Page 19 - BusinessWest February 3, 2021

Richard F. Burkhart, CPA and Salvatore J. Pizzanelli, CPA, JD, PFS
The talented team at Burkhart Pizzanelli
Accounting
Julie M. Quink, CPA and Deborah J. Penzias, CPA
The talented team at Burkhart Pizzanelli provides
provides expertise in a full range of accounting
and financial services. Feel free to call on us at Consulting 413.734.9040.Feel free to call on us at 413.734.9040.
expertise in a full range of accounting and financial services.
201 Park Avenue, Suite 2, West Springfield, MA
201 Park Avenue, Suite 2 • West SpringfieldR, eMtAir0e1m08e9nt Plans T: 413.734.9040 • F: 413.781.5609
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Dawn Forbes DiStefano
Brings to Square One a Blend
of Passion, Business Sense
By George O’Brien
For Dawn Forbes DiStefano, it was the quintessential all-or- nothing proposition.
As the search for a successor to Joan Kagan, Square One’s
long-time president and CEO, commenced last summer, Forbes DiStefano knew what few outside the organization — and probably few inside it, as well — knew: if she did not prevail in the nation- wide search, she would no longer be working for the Springfield- based provider of childcare and other services for children and
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“My management style is direct, it’s collaborative, it’s mission-focused, with an acknowledgement that we’re running a business. And to a certain extent, as a nonprofit, that’s a tax status — it’s not a way to do business.”
families.
That’s because the position she
held at the time — executive vice president — was to be eliminated as the agency continued on a course of restructuring its top management.
But Forbes DiStefano, one of roughly 60 candidates to apply for the post, certainly had a leg up on the others — in large part because she was in that position. But also because she and Kagan had entered into what she described as a ‘shared management’ situation, one that familiarized her with all aspects of this operation and fully prepared her for the role she was seeking.
“I don’t think it was a shock that I was able to answer questions with more detail and probably more
insight than other candidates, because I worked here,” she told BusinessWest. “But I worked really hard over the past 30 years to position myself to apply for a position like this.”
By that, she was referring to a lengthy career in the nonprofit realm, most of it at the YWCA of Western Massachusetts, but the
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FEBRUARY 3, 2021 19
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