People on the Move

Westmass Area Development Corp. named Jeff Daley CEO of the private, nonprofit development entity. Daley, who was chosen as the result of a search process conducted by the Westmass board, has more than 15 years of experience in the real-estate development arena. Daley is the former executive director of the Westfield Redevelopment Authority and most recently served as the principal of CJC Development Advisors LLC, which he founded in 2016. Daley’s portfolio includes overseeing $60 million in commercial and industrial development and managing $34 million in public development projects. As CEO, Daley will be responsible for management of Westmass, including negotiating corporate acquisitions, land sales, leases, and incentive proposals; grant applications; and marketing resources and development services to organizations and businesses considering investment in the region. Daley will also enhance Westmass offerings regarding development services to communities throughout the region to assist with economic development and real-estate development opportunities. Daley will also evaluate opportunities for new industrial-park development and land acquisition and coordinate federal, state, and local economic-development grants and resources. Daley replaces interim CEO Bryan Nicholas, who served after the sudden passing of former CEO Eric Nelson, who was appointed in 2016.

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Sheila Stamm has joined American International College (AIC) as dean of the School of Education. Stamm is the president of S. Wright & Associates, providing consulting support to academic leaders and faculty in higher education and community sectors. She has an extensive background in higher education, including serving as dean of the School of Education for Cambridge College and Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn. Stamm previously served as commissioner of Higher Education for the state of Minnesota. Prior to transitioning to administrative roles in higher education, Stamm was a tenured professor at Hamline University and an associate professor at Saint Xavier University in Chicago. Throughout her career, Stamm has been dedicated to community service, with affiliations including the Ramsey County Blue Ribbon Commission on Economic Disparities, the Minnesota Chicano Latino Affairs Council Committee on Educational Disparities, the education workgroup of the African American Leadership Forum, the West Suburban College of Nursing board of trustees, the leadership council of Chicago-Area Deans, and the Urban Teacher Education Program, among numerous other affiliations. Stamm has served on dozens of committees at the colleges where she was a member of the administration or faculty and has extensive publications and presentations to her credit, with a focus on higher education, diversity, inclusion, hiring, teaching, innovation, leadership, and learning.

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Azaya Inc. named Patrick Fortunato its Business Development manager. In this role, he will lead the sales of IT managed-services support, digital and VoIP business telephone systems, and future security surveillance technologies to serve businesses, the government sector, as well as educational institutions within the state of Massachusetts. Fortunato has more than 20 years of executive management leadership experience, while developing strategic business units in financial services and digital-imaging solutions, for mid-size to large enterprise companies and organizations. He served as national Sales manager for Sharp USA and vice president of Sales while working at Konica Minolta, with U.S. national responsibilities and oversight. Fortunato most recently served as managing director for Global Financial NetworX, LLC with the task of increasing customer acquisition for the company’s lending, insurance, annuities, and investment portfolios.

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Bacon Wilson announced that attorney Rebecca Mercieri Rivaux has joined the firm. Mercieri Rivaux is an associate and a member of Bacon Wilson’s bankruptcy and business/corporate practice groups. Prior to joining Bacon Wilson, Mercieri Rivaux attended Western New England University School of Law, graduating magna cum laude in 2019. She also obtained her bachelor’s degree from Western New England University, graduating summa cum laude in 2015.

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In the wake of a record number of new homes being built, Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity (GSHFH) recently welcomed new staff to assist with furthering the agency’s mission. Jason Montgomery joins GSHFH as its Donor Relations manager. He comes to GSHFH with more than 10 years of experience in nonprofit/human-services work and has strong ties in the local community. He has previously served with Habitat for Humanity in Hartford and locally with Way Finders. Also joining the team, Sarah Tanner is now on board for a short term as interim executive director. Tanner is a principal with Financial Development Agency and brings more than 20 years of local nonprofit experience to the affiliate. GSHFH also announced internal promotions and realignments to maximize the agency’s resources. In response to a capacity grant received by Habitat for Humanity International, Jeff Lomma has been named Marketing & Communications manager, with an emphasis on promoting the value of Habitat programming throughout the community. Meanwhile, Mary Olmsted has transitioned from serving as an Americorps volunteer to full-time staff as Volunteer Services coordinator.

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Holyoke Community College (HCC) recently welcomed Adrienne Smith as interim dean of its division of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Smith brings 13 years of community-college experience to HCC, most recently as the dean of the School of Engineering, Technologies, and Mathematics at Springfield Technical Community College. Prior to that, she served as associate professor and coordinator of Electronics Technology at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester. Her professional accomplishments span many areas of academic program development and enhancement, enrollment management and retention, diversity responsiveness, and regional and community partnership coordination. Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in science, engineering, and math from Western New England University, where she was the first African-American woman to graduate with a degree in engineering, and she earned a doctorate in education from UMass Amherst with competencies in community-college leadership, educational polices, and administration. A graduate of Springfield Technical High School, Smith started her professional life as an electrical engineer (and the first female engineer) at Digital Equipment Corp. in Springfield.

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Alyssa Arnell, chair of the History Department at Greenfield Community College (GCC), was awarded the African American Female Professor Award by the African American Female Professor Award Assoc. (AAFPAA) in a ceremony at Bay Path University on Sept. 26. Formerly a history teacher at Dillard University and educational-outreach coordinator and historical interpreter for the National Park Service, Arnell joined the faculty at GCC in 2017. In just two years, she has modernized GCC’s history curriculum, infusing it with a social-justice focus and adding courses such as “The Legal History of American Civil Rights” and “North American Indigenous History.” For many of Arnell’s classes, she has integrated a public history component that brings her classes out of the classroom and to the lobby of the main building, where her students give presentations on their projects throughout the day — a way to let other faculty, staff, and students see the kinds of work her students are engaged in, and see the kinds of research that can happen in a history course. In addition to teaching, Arnell has created programming that reaches beyond the classroom with talks on the removal of confederate statues, a lecture on the life Frederick Douglass, a panel discussion with students about the movie Black Panther, and a conversation on immigrant rights. She also adapted a format of Facilitated Dialogues used by the National Park Service to launch a series of conversations about race and ethnicity at GCC. Arnell is also a core member of Greenfield Community College’s Racial Equity and Justice Institute Team, a part of the Leading for Change Higher Education Diversity Consortium. As part of the Racial Equity and Justice Team, she has worked to learn best practices to support students of color, helped the college identify specific areas where achievement gaps exist, and will continue in the coming year to work to identify specific action steps to try to address those achievement gaps.

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Amy Royal, owner of Royal, P.C., has been selected as a Super Lawyer for 2019. Providing legal representation in Massachusetts for a variety of different issues, Royal was also selected to Super Lawyers in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process includes independent research, peer nominations, and peer evaluations. Royal represents employers with employment and labor issues. Additional legal issues represented include employment litigation: defense, cannabis law, and alternative dispute resolution.