People on the Move

Brand-development firm Six-Point Creative has made two recent additions to its staff, including Amanda Levy, client advocate, and Hang Tran, graphic designer. Levy brings to Six-Point a combination of product-management and account-service experience. She worked previously for Bindertek in Belchertown, where she was lead merchandiser, marketing analyst, and, most recently, manager of product development. She has also provided freelance design and marketing consultation to businesses and nonprofits throughout the region. Levy, who graduated from Mount Holyoke College, will work with Six-Point’s account service team, with responsibility for serving a number of consumer and business-to-business accounts. Tran is an award-winning designer with a degree in graphic design and interactive media from Fitchburg State University. She has provided creative direction, graphic design, image development, and production services for national and international brands while working for PUMA in Westford and for Brigade in Hadley. She will provide these services to Six-Point clients, including visual brand development for companies going through Solve for Y, a Six-Point brand-development process for innovative companies ready to scale.

•••••

Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. recently welcomed Lisa White, CPA as its newest tax manager. White comes to MBK with nearly 20 years of public accounting experience with a focus in taxation. She has worked for large and regional firms throughout the Eastern U.S. and carries significant technical knowledge and best practices from a variety of firms and industries. At MBK, she focuses primarily on federal and state income-tax compliance and planning within the construction and real-estate industries. As a tax manager, White will have the opportunity to coach and mentor staff as well as manage the delivery of services directly to many clients. White holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Middle Tennessee State University and is a member of the American Institute of Public Accountants and the Massachusetts Society of Public Accountants. She is a certified public accountant licensed to practice in both Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. In 2011, she was named among the 40 Under 40: Members to Watch by the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs.

•••••

Richard Lord, who built Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) into one of the most far-reaching business associations in the commonwealth, will retire next year after leading the organization for almost 20 years. Lord, a North Adams native and Williams College graduate who took the top job at AIM in 1999, will remain as president and CEO while the AIM board of directors chooses a successor. Lord made the 103-year-old former manufacturing association the voice of all Massachusetts employers on generational economic issues such as the cost of health insurance, taxation, education, worker training, and energy. At the same time, he expanded the membership of AIM into developing areas of the state economy such as services, technology, biosciences, and robotics. His accomplishments range from representing the views of employers during the landmark 2006 Massachusetts Health Care Reform Law and subsequent 2012 Health Cost-Containment Law to expanding the AIM HR Solutions business to help employers both large and small manage complicated human-resources issues.

•••••

The Rev. Beverly Herbert has joined Cancer Connection as executive director. A two-time cancer survivor, Herbert has worked as a municipal director of city planning and community and economic development, and has held interim executive director positions at a community-action agency and a community-development corporation. Most recently, she worked for Pathlight, Billings Forge Community Works in Hartford, Conn., and the city of Wilmington, N.C. She was honored by the Assoc. of Fundraising Professionals of Western Mass. in 2017 as a fundraising professional and as chapter president. Formerly a pastor of the A.M.E. Zion Church, Herbert discovered Cancer Connection when she attended a support group and used other services there. “Through Cancer Connection, I became part of a family — one full of love and life, in spite of the common cancer thread.”

•••••

Curran and Keegan Financial has added a new client service associate, Heather Cahill. She joins with a focus on helping clients and advisors during the financial-planning and investment process. Cahill joined Curran & Keegan after nearly two decades of executive-level roles at a multi-million-dollar international corporation located in the Pioneer Valley. Passionate about community, education, and environment, she serves as vice chair of the Hatfield District School Committee and is a founding member of the Hatfield Community Garden.

•••••

Epstein Financial Services recently announced the hiring of Carla Maurer as chief financial officer. Maurer brings nearly a decade of financial experience to the role and will be responsible for all accounting activities, including cash flow, budgeting, and financial planning. Previously, Maurer served as director of Administrative Services for Lincoln Tech, where she handled fiscal matters for the post-secondary vocational school. She helped facilitate the annual preparation of operating budgets, reviewed month-end profit and loss statements, and prepared monthly and quarterly forecasts for the corporate executive team. For nearly four years, Maurer held the position of financial and administrative director for Pioneer Continuing Care Providers, where she oversaw payroll, human resources, and day-to-day business activities. Prior to that, she worked as an accounting manager for Hampden County Physicians, where she held managerial responsibility for a multi-specialty group practice with more than 70 providers and 14 locations. Maurer has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s degree in accounting and taxation from American International College.

•••••

Elms College promoted Brother Michael Duffy, conventual Franciscan friar, to the position of associate dean of the School of Nursing. In this role, he will have primary responsibility for the School of Nursing’s undergraduate programs, service learning programs, and international studies. Duffy most recently served as coordinator of the accelerated second degree in Nursing program, assistant professor of Nursing, and director of the Elms College caRe vaN, a free health clinic on wheels that serves homeless and underserved people of Chicopee while affording clinical experience to pre-licensure students. Duffy has extensive experience as an adult nurse practitioner and a nurse educator, teaching at Elms from 1988 through 1997, and again since 2011. He has practiced in healthcare in homeless settings in Massachusetts, Philadelphia, and Baltimore for years. In 2011, he returned from a six-year assignment in Jamaica, where he managed a rural clinic, to serve as the coordinator of the accelerated second degree program in Nursing. He earned his bachelor’s degree from American International College, his master’s degree from the University of Lowell, and his doctor of nursing practice (DNP) degree from Regis College in Weston, where his caRe vaN vision came to fruition as his doctoral project. Today, the caRe vaN is staffed with pre-licensure students, RN-to-BS students, clinical faculty, and DNP students, and provides free healthcare to the homeless and underserved in Chicopee. Duffy returns to Jamaica each winter with second degree accelerated nursing students who gain population-health and community-nursing experience through patient care and clinical experiences.

•••••

Jeffrey Simpson, CFA has been promoted to vice president of Commercial Lending and chief commercial officer for UMassFive College Federal Credit Union. The Commercial Services Department has a goal of supporting the local community and economy with competitive rates and terms on short- and long-term commercial business loans for working capital, equipment, commercial real estate, and special projects designed to bring greater efficiencies and cost savings to member businesses. The department has begun its lending process to fellow business professionals in the area. UMassFive is also crafting business checking, savings, and money-market options, as well as a business credit card.

•••••

Professor Ramesh Sitaraman of UMass Amherst’s College of Information and Computer Sciences is one of a large team of scientists and engineers who have been honored by the Assoc. for Computing Machinery with its SIGCOMM Networking Systems Award for work that “has had a significant impact on the world of computer networking,” the association said. Sitaraman and colleagues are credited with building the Akamai content-delivery network (CDN), the world’s first major CDN and now one of the largest ever built, and for pioneering the concept of internet content delivery. The Akamai CDN currently consists of 240,000 servers in 130 countries and serves about one-quarter of all internet traffic. CDNs deliver a majority of internet traffic today, including much of the world’s e-commerce, news, media, entertainment, social networks, and online applications. Two decades after their creation, Sitaraman noted, CDNs have completely transformed the internet as we know it while simultaneously spawning a business sector valued at tens of billions of dollars. Sitaraman directs the CICS Laboratory for Internet-Scale Distributed Systems and is a member of its Theoretical Computer Science group. His research involves all aspects of internet-scale distributed systems, including algorithms, architectures, performance, and energy efficiency. He is currently focused on the next-generation internet. He received the 2014 College Outstanding Teacher Award.

•••••

American International College (AIC) inducted seven accomplished alumni into the biennial Co-Curricular Hall of Fame during a brunch in their honor on Oct. 13, as part of the college’s Homecoming Weekend festivities. Inductees for 2018 include distinguished alumni who cross generations from the Class of 1950 through 2009. Glendora Vesta Folsom Buell ’50 has enjoyed a historically successful career in television. Her show, A Chat with Glendora, has been syndicated on public-access cable television stations nationwide since it first aired in 1972, making it the world’s longest-running active public-access program. Emily Rivera-Nunez ’97, who received numerous awards for leadership as an undergraduate student, has gone on to enjoy a rewarding career in criminal justice and victim advocacy. Her husband, Luis Nunez ’98, is also an inductee. During his time at AIC, Nunez was an active member of the campus community, serving in student government, Model Congress, the wrestling team, and as a resident assistant. He is a senior development accountant and continues to volunteer his time and talent with youth wrestling and baseball. Kia Prescott Bandoh ’99, a biology major and recipient of Who’s Who Among Students in Colleges and Universities, went on to earn a master of physician assistant degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School. She is a physician assistant at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute’s Gynecologic Oncology Program with the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers. Yolanda McCormick ’03 (MS ’05) graduated with a bachelor of science in sociology and criminal justice, and a master of science degree in criminal justice. She earned a second master of science degree in mental-health counseling and is a licensed mental-health clinician in North Carolina. Two longtime Springfield residents are also being recognized. Elizabeth Perez ’99 majored in criminal justice and political science while at AIC. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in educational psychology at the college. Perez has been a social worker and supervisor with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families for 19 years. Keshawn Dodds ’01 (MEd ’09) is the executive director of the Boys & Girls Club Family Center in Springfield. Dodds recently received the 2018 Ubora Award from the Springfield Museums. He was a member of BusinessWest’s 40 Under 40 class of 2012, and received the Stone Soul Community Leader Award in 2015. In 2016, he became an Amazon best-selling author with his sci-fi novel Menzuo: The Calling of the Sun Prince.