Loomis Communities Announces New Board Members, Appointments

SOUTH HADLEY — The Loomis Communities announced three new members to its board of directors: Zachary Steigmeyer, assistant vice president, Commercial Lending at PeoplesBank; Kevin Whitney, president and chief operating officer of Cooley Dickinson Hospital; and Frances Bancroft, an Applewood in Amherst resident who is a retired learning products specialist.

The organization also announced Deborah Snow, former owner of Blue Heron Restaurant and Catering, as board chair, and Sanford (Sandy) Belden, Loomis Village resident and retired CEO of Community Bank System, as vice chair.

Steigmeyer has been with PeoplesBank for more than five years, now serving as assistant vice president, Commercial Lending in Holyoke. He graduated from UMass Amherst with a degree in economics, where he also played Division 1 men’s ice hockey and was a national champion in 2021. He belongs to both the American Bankers Assoc. and the Risk Management Assoc. Steigmeyer also serves as an assistant coach for women’s ice hockey at Amherst College and does volunteer work with the Special Olympics and local food pantries.

Before his role as president and COO of Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Whitney served as senior vice president of Patient Care Services and chief Nursing officer for Newton-Wellesley Hospital and as associate chief nurse for Surgical, Orthopedics, and Neurosciences at Massachusetts General Hospital. He also held the position of vice president of Community Operations for the Mass General Brigham (MGB) Community Division, and prior to joining MGB worked at Emerson Hospital, where he served in clinical and leadership roles. He earned his doctor of nursing practice degree from the MGH Institute of Health Professions, a master’s degree in health care administration from Framingham State University, a bachelor’s degree in nursing from UMass Lowell, and an associate degree in paramedic technology from Northeastern University. He is a member of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership and the American College of Healthcare Executives. In 2024, Whitney received the UMass Lowell Solomont School of Nursing Alumni Award.

Bancroft, who is an active resident of Applewood in Amherst, served as vice chair of the Applewood residents association executive committee, chair of the nominating committee, and coordinator for the community’s meditation group. A retired learning products specialist with experience in education, communications, and technology organizations, she worked at Philips, Agilent Technologies, and Hewlett-Packard, and also served as a communications consultant for Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum. She holds a bachelor’s degree from McGill University. Bancroft has been active in a number of community and volunteer organizations, including co-chairing the Homeless Lunch Program, work on the nominating committee and volunteering for the Homeless Writers Program at All Saints Parish in Brookline, serving as a tax preparer for the AARP Tax Program in both Newton and Amherst, and chairing the lay-led worship committee at the Unitarian/Universalist Society of Newton.

Snow, who has served on the Loomis Communities board of directors since 2017, is the former owner of Blue Heron Restaurant and Catering and a teacher of culinary arts at the Windham Regional Career Center. She is a member of the Women’s Presidents Organization, serves on the Development Committee of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, and serves on the culinary program advisory boards for both Franklin County Technical School and Holyoke Community College. Snow has been featured in Bon Appetit magazine as one of the top 108 restaurants in the country and best dish ever tasted, and recognized as the best chef of Western Mass. by the Massachusetts Restaurant Assoc.

Belden, who joined the Loomis Communities board of directors in 2024, and his wife, Betsy, became residents of Loomis Village in South Hadley in 2018. Belden retired in 2006 as the CEO of Community Bank System, a large-scale regional financial institution headquartered in Syracuse, N.Y. He previously served as a senior executive in New York City at a large, international bank. He holds bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees from Purdue University in economics; held a faculty position at Cornell; and earned a mid-career certification from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Belden has also served on more than 30 governance boards for both for-profit and not-for-profit entities around the country, including the board of governors of the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. Regionally, he has also served on the boards of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Smith College, Kestrel Land Trust, and Center for EcoTechnology, as well as the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, and Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity.

“We are so fortunate to be adding these three new members to our Board of Directors. Each is an outstanding member of the community at large and each will bring their experience, knowledge, and passion for the work we do in serving older adults in Western Massachusetts,” said Margaret Mantoni, president and CEO of the Loomis Communities. “These new members, along with our entire board and newly appointed chair and vice chair, are a reflection of the stability, and local control, that has been a hallmark of the Loomis Communities for as long as we have been in existence.”