Juliet Locke of Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc. has earned her professional Traffic Operations Engineer Certification. Locke is a Transportation Engineer in the firms Springfield office. The certification demonstrates knowledge, skill, and ability in the specialized application of traffic operations engineering.
Westfield State College recently welcomed three new members of its Board of Trustees. They are:
Judge Terry M. Craven of Milford. An associate justice for the Suffolk County Juvenile Court, she is a 1973 graduate from Westfield State with a bachelors degree in psychology. She also received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the college in 2008 for her service in juvenile justice. She received her juris doctor degree from New England School of Law in 1987. She is known as an expert in juvenile and family law. Besides being founding director and co-clerk of the Juvenile Bar Assoc., she has served on its board of directors for more than a decade. She designed and implemented the first diversion program for female offenders at Boston Juvenile Court. Other honors she has received include citations from both the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate for her work with delinquent children and their families, and she was the 2006 recipient of the Juvenile Bar Associations Judge Leo Lydon Award.
Christel Ford Berry of Hartford, who has been the head of Ford Berry Associates in Hartford for more than 25 years as part of her successful career as an attorney and financial planner. She previously was an associate attorney with the Hartford law firms Hebb & Gitlin and Shipman & Goodwin. She has also been active in professional and civic organizations. She is a board member of the Hartford Courant Foundation, treasurer and board member of Connecticut Landmarks, and a member of the Hartford Assoc. for Women Attorneys. She is also on the Board of Trustees of Friends of Elizabeth Park, a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum, and an incorporator of the Hartford Seminary in Hartford and the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford. She has a bachelors degree from Barnard College and a juris doctor degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Berry Meersman, a sophomore at Westfield State majoring in History and Secondary Education. A 2008 graduate of Shepherd Hill Regional High School, he became active in college life as a freshman, being selected as all-college representative for the Student Government Assoc. He was elected by the student body last spring to represent them on the Board of Trustees. I hope I will be a good voice on the board for the students and hope to bring the student voice to any decision that has to be made for the school, he said. Meersman praised his high-school history teachers for inspiring him to study history in college, and said he is happy with his decision to come to Westfield State.
Dr. Gargi Kundu has joined Hampden County Physician Associates new Springfield office at 300 Stafford St. on the Mercy Medical Center campus. She will establish her primary care practice in internal medicine. Kundu earned her medical degree from Kasturba Medical College in Manipal, India, and completed her internship in internal medicine at St. Lukes Hospital in Bethlehem, Pa. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Robert Packer Hospital, Sayre, Pa., and her fellowship in hematology and oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas in Springfield announced the following:
Mary Jo Kennedy will serve as a Regional Delegate in the Massachusetts Bar Assoc. House of Delegates for the next year, representing Hampden County; and
Attorney David R. Roulston will serve as a Regional Delegate in the Massachusetts Bar Assoc. House of Delegates for the next year, representing Franklin, Hampshire, and Berkshire counties.
The National Priorities Project of Northampton has hired Christopher Hellman as its Director of Research.
Richard S. Keating has been named Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at the Centers for Internationalization and Academic Initiatives at Western New England College in Springfield. In his new position, Keating will improve the ability of WNEC to anticipate and respond quickly to emerging opportunities, particularly in the areas of developing undergraduate and graduate degree programs as well as non-credit and certificate programs, and the international recruitment of students.
Dr. Lanceford M. Chong has joined the staff at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton. Chong received his medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco Board of Medicine. He joins the cancer care-radiation oncology program as a Radiation Oncologist.
Michael J. Akey has joined Berkshire Bank as a Mortgage Loan Originator in the Pioneer Valley. He will concentrate his efforts on home loans in Franklin and Hampshire counties from his office at MassOne Insurance Agency, a Berkshire Bank affiliate, 117 Main St., Greenfield.
Samuel Johansson has joined the firm of Aaron Smith, P.C., public accountants, in East Longmeadow. He is a recent graduate of Western New England College in Springfield with a bachelors degree in business administration. He worked as an intern with Aaron Smith in the spring.
Jim Kervick, an employee of United Personnel, was recently awarded the Massachusetts Staffing Assoc. Employee of the Year Award for 2009. The prestigious honor, awarded to one staffing employee in the state of Massachusetts, is given to an employee who exemplifies the five main reasons to consider temporary staffing as an employment option: jobs, flexibility, bridge, choice, and training. Kervick was selected as the winner over 14 other finalists from across the state. In his role as an on-site manager at two of Uniteds larger-volume clients, Kervick is responsible for the day-to-day communication with the on-site temporary staff and for assuring that Uniteds (and the clients) performance standards, policies, and procedures are being met. United Personnel has offices in Springfield and Easthampton.
Emma R. Dias has been hired at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton as an Interpreter to provide on-site services for non-English-speaking patients.
Attorney Lori Rittman Clark has been named to the SS&C SummerWind Performing Arts Center Board of Directors. The arts facility is a 5,000-seat outdoor performing center in Windsor, Conn. Clark is a Partner in the Hartford office of Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, where her practice is in the area of employment law.
Ellen Hatzakis has been named Chief Operating Officer for HAP Housing in Springfield. She has been with HAP Housing for 30 years, most recently as Associate Executive Director for Finance and Administration. She started her career as a Housing Counselor.
Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C., of Springfield announced that the following attorneys had been named to the 2010 edition of Best Lawyers:
Stephen A. Shatz, specializing in banking law, corporate law, and real estate law;
Timothy P. Mulhern, specializing in corporate law and tax law;
Steven Weiss, specializing in bankruptcy and creditor-debtor rights law;
Ann I. Weber, specializing in elder law; and
Carol Cioe Klyman, specializing in elder law.
Gordon G. Dinsmore Jr. has been appointed President of Berkshire Life Insurance Co. in Pittsfield. He will be responsible for managing the risk and product portfolio for the two product lines Berkshire issues on behalf of the Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America disability insurance and long-term care insurance. Berkshire Life Insurance Co. is a wholly owned stock subsidiary of the Guardian Life Insurance Co. of New York.
Attorney Franklin L. Baxley has joined the Springfield law firm Robinson Donovan. Baxley specializes in employment law counseling and litigation.
Drs. Richard Moser, Frederik Pennings, and Julie Pilitsis have joined the medical staff at Wing Memorial Hospital and Medical Center in Palmer. The three board-certified Neurosurgeons are from the UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. The physicians conduct neurosurgical evaluations for pediatric and adult patients with spinal disorders, cerebrovascular disease, movement disorders, brain tumors, and other disorders of the spine and brain. Moser earned his medical degree from Loyola Universitys Stritch School of Medicine and completed his surgical residency at the University of Minnesota. Pennings is a graduate of the University of Leyden Medical School in the Netherlands, and completed his surgical residency at the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam. Pilitsis earned her medical degree from Albany Medical School and completed her surgical residency from Wayne State University in Michigan.
