Home Posts tagged Nonprofit Management (Page 2)
40 Under 40 Class of 2009

Dena Calvanese

Age 35: Director, Gray House

Dena Calvanese lists travel at the top of her list of hobbies — and passions.

She’s been to India and the Far East, all around Italy, to several cities in the U.S., and, last summer, to Iceland. It was a great trip, but frustrating in one respect. A budding photographer, Calvanese wanted a nice shot of an Icelandic sunset. The problem was, she went there in the middle of summer, when the sun was out 24 hours a day.

“It was great, because you could visit places all day long,” she said. “But no sunset pictures.”

Things are similar, in some respects, at Springfield’s Gray House, now celebrating its 25th year in operation, which Calvanese has served as director for the past two and a half years. She says she keeps waiting for there to be some kind of lull in the action — and level of need — at this community center in Springfield’s North End. But, like a sunset in Iceland in July, one never comes, which is fine with her.

“We’re busy just about all the time,” said Calvanese, who, as she spoke with BusinessWest, was working on projects ranging from collection of prom dresses for underprivileged young women to assemblage of Easter baskets for area families.

“Need is constant, and it’s increasing with the economy,” she continued, listing everything from a surge in requests for food assistance to a rise in enrollment in adult-education programs from people who want to better themselves.

Managing all this has become another passion for Calvanese, who once worked as an analyst for MassMutual, but has made a very successful transition into the challenging world of nonprofit management.

As for her next travel destination? Calvanese has a trip to Chicago on the calendar. There should be some great sunset pictures by Lake Michigan to be taken there.

—George O’Brien

 

Features
Age 34. Program Administrator, Berkshire Bank Foundation of the Pioneer Valley

Rima Dael’s career path was forged early in her life, although she didn’t know it at the time.

When Dael was a child, her mother enrolled her in a dance class because, in her own words, she was born “flat-footed and pigeon-toed.”

“That started a passion for the arts, and I instantly wanted to be a professional dancer,” she said, adding that soon, her interest shifted to acting and, by the time she entered college at Mount Holyoke, to stage management and administration.

That led to positions at the college’s Summer Theatre and at StageWest (now CityStage), and a number of consultancies with various arts agencies in New York, such as Artpark in Lewiston and the Better Brooklyn Community Center.

Her work in the arts pushed her further along that career path, as she developed a passion for the nonprofit sector as a whole. She earned a master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from New School University in New York City in 2003, and after returning to Western Mass., put her skills to work as program manager with the Human Service Forum in Springfield.

Now, she’s moved on to serve as administrator with the Berkshire Bank Foundation of the Pioneer Valley, a position that puts her on the giving end.

Dael has become a vocal proponent for non-profit education, serving on the advisory board for Bay Path College’s master’s program, for example. She also remains actively involved with the arts, serving on the board of the UMass Fine Arts Center. “I am so passionate about the arts and education that I want to make sure that I align myself with positions that constantly educate me.”

Looking forward, Dael said her definitions of success are still evolving, and many of them are related directly to the opportunities and challenges that face her own age group.

“I have a lot of philosophical questions for the future,” she said. “Some are related to nonprofit management — what does the emerging leadership vacuum mean for people my age? Also, there’s a lot to be said about this age bracket. There was so much buzz about us being ‘slackers’ when we were in our teens and twenties. We must shrug off that mentality, and at the same time realize that the definitions of success change, constantly.”

Cover Story
Age 35. Vice President of Resource Development, United Way of the Pioneer Valley

Sarah Tanner was on course for a career as a speech pathologist when a part-time job with a unique, student-run, nonprofit venture at UMass-Amherst started her in a different direction.

It was called the Peoples Market, a grocery store known for its coffee, bagels, fresh fruit, and loud music that could be heard in every corner of the Student Union building, said Tanner, adding quickly that it wasn’t so much what the business did, but rather how it was run that attracted her. “Everything was done by full consensus,” she said. “There were 26 of us in the co-op, and we got a consensus on everything, right down to where we got the apples we sold.”

Inspired by her work at the Peoples Market, Tanner would eventually pursue a graduate degree in Public Administration at the University of Colorado — she relocated to the Rocky Mountain State with her husband, Mark, the other half of the only husband-wife team to make the Forty Under 40 list — and a specific course of study in nonprofit management.

And she’s spent the better part of the past decade in various capacities with four different United Ways — the Mile High facility in Denver, New York City (where Mark served as assistant district attorney), Hampshire County (after the couple returned to Western Mass.), and, currently, the Pioneer Valley chapter. There, she serves as vice president of Resource Development, and oversees all aspects of the organization’s $6 million fundraising campaign.

As her career path would certainly indicate, Tanner is a true believer in the United Way mission. “What I like most is the potential that’s there to really make some systemic change in communities,” she said. “And at each United Way I’ve worked at, they’ve had a unique angle that they take, and it’s always been appealing to me.

“In New York, it was about helping people help themselves — they really pushed self-sufficiency, and it was really gratifying to be part of that,” she continued.

Here, I think we’re still trying to define what our product is because there’s been so much change in the community, and so much need. We need to define what our role is, but the potential is there, and it’s immense.”

Sections Supplements
The Changing Face of the Nonprofit Business

Management of nonprofit organizations has always been challenging, but recent legislative, societal, and technological changes have made it even more so. In response, new college degree programs have been created to address a recognized leadership vacuum — resulting from the retirement of many current managers — and make tomorrow’s nonprofit managers better prepared for the hurdles they will face.

Melissa Morris-Olson, founder of the Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management in Chicago and newly appointed director of the Nonprofit Management and Philanthropy program at Bay Path College, puts it succinctly as she describes life for nonprofit organizations today.

“It’s not enough to do good,” she says. “You must do good well.”

That’s a reality being felt across the board by nonprofits — a large group in and of itself that includes businesses focused on health care, human services, education, advocacy, the arts, community development, and many other areas. They’re facing a wide array of challenges, including what Morris-Olson described as a “leadership vacuum” resulting from the retirement of many long-time directors, staff recruitment and retention, and the intricacies of fundraising.

At the same time, however, nonprofits are also seeing a new set of advantages, including the enormous power of the Internet to market themselves, raise funds, and recruit managers and volunteers, which is causing a marked shift in how they do business.

These trends point to the need for better training of nonprofit managers, and colleges such as Bay Path are responding with new degree programs aimed at putting more leaders in the pipeline, and giving them the skills they’ll need to succeed in a more challenging environment.

“There was a time when nonprofits saw themselves on a different level than for-profits, in part because of the good work they do,” said Morris-Olson. “It’s true that they have played an incredibly important role in our history, serving almost as a safety valve during troubled times. Without them, I can’t imagine how some major historic events — from natural disasters to the fight for civil rights — would have played out.

“But leaders need to know how to explain and defend their organizations and their missions,” she continued. “They need to know how to report on their work, spend money responsibly, and overall, to manage well.”

Virtual Channels

Nonprofit leaders cite a number of factors when asked about how their business has changed. Some are similar to shifts in business practices that all sectors are seeing, such as technological upgrades and the need to be increasingly competitive to recruit and retain staff. But others are more difficult to pinpoint, including a growing interest in working with nonprofits among various age groups, either as staff or as at the volunteer level.

Michelle Theroux, executive director of Child and Family Services of the Pioneer Valley, said staff recruitment and retention are two areas in which nonprofits have historically struggled, and they remain a constant concern.

“It’s a huge economic challenge to be a player,” she said. “We do good work, so there is an attachment to mission-driven practices, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to make ourselves marketable to keep staff here. We want to offer competitive benefits to our staff, but there is a delicate balance between what we want to offer and what we can afford.”

Similarly, Herb Heller, Food Processing Center Manager of the Franklin County Community Development Corp. (FCCDC), said he sees firsthand the challenges that nonprofit companies face, in contrast with for-profit businesses. The FCCDC is a unique nonprofit organization that works in part to assist fledgling for-profit businesses, including those in the food and beverage industry through the processing center. He said nonprofits in general have different cultures and structures than for-profits due to the work they do, which can make management more difficult.

“Some challenges never change for nonprofits — sometimes, the biggest challenge is still keeping the lights on,” said Heller, who added, however, that along with constant hurdles, nonprofits also possess a number of positives that are now being recognized as intrinsic to the overall economy and climate of commerce.

“Nonprofits are very good at getting to the heart of the matter,” he said. “Because of that, we are able to garner support effectively, and with community support and good management, nonprofits are a type of business that can survive the tough times, and even help the for-profits through those times.”

And increasingly, Heller said, that realization is leading to some new, innovative practices within the nonprofit sector, and a renewed interest in the work they do among job seekers, potential volunteers, and would-be contributors.

“We’re seeing a widening of interest in nonprofits,” he said. “People understand that they can find new business opportunities through their involvement, and that is creating a pipeline to our doors.”

The reasons for this phenomenon vary, but all of them track back to a new sense of interest in the nonprofit sector. Bruce Marshall, senior vice president for development with the American Cancer Society’s Northeast affiliate, said one contributing factor could be the ease with which information can be attained in today’s highly connected world.

“The short answer as to why is the Internet,” said Marshall. “It has changed the way nonprofits and for-profits do business in similar ways, but on our end it’s exciting to see the variety of improvements.”

For instance, Marshall said last year the ACS raised more than $6 million through virtual channels — contributions made through Web sites and online solicitations. And in 2006, one of its more mature programs, Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, saw a 20% increase in revenue over the previous year; historically, older programs tend to bring in smaller numbers.

“Six years ago, we wouldn’t have been anywhere near that number,” he said. “And you can see the evolution … once, people reached for their checkbook and stamps. Now, they reach for their credit cards and look for a Web site address.”

Internet marketing and the ability to make online contributions has also helped many nonprofits expand their donor base, especially among younger generations, he said.

“Older people still give more, but we’re complementing existing numbers more and more with younger donors,” said Marshall. “I think part of the reason why is because through the Web, we are able to communicate more efficiently how every dollar is used. Younger people also like to get involved on a level at which they’re comfortable, and the Internet is probably the most effective way to engage them.”

The Gift of Time

There are other, societal trends that are also shaping the future of nonprofits and their fundraising efforts; as the population ages, for instance, Marshall said giving trends are starting to change.

“In terms of involvement with nonprofit and charitable groups, younger people already show a propensity toward being more hands-on,” Marshall added. “They like to get involved and take on specific projects. The older generations have historically been more likely to give unrestricted gifts, but as the number of younger people getting involved rises, so does interest in restricted projects.”

That trend is also leading to greater numbers of volunteers within nonprofits partly in lieu of solely financial contributors, but Marshall said he doesn’t see that as harmful to the bottom line. He said the more connected to a group an individual feels, the more likely it is that he or she will continue to support that organization for a long period of time, through both financial and in-kind contributions.

“Engaging donors as advocates increases retention rates,” he said, “and I’m a firm believer that, in general, involvement yields investment.”

Theroux agreed. She said Child and Family Services relies greatly on third-party reimbursements and contracts with state and federal agencies such as the Department of Social Services, but its fund-development program is still robust, and is made up largely of contributors who feel a sort of kinship with the organization.

“It could be a grateful client or a supporter of our cause, and it spans all age groups,” she said, noting that Child and Family Services will soon embark on a new series of fundraising appeals and events designed around that trend. “The main theme will be a connection back to the agency,” she said.

Marshall added that campaigns planned around such national trends are proof that the very face of these organizations is starting to change. They still need to become savvier in terms of marketing, fundraising, and translating missions and goals to a larger audience, he said, to make them a more attractive option to job seekers than in the past.

But Marshall, who started his career with the ACS 20 years ago, said one of the biggest changes to the nonprofit landscape is the availability of educational programs to teach those very skills.

“When I started, interest in working with nonprofits was relegated to a small group of people, and in turn it was rare to see any courses at the college level devoted to nonprofit management,” he said. “People who work with a nonprofit organization need some specific skills, such as knowledge of nonprofit sales, communication, marketing, and the ability to focus on net dollars. And today, I do see colleges addressing those areas.”

A Collegiate Contribution

Schools are doing so not only with random courses and informational programs, but with new degree offerings in Nonprofit Management and Philanthropy. They are designed to help fill the need for qualified personnel within such organizations, a problem that is becoming acute as many long-term administrators retire.

According to a study completed by Seton Hall University in the late 1990s and updated in 2002, there are about 255 colleges and universities in the U.S. offering some kind of nonprofit management curricula. Of those, 114 offer a graduate degree with at least a concentration in that field.

Locally, two colleges have recently entered the nonprofit management arena with graduate-degree programs; a master of science in Nonprofit Management at American International College in Springfield and a master of science in Nonprofit Management and Philanthropy at Bay Path College in Longmeadow.

Roland Holstead, vice president for Educational Enterprise and dean of Graduate and Continuing Education at American International College, said the private, four-year institution’s foray into nonprofit management was a response to recognized needs at a number of such organizations in the region.

“Many people expressed the belief that there was a need to develop particular skills to augment the work being done in the nonprofit sector, particularly at the mid-career level,” he said.

AIC announced its master’s degree program in Nonprofit Management last November. Holstead explained that it’s an interdisciplinary program that draws from many different courses and majors at the college, such as Public Administration, Organization Development, Business Studies, and Psychology, in response to the specific skill sets required by most nonprofit businesses, among them grant-writing, fundraising, human resources management, and a knowledge of nonprofit law.

“We believe that to help nonprofits become more efficient and effective, new skills are essential in addition to the compassion that many employees of nonprofits already possess,” he said, noting that changes in the economic climate and on the legislative level consistently create a fragile environment within the nonprofit sector, and many of AIC’s courses will focus on that reality.

“In terms of nonprofit law, for instance, there are new restrictions emerging now that nonprofits need to be very aware of,” he said. “And in terms of recruiting and retaining personnel, there are several things that people need to know. Nonprofits have to look differently at full-time, part-time, flex-time, and per-diem employees than for-profit businesses to meet the needs of their clients, and of their employees. Hours might be very different, and schedules more unconventional.”

Currently, the AIC master’s program, which will be marketed more aggressively for the fall 2007 semester, has 10 students and a capacity of about 60. All of the master’s candidates are already employed by nonprofit organizations, which Holstead said run a wide gamut, including hospitals, human service, and relief organizations like the American Red Cross.

Similarly, Morris-Olson said Bay Path recognized a need for nonprofit management preparation at the ground level, and created its program in response to both national and regional trends.

The program’s first class is enrolled now, and as part of their coursework, the students will be paired with local nonprofit organizations — about 35 of them — to help solve specific problems within those businesses. Morris-Olson said the fact that not one organization she has approached to partner with her students has turned her down speaks to the need for qualified answers to complex issues.

“We see firsthand the need for management training and education for the nonprofit sector,” she said. “One reason why is the leadership vacuum we’re seeing across the country. So many nonprofit leaders are retiring, and in addition, there is an issue of high turnover within nonprofits, among people who joined an organization only to find that they were not adequately prepared.”

In addition, Morris-Olson said that, due to legislative changes and other pressures, nonprofit organizations are also experiencing change at a very fast rate, which in turn underscores the need for formal preparation at the management level.

“Many nonprofit leaders worked their way up without any type of management degree,” she said. “But it’s almost imperative now … the pace of change has really accelerated for nonprofits of late. And this is not old knowledge. In most cases, this is new, cutting-edge knowledge that current nonprofit leaders need, and often worry about.”

Mission vs. Management

Morris-Olson said some of the core themes that are hot topics within nonprofit management include financial management, fundraising, and governance of boards or trustees. She added that successful preparatory programs generally approach these themes with a strong emphasis on the nonprofit perspective and how it differs from governmental and for-profit bodies. Issues surrounding accountability, prompted in part by scandal or disorganization brought to light following major disasters such as 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina, also top the list.

“During those times, some high-profile nonprofit leaders were just skewered in the press,” she said, adding that the philanthropic mission of today’s nonprofits must be coupled with solid business acumen.

Theroux agrees. From her central office in Springfield, she wades through a seemingly never-ending pool of challenges — changes to contracts, complicated funding streams, and health care benefit concerns in light of the Commonwealth’s new system among them. But she said the increased emphasis on education and technology across the nonprofit sector has indeed created a renewed sense of optimism in her field, one that sees the future as promising, not as a series of unknowns.

“We’re still in a period of transition,” she cautioned. “Things are certainly tight, but there are gains to be made, and I think many nonprofit organizations are hopeful about that.

“We’ve been here for 130 years, so we’re not going anywhere,” she said. “But in the future, we will look very different.”

Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]

Sections Supplements
Carol Leary Directs Bay Path Toward a Second Act

In her first 12 years as president of Bay Path College, Carol Leary has choreographed a stunning metamorphosis — transforming the formerly sleepy Longmeadow institution not long ago considered a secretarial school into a leader in innovation, entrepreneurship, and professional development. Always looking forward, her next strategic plan, titled ‘Good to Great,’ borrows from author Jim Collins and speaks to her philosophy that the process of continuous improvement never ends.

Carol Leary, president of Bay Path College, remembers a time when her life’s ambition was to be a choreographer.

She had the background – years of dance training – and the requisite passion, as a great lover of culture and the arts.

But Leary ultimately chose to forgo dancing with the stars and instead focus on a different creative pursuit – essentially, creating opportunities to allow others to find their true callings. Fueled by her vast experience in higher education and a deep affinity for learning at all stages of life, Leary brought with her to Bay Path a leadership philosophy that leans heavily on the power of teams, along with a strong belief in ongoing professional development, particularly for women.

The result is a flourishing campus with several new programs aimed at the needs of the region served by the four-year, private women’s college – primarily Western Mass. and Northern Conn. – and a school that has raised its profile in national and international circles of late.

All this didn’t happen overnight, but many of Bay Path’s latest developments didn’t take years to develop, either. Just as in dance, a lot had to do with timing, said Leary, and with careful attention to each step of the process on the part of the entire Bay Path troupe.

The college recently completed its five-year ‘Vision 2006’ strategic plan, and has just embarked on ‘Vision 2011,’ which carries the theme ‘Good to Great,’ borrowed from the title of one of Leary’s favorite professional development books, written by Jim Collins.

The theme is an apt example of the mission of the college and its ongoing development goals, which Leary said are geared toward the improvement of not only its students on professional and personal levels, but also on the betterment of the region’s many businesses, and of professional women in general.

“What I take from the idea of ‘good to great’ is that when you think you’ve reached where you want to be, you have to realize that you still have to improve, because you can’t become complacent,” said Leary. “Things change, environments change, and you must be nimble and flexible enough to welcome opportunity to your doorstep.”

When she arrived in Longmeadow, this challenge translated into hiring the best people to develop new programs to meet market trends, always with a focus on innovation, and in many ways those practices remain at the forefront of Bay Path’s development plans.

“I truly believe that our success has been because of the people who have been hired and have committed their own visions to this college in the last 12 years,” she said. “When I arrived here, I recognized a sense of anticipation – when a new president enters an organization, be it corporate, private, not-for-profit, or educational, the members of that community try to figure out what is going to happen. They ask, ‘what will my role be with this new person at the helm?’

“But my philosophy has always been to make use of the best talents of the people you have, and let them use their imagination, their creativity, and their expertise to develop programs that they think will meet market demand,” she added. “So that’s basically been my style – use everyone’s potential, nurture it, and then implement whatever their ideas may be.”

However, to make best use of those ideas, Leary said not everything can be left to the process of free, organic thought; there must also be a clear plan for progress in place to organize all of those divergent thoughts into one course of action.

“I’m also a true believer that the people and the plan have to work together,” she explained. “You can hire the very best people, but if you do not have a road map or a vision of where you want to be, then I think you can become very scattered, and you can detour into areas that might not be where you should be.”

By the Book

That mode of thinking has kept several new initiatives running smoothly at Bay Path, including a number of new academic programs and majors, which have been introduced over the past decade in addition to a suite of successful professional development conferences.

The college changed from a two-year college offering associate’s degrees to a four-year baccalaureate college in 1988, but Leary said in many ways Bay Path was still operating as a two-year college when she arrived in 1994. At the time, it offered 14 associate’s degree programs and three baccalaureate degrees, and no graduate programs.

“I saw that as an opportunity,” she said. “I saw the expanse of where we could go.”

The course offerings have since shifted to include nine baccalaureate programs and five master’s programs. Bay Path also operates six days a week, having added its ‘Saturday school’ in 1999, and offers classes in two locations, at the main Longmeadow campus and its satellite location in Southbridge. Leary said extending the off-campus sites across the Commonwealth is a new goal, but at the start of her career at Bay Path, it was an idea that seemed lofty and far off.

“Back then, I wasn’t thinking about branch locations,” said Leary. “But because of the people who were hired over the next five years, a whole host of ideas were introduced to the college that included one-day-a-week programs and graduate programs. We also started looking at the talents of our current faculty, and we found that many of them had dreams that we could fulfill.”

These included an expanded science program that led to the creation of Forensic Science and Forensic Psychology programs at Bay Path that are now attracting students from across the country as that field grows in popularity, particularly among women.

“From a recruitment standpoint, there is a market there for forensic science and biology,” she said, “and at women’s colleges we saw that it was one of the four top majors that women went into, so we knew it was going to be a good market. We also had faculty with the expertise in all of the areas that surround forensic science, and we gave them the opportunity to hire faculty to fill the gaps. It was just the right time, the right voices, and the right people in place that brought those programs to the forefront for Bay Path.”

In addition to the forensic science programs, Bay Path has also created four master’s degree programs over the past seven years: a master’s in Communication and Information Management, introduced in 2000, a master’s in Occupational Therapy in 2002, an MBA in Entrepreneurial Thinking and Innovative Practice, and, most recently, a master’s in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Management, unveiled just this year.

The master’s in Communication and Information Management was largely spearheaded by William Sipple, Bay Path’s provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, who had taught in a similar program at Robert Morse College prior to relocating.

“That was an easy transition into the master’s program because he had done it,” Leary said, adding that the master’s in Occupational Therapy that followed was also added relatively easily. “That was a natural outgrowth. The accrediting body had said that by 2007, a master’s would be the minimum requirement in that field, and so creating that program was a gradual process.”

The MBA, however, introduced in 2005, was built from the ground up over a period of a few years, and was tailored to address the need for entrepreneurial ventures in the region, as well as those led by women.

“We realized that, in many ways, we as an institution were representative of the degree we were going to create, because every year we seem to have something new happening on this campus,” Leary said. “Therefore, we had some experts we could draw upon, and then in turn use to recruit new experts to Bay Path.

“We did not want to do a standard MBA program, because of the other 15 programs in a 45-minute radius,” she continued. “We knew we needed a niche program. This area is one of the top areas in the country for entrepreneurship, and it needs an infusion of new companies in the area, so that program was one that we had really thought about, and we waited until the right moment.”

A Woman’s World

The first MBA class will graduate from Bay Path this May, just as the first class in the new master’s in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Management will enter courses.
Leary calls this newest offering “the soul of Bay Path,” in part due to her own observances in the non-profit sector, where she often volunteers her time.

“I have seen firsthand that it’s such an important part of the psyche of an area to have a good, well-run non-profit sector. I listen very hard to what the struggles are, and I watch when a leader of a not-for-profit retires and how hard it is to find a successor.”

In addition to those challenges, Leary said there is currently a national trend of turnover in non-profit leadership as leaders at retirement age make way for new blood, and 70% of the people who work in the sector are women.

“Those two factors, for me, created the perfect mix,” she said. “It happened very quickly, but we had all the pieces to create a stand-alone master’s program.”
Those new programs also add weight to one of Leary’s most challenging decisions, which came very early in her presidency: the choice to maintain Bay Path’s identity as an all-women’s college, even while the current national trend is toward a co-ed charter, or toward closing completely.

“I think we realized 12 years ago that even though we knew it was not going to be a smooth run, we were going to remain a women’s college,” she said, “even though they were closing everywhere.”

Leary referenced several institutions in Massachusetts alone that have gone co-ed – among them Elms College, Regis College, Emmanuel College, and Lesley College – all in the last decade.

“But we believed in the professional development of women. That’s our mission, and we’ve made a strong commitment to figure out what programs women needed for the future. In every conversation we have we want to make sure that new programs, including the master’s programs that by law are open to men, include a few courses that look at a woman’s perspective, which can be taken by both men and women.”

Leary herself is not the product of a women’s college – she attended Boston University and graduated with a degree in Political Science, and later earned her master’s in Student Personnel and Counseling from SUNY Albany, and her Ph.D. in Educational Administration from American University. However, she said her experiences at Boston’s Simmons College, as director of Residence from 1978 to 1984 and as the college’s associate dean in 1984 and 1985, cemented her belief in the power of women’s education.

“Working at Simmons College really opened my eyes to the incredible potential and possibility women’s education had,” she said. “So when I came to Bay Path after having worked at Simmons for many years, I realized we could stay an all-women’s college and be successful.”

A Development Story

To prove that theory, Bay Path made its first major stride in women’s development early in Leary’s presidency, by instituting the Women’s Professional Development Conference (WPDC) in 1996.

The annual event attracts more than 800 attendees, most women, but Leary said men attend too, in part to hear from an impressive list of speakers that has featured Sen. Elizabeth Dole, Cokie Roberts, Jackie Joyner Kersee, and Madeleine Albright.

“I look back at that first women’s conference and reflect, and in many ways I think that was one of the defining moments of Bay Path as a women’s college,” said Leary. “We stayed true to our mission for professional education of women and by having this conference and by inviting the very best minds in America to Springfield, it helped define our image in the eyes of many people in the community.

“That image,” she explained further, “is of a college that is going to take risks, and is going to ask the very best to come to Springfield. And, we are going to encourage women to take advantage of professional development opportunities that we have brought to their doorsteps.”

The WPDC’s continuously impressive list of speakers, to which writer and poet Maya Angelou and Valerie Plame (the CIA agent outed by the press in 2003) will be added in April, 2007, has also added to the buzz about the annual event and its host college on both a regional and national level. Returning to the idea of timing, Leary said some of those speakers were the result of a simple invitation, but others have chosen to speak based on the conference’s theme that year – usually a one-word notion that ties the entire day of workshops and networking together.

Last year, that theme was humor, an idea that resonated with the day’s keynote, producer, writer, and director Nora Ephron, famous for directing such films as Sleepless in Seattle and writing When Harry Met Sally. And this year, the theme of ‘resilience’ played a major role in Angelou’s decision to lend her name and her voice to the program.

“She had eight speaking engagements before her that had been offered,” Leary said, “and the reason she chose us was she loved the theme. I think it’s easier for us to get speakers now because of our themes, and also because they can look at who we’ve had in the past.

“Our speakers are also women who really enjoy being surrounded by other women who are there to learn from them,” she added. “From that very first conference to the one we will present in 2007, I think we have set the standard very high.”

Other development programs have followed the WPDC, including a wide array of workshops, academic programs, and community partnerships centered on entrepreneuriship and innovation. These programs, which include courses in Innovation in Business, Entrepreneurship, and ‘Entrevation,’ a term coined to represent skills that pair the two concepts, began to emerge in 2001 and have since created a campus-wide initiative that has received some national attention.

There’s also the Innovator’s Roundtable, comprised of area CEOs and business owners who provide advice and expertise regarding the skills required when starting a business or even entering today’s job market; a cooperative education program, in which students are placed in area small businesses, where they will gain hands-on experience in what is required to be an entrepreneur; a summer program in entrepreneurship for high school girls that acts as a bridge between area youth entrepreneurship programs and the initiatives at Bay Path; and the Innovative Thinking and Entrepreneurial Summit, which began as a series of lectures and expanded, now held each year since 2003. The summit draws on entrepreneurial minds both nationally and regionally, and is just one of many entrepreneurship-related ventures funded by a $143,000, three-year Coleman Foundation grant received by the college in 2005.

In the past, entrepreneurs such as Yankee Candle CEO Craig Rydin and Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, have spoken, and this year Jeff Taylor of Monster.com fame visited to speak about his latest venture, the Baby Boomer-driven Web site Eons.

Tapping into Talent

All of these programs revisit that theme of lifelong learning that Leary enjoys and respects so much, and have contributed to a cohesive educational repertoire at Bay Path, aimed at preparing people – students, area residents, business owners, and especially women – for the job market of today and the challenges of the world at large.

“You need to have a mind that’s an open book, so that no matter what you’re doing, you can learn from it,” Lear
concluded. “If I have an idea, and I share my idea, others can add to that idea, so a small kernel can lead to great things.

“It’s all about the ability to speak up, to take a risk, and to step back from the comfort zone.”

Leary has taken that step, and countless others are following her lead. While she’s yet to take her talents to Broadway, Bay Path’s resident dancer has made some impressive moves – and promises to keep a close watch on her timing, her audience, and the stage she has set.

Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]

Features
AIC President Vince Maniaci Orchestrates a Stunning Turnaround
AIC President Vince Maniaci

AIC President Vince Maniaci

He barely had his boxes unpacked before AIC president Vince Maniaci realized he had a big problem on his hands – a waning sense of community and pride at the private college that was dwarfed only by a $5.3 million deficit. The 122-year-old institution is now back in the black and its leaders are focused on regaining what was lost – and creating what never was.

Vince Maniaci, president of American International College, has a number of signature phrases he’s coined that are directly related to AIC and the turnaround he’s trying to create.

He says all of the changes on campus are “mission-centric” and “market-smart,” meaning they don’t stray from the institution’s core educational values, and are made with attention to the state of the local economy and the region’s strengths and weaknesses.

He also says he’s trying to “put the international back in American International,” a pledge that is leading to some intriguing global developments at the school.
Finally, he says that AIC will “tolerate excellence, but its goal is perfection.” Of all his quotable quotes, that’s one of Maniaci’s personal favorites, and also probably the loftiest goal he, or any college president, could create for himself.

Indeed, AIC is only now gaining solid footing after standing on shaky ground for some time. Maniaci took the helm in August of last year, after serving as the vice president for institutional advancement at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky. He succeeded long-time president Harry Courniotes, who announced his retirement plans in October of 2004.

Maniaci remembers first discovering that the college was in dire straits his fifth day on the job, when a financial review of its books revealed a $5.3 million shortfall in the budget for 2005. The audit also showed the college had consistently come up short for several years, dating back to 1997.

“That made it abundantly clear that we were not financially sound, and it was shocking to me, but more shocking to the Board of Trustees,” he said. “We were in bad shape, and the vultures were starting to circle. We had to focus not on creating a healthy surplus, but just on breaking even.”

To do that, the college entered a deep freeze; $1 million was slashed from AIC’s operating budget — in some cases, the loss was fat, but some pet projects across all departments also had to be sacrificed. A total of 15 positions were eliminated, and the pension fund was frozen and later replaced with a defined contribution plan.

“It was painful,” Maniaci said, “But we did it about as well as we could, and it’s really what began the renaissance here.”

It also pushed Maniaci into the spotlight much sooner than he expected and for less auspicious reasons, but the images that attention created were not always of somber financial reports and layoff announcements.

As freshmen moved into the dorms during AIC’s orientation weekend, for instance, they had help from a man wearing a yellow sweatband that read ‘President.’ He introduced himself to parents as Vince, and made that same promise to “tolerate excellence.”

His unconventional approach persists on campus. He makes an effort to memorize every new student’s name, and they call him Vin, Vinny, and ‘Manach.’ His office is adorned with the standard certificates and diplomas of any college president, as well as one of C.M. Coolidge’s oil renderings of dogs playing poker.

“You have to have a sense of humor,” said Maniaci. “Especially when it comes to survival.”

School of Rock

That positivism adds to an already amplified sense of change at AIC since Maniaci arrived. At 47, he’s a young college president who succeeded one of the country’s oldest, who led AIC for 36 years, and who worked at the college for longer than Maniaci has been alive.

Maniaci has also instituted more changes in a year and a half than the campus saw in the decade prior to his arrival. Positions have been cut and rearranged, titles have been adjusted, programs have been both changed and added, and the doors of some campus buildings have closed while others have opened.

But in the midst of continued upheaval, one thing is certain – the college’s finances are improving, and that can be seen plainly in black and white.

Following that paralyzing financial review in 2005, the college was projected to see an additional shortfall of about $4 million this year. But as the year draws to a close, the books will show a $500,000 surplus on a cash basis. In addition, the school’s retention rates ticked up by 8%. Adding to the positive press was the recent announcement of a new master’s program in nonprofit management, and earlier in the year, the announcement of a new Web-based master’s in nursing.

In fact, new program announcements have become common occurrences at AIC, and Maniaci credits many of them with contributing to the speed at which the institution has returned to health.

“Yes, there were cuts,” he said, “yes, there were layoffs. But there has also been a lot of reallocation of resources, a brand new marketing plan has been put into place – we weren’t marketing globally before, now that’s very much a focus – and several new programs have been instituted, so far with very good success rates.”

“We won’t grow through austerity,” he said. “We will grow through recruitment and by creating an identity that both fits and benefits our students and the city we’re in.”

The first new development came just three months after Maniaci arrived, when dual admissions agreements were signed between AIC, Springfield Technical Community College, and Holyoke Community College in October 2005. The agreement, which allows students to transfer automatically to AIC after successful completion of coursework at one of the two-year schools and also provides $4,000 scholarships, created a new pipeline of students and marked the first such arrangement with a private, four-year college in the area. Since that initial agreement was signed, Greenfield Community College, Berkshire Community College, Capitol Community College in Connecticut, and Bermuda College have entered into similar agreements with the college.

A month later, the AIC’s ‘Community Engagement Initiative’ was unveiled, which awards $10,000, four-year, renewable scholarships to Springfield homeowners and their children. The program was initially opened to the 4,000 residents of the city’s Bay Area, including portions of State Street, Tapley Street, Roosevelt Avenue, and Mason Square. Now, it is being expanded to other areas.

The Web-based nursing degree, a master’s in Nursing Education, was announced in May of this year, augmenting the master’s in nursing program that itself is only two years old, but was added to enhance what is currently AIC’s largest major with 350 students. That announcement was followed in September with the unveiling of the Nursing Workforce Diversity Collaborative Project, designed to introduce health-related careers to disadvantaged high school students, with the help of a $1.1 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services.

And the newest addition to the curriculum, the master’s in nonprofit management, was created, Maniaci said, to fill a need within the nonprofit and human services sector of Western Mass.

“There are thousands of people who are underserved in this area, and that creates a defined need and a demand for expertise,” he said, “and we are the ideal institution for this program.”

There are other changes that garnered fewer headlines; a set of satellite campuses have been created across the Commonwealth in high schools, community colleges, and other locales, offering a master’s in education in the Greater Boston area. The high hedges that once weaved through the campus quad were leveled, picnic tables were added outside of the dining hall, and an international student lounge has been created in Sokolowski Tower, a building that, previously, was the subject of a joke among many students at the small college who never knew what it was for.

News, Views, and Brews

New additions, academic and otherwise, are a long-term answer to the college’s ills, said Maniaci, and foster continued growth rather than reinforcing the status quo. He added that the creation of new initiatives is not as damaging to the bottom line during troubled times as many might suspect.

“The effect on the bottom line is not bad,” he said. “People forget that new initiatives, especially scholarship programs, bring in students who in turn bring with them a certain amount of state and federal money.

“And the fact of the matter is, our budget is balanced, and now we can begin reinvesting.”

Moving forward, activity is not slowing down at AIC. In an effort to increase its international reputation, Maniaci is working to create satellite campuses in global markets such as Cairo and Bermuda, where a joint admissions agreement already exists with Bermuda College. He said he’s looking primarily at secondary markets – not China or other locales in high demand for American ventures, but rather smaller, promising markets such as Ireland and The Netherlands.

Stateside, plans are being mulled for an MBA with a global focus and, more locally, for a degree program tailored for paraprofessionals in education, to address the need for qualified teachers in the Greater Springfield area.

And in terms of physical development, a new pub is being added to the campus that will serve coffee during the week and beer and wine on the weekends. It’s an interesting addition, as many schools across the country close their on-site bars to ‘go dry.’ What’s more, the pub – The Stinger – will occupy what was once the faculty dining room, an amenity that Maniaci permanently removed.

“I am not advocating underage drinking or excessive drinking at all,” he said, “but let’s be real: there is no such thing as a dry campus in this entire country. And I also have no enthusiasm for students driving downtown to drink. What this is about is establishing a sense of community on campus.”

That sense of community is one of the intangible qualities Maniaci is trying to foster in tandem with cold, hard business improvement. He said he sees it happening – he receives reports that classroom behavior has improved, registration numbers for the spring semester are healthy, and interest in the college newspaper The Yellow Jacket has been revived after a few stagnant years. The most recent edition features a cover photo of Maniaci, with a New York Post-like headline that simply reads ‘The Man.’

A Man with a Plan

Maniaci is quick to accept the compliment, and just as quick to accept that not every decision he’s made has been popular.

“Transition is hard, and it’s particularly hard in an institution of higher learning,” he said. “We are largely a group of open-minded thinkers, but there’s an irony there, because we also have a tendency to harken back to the past.

“A lot of change was necessary,” he added, “and even I had no idea how deep the cultural shift was going to go. But we have a noble mission, and to achieve our goals we need to stay centered on that mission, run this place like a business, and make difficult decisions.”

The challenges will persist, he said, among them a loss of a sense of urgency among AIC’s administration, now that the college is no longer floundering in a sea of red.

“We have escaped imminent doom,” said Maniaci. “My worry is we could lose our edge, and we absolutely can’t afford to lose our edge. Still, we are stable, and that in turn makes a good base for creating excellence.”

And from excellence, there is the possibility of perfection.

Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]