Sean O’Brien
Bay Path University announced that Sean O’Brien has been named program director for its undergraduate and graduate cybersecurity programs. O’Brien joins Bay Path with more than two decades of experience in cybersecurity, privacy, and higher education. He is the founder of Yale Privacy Lab and an associate research scholar at Yale Law School, where he has taught courses in digital security, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. He is also the creator of the zero-knowledge collaboration platform PrivacySafe and has held leadership positions at global, security-focused firms, including ExpressVPN. His work spans secure app and infrastructure deployment, bug bounty and VDP management, IAM administration, and endpoint management of cryptocurrency assets. He is a lifelong educator, delivering remote classes to large cohorts of students and professionals before joining the faculty at Bay Path University. He has successfully delivered curriculum across a wide variety of areas in IT, from the Hacking and Cybersecurity program at the Lawfare Institute to the Cybersecurity for Business Leaders program at the University of Oxford and the AI Risk Management workshops at Ivy Cyber Academy. O’Brien honed his skills in data science, threat research, and cloud computing through leadership roles at privacy-focused blockchain firms, including Tari Labs.
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William Fontes
Following an extensive national search, Greylock Federal Credit Union announced the hiring of William Fontes as vice president and manager of Business Banking. Fontes brings comprehensive experience in strategic leadership and vision in commercial banking. As a key member of the Commercial Lending department, Fontes will lead Greylock’s business banking team while building relationships and strengthening services for credit union members through commercial lending and business banking products. He will also provide critical leadership through strategic oversight and expansion of Greylock’s annual business development plan and goals for local markets. He joins Greylock following a 12-year tenure at bankESB, where he held the position of senior vice president. He holds an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship from Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I. His community interests include economic development, affordable housing, youth sports, and outdoor activities.
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Patrick Parker
Attorney Patrick Parker has joined the Royal Law Firm team. He is a seasoned employment litigator who has defended employers in myriad employment claims. He not only has extensive experience in the courtroom, but also regularly advises senior executives on complex issues with an eye to mitigating risk and avoiding litigation. Prior to joining Royal, Parker worked at the law firm Clifford Chance in New York. He also served as in-house counsel for UBS Americas Inc. and Merrill Lynch. He is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, and is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law and MIT School of Management.
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Country Bank President and CEO Mary McGovern announced the promotion of three team members: Jasmine Robinson, Sam Pursey, and Sarah Yurkunas. Robinson has been promoted to Learning & Development officer. She began her financial services career at Country Bank in 2004 as a teller and has since built a 21-year career with the organization. She advanced through customer service and branch management roles before helping launch the bank’s Learning & Development department in 2016 as a founding member. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Phoenix University and is a certified facilitator in multiple professional learning programs. An active community volunteer, she regularly supports the Ware Senior Center, mobile food pantries, and school financial literacy programs. Pursey has been promoted to assistant vice president, commercial lender. With 13 years in the financial services industry and nine years at Country Bank, he brings a strong background in commercial credit and lending. After starting his career as a credit analyst at TD Bank, he joined Country Bank as a portfolio manager and grew into a lending role, where he found his passion for helping customers achieve their business goals. He is graduate of UMass Amherst with a degree in finance. Yurkunas has been promoted to assistant vice president, commercial lender. She has built her 19-year banking career at Country Bank, advancing through roles in loan servicing, credit analysis, portfolio management, and commercial lending. A graduate of Bay Path University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration & management, and Becker College with an associate degree in animal sciences, she has also completed the Massachusetts Bankers Assoc. New England School of Financial Studies program. She is actively engaged in community service, including volunteer work with Second Chance Animal Services, and was honored with Country Bank’s inaugural PFS Community Champion Award.
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Katherine Douglas
Holyoke Community College (HCC) recently welcomed Katherine Douglas as interim vice president of Academic and Student Affairs. Douglas brings more than four decades of experience as an educator, administrator, and advocate for student success. Her career has included executive roles such as interim president of SUNY Monroe Community College and president of SUNY Corning Community College in New York State, vice president of Academic Affairs at Sussex Community College in New Jersey, and associate dean of Behavioral Sciences at Greenfield Community College. This is her second interim posting since retiring from Corning Community College in 2019. She will serve as interim vice president until the permanent vice president’s position is filled. Her HCC appointment marks a meaningful homecoming, as Douglas previously served as dean of the Division of Social Sciences from 2005 to 2008. From 2023 to July 2025, she also served on the HCC Foundation board of directors, stepping down to take the interim position as vice president. She is a three-time graduate of UMass Amherst, where she earned a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and doctorate in education.
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Joshua Moon-Johnson
Connecticut State Community College (CT State) has appointed seven inaugural campus presidents to lead operations of its campus locations statewide, including at CT State Asnuntuck in Enfield. Joshua Moon-Johnson was named campus president of CT State Asnuntuck, CT State Manchester, and CT State Middlesex, bringing more than 20 years of experience in higher education, having held leadership roles at institutions including College of San Mateo, American River College, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and most recently West Valley College, where he was provost and vice president of Academic Affairs. At West Valley, he led initiatives to enhance academic programs, faculty support, and equitable student outcomes. A published author and advocate, Moon-Johnson has contributed to national conversations on educational equity and LGBT+ inclusion and advocacy. He holds a doctorate in higher education and LGBT studies from Northern Illinois University, master’s degrees in social sciences and market research, and a bachelor’s degree in business.
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Bulkley Richardson announced that 12 lawyers from the firm were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in the 2026 edition of Best Lawyers in America, the most recognized law firm in the Greater Springfield area. These lawyers were recognized in 20 unique areas of practice. They include Peter Barry (construction law and education law); Kathleen Bernardo (real estate law); Michael Burke (medical malpractice law: defendants and personal injury litigation: defendants); Mark Cress (banking and finance law, bankruptcy, creditor-debtor rights/insolvency and reorganization law, and corporate law); Francis Dibble Jr. (bet-the-company litigation, commercial litigation, labor and employment litigation, securities litigation, and criminal defense: white-collar); Daniel Finnegan (administrative/regulatory law); Scott Foster (business organizations, including LLCs and partnerships); Mary Jo Kennedy (employment law: individuals, employment law: management, and labor and employment litigation); David Parke (corporate law and mergers and acquisitions law); John Pucci (bet-the-company litigation, criminal defense: general practice, and criminal defense: white-collar); Jeffrey Roberts (corporate law and trusts and estates); and Michael Roundy (commercial litigation).
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Carlos Costa
bankESB recently promoted Carlos Costa to Facilities Maintenance and Operations officer, based at its 36 Main St., Easthampton office. Costa, who has nearly 20 years of facilities experience, joined bankESB in 2006 as a maintenance specialist. With this expanded leadership role, he will oversee the daily operations of the Facilities departments for his assigned region within Hometown Financial Group’s family of banks, which includes bankESB, bankHometown, North Shore Bank, and Abington Bank, a division of North Shore Bank. He earned an associate degree in law enforcement from Holyoke Community College.
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Bacon Wilson, P.C. announced that attorney Gina Barry has been recognized in the 32nd edition of Best Lawyers in America for her expertise in elder law. In addition to this prestigious recognition, Barry has been named the 2026 Lawyer of the Year in Elder Law for Springfield. This honor is awarded to only one attorney in each practice area and community, based on the highest peer feedback. With decades of experience serving clients throughout Western Mass., Barry continues to provide exceptional legal guidance and compassionate advocacy in elder law. She is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She is a partner and chair of the Estate Planning and Elder Law department at Bacon Wilson, and is a certified elder law attorney by the nonprofit National Elder Law Foundation.
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Dr. Amr Ibrahim
Muge Karabag
Amanda Davis
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) announced that three new faculty members will be joining the Trailblazer community for the college’s fall semester: Dr. Amr Ibrahim, Muge Karabag, and Amanda Davis. Ibrahim joins MCLA’s Chemistry department as a visiting assistant professor. A medicinal chemist, his research focuses on the design and synthesis of small-molecule antivirals and the use of structure-based drug design to interrogate host-virus interactions, including V-ATPase modulation and TIM-1-mediated entry. At MCLA, he will teach biochemistry and related courses while building collaborations that provide hands-on, publication-quality experiences for students. Karabag joins MCLA as a visiting assistant professor of Multimedia Journalism. She is a media scholar and practitioner with a background in broadcast journalism and digital communication. She previously worked as a reporter and news anchor for television channels in Istanbul and served as an assistant university professor in the department of New Media and Communication in Turkey. Davis is a part of MCLA’s Nursing department, where she combines her love for teaching with her years of hands-on nursing experience as a visiting assistant professor of Health Professions. She earned her master’s degree in nursing education and has served as the simulation coordinator for the MCLA Nursing program, nurse leader for the North Adams Public School System, and a medical-surgical nurse.
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Bulkley Richardson announced that Mary Jo Kennedy, partner and co-chair of the firm’s Employment Law practice, has been recognized by Best Lawyers as the 2026 Lawyer of the Year in both employment law (management) and labor and employment litigation for the Greater Springfield area. Only a single lawyer in each practice area and designated metropolitan area is honored as the Lawyer of the Year. Selections are based on particularly impressive voting averages received during the peer review assessments.
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Angela Cardenas
Holyoke Community College (HCC) recently welcomed Angela Cardenas as chief of Operations in the Office of the President. Cardenas comes to HCC with more than 25 years of executive-level leadership experience, having served in continuously advancing roles at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for the past 17 years, most recently as senior policy advisor. As a career diplomat and public servant, Cardenas has lived and worked in numerous countries around the world, including Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Egypt, Tanzania, and the Dominican Republic. She joined USAID in 2008 as a private enterprise officer and has since worked for the agency as a land reform advisor, agriculture team leader, and education office director and coordinator of USAID’s Young African Leaders Initiative. In her role as senior policy advisor, Cardenas, who is bilingual, served as liaison to the Hispanic Assoc. of Colleges and Universities. She holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree in urban planning from Texas A&M University, and is pursuing a PhD in applied social justice at Dominican University. In her role at HCC, she serves as a strategic advisor to the college president and a key operational leader, directly supporting the president, the president’s cabinet, division vice presidents, and the board of trustees, and collaborating with department heads, community leaders, government entities, and other external partners to advance institutional priorities.
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Bay Path University announced the appointment of Jody Goodman as dean of Students and Engagement. In this role, she will lead efforts to enhance the student experience across multiple modalities and campuses, providing inclusive and responsive support to approximately 4,500 students, including traditional residential undergraduates, commuter students, and remote undergraduate and graduate learners at both Bay Path and Cambridge College. She brings more than a decade of progressive leadership experience in student affairs, as well as extensive academic expertise in higher education, leadership, and management. Most recently, she served as interim director of Student Engagement and Co-curricular Programming at Quinebaug Valley Community College in Connecticut. Previously, she was director of Student Success at the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst. Goodman earned an accelerated doctor of education degree in higher education from the Warner School of Education at the University of Rochester, where she also received her master’s degree in human resources management. She additionally holds a master’s degree in higher education from UMass Amherst and a master’s degree in leadership from Northeastern University.
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Candace Pereira
Windsor Federal Bank, headquartered in Windsor, Conn., announced that Candace Pereira has joined the organization as vice president, Business Development and portfolio manager. Pereira brings nearly 20 years of experience in commercial lending, having held roles as senior credit analyst, commercial lending officer, assistant vice president and commercial portfolio manager, and, most recently, vice president and commercial lender at Florence Bank. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in business administration with a focus in management from the University of Massachusetts and is currently pursuing an MBA. Pereira is a 2017 BusinessWest 40 Under Forty honoree and has a history of heavy involvement in her community. She currently serves as treasurer of East Longmeadow High School’s Cheerleading Booster Club and is an ambassador for the Springfield Regional Chamber.
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Berkshire United Way (BUW) recently welcomed three community leaders — Stephanie Ham, Bethany Kieley, and Jennifer Kerwood — to its board of directors. Ham is an assistant branch manager and digital banking guru for Adams Community Bank. She has nearly two decades of experience in retail banking. As a member of the bank’s culture committee and ACB impact committee, she has led the annual sock drive for Morris Elementary School as well as efforts to support POPCares, the AYJ Fund, and the Alzheimer’s Assoc. Kieley is CEO of Community Health Programs and has nearly two decades of leadership experience in the healthcare field. She once served as a table captain for a United Way Women United’s Power of the Purse event and has volunteered with a food pantry in Connecticut and Literacy Volunteers of Southern Connecticut. Kerwood is director of Philanthropy at Miss Hall’s School. She has almost 30 years of experience advancing the missions and fundraising for local organizations, including Berkshire Community College and Berkshire United Way. Prior to her development career, she worked in Massachusetts government and politics. She is an appointed member of the Board of Registrars of Voters in Pittsfield and formerly served as a director and treasurer on the board for Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School in Adams.
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Two new state commissioners have joined the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women (MCSW). The commission welcomes Giselle Byrd and Candace Pérez, both appointees of Gov. Maura Healey. Giselle Byrd is executive director of the Theater Offensive, located in Boston, making her the first Black trans woman to lead a regional theatre company in the U.S. As a producer, she is the first transgender woman to be accepted into Through Her Lens: the Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program. Her documentary film debut, Giselle’s Story, directed by Susan O’Brien, was accepted into the Imagine This International Women’s Festival. Byrd also serves on the board of directors at both Callen-Lorde Community Health Center and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. She is also the co-vice chair of the advisory board for the Ali Forney Center, and she was recently elected vice chair of the MCSW’s program and planning committee for the FY 2026 program year. Pérez is a transformational leader, executive coach, and strategic consultant with a distinguished career spanning healthcare administration, public policy, workforce transformation, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. As founder and principal consultant of Iya of the North Consulting, she partners with executives, leadership teams, and organizations to drive meaningful change, elevate leadership effectiveness, and build inclusive, high-performing workplaces.
