enormous demands on her time.”
“There are those who lead because they can; Carol Katz leads because she must.”
Carol is known across Massachusetts and the entire industry for her tenacity, leadership, and progressive ideas, and I am certain that we have seen only a glimpse of her vision.”
“With Carol’s wise direction, Loomis’ promotion of well-being of its residents has been matched by its contribution to the economy of the region.”
“She inspires me.”

That last writer probably spoke for everyone who has worked with Katz in any of the many settings in which she has made a difference. —George O’Brien

Robert Holub

By BusinessWest Staff February 1, 2010

Class of 2010 Difference Makers

UMass Amherst and Chancellor
Robert Holub

Robert Holub says that, as what’s known as a land-grant institution — one of several dozen colleges and universities created on federally owned land — UMass Amherst has certain responsibilities to meet with regard to this region and its residents.

Originally, they centered on the teaching of agriculture, science, and engineering, Holub, who became chancellor of the university in the summer of 2008, explained, adding that, over the past century and a half or so, these duties have evolved and now extend beyond the realm of pure academia and into the broad area of economic development.

In recent years, and particularly since he arrived, the university has been increasingly focused on going beyond what’s been legislated, he continued, and more toward what might be expected (and more) from a school that has 25,000 students and is one of the leading research institutions in the state.

“We consider ourselves a citizen of Western Mass., and with that, we have special obligations to this region, and we’ve been trying to act on those responsibilities,” he continued, adding that such efforts involve the entire region, but especially the city of Springfield, the unofficial capital of Western Mass. and a municipality that, like many former manufacturing centers, is trying to reinvent itself.

Efforts to assist Springfield and the region come in a number of forms, and together — coupled with the hope and expectation for more in the future — they have placed the university in the Difference Makers Class of 2010. These initiatives include:

* The Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute, or PVLSI, a collaborative effort with Baystate Health to fuel growth in a fledgling biosciences sector;
* A recently announced project to move the university’s Design Center into one of the buildings in Springfield’s Court Square, a relocation expected to help create more vibrancy in the city’s central business district, help existing service businesses, and spur new ones;
* A planned high-performance computing center in Holyoke, a much-heralded undertaking involving a partnership that includes several other colleges and universities, including MIT and Boston University, as well as private industry. The UMass system as a whole is a lead partner in the project, said Holub, but many of those laying the groundwork for the center are based on the Amherst campus;
* The Precision Manufacturing Regional Alliance Project being undertaken with the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County and the local chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Assoc. to transfer technology from two departments at the university (Polymer Science and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering) to area precision manufacturers; and
* Work with the Springfield school system to attract talented students to UMass Amherst with the hope that they will stay in the region and contribute to its growth and prosperity.

“Instead of giving them fish, we want to give them the fishing pole,” Holub said of the initiative involving Springfield schools, one based on a pilot program now being developed with the city of Chelsea. “We would like to be able to attract the best and brightest students from Springfield to come to UMass Amherst, get an education here, and then go back to their community and assist with development.

“We are, primarily, an educational institution; that’s what we do best,” he continued. “And we think that establishing a greater pipeline with the city of Springfield will enable us to help that community more than any one single program.”

Since his arrival, a few months after Domenic Sarno was elected mayor in Springfield, there has been more communication between the university and the city, or what Holub called a true dialogue. And from those discussions came the agreement to create a presence in downtown and, specifically, Court Square.

“The mayor has engaged us in conversations since I arrived here about the revitalization of Court Square, and we see that as something that’s necessary for the city,” he said. “And we’ve tried to fit in any way we can given the budget constraints we’re facing.”

The school is already looking at ways to expand and enhance its presence within the city, he added, noting that administrators are looking to possibly move some backroom operations from Amherst and Hadley — where office lease rates are comparatively higher than in most area communities — to Springfield in moves that would help the city while also saving the university some money.

The importance of efforts to assist Springfield has been underscored by Holub’s move to appoint to John Mullin, dean of UMass Amherst’s graduate school and a regional planner, as ‘point person’ for the broad initiative. His role will be to keep the lines of communication open, make needed connections within the city, and continue the current dialogue.

“He knows what needs to be done in terms of urban development,” said Holub, adding that Mullin now dedicates a certain amount of time to the Springfield partnership, and his work has helped to move specific projects, ones that provide win-win scenarios, from the drawing board to reality.

“We’re not a granting agency — we don’t have $2 million that we can just give to Springfield,” he explained. “We have to look for areas in which there’s mutual benefit, and we’ve been able to find quite a few of those.”

And while Holub is encouraged, and excited, about current efforts taking place in the realm of economic development, region-wide and especially in Springfield, he fully expects the university to expand and diversify such initiatives when the economy improves sufficiently for it to do so.

“If we didn’t have this severe economic downturn, I certainly believe that we could be doing more than we are,” he explained. “But we are doing things, and they reflect those responsibilities we feel we have to this region.

“The proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say,” he continued, “and we’ve tried to do things that are going to bring palpable results for the western part of the state and make some modest investments where we can to back up the talk.

“And those investments are often less in terms of actual dollars — although, with something like PVLSI, it does take an actual cut out of our budget,” he continued, “and more in terms of people and ideas, and with our own ability to lobby industries and individual companies to come here, and assist with those efforts.”

Those are the things that might be expected from such a prominent citizen of Western Massachusetts.

—George O’Brien

Introducing the Class of 2010

By BusinessWest Staff February 1, 2010

Class of 2010 Difference Makers

Diffrence Makers

Introducing the Class of 2010 Their contributions to the community vary, from work to transform elder care to donations of time, energy, and imagination to a host of nonprofit agencies; from philanthropy that far exceeds grant awards to work to improve the lives of some of the most downtrodden constituencies in our society; from multi-faceted efforts to spur economic development in the region to simply inspiring others to find ways to make an impact. They are the Difference Makers Class of 2010. Their stories are powerful and compelling.

The Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation

Ellen Freyman
Shareholder with Shatz,Schwartz and Fentin, P.C.

James Goodwin
President and CEO of the Center for Human Development

Carol Katz
Chief Executive Officer of Loomis Communities

Robert Holub
UMass Amherst and Chancellor

Ellen Freyman

By BusinessWest Staff February 1, 2010

Class of 2010 Difference Makers

Ellen Freyman
Shareholder with Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C.

Ellen Freyman was talking about her family’s work mentoring and tutoring members of a Somali family now residing in Springfield through the help of Jewish Family Services. She spoke proudly of the time and effort that she, her husband, Richard, and sons Neal and Stephen were putting into this initiative, and said she firmly believed they were improving the quality of life for this family of five.

But she also conveyed a strong sense of frustration and concern that speaks loudly about how she approaches her voluminous work within the community and explains why she’s a member of the Difference Makers Class of 2010.

The Somalis, who were raised in a refugee camp in Kenya, speak in a patchwork of languages and dialects, and have serious trouble reading and writing in any language, including what amounts to their own, said Freyman. “This makes it even more difficult for people to try and teach English to these kids, because they don’t know what word to use to correlate to what they know,” Freyman explained. “If you say ‘tape recorder,’ they don’t know which word to pull out of what language to say ‘tape recorder’ in Somali, or Kenyan, or whatever.”

Freyman first met with Springfield teachers and principals, and later with Superintendent Alan Ingram, to discuss the problems facing not only ‘her’ Somali family, but others, as well as young people speaking other languages who are seemingly thrust into classes in the city’s high schools where other students are reading Hamlet and Of Mice and Men. As a result, a task force has been created to assess the problem and recommend possible solutions.

But that group’s work probably won’t happen soon enough to help of the oldest of the children in the family the Freymans are working with. He’s now 19 (at least that’s the best guess), and he will need literacy skills if he is to get a job.

Unfortunately, the waiting lists for adult-literacy programs in the area are so long that some people don’t even bother trying to apply. So Freyman, in addition to her one hour a week of mentoring and involvement with that aforementioned task force, is working to find a solution to the literacy-class problem.

“I’m trying to bring a coalition of people together to work on this, to bring some attention to the problem of adult literacy and to get more classes,” she said, acknowledging that there won’t be any easy answers to this one. “We have resources in the community; people just have to be creative. Things don’t always fit in a box — sometimes you have to figure out how to work outside the box.”

Being creative and thinking outside the box is how Freyman, a principal with the Springfield-based law firm Shatz Schwartz and Fentin, P.C., goes about her work with a long list of organizations, ranging from the Dunbar Community Center to the Community Music School; from the Springfield Jewish Federation to the Springfield Technical Community College Foundation.

Her bio on the law firm’s Web site lists more than a dozen nonprofits and initiatives to which Freyman has lent her name and time. But that’s just part of the story. The energy, imagination, and outside-the-box thinking that she takes to not only these assignments, but projects she’s initiated, are other big parts.

For example, there’s her work to create a group called On Board Inc., which works with area boards to help them achieve not only diversity, but also cultural sensitivity.

It all started in the early ’90s, or not long after Freyman began her work within the Greater Springfield community with such groups as Jewish Family Services, the Springfield Library & Museums, StageWest, and others.

“I was able to get on a lot of nonprofit boards, but I came to realize that, with the chambers and business boards and economic councils, many of them weren’t open to women,” she explained. “And it wasn’t because they were keeping women out, it was because they didn’t know women who were qualified to be on these boards.”

So she collaborated with a few other women to create a name bank of sorts with such qualified women, and then approached banks, hospitals, and other organizations to use that resource when filling seats.

“We met with various board representatives and nominating committees, and said, ‘we know you want your board to be more diversified, but you just don’t know how to do it, and you don’t know who’s out there.’ We met with college presidents, hospital CEOs, and banks, and within a year we had great success; we had a lot of women on these boards.

“And very soon after we started, it was our mission to get not just women on these boards, but all non-represented groups,” she continued. “I saw that it wasn’t just women that were absent, but also people of color; boards didn’t look like our community, and they needed to.”

The work with On Board Inc. exemplifies the approach Freyman says she takes with her work in the community — to look beyond her own basic assignment (attending a meeting or two a month) and to look for ways to, well, make a real difference.

Returning to her work with the Somalis, for example, she said she’s working together with others to create a soccer team that will compete against other clubs in the region; she’s agreed to be its manager. With an assist from Go FIT founder (and 2009 Difference Maker) Susan Jaye-Kaplan, with whom she runs most mornings, Freyman was able to secure 36 new pairs of cleats from Boston-based Good Sports Inc. She’s also received donations of soccer balls, but she’s looking for help with arranging contests and getting the Somalis to games and practices, either through rides or donations of bicycles.

In other words, she’s looking for more people willing to think — and work — outside the box.

That’s part of being a Difference Maker. —George O’Brien

Susan Jaye-Kaplan

By BusinessWest Staff February 3, 2009

Class of 2009 Difference Makers

Founder of GoFIT and Co-founder of Linked to Libraries

Susan Jaye Kaplan, right, with Janet Crimmins, with whom she partnered to create Linked to Libraries.

Susan Jaye-Kaplan had been on a first-name basis with Reebok Founder and CEO Paul Fireman, but she had to introduce herself to his successor, Uli Becker.
At least she thought she did.
Kaplan called Becker a few months ago (and several months after Adidas acquired Reebok, prompting changes at the top) because she needed a donation — a big donation — of sneakers for the nonprofit group she founded in 2005 called GoFIT. When she got him on the phone, she started telling him about herself and GoFIT, but quickly stopped. “I told him that, if he needed to, he could go into the files and look me up,” she told BusinessWest, adding that she was informed that such research wasn’t necessary; at that company and many others, the name, the organization, and the mission are well-known.

“I told him I needed 1,000 pairs of running shoes, and gave him specific sizes,” said Kaplan. “All he said was ‘when?’ I told him a week. He said, ‘you’ll have them.’ Not bad for someone he’d never spoken to before.”

Indeed, but then again, few people have ever really said ‘no’ to Kaplan. That’s because, when she calls or writes requesting something, there is good reason and a good cause — or causes — to which she has devoted time, energy, money, and imagination.

All of this, plus a unique ability to inspire others to find and carry out ways to give back to the community, makes her a Difference Maker.

In the case of GoFIT, the cause, as the name suggests, is fitness and introducing young people to that concept. The children are given sneakers, caps, T-shirts, and, more importantly, a game plan and some inspiration for getting into shape and staying in shape, through programs that convince participants that they have to walk before they can run — literally.

Thousands of area young people have taken part in GoFIT programs, which remain popular, despite the fact that many other organizations have borrowed from the concept, in what Kaplan considers the proverbial ‘greatest form of flattery.’

By early last year, the organization’s scope and reach had grown to such an extent that Kaplan considered it necessary to turn the reins over to an entity that had the resources and drive to handle the operation.

She and other board members found one in Square One, the Springfield-based but regional early-childhood education provider, which ‘acquired’ the GoFIT name and assets last year in what has been called a classic win-win scenario.

Kaplan remains active with GoFIT as board member, chief fund-raiser, and liaison to Reebok and other corporate supporters, as detailed earlier. But she apparently had some free time on her hands.

To fill it, she and a friend, Janet Crimmins, partnered to create another program that’s making a difference. It’s called Linked to Libraries, which collects new books and donates them to elementary schools across the region that are populated largely by the children of low-income families.

It all started when she read a story in the local paper about how Springfield’s White Street School in Springfield might have to close for — among other reasons — the fact that there weren’t enough books in the library. “I thought to myself, ‘I can fix this, in some small way,’” said Kaplan, adding that she E-mailed every member of a group she formed called the Good Reads Book Club (an organization for people too busy to join a traditional book club) and asked for donations of specific books — those recommended by Crimmins, a speech and language specialist for the city of Springfield.

“This is no exaggeration … in 11 days I had 51 hard-cover books sent to my house,” she said, adding that she and Crimmins, inspired by this success, expanded the mission. “I thought, this is a no-brainer. I can get people and corporations to donate books and help ease the problem — not solve it, just make it easier to solve.”

The program, which distributes 100 new books twice a month and will expand to three times a month this spring, has caught the attention — and won the support — of area businesses and institutions ranging from a karate school in Suffield, Conn. to Wilbraham Monson Academy; from Meyers Brothers Kalicka to Rediker Software; from Bank of Western Mass. to area high-school key clubs.

Which is good, because the demand for books is great.

“We’ve been inundated with requests from schools,” she explained, listing a number of area communities. “We’re spinning as fast as we can, but we’re not spinning fast enough; there are so many organizations and schools that need books.”

When asked what drives her in these various ventures, Kaplan returns to her youth. An orphan, she told BusinessWest that she knows what it’s like to be underprivileged; she was on her own and on the streets before graduating from high school.

She said her life was changed by a mentor named Lippman Hart Geronimus, a bacteriologist at Beth Israel Hospital who gave her a job, but also something ultimately far more valuable — a philosophy to live life by.

“He made me say the same thing every day — that I can do anything and be anything I want to be as long as I remain focused, hard-working, challenged, and honest.”

Those are the traits still propelling her today. And while Kaplan’s various endeavors have enriched the lives of thousands of young people, they’ve also enriched hers as well.

“I’m far from a millionaire, but I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot,” she told BusinessWest. “I have a good life, I’m in good health, and I have an opportunity to give back to the community.”

And while she doesn’t seek out attention or recognition for efforts, she’s reached a point where she’s become one of those individuals who really doesn’t need an introduction — not with Uli Becker, or with most of the business and civic leaders in Western Mass.v

— George O’Brien

Doug Bowen

By BusinessWest Staff February 2, 2009

Class of 2009 Difference Makers

President and CEO of Peoples Bank

Doug Bowen

Carol Katz says Doug Bowen possesses what she calls a strong moral compass.

By that, she meant that the president and CEO of PeoplesBank in Holyoke has a sound sense of direction when it comes to giving back to the community and the manner in which those contributions are carried out by the bank and by Bowen himself.

And, as president of the Holyoke-based Loomis Communities and one who is very active in that city, Katz should know.

Bowen has served on her board for years and was a corporator before that, and she now sits on the banks board. Meanwhile, theyve served together on the board of the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce. Thus, Katz has seen the time, energy, and insight that Bowen brings to a host of nonprofits he serves personally Holyoke Community College and the Economic Development Council of Western Mass. are on that list, among others. And shes also seen first-hand the tone he sets at the bank one that takes a number of forms.

These range from a strong philanthropic platform the bank ranked 52nd among all state businesses in the Boston Business Journals list of largest charitable contributors to a strong leadership position when it comes to lending to green businesses and sustainable-energy-related ventures. And then, theres simply the direction hes providing the bank in terms of growth and profitability.

He has his priorities straight, said Katz, summing things up neatly and with conviction. He feels strongly about his responsibilities and the banks responsibilities to be a leader within the community and you dont always see that among business people and in the banking industry today.

Its been this way since Bowen joined PeoplesBank 33 years ago as a teller in its management-development program soon after graduating from college. He remembers working at the High Street main office, cashing checks for hundreds of uniform-clad factory workers and giving them back large sums of cash.

That was back in the days before direct deposit, ATMs, and debit cards, he said. People would just come and cash their checks.

Holyoke and the banking industry have changed considerably over the past three decades, as have the titles on Bowens business cards (I think Ive had every position in the place), but his moral compass hasnt. And that no doubt played a role in his ascension to president two and a half years ago, succeeding Joe Lobello.

Ive been very fortunate Ive had a number of careers, but all with the same organization, he said. Ive been on the finance side, the lending side, and the retail side. Thats kept it interesting and challenging.

Bowens community-focused business philosophy prevails at the bank, said Katz, as does a management style she says is grounded in the tenets detailed by Jim Collins in his popular business book Good to Great.

Hes the kind of leader who puts the organization first, said Katz. He builds consensus with his team; he respects his team, and the team respects him. He does whats right.

Recently, Bowen has steered the bank toward that leadership position with regard to green lending, for lack of a better term. There is even something called a green team.

Membership includes virtually every department in the bank, and, from a business perpesctive, efforts range from recently approved loans for small-scale wind-power projects (the bank has by far the largest wind-power portfolio in the region) to a partnership with the Holyoke Gas & Electric Department to develop and expand hydro-electric facilities, and lending to parties working to develop brownfield sites in the region. Internally, the team is working to reduce energy consumption, curb the use of paper, and take other steps that would fall under the category of going green.

Meanwhile, the tone hes set has enabled PeoplesBank to move steadily higher on the BBJs largest-charitable-contributors list. The institution donated $412,376 in 2007, just one slot below Friendly Ice Cream Corp. In 2008, the number was $700,000, which should move the bank way up on the chart because, while it gave more over the past 12 months, many other businesses scaled back in response to a worsening economy.

The bank views its contributions to the community as an expression of its core values, said Bowen. Its also part of a strategic business initiative we call community spirit. Over the past five years, weve given $3 million to charitable and civic organizations, and that doesnt include the $700,000 we gave last year.

Beyond the numbers, however, is a commitment to giving in ways that will make the most profound impact on overall quality of life in the Pioneer Valley.

The charitable giving by the bank is focused on putting dollars where they can help the most people and have the greatest impact on the community, he explained, citing recent donations (coinciding with expansion in the Springfield market) ranging from Rachels Table to the Springfield Falcons; from the Springfield Symphony to American International College.

My overall vision, or sense, is that a community bank has a responsibility to be a stable financial institution but also be a trusted neighbor. And as the largest community bank in the region, we take those responsibilities quite seriously.

The Loomis Communities has a nine-year term limit for board members, said Katz, and Bowen has just a few years left to serve.

Thus, there will be a big leadership void to fill for her organization, but she suspects that Bowen will no doubt fill the void in his schedule when it comes to giving back to the community.

Thats the direction his strong moral compass compels him to take.

George OBrien

Kate Kane

By BusinessWest Staff February 2, 2009

Class of 2009 Difference Makers

Managing Director of the Springfield Office of the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network

Kate Kane

Kate Kane was talking about Worcester, and, more specifically, her efforts to help create an extension of the program Dress for Success, which provides a set of clothes to underprivileged women for a job interview or their first day on a new job, in that city.

It was a huge chore, said Kane, managing director of the Springfield office of the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network. She was born in the Worcester area and worked there for some time, and her father was a Worcester boy. But she still found herself treated like an outsider in this endeavor, which made it hard to get things done.

Its a very closed community people are very suspicious of those who did not grow up there, she said, proffering the theory that this attitude likely results from that citys historic competition with Boston. I was out there for five years trying to start this charity I was trying to give something away, and they made it so hard.

Its a very interesting experience trying to break through in that market, which is not at all like Springfield, she continued. Here, from the get-go, its been very easy to meet people, very easy to get involved; people welcome your help.

For persevering in Worcester (that Dress for Success facility is finally slated to open in a few months), and for taking full advantage of the opportunities shes been given to give back to the community in Western Mass., Kane has been named to the inaugural class of Difference Makers by BusinessWest. And its not just the long list of groups she serves from Dress for Success to the Sisters of Providence Health System; from the Womens Fund of Western Massachusetts to the Andrew M. Scibelli Enterprise Center at the Technology Park at STCC but also the attitude she brings toward that work that has brought her this distinction.

What Ive tried to do is have a consistent orientation to the things I do, she said. One of those things is a sense of economic justice and helping people who havent been given the tools to learn about money and finances, and really try to provide them access to those tools.

She says that people in her capacity and who possess her skills have a moral responsibility to find ways to utilize those skills to help those less fortunate. She told BusinessWest that she gives time, energy, and expertise but also receives back.

To me, its about the gift, she explained. Im giving the gift of my time, but in return for that Im getting the gift of all these lessons that I get to learn.

Kane was still planning to pursue a career in teaching when, soon after graduating from Vassar, she took a job in the Worcester office of Northwestern Mutual in 1986. But she adjusted her career plans in only a few short months.

She would still become a teacher, in a number of ways, but the setting and the actual work would be much different. Shes in the financial-services sector, not academia, and instead of English literature, shes teaching sales professionals how to reach their maximum potential. She does so by taking them out of their comfort zone and imploring them to continually seek new and greater and challenges.

This, in a nutshell, is what her predecessor in Springfield, Paul Steffan, did with her several years ago, when he coaxed her into trading her position as field director, in which she was quite comfortable, for the managing directors seat. In that capacity, she recruits, develops talent, mentors rising stars, and sets a tone for the office. She describes herself as an able listener and, ultimately, a doer.

And it is these talents that she brings to the many kinds of work she does within the Western Mass. community, and also Hartford and, most recently, Worcester, where she tapped into more than a decade of experience with Dress for Success, which is now a national and international phenomenon. She co-wrote the original business plan for the Western Mass. chapter of Dress for Success the first one in the Bay State which now outfits, or suits, nearly 500 women a year through a boutique located at the Mass. Career Development Institute in Springfield.

In recent years, shes broadened the scope of her work to include everything from mentoring young entrepreneurs as they work to reach that proverbial next level to serving at the board at the SPHS and helping steer that system through a time of extreme challenge and uncertainty for all health care providers, to taking a board seat with Friends for the Homeless and assisting that group to find long-term solutions to one of nations most perplexing societal issues.

Shes also served as president of the Womens Partnership, been part of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield, and been a long-time board member and Governance Committee member with the Womens Fund, which administers a $3 million endowment and donates tens of thousands of dollars each year to area nonprofits.

These groups have different missions, but there are common threads that Kane says appeal to that sense of economic justice she described. Meanwhile, she says each assignment allows her to grow professionally and personally.

I try not to get stuck just doing the things Im good at, she said, referring specifically to her work with the Womens Fund. Im an action person, a do person lets just do it. So its been good for me to be on a committee thats all about process.

I try to find ways to have the community-service work to teach me things, she continued. Such work can not only provide life lessons, but also help you run your businesses better; theres a lot of things you can learn from the nonprofit environment and take back to your business.

Returning to the subject of Worcester and trying to do charitable work there, Kane said that if more people had that experience, they would have a greater appreciation for working in Springfield. Its like night and day.

Kane hasnt merely worked in both cities, shes broken through in both, and especially in the Pioneer Valley, wheres shes been a learner and a teacher.

George OBrien

Bill Ward

By BusinessWest Staff February 2, 2009

Class of 2009 Difference Makers

Executive Director of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County

Bill Ward

Woody Allen once joked, Im not afraid to die I just dont want to be there when it happens.

The quote has been borrowed and bastardized in countless ways over the years, mostly by people addressing the subjects of death and dying.

Bill Ward, executive director of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County, has put it to a different use.

He summons it when he talks with people about confronting business and societal matters that maybe they dont want to confront, but must. It takes a definite lack of fear and generous amounts of determination to prevail in such situations, he said.

And those are the qualities that have guided Ward through a career in which he has been motivated largely by two other quotes, these from his mother well, sort of.

She was always saying that theres no justice in this world, said Ward, who told BusinessWest that this annoyed him because he was an idealist. She always said that justice isnt something thats there, that you participate in its something that you have to build.

She also said that I could be part of the solution or contribute to the problem, he continued. And if youre part of the solution, you must be engaged, and thats been a philosophy thats guided my life and my work.

Indeed, Ward has spent the bulk of his professional life engaged specifically, he has helped create and carry out solutions and also working to create some justice, or access, in the form of employment opportunities, especially for groups that have historically encountered hurdles and roadblocks in their attempts to secure meaningful employment. Those constituencies include the minority populations, those lacking basic skills, and the traditionally underemployed.

There are a lot of places where we have to create justice, he said, and I found mine in jobs.

As one example, he cited the Minority Employment Program, created in the mid-80s. That was the first big initiative we took, raising money from banks, foundations, and other sources; we placed 480 minorities into jobs.

This was followed some years later by a private-sector summer-jobs program that created opportunities for hundreds of young people across the region. Other success stories have included recent efforts to put more qualified machinists in the pipeline, and a merger of the REB and the Hampden County Employment and Training Consortium, which has streamlined workforce initiatives and saved more than $400,000 in administrative costs.

Not everything has gone smoothly, and some programs havent worked as well as their architects might have hoped, but that merely brings to mind another Woody Allen quote: If youre not failing now and again, its a sign youre not doing anything innovative.

There has been plenty of innovation in Wards work, especially with regard to the one-stop career centers FutureWorks and CareerPoint, established in 1996 and soon thereafter winning awards and attracting visitors from across the country trying to duplicate their success and uniqueness; they were the first competitively bid one-stops in the nation.

Over the first four years, people from more than 30 states came to see the design of these one-stops, he said. Why? Take the system that existed in the typical unemployment office it was dysfunctional and not business-friendly; our centers are private, not-profit operations that were designed to replace the government entity. Today, these two centers are still outpacing all other centers across the state in terms of service, etc., and its not by accident.

The latest example of innovation and solution-finding is a broad effort called Building a Better Workforce Closing the Skills Gap on the Road to Economic Resurgence. The REB is a lead player in the initiative, along with the George and Irene Davis Foundation; groups like the National Tooling and Machining Assoc.; institutions such as Square One, the Mass. Career Development Institute, and area community colleges; and a host of employers, including Baystate Health and Mercy Medical Center.

The first steps in the program were announced last year, and they were crafted to achieve some momentum with regard to the workforce plans four main strategic goals: establishing universal kindergarten, improving young education proficiency and career awareness, increasing adult literacy education services, and increasing technical training in high-growth/high-demand industry sectors.

As he talked about the REBs work and its successes, Ward never used the word I, always opting instead for we, because he noted that the progress made isnt the result of one person or one organization.

Its taken teamwork to achieve all that weve done over the years, he said, adding that hes been blessed to be able to work with talented individuals from grant writers to program administrators; from elected leaders to business executives who have not only served on his board but mentored him along the way. Ive been very fortunate to have great people to work with on these programs, all of which have been models that have implemented the concept of access and creating that sense of justice that would give a chance to people who might otherwise not have that chance.

In summary, Ward has never been afraid of trying to bring a little justice to the world, and hes always been there to make sure it happens.

Which means hes made a mockery of still another of Woody Allens quips: 70% of success in life is just showing up.

Ward has never just shown up. And for that, his mother would be proud.

George OBrien

YPS

By BusinessWest Staff February 2, 2009

Class of 2009 Difference Makers

The Young Professionals Society of Greater Springfield

Alyssa Carvalho described it as a good problem to have.

She was talking about April 14, and a scheduled CEO Luncheon to be hosted by MassMutual Chairman and CEO Stuart Reese. The Young Professionals Society of Greater Springfield (YPS) started the luncheon series last year as another way to carry out its broad mission to engage, involve, and educate its members.

The problem? Well, seats to the monthly luncheons are limited in number, said Carvalho, the groups current president and, during the day, membership manager for the Greater Springfield Conventon & Visitors Bureau. The typical count is 20 to 30, to ensure intimacy and the opportunity for one-on-one dioalogue, but Reese and MassMutual will likely find a way to accommodate many more than that. Still, not everyone will be able to go.

And everyone will want to go, she told BusinessWest, adding that she and other officers will have to contrive some method of determining which members will be able to circle that date on their calendars. As she said, thats a good problem to have, and its a scenario that shows just how far this organization has come in two years.

From quasi-humble beginnings, YPS has grown to more than 200 members, expanded and diversified its program offerings, and garnered enough respect to prompt Reese to donate a few hours of his precious time to impart some words of wisdom, as Carvalho called them, to this young, diverse audience.

We worked very hard to get him, and were thrilled that he would take the time to speak to our group and open it up to more people than we would normally have, she said. Our members are excited about the chance to be sitting in the same room with that caliber of speaker; the fact that hes willing to do so speaks to the importance of our work these are the emerging leaders in the community.

This higher profile has earned YPS a place in this first class of Difference Makers, along with some sky-high expectations for the future which Carvalho and other officers are determined to meet in what might be considered another good problem to have.

Weve done very well so far, she said, but we know we have to keep building, doing more in the community, and providing more value for our members.

YPS got its start in Springfield in late 2006, when a small group of younger professionals all graduates of the Leadership Institute, a partnership between the ACCGS and Western New England College to teach mid- and upper-level managers the skills needed to become effective leaders conceptualized a group that could handle a number of assignments. They would range from giving people something to do to providing programs on professional development; from helping to educate members on the issues of the day to providing some reasons for young professionals to stay in the Pioneer Valley and become valuable contributors to its progress and livelihood.

The overriding goal, said Carvalho, is to help members plant roots, and develop lasting connections to the region and its business community.

While the groups founders were ambitious and had lofty expectations, even they might be surprised by how quickly and profoundly the group has become a real force in the community. In addition to the 200 members, there are 900 subscribers, those who have a connection to the group and attend some of its events.

Since its start, the organization which takes a name similar to other groups in the region, including young-professional societies in Northampton, the Berkshires, and Hartford, but is different from these groups because it is independent has been consistently adding programs, forming collaborative partnerships with other groups, and, in general, making its presence and influence felt.

Its making a difference.

In addition to the CEO lunches, which have featured leaders and business owners ranging from ACCGS President Russell Denver to Springfield Falcons General Manager and co-owner Bruce Landon, the group has staged monthly networking events called Third Thursdays. It has become involved with the Division II college basketball tournament staged in Springfield each March, and last fall it partnered with Rock the Vote and other groups to encourage young people to register to vote and understand the issues involved with the presidential election.

YPS also conducted a number of events and programs to connect young people with the arts, promote mentoring, and facilitate efforts to give back to the community. It even created an award the Young Professionals Society of Greater Springfields Excellence in Leadership Award which is given to a graduate of the Leadership Institute who has distinguished him or herself through community involvement, civic leadership, and professional excellence. The first winner was Elizabeth Cordona, director of Gov. Patricks office in Springfield.

For 2009, the goal is simply to build on the momentum created over the past two years by continually looking for new ways to meet and expand the groups mission, as expressed in one of its slogans: live, work, play, and stay, said Carvalho, who told BusinessWest that her work as president has become what she called a second full-time job.

Im putting in maybe 30 or 40 hours a week toward this, she said, adding quickly that other officers are logging similar time handling YPS affairs. And I need to, because theres so much happening and so much to do.

Sounds like another one of those good problems to have.

George OBrien

Meet the Difference Makers

By BusinessWest Staff February 2, 2009

Class of 2009 Cover Story Difference Makers

They lead — and inspire

Cover

Their contributions vary, from helping to improve the quality and diversity of the regions workforce to providing books for local school libraries; from donating time, energy, and know-how to area nonprofit agencies to spearheading efforts to engage, involve, and educate the Valleys young professionals. The common denominator is that these individuals are all making a difference in Western Mass. Theyre not the only ones, certainly, but their stories reflect the work of countless others to make this a better region in which to live, work, and run a business.