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People on the Move

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People on the Move

Jeffrey Roberts

Jeffrey McCormick

James Martin

Nancy Frankel Pelletier

Patricia Rapinchuk

Carla Newton

Richard Gaberman

Jeffrey Trapani

Robinson Donovan, P.C. announced seven attorneys were listed in Best Lawyers in America 2020. Jeffrey Roberts, managing partner, practices corporate and business counseling and estate planning, and was named in the practice areas of Corporate Law and Trusts and Estates. He has received the Best Lawyers recognition for 28 consecutive years. Jeffrey McCormick, partner, was listed in the fields of Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants and Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs. A member of Robinson Donovan’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Group, he practices complex litigation, arbitration, and mediation. He has received the Best Lawyers recognition for 20 consecutive years. James Martin, partner, was listed in the practice areas of Franchise Law and Real Estate Law. He concentrates his practice on corporate and business counseling, litigation, and commercial real-estate law, and is a member of Robinson Donovan’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Group. He has received the Best Lawyers recognition for 20 consecutive years. Nancy Frankel Pelletier, partner, was listed in the practice area of Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants. A member of Robinson Donovan’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Group, she concentrates her practice in the areas of litigation and insurance defense. She has received the Best Lawyers recognition for 15 consecutive years. Patricia Rapinchuk, partner, was listed in the fields of Employment Law – Management and Litigation – Labor and Employment. She was also named Lawyer of the Year in the field of Litigation – Labor and Employment. She practices employment law and litigation and has received the Best Lawyers recognition for 11 consecutive years. Carla Newton, partner, was named in the field of Family Law. She focuses her practice on divorce and family law, litigation, corporate and business counseling, and commercial real estate, and is a member of Robinson Donovan’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Group. She has received the Best Lawyers recognition for eight consecutive years. Richard Gaberman was named in the fields of Corporate Law, Real Estate Law, Tax Law, and Trusts and Estates. He focuses his practice on corporate and business counseling, commercial real estate, and estate and tax-planning law. He has received the Best Lawyers recognition for 28 consecutive years. Robinson Donovan also announced that Jeffrey Trapani, partner, will receive the Massachusetts Bar Assoc. (MBA) Community Service Award during the Hampshire County Bar Assoc. (HCBA) annual meeting on Thursday, Sept. 26, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Garden House at Look Park in Florence. Trapani concentrates his practice in civil litigation, including insurance defense, employment law, municipal liability, business litigation, and professional malpractice. He also represents landlords in summary process action and housing-discrimination claims, and insurance companies in unfair-settlement claims and coverage issues.

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Bacon Wilson, P.C. announced that eight of its attorneys have been selected by their peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America 2020. The firm’s managing partner, Kenneth Albano, was selected for business organizations including LLCs and partnerships; Michael Katz for bankruptcy and reorganization; Stephen Krevalin for family law; Hyman Darling for elder law; Gary Breton for banking/finance law and business organizations; Jeffrey Fialky for commercial finance; Gina Barry for elder law; and Paul Rothschild for litigation. Best Lawyers compiles data from confidential evaluations. More than 8 million attorneys participated in the peer-review survey for the 2020 edition. There is no opportunity to pay for a listing.

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Bernitta Burnett

The nation’s 24th Educare early-education center will be led by Springfield native Bernitta “Nikki” Burnett, who has been hired as Educare Springfield’s first executive director. Burnett was raised in the nearby Mason Square neighborhood, attended neighborhood public schools, and earned her undergraduate degree in leadership and organizational science from Bay Path University. She will be completing her master’s degree in leadership and negotiation from Bay Path in 2020. Most recently, Burnett served as regional vice president of Multicultural Initiatives for the American Heart Assoc., where she worked throughout the New England region to build capacity and support revenue generation around community health and education initiatives. She has more than a decade of leadership experience and, prior to her position with the American Heart Assoc., worked at Baystate Health as education coordinator of Cardiopulmonary Services. At Baystate, she managed three cardiology fellowship programs. Burnett also has been actively involved in community organizations in Springfield and in the region, having served on the board of the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, the Baystate Health community benefits advisory board, and Live Well Springfield, an organization that promotes a culture of health in Springfield. Her duties as executive director of Educare Springfield will include oversight of strategic leadership, operational execution, and ensuring the effective implementation of the Educare model to the highest standards of excellence. Burnett will also be responsible for community engagement, fundraising, and resource development.

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Sharianne Walker

Sharianne Walker has been named interim dean of the Western New England University (WNEU) College of Business. Walker joined the College of Business faculty in 1996, most recently serving as chair and professor of Sport Management, as well as co-director of the Sport Leadership and Coaching graduate program. She is the co-author of the texts “Managing Intercollegiate Athletics,” “Managing Sport Organizations: Responsibility for Performance,” and “Strategic Management in International Sport Management.” She has presented her research in leadership development, business operations, and revenue generation at various international, national, and regional conferences. She has also spearheaded accreditation, strategic-planning, and assessment projects at the university. An influential figure in the growth of the university’s athletics program, Walker has served as a faculty fellow, an NCAA faculty representative, and chair of the Western New England Athletics Council, and was inducted into the university’s Downes Athletic Hall of Fame. She was named Career Woman of the Year by the Massachusetts Business and Professional Women’s Assoc. and served as director of the Springfield Leadership Institute. She currently chairs the board of trustees of Frank Newhall Look Memorial Park in Florence. Walker earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Smith College and her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in sport management from UMass.

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MassHire Holyoke Career Center announced the appointment of Shawn Teece as its new vice president of Finance. He has several years of successful leadership in nonprofit financial and accounting operations. He assumed the vice presidency of MassHire Holyoke on Aug. 29 and is responsible for strategically overseeing all aspects of the career center’s financial and accounting systems.

Prior to this appointment, Teece was an accounting manager for Head Start Inc. and an account/auditor for the Holyoke Health Center and Lester Halpern, P.C. He has a master of accountancy degree from Westfield State University.

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Jiulie Phillps

Holyoke Community College (HCC) recently welcomed Jiulie Phillps as its coordinator of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving. Phillips comes to HCC from Westfield State University, where she held positions in Institutional Advancement as associate director of Advancement Services and coordinator of Donor Relations and Annual Giving. At HCC, Phillips completes an Institutional Advancement team that also includes Director Patrick Carpenter and Vice President Amanda Sbriscia. Phillips’s primary responsibilities at HCC will be engaging with alumni and building the college’s annual fund. Phillips holds a bachelor’s degree from Western New England University in communications and is working toward her master’s degree in public administration (concentration in nonprofit management) from Westfield State.

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OTELCO recently welcomed back David Chaplin as a senior ISP engineer in the company’s Granby office. Chaplin has an associate degree in telecommunications from Springfield Technical Community College and a bachelor’s degree in church leadership from Southeastern University. He spent 31 years with Verizon as an OSP technician and staff management assistant, and has additional experience working as an engineering project manager for Verizon and as an electronics and communications specialist for ISO New England.

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TD Bank named Steve Webb regional president for Southern New England. In this role, Webb will lead commercial and retail banking teams in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Upstate New York, and Connecticut. Webb has more than 30 years of banking experience and has worked across several businesses at TD Bank. He most recently served as New Hampshire market president – Commercial, where he was responsible for the growth and expansion of commercial and small-business lending, cash management, and government banking in the state. Prior to assuming this role, Webb was responsible for the Commercial Division of TD Banknorth in New Hampshire, including credit risk management, cash management, commercial lending, commercial real estate, leasing, and healthcare. Webb also brings a wealth of retail experience to this role, having previously helped to optimize store operations.

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Judge Mary-Lou Rup, a retired Massachusetts Superior Court judge, has completed a workshop and received certification in civil mediation in conformity with Supreme Judicial Court Rules, Rule 1:18 Dispute Resolution, Rule 8. Administered by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education Inc., the course covered principles of positional and interest-based negotiation, mediation procedures and techniques, settlement agreements, confidentiality, and ethics. Rup recently returned to private practice at Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas, LLP, where her mediation experience adds value to the firm’s Alternative Dispute Resolution practice.

People on the Move

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People on the Move
Terry Maxey

Terry Maxey

Terry Maxey, former interim director of Open Pantry Community Services Inc., has been selected to permanently lead the agency as director. He has served as interim director of Open Pantry since November 2017, and has been with organization since February 2016. As director, Maxey will be responsible for managing all aspects of Open Pantry, which serves more than 18,000 low-income and disadvantaged people annually, with an approximately $3 million annual budget and 40 staff members. Before joining Open Pantry, Maxey served as director of Operations and project manager at Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services in Springfield. There, he helped lead the multi-cultural, multi-service agency dedicated to empowering individuals and families in need. He also held a number of leadership positions within the private sector. He has been recognized for his leadership skills, receiving the 2017 SMOC Housing Team of the Year Award and the MLK Jr. Family Services Employee of the Quarter Award for outstanding performance and leadership. Maxey is invested in the Springfield community and serves with a variety of organizations, including the executive and operational committees of the city of Springfield Health and Human Services, Springfield-Hampden County Continuum of Care board of directors. He holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Virginia State University and a certificate from Leadership of Pioneer Valley.

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Christine Pollender

Christine Pollender

Sunshine Village recently welcomed Christine Pollender as the new director of Human Resources. With the organization serving more than 500 individuals, Pollender will oversee employee relations, benefits administration, and procedural compliance for over 260 employees at nine sites across the Pioneer Valley. With an extensive background in human resources in retail and hospital settings, she brings subject-matter expertise to navigate the recent changes to state and federal laws for employers. Pollender received both a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s degree in business administration from Western New England University. She holds a Senior Professional in Human Resources certification from the Human Resources Certification Institute and is a Society for Human Resource Management Senior Certified Professional. She is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management, including the local chapter, the Human Resources Management Assoc. of Western New England, where she serves on its diversity and inclusion committee. 

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Cheryl Sheils

Cheryl Sheils

Bay Path University announced that Cheryl Sheils has been named program director for its new doctor of nursing practice (DNP) degree program. Sheils comes to the university from Elms College, where she taught in the Nursing program for nearly 30 years at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. She was a founding member and nurse manager for 20 years at Pioneer Valley Free Health Service in East Longmeadow. She has also been project director for an HRSA Health Workforce Diversity Grant and has travelled to Jamaica with nursing students on medical missions for the past several years. She has presented at numerous conferences, and her articles have been published in industry journals and other publications. The DNP program, set to begin in spring 2019, will be offered 100% online, ensuring flexibility for nurses who wish to obtain the skills to become advanced nurse practitioners with a specialization in family practice (FNP).

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Matthew Sosik, president and CEO of bankESB, announced that Michael T. Oleksak has been hired as vice president of Commercial Lending. Oleksak brings more than 15 years of experience in banking, most recently serving as the vice president of Commercial Lending for Westfield Bank, managing a portfolio of more than $25 million. Before Westfield Bank, Oleksak was the assistant vice president, Business Banking officer at United Bank. In his new role, Oleksak’s main objective will be to originate and develop commercial-lending relationships involving construction projects, business-acquisition financing, investment real estate, equipment financials, business lines of credit, and lending relationships for the bank. Oleksak holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in business administration from Southern New Hampshire University. He has a strong commitment to serving the surrounding communities, currently serving on the board of directors for the West Springfield Boys & Girls Club.

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Kelly Bowman

Kelly Bowman

Kelly Bowman was elected to be the 2019 president of the Realtor Assoc. of Pioneer Valley (RAPV), a nonprofit trade association with 1,800 members. A general membership meeting was held on Nov. 8 at the Delaney House in Holyoke for the purpose of electing the RAPV 2019 leadership team. Bowman is the broker/owner of Trademark Real Estate, LLC which has offices in South Deerfield and Greenfield. She has been active in real estate since 1997. As a former co-owner of Upton Enterprises Inc., a custom home-building company, she brings practical building knowledge to transactions with clients. She has served on the RAPV board of directors for four consecutive years and was involved in several committees, including the grievance committee, professional standards committee, and professional development committee.

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Jessica Chapin, American International College’s (AIC) associate athletic director/compliance senior woman administrator/deputy Title IX coordinator, is one of 18 individuals recently inducted into the Section V Basketball Hall of Fame in New York. She played with Honeoye Falls-Lima Central School District. Chapin was a member of the first-team All-State in 2005 with the Class A state champion Cougars. She finished second all-time in Section V girls’ basketball in three-point field goals, with 207. In addition to her success playing for Honeoye Falls, Chapin graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and health, science, and social policy from Brandeis University in 2010. While at Brandeis, Chapin was an All-American women’s basketball player. She earned her master’s degree in athletic administration from Springfield College in 2013. Chapin joined the AIC athletic department in 2014 and works directly with all 22 NCAA varsity programs, as well as men’s and women’s rugby, to ensure that the college is in compliance with all NCAA, Northeast-10, and Atlantic Hockey rules, bylaws and regulations. In 2017, she was appointed to a four-year term with the NCAA Division II Management Council. As part of her commitment, she serves on two committees: the NCAA legislation committee and the Olympic sport committee.

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Jeffrey Adams

Jeffrey Adams

Robinson Donovan, P.C. announced that Associate Jeffrey Adams recently received two prominent appointments. He became a fellow of the Massachusetts Bar Assoc. (MBA) Leadership Academy and accepted a position on the board of directors at Dakin Humane Society. The MBA Leadership Academy works to develop and nurture future leaders of the bar by teaching fellows how to be compassionate, open-minded, and thoughtful leaders. At Dakin Humane Society, Adams will act as part of the governing body that is responsible for overseeing the organization’s activities. Dakin is a community-supported animal-welfare organization that provides shelter, medical care, spay-and-neuter services, and behavioral rehabilitation for more than 20,000 animals each year.

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Bob Pura, former president of Greenfield Community College (GCC) for more than 17 years, has joined the all-volunteer board of directors of the International Language Institute of Massachusetts (ILI) in Northampton. During his tenure at GCC, Pura oversaw creation of the college’s testing, wellness, advising, and veteran’s centers as well as the GCC Food Pantry and senior symposia. He worked with former U.S. Rep. John Olver and community leaders to develop sustainable-energy, creative-economy, healthcare, and manufacturing initiatives at GCC and oversaw extensive building renovations to the campus. He also worked with the leadership of the Opioid Task Force and the Franklin County Jail and Courthouse to elevate the role education plays in the lives of those in recovery. Under Pura’s leadership, the GCC Foundation raised $14 million and has awarded hundreds of scholarships over several years. The college’s endowment also rose to more than $5 million. Pura has chaired the Massachusetts President’s Council and served on its executive committee. He sits on the Baystate Health board of trustees and was a commissioner on the New England Assoc. of Schools and Colleges Higher Education Commission.

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Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin announced that eight attorneys from the firm were selected to the 2018 Massachusetts Super Lawyers List and three attorneys were selected to the 2018 Massachusetts Rising Stars List. Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, 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 annual selections are made using a multi-phase process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates, and peer reviews by practice area.

• Shareholder Michele Feinstein was recognized for the 12th year in the fields of estate planning and probate;

• Shareholder Gary Fentin was selected for the 13th year in the field of government finance;

• Shareholder Carol Cioe Klyman was recognized for the 14th year in the field of elder law;

• Managing Partner Timothy Mulhern was selected in the field of tax law for the 11th consecutive year;

• Shareholder Steven Schwartz was selected for the 13th time in the field of business and corporate law;

• Shareholder James Sheils was selected for the fourth consecutive year in the field of banking law;

• Shareholder Ann (Ami) Weber was selected for the 15th consecutive year in the field of elder law; and

• Shareholder Steven Weiss was selected in the field of business bankruptcy for the 12th consecutive year.

Additionally, three attorneys have been selected to the 2018 Massachusetts Rising Stars list. To be eligible for inclusion in Rising Stars, a candidate must be either 40 years old or younger or in practice for 10 years or less.

• Attorney Mark Esposito was recognized in the field of general litigation;

• Attorney Michael Fenton was selected for the fifth consecutive year in the fields of business and corporate law; and

• Shareholder David Webber was honored in the field of closely held business for the seventh consecutive year.

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Florence Bank President and CEO John Heaps Jr. announced the bank has hired three well-known and banking professionals with long-term industry experience in the Springfield area. They will be charged with helping to grow the bank’s Hampden County presence as it expands in that region. Michael Moriarty will serve as senior vice president/commercial team leader, Joseph Kulig will serve as vice president/commercial loan officer, and Candace Pereira will be assistant vice president/commercial portfolio manager. Moriarty, Kulig, and Pereira previously worked at Farmington Bank, a $3 billion commercial bank whose assets were recently purchased by Peoples United Bank. At Farmington, Moriarty was senior vice president and regional commercial team leader, Kulig was a relationship manager, and Pereira was assistant vice president. All three previously worked with United Bank.

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The United Way of Pioneer Valley (UWPV) introduced its new president and CEO, Paul Mina, to the community at a public event on Nov. 9. Mina brings more than 30 years of United Way experience to the Pioneer Valley and has already stepped into his new role. The UWPV board of directors has entered into a management agreement with the United Way of Tri-County, based in Framingham. Both organizations’ boards voted to approve the two-and-a-half-year management agreement, under which two organizations will share a CEO and other management operations, while UWPV still remains under local board oversight. “This is not a merger, but a way to gain efficiencies in the back-end management,” said Steve Lowell, chairman of the UWPV board and president of Monson Savings Bank. “Plus we’ll get some much-needed stability in leadership and the value of Paul’s experience and energy. It’s a great opportunity for us.”

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The board of trustees at Elms College have appointed a number of notable figures to be new members of the board. The new trustees are Beth Anderson, founder and CEO of Phoenix Charter Academy Network; Pascale Desir, chief legal officer of Way Finders; Dr. Jose Fernandez, co-owner of Sunrise Behavioral Health Clinic; Mark Fulco, president of Mercy Medical Center; Steven Gobel, first vice president of Morgan Stanley; Fawwaz Habbal, executive dean for Education and Research and senior lecturer at the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University; and Richard Sullivan Jr., president and CEO of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council.

People on the Move

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People on the Move
Amanda Levy

Amanda Levy

Hang Tran

Hang Tran

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.

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Lisa White

Lisa White

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.

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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.

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Rev. Beverly Herbert

Rev. Beverly Herbert

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.”

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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.

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Carla Maurer

Carla Maurer

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.

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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.

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Jeffrey Simpson

Jeffrey Simpson

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.

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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.

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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.

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