Home Posts tagged Dianne Fuller Doherty

Dianne Fuller Doherty

By
Uncategorized

Co-founder, Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts; Former Director, Massachusetts Small Business Development Center’s Regional Office

Now Retired, She’s Still Making a Deep Impact on the Region

Photo by Leah Martin Photography

Photo by Leah Martin Photography

Dianne Fuller Doherty considers herself perhaps this region’s biggest cheerleader.

Indeed, while technically a transplant (although she earned a bachelor’s degree at Mount Holyoke College), she is forever extolling the 413’s virtues and promoting it as a place to live, work, and put down seeds for a business.

But ‘cheerleader’ doesn’t begin to explain why she’s been chosen as a Woman of Impact for 2024. This is not a knock on cheerleaders, but they essentially stand on the sidelines and cheer those in the game — and Fuller Doherty has never been one to stand on the sidelines.

She’s always been involved, and on many different levels — from being a business owner to becoming a co-founder of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts; from leading one of the key engines in the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center’s regional office, to serving on the boards of several area institutions and nonprofits; from serving as a mentor to countless small-business owners, especially women, to acting as a role model — to her own children and many of those she mentors.

Her contributions of time, energy, and talent have been spread across a wide spectrum, but there has always been a special emphasis on the broad realm of education due to its obvious impact on the future of the region.

“If we don’t have strong educational institutions, we don’t have a future, and one of my big beliefs is helping the public schools of Springfield — because that is central to the success of our region.”

“Paul and I made a commitment to education, starting with our own schools and now some of the local schools, which we believe in, because they’re central to the future of Western Mass.,” she said, referencing her husband, who passed away several years ago and was equally involved in the community. “If we don’t have strong educational institutions, we don’t have a future, and one of my big beliefs is helping the public schools of Springfield — because that is central to the success of our region.”

The founders of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts

The founders of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts were honored at an event in 2019. From left: Donna Haghighat, Dianne Fuller Doherty, Martha Richards, Kristi Nelson, Mimi Goldberg (accepting for late founder Sally Livingston), and Haydee Lamberty-Rodrigues.

Beyond education, Fuller Doherty has been, or still is, involved with agencies and institutions ranging from the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts to Tech Foundry; from the World Affairs Council to the Springfield Public Forum. At each one, she has left others impressed with her desire to dig deep and work hard to advance their missions.

“Dianne Fuller Doherty is a role model for what it means to be dedicated to community,” wrote Megan Burke, president and CEO of the Community Foundation, in nominating her for the Woman of Impact award. “In her life’s work and volunteer activities, she embodies the spirit of wanting to make her home (Western Mass.) a better place for all who live in it.

“Now that she is retired, she continues to work full-time to connect community members and lift the efforts that will move our region forward,” Burke went on. “While she is inclusive in her efforts to lift up the community, she is especially dedicated to developing and supporting women and women’s leadership. She keeps her ear to the ground to know where she might be needed, who might need a hand up, or where a connection might need to be made.”

“While she is inclusive in her efforts to lift up the community, she is especially dedicated to developing and supporting women and women’s leadership. She keeps her ear to the ground to know where she might be needed, who might need a hand up, or where a connection might need to be made.”

Making connections, providing a hand up, or often just listening and providing sage advice … these are just some of the many reasons why Fuller Doherty is a Woman of Impact.

 

Answering the Call

When she was called by BusinessWest in January 2020 to let her know she was being honored as one of its Difference Makers that year, Fuller Doherty had to be talked into it.

Indeed, she argued at length that there were others more worthy, and that she had already won enough awards — which, well, she has, including the William Pynchon Community Service Award, the 2016 Unsung Heroine of Massachusetts Award, and the 2004 Girl Scouts of Pioneer Valley Woman of Distinction Award.

She eventually acquiesced and was honored with several others at a COVID-era ceremony before a crowd that could not exceed 25 people (you remember those days).

This time around, she offered less resistance (although there was some) because of the nature of the award and its mission to honor women. The issue this time was finding room in her schedule for an interview, between a trip to Iceland and events on her schedule ranging from a World Affairs Council lunch to a gathering at Tech Foundry to the ribbon cutting for the new Kevin S. Delbridge Welcome Center at Western New England University.

This crowded schedule speaks volumes about how Fuller Doherty likes to keep busy, but not just busy; she wants to get involved and use her experience and insight to help others and assist institutions as they carry out their various missions.

It’s been this way since she settled in Western Mass. with her late husband, Paul, a lawyer who already had roots here. She quickly put down some of her own, getting involved with institutions including the Springfield Regional Chamber, YMCA, Glenmeadow, the World Affairs Council, Bay Path University, and the National Conference for Community and Justice.

Doherty Fuller Doherty calls herself a cheerleader for the region, but throughout her career, she has rarely been on the sidelines.Photo by Focus Ashely Photos

Doherty Fuller Doherty calls herself a cheerleader for the region, but throughout her career, she has rarely been on the sidelines.
Photo by Focus Ashely Photos

Seeking to be a role model for her daughters, she returned to school to earn an MBA at Western New England, then went looking for a career. After working briefly as a volunteer with the grants manager for the city of Springfield, she took a job with a marketing agency in Hartford and then became part of an initiative called Downtown Marketing to promote Springfield’s Central Business District.

“It was sponsored by MassMutual, Steiger’s, and SIS,” she recalled, “and it was focused on promoting the city and bringing people downtown because, then, as now, we have a lot invested in bricks and mortar downtown, but not a lot invested in changing attitudes about downtown, and it was necessary.”

Later, with partner Marsha Tzoumas, she started a marketing firm that would find a home in Springfield’s downtown and thrive for several years before it failed to survive the recession of the early ’90s.

Looking for a different career turn, she eventually won the job leading the regional office of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center, where she specialized in providing the honest feedback and tough love that entrepreneurs need as they strive to take concepts off the drawing board or to the next level.

Her initial plan was to be in that job for just a few years, but she stayed for more than 20, helping countless individuals across Western Mass. — and, while doing that, gaining an even deeper appreciation for this region and its many different assets.

“I loved it because I spent half my time working one-on-one with small businesses and helping mostly early-stage startup companies, which is great, because they’re energetic, they’re hardworking, they’re idealistic, and they care,” she said. “The other half was economic development for the region, and I totally believe in the region; we are a regional economy.”

 

Giving Voice to Others — and Using Hers

One of Fuller Doherty’s many contributions to this region, and an example of her lifelong focus on women and helping them succeed in work and in life, was her involvement in the creation of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts.

This is an agency that is, well, a lot like her. It supports women, it educates them, it mentors them, and it promotes them.

Scanning the horizon, Fuller Doherty noted that, while there is some work to be done when it comes to women advancing and breaking through whatever glass ceilings remain — she said the corporate boardroom is one of them — she’s proud of what has been accomplished.

“The Women’s Fund has played a small role in elevating the voices of women,” she said. “I’ve watched the boards — not just the nonprofit boards, which have always done their part for women, but some of the for-profit boards as well — recognize the value and importance of having women on them. That in itself — just having women’s voices heard — is so important. I truly feel that, if women had been more involved in national and global issues, we would not be in the state we’re in globally.

“Women are good listeners, and we need to have their voices heard,” she went on. “And I’m so happy to say they are being heard, but there is still room for growth.”

While Fuller Doherty has always been involved, and has always had an impact, she has also never been shy about using her own voice and expressing opinions on a wide range of topics.

“I totally believe in the region; we are a regional economy.”

On UMass Amherst, another institution she strongly supports, she told BusinessWest, “there is so much potential for that university, and I’ve watched it go, particularly the Isenberg School of Management, from here to here,” she said, moving her hand from her knee to over her head. “And there is so much more growth potential.”

On the merits of exercise and staying active, especially for people her age (which she did not reveal), she said, “I gave myself a gift … I don’t know how long ago, maybe 30 or 40 years ago, of an hour of exercise a day, and I’ve really lived up to it. I’ll bet I haven’t missed 10 days over that whole time.”

That activity has included yoga, Pilates, skiing, walking, running, biking, swimming, and more. “I swim in the summer,” she said. “I’m going to have to start doing it year-round because it’s such good exercise, but I don’t like it; I’m not a good swimmer.”

Then, of course, she has opinions on this region. And here, again, she doesn’t mince words.

“I think it’s a fabulous place to live, a fabulous place to raise a family … we’re so ideally located geographically, and I don’t think we’ve ever maximized that,” she said. “I think that is still to come, and it will come. We have so many cultural advantages that most small cities don’t have, we have so many educational advantages … the sky is the limit for this region.”

As we said at the top, Fuller Doherty is certainly a cheerleader for this region. But she is much more than that. She’s a leader who makes sure her voice is heard, while also making sure other women’s voices are heard.

In short, she’s a Woman of Impact.

Dianne Fuller Doherty

By
Features

This Advocate and Cheerleader Remains Active on Many Fronts

Photo by Leah Martin Photography

When we first introduced Dianne Fuller Doherty back in February, we used the term ‘semi-retired’ to describe her status — and it’s the appropriate phrase to use.

Indeed, while she has stepped down from her role as director of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network’s Western Mass. office, she remains heavily involved in this region, and on a number of fronts — everything from mentoring young people, especially women, to serving on several boards and being part of a few prominent search committees, such as the one that eventually chose Robert Johnson to be the sixth president of Western New England University (see story, page 29).

And most, if not all, of her work has been in some way impacted by COVID-19, including that search at WNEU, and another at Tech Foundry.

“We never met any of the candidates — only the winner after he had been given the position,” she said of the WNEU search, noting that all interviews were conducted remotely, a process she didn’t think would be very effective, but ultimately proved to be. “When we started both these searches, I said, ‘how can we not meet these people?’ It turned out it was incredibly effective — you really got to know these candidates.”

Fuller Doherty’s commitment to remain involved in this region and be, in some respects, a cheerleader for it comes naturally. She’s been doing this she came to Western Mass. in the early ’70s after marrying attorney Paul Doherty, a community leader himself, who passed away several years ago. And she become involved with everything from the creation of the Women’s Fund — she was one of the original founders — to the growth and maturation and the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Over the course of her lengthy career, she was a business owner — she and partner Marsha Tzoumas started a marketing firm that bore their last names — and, as director of the Small Business Development Center, one who helped countless small businesses get off the ground and to that proverbial next level.

She has a great deal of experience in all matters of launching and operating a business, and she’s never been shy about sharing it with others.

As she told us in February, her MO has always been to provide a kind of tough love to entrepreneurs — in other words, be supportive whenever possible, but also honest and realistic, telling people what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear.

“The best advice I give to people is to ask enough questions so that they can come to the right conclusion on whether this is the right time, or the right place, or the right financial backing to go forward,” she said when we first spoke with her. “You let them come to the decision about whether it’s a ‘no.’ And if it’s a ‘yes,’ then you just try to be as supportive as possible and it them know that there are going to be highs and lows in any business, and the challenges will come. But the rewards will come also.”

For Fuller Doherty, the biggest reward has been to see the region continue to grow, prosper, and meet the enormous potential she has always thought it possessed. Progress has come on a number of fronts, she said, listing everything from the advancement of women, thanks to groups like the Women’s Fund, to that entrepreneurial ecosystem, to the capital of the region, the city of Springfield.

She told BusinessWest she has always been focused on ‘what’s next’ for the region, and especially Springfield, and believes the answer may lie in housing.

“Education requirements dictate housing investment,” she explained. “And I think we can do a lot with housing; Springfield used to be the City of Homes, and I think it can come back to that.”

But there is work still to do on all these fronts, she acknowledged, and she wants to continue playing a meaningful role in all of it.

In other words, she has no intention of slowing down, even in the era of COVID-19, and this attitude, this mindset, certainly explains why she is a member of the Difference Makers class of 2020.

—George O’Brien

Dianne Fuller Doherty, Retired Director of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center

By
Class of 2020

She’s Retired … but Not from Her Role as a Difference Maker

Photo by Leah Martin Photography

Dianne Fuller Doherty has her own working definition of ‘entrepreneur.’

“Someone who’s resourceful,” said the now … well, let’s call it semi-retired director of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network’s Western Mass. office, before elaborating in some detail.

“Successful entrepreneurs are willing to ask for help; many people, particularly young people, think they have to have all the answers themselves,” she explained. “They don’t, and they need to develop the willingness to seek help and not be ashamed to ask. It is amazing how many people have struggled with that.”

For more than 20 years, it was the MSBDC — and quite often Fuller Doherty herself — that entrepreneurs, including BusinessWest founder John Gormally, would turn to for such help and guidance with everything from financing a venture to marketing a product, to simply deciding if a concept had legs. Often, it didn’t, and she would help them come to that important conclusion.

It was immensely rewarding work — and it still is.

Indeed, even though she officially retired from the MSBDC in 2016, Fuller Doherty remains quite active — with everything from mentoring young entrepreneurs, and especially women, to serving on the boards at Valley Venture Mentors, Tech Foundry, and Western New England University, where she sits on the committee now searching for a successor to long-time president Anthony Caprio.

Fuller Doherty — who bylined a piece for the New York Times in 2010, one in a series of pieces spotlighting people working past, or well past, what would be considered retirement age — has always believed in keeping the calendar full, and today, four years after retiring and also losing her husband, Paul Doherty, to cancer, she does so with everything from yoga and Pilates to consulting and mentoring.

“My feeling is that, as long as I’m doing something of value, why not continue doing it?’ she asked rhetorically in the piece she wrote for the Times. And those words ring true as she continues to do a number of things of value.

Especially in her role as a mentor and, yes, a role model to entrepreneurs, including a number of women who have been steered in her direction, continuing work to build the region’s economy through the development and maturation of small businesses.

“I love helping people, and I learn more from any job than I’ve ever given to people,” she told BusinessWest. “And that’s definitely true with mentoring; you learn about new industries, jobs, and approaches. I learn so much from my clients and mentees.”

Throughout her life and her career, Fuller Doherty has been a strong advocate for women — she was one of the founders of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts — and “ensuring they have full and equal share in economic, social, cultural, and political decision making,” as she put it. There is still some work to do, but overall, she believes great strides have been made.

And she feels the same about the region itself.

“We have a lot going for us here — there is quality of life, great colleges and universities, and wonderful communities in which to raise families,” she said. “It’s a great story, and we need to be telling it.”

For all that she has done — and all she continues to do — she’s a true Difference Maker.

Role Modeling

By now, most people know at least some of the Dianne Fuller Doherty story.

Born in upstate New York, she went to Mount Holyoke College, where she earned a degree in philsophy. She lived for a year in Boston after graduating and, while there, met third-year Harvard Law School student Paul Doherty and fell in love.

Paul contemplated heading west to Chicago and work in investments, but ultimately chose the law firm in Springfield where his father and grandfather both worked. And that’s where our story unfolds.

Dianne Fuller Doherty (second from left) and the other founders of the Women’s Fund of Western Mass., as well as its founding executive director, Kristi Nelson, were honored at an event in March 2019 at the Tower Square Hotel. Seen here are, from left, Donna Haghighat, CEO of the Women’s Fund, Fuller Doherty, founder Martha Richards, Nelson, Mimi Goldberg (accepting for the third founder, the late Sally Livingston), and Haydee Lamberty-Rodrigues, board chair of the WFMA.

Doherty admits to not knowing much about Springfield beyond its train station and the Student Prince restaurant, where her parents would take her to dinner while she was in college, but she quickly went about learning more. And by the ’90s, she was becoming a force in everything from business to helping women break through the glass ceiling.

Over the years, she became involved with institutions ranging from the Springfield Regional Chamber to the YMCA; from the World Affairs Council to Glenmeadow; from Bay Path University to the National Conference for Community and Justice.

When her four daughters were in their teens, Doherty, seeking to be a role model for them, first earned an MBA at Western New England College (20 years after she graduated from Mount Holyoke) and then went about looking for work — and maybe a career.

She started in Springfield City Hall working as a volunteer with the grants manager. “I wanted some experience, and I’d taken a grants course; I liked writing, and I liked to raise money,” she said, adding that all these talents would come into play later.

From there, she took a job with a marketing agency in Hartford, working primarily in business development.

“I didn’t know much about business development, but I could pretend pretty well,” she joked, adding that she enjoyed the work and, inspired to go into business for herself, partnered with Marsha Tzoumas and created a marketing firm that took their last names. The venture did well, eventually growing to 16 employees and a deep portfolio of clients, but it couldn’t survive the recession of the early ’90s.

“It was fun on the way up and hard when the economy changed and no one was spending any money on marketing,” she recalled, adding that she went on to work for Springfield Mayor Bob Markel before winning the job leading the regional office of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center.

Her intention was to stay for a few years “until I figured out what I really wanted to do.” She stayed nearly a quarter-century because she quickly discovered this was, indeed, what she really wanted to do.

“It was such a fun job, and I got to know so many people up and down the Valley, because I was in Northampton one day a week and Amherst one day a week,” she recalled. “I really got to know the region.”

She used all kinds of adjectives to describe her work with entrepreneurs, including ‘rewarding,’ ‘fulfilling,’ ‘exciting,’ and also ‘challenging’ — that last one because entrepreneurs don’t need someone telling them what they want to hear. They want, or should want, what amounts to tough love.

This 2010 New York Times article makes it clear Dianne Fuller Doherty plans to do things — including retirement — on her own schedule and in her own way.

“You have to be encouraging — you never want to say anything negative, but you also want to be honest and realistic,” he said. “The best advice I give to people is to ask enough questions so that they can come to the right conclusion on whether this is the right time, or the right place, or the right financial backing to go forward.

“You let them come to the decision about whether it’s a ‘no,’” she went on. “And if it’s a ‘yes,’ then you just try to be as encouraging as possible and let them know that there are going to be highs and lows in any business, and the challenges will come. But the rewards will come also.”

Thinking Big

Overall, Fuller Doherty said she believes the growth and evolution of the region’s entrepreneurship ecosystem — which she is now an integral part of — is one of the better economic-development stories unfolding in the region.

She told BusinessWest that, while MGM Springfield has been a solid addition to the landscape, and the eds and meds sectors remain pillars of the economy, the development of small businesses — with the hope that they that will bring jobs and perhaps grow into larger ventures — is the best economic-development strategy moving forward.

“When you think about MassMutual, it started with one man in a little building at 101 State St.,” she noted. “We don’t know what the next new thing or the next new business sector might be — it might be something not even known to us yet — but the key is to support and mentor people with ideas and help them turn those ideas into businesses and jobs.”

But there are many other good stories, she went on, listing everything from revitalization of Springfield’s downtown to new businesses emerging from the science labs at UMass Amherst and other area schools; from the growing strength of the area’s higher-education sector to this region emerging as a solid, affordable alternative to Greater Boston.

It’s a message that needs to be delivered — both to other markets in the Northeast and perhaps beyond, and in this market as well, she said, adding that a good deal of work remains to be done when it comes to building pride within the region.

“When I had my agency, my mantra was ‘marketing starts in the toes of the bus boy in the kitchen,’ and I truly believe that,” she said. “If you get him excited about what he’s doing serving people, he’s enthusiastic about not only his job but the region, and he shares that with other people, and they get excited; there’s a ripple effect. It’s the same with people living and working in this area.”

But perhaps the story she’s most intrigued by, and most proud of, is how the scene has changed for women over the decades.

For evidence, she points to the number of area colleges now led by women; in addition to the women’s schools, Springfield College, Holyoke Community College, Greenfield Community College, and Berkshire Community College all have a woman in the president’s office. And also to the number of businesses and nonprofits, as well as many new business ventures, being led by women.

‘When you look at the number of women leaders in this valley … it wasn’t this way 20 or 30 years ago; there’s been a real concentration of effort to promote women,” she explained. “Between women college presidents, not-for-profit CEOs, and for-profit CEOs, this is a very different place.”

Bottom Line

Fuller Doherty has had a lot to do with this region becoming that different place.

Over the years, she’s been a business owner, trusted consultant, mentor, role model, advocate for women, and cheerleader of sorts for the Pioneer Valley. And with most all of those titles, we can and do still use the present tense, which is a good thing for this region.

The headline placed over that aforementioned New York Times article from a decade ago read, “When She’s Ready to Retire, She’ll Know It.” Fuller Doherty may have retired from the MSBDC, but she hasn’t retired from being active in this region or from motivating and helping others to fulfill their specific dreams.

In short, she hasn’t retired from being a Difference Maker.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]