Holyoke Medical Center Welcomes Board Members
HOLYOKE — Holyoke Medical Center (HMC) named five new members to its board of directors: Brian Canina, John Hazen, Sara Lawrence, Michael Marcotte, and Michael Sugrue.
Canina is executive vice president, chief financial officer, and treasurer of PeoplesBank. His areas of expertise include finance, administration, and strategic planning. His philanthropic experience includes being a member of the board of directors for the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce and the Children’s Study Home.
Hazen is president of Hazen Paper Co. He is a third-generation member of the board for the hospital, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. His areas of expertise include business strategy and innovation.
Lawrence is a retired executive, having served in development and fundraising roles at Mount Holyoke College, Williston Northampton School, and New England Public Radio. She also served as executive director of the South Hadley & Granby Chamber of Commerce.
Marcotte is president of Marcotte Ford. His nonprofit experience includes serving on the board of directors of the Holyoke Boys & Girls Club, volunteering at Kate’s Kitchen with his family and employees, and coaching a youth basketball camp in the summer. His areas of expertise include dealership operations, management, and customer satisfaction.
Sugrue is executive vice president, chief operating officer, and chief lending officer at Polish National Credit Union. His areas of expertise include overseeing day-to-day administrative and operational functions and managing and expanding the commercial-loan portfolio. His nonprofit experience includes volunteering for the United Way, the Holyoke Youth Baseball League, and the New England Youth Sports Assoc.
MHA’s Gulsvig Honored with Stephanie Moulton Award
HOLYOKE — The Massachusetts Department of Mental Health has recognized MHA’s Samantha Gulsvig with the Stephanie Moulton Memorial Award. The honor was presented on April 24 at the Log Cabin in Holyoke, during the Stephanie Moulton Symposium, an annual event organized by the Department of Mental Health which presents information, resources, and best practices regarding safety and risk mitigation for people involved in the care of people with a mental-health diagnosis.
Gulsvig is a human rights officer for MHA and a direct-care staff member for MHA’s Safe Haven residential program, which offers transitional housing support to people served by the Department of Mental Health who are experiencing homelessness and mental-health challenges. Gulsvig has worked at Safe Haven since its inception in 2016, playing an integral role in developing the structure and providing exemplary care to the people served.
Moulton was a bright, 25-year-old social worker from Peabody who was killed in 2011 by a resident of a mental-health program where she worked. The Stephanie Moulton Symposium is an annual event held to honor Moulton’s life and memory by providing practical training for direct-care workers in the mental-health field, in particular for identifying and mitigating risks associated with behavioral-health conditions.
BFAIR Welcomes Brelsford, Promotes Davila and Shea
NORTH ADAMS — Berkshire Family and Individual Resources Inc. (BFAIR) recently announced three appointments, hiring Tim Brelsford as director of Homecare Services and promoting Deanna Davila to director of Acquired Brain Injury/Moving Forward Plan (ABI/MFP) and Erin Shea to director of Quality Compliance.
Brelsford’s experience in the nonprofit and human-service fields expands more than 30 years. He started his career at age 16 volunteering at the Forest Hills Special School in Paducah, Ky. From there he went on to work at Lourdes Hospital as an ER technician and a nurse’s aide in the Homecare and Hospice Department. In 1996, he moved to the Berkshires, where he started working in the human-service field, eventually working his way up to management. Most recently, he was program director at Berkshire Farm Center and Services for Youth. He holds a master’s degree in business, a bachelor’s degree in computer science, and an associate degree in computer science.
Davila holds a bachelor’s degree in human services and joined BFAIR in April 2017 as a house manager in Northampton in the Acquired Brain Injury program. She assisted in opening a new ABI/MFP home in Northampton and helped four individuals transfer out of nursing homes. She became the program coordinator of Hampshire and Hampden counties in April 2018.
Shea is tasked with ensuring that BFAIR meets internal quality standards and requirements of external funding and regulatory sources, as well as consulting on human rights for the agency. She holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Elms College and is a licensed social worker with more than 15 years of progressive experience supporting elders and individuals with disabilities and their families.
Shea began her career at United Cerebral Palsy of the Berkshires and as a social worker with Berkshire Healthcare Systems. Over the past 10 years, she has assumed a variety of roles at BFAIR, one as the assistant director of the Day Habilitation Center. In 2014, the BFAIR Homecare program was developed, and she was promoted to director of Homecare Services, responsible for overseeing the Elder Service of Berkshire County contract and the Acquired Brain Injury and Moving Forward Plan Waivers through the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission.
Louis & Clark Pharmacy Welcomes Kapinos
SPRINGFIELD — Louis & Clark Pharmacy recently welcomed Sarah Kapinos as a business development specialist.
For the past nine years, Kapinos worked at Baystate Home Infusion & Respiratory Services as an intake coordinator and was later promoted to the role of business development. She earned her bachelor’s degree in management and marketing from Elms College. She said she enjoys working in the medical field and finds the most reward helping patients remain safe and healthy in their homes.
Gierasch Elected to National Academy of Sciences
AMHERST — The U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) announced the election of 100 new members to the academy in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. They include Lila Gierasch, distinguished professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Chemistry at UMass Amherst.
The NAS is charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. Scientists are elected by their peers to membership in the NAS for outstanding contributions to research. Gierasch’s research focus for decades has been protein folding — that is, how amino-acid sequence determines the three-dimensional structure of a protein. She is particularly focused on how proteins fold in the cellular environment and the role of molecular chaperones in ensuring high fidelity in the folding process.
Gierasch’s honor is the latest in a recent series of recognitions she has earned from research peers and professional societies. Last year, for example, she received the American Chemical Society’s Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in Peptide Chemistry for “her seminal contributions to peptide structure and function, peptide models for protein folding and function, and roles of peptide and protein aggregation in disease.”
In 2016, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. That same year, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology named Gierasch editor in chief of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the society’s flagship journal, for a five-year term.
In 2014, Gierasch was named to the National Institutes of Health Council of Councils, established to advise the NIH director on policies and activities of the Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives, which includes making recommendations on research that represents important areas of emerging scientific opportunities, rising public-health challenges, or knowledge gaps that deserve special emphasis or would otherwise benefit from strategic planning and coordination.
Most recently, she was recognized for her “outstanding contributions to peptide science” by the American Peptide Society. She will formally receive its lifetime achievement honor, the Merrifield Award, at a ceremony at the society’s annual meeting in Monterey, Calif. in June.
Rooks Appointed Director of Operations at baytechIT
HOLYOKE — The largest healthcare IT managed-services provider in Western Mass. is expanding its leadership team with the appointment of David Rooks as director of Operations. A seasoned IT and telecommunications industry leader, Rooks previously served as manager of the Project Management Office at VertitechIT.
Headquartered in Holyoke, baytechIT serves more than 155 healthcare clients and manages and monitors more than 16,000 end-point devices.
Koziol to Receive HFMA Founders Medal of Honor
HOLYOKE — Holyoke Medical Center (HMC) Chief Financial Officer Michael Koziol has been named a 2019 recipient of the Healthcare Financial Management Assoc. (HFMA) Founders Medal of Honor for his contribution and support to the HFMA and the healthcare-finance profession.
The Founders Medal of Honor is a prestigious award recognizing individuals who have reached the highest level of involvement and volunteer service to the HFMA. Koziol was nominated for the Medal of Honor for his involvement in the organization, which included more than six years on the annual conference planning committee and many years on the physician practice subcommittee. He has been a member of the HFMA since 1982.
Koziol joined Holyoke Medical Center in April 2017. His previous experience included executive-level finance positions with Southcoast Physicians Group in Fairhaven; MaineGeneral Health in Augusta, Maine; South County Hospital Healthcare Systems in Wakefield, R.I.; Massachusetts Eye & Ear Associates in Boston; Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, R.I.; and Memorial Hospital of South Bend, Ind. He received his bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University and completed his MBA at the University of Illinois.
Wound Care Center at Charlton Welcomes Sienel
CHARLTON — Heather Sienel, PA, has joined the Wound Care Center at Charlton, located at 10 North Main St.
Sienel has more than nine years of experience in clinical settings, including urgent care, orthopedics, emergency medicine, and wound care. She previously worked at the Novikov Wellness and Skin Care Surgical Center in Northborough, where she managed patient care with a diverse clinical team to address acute and chronic wounds of all etiologies. She received her master’s degree in physician assistant studies from Western University of Health Science in Pomona, Calif.
At the Wound Care Center in Charlton, Sienel will provide wound debridement, small-tumor excision, incision and drainage of abscesses, and biopsies. She will also diagnose and treat various skin conditions.
Square One’s Katalina Honored by Springfield College
SPRINGFIELD — In recognition of her leadership in supervising social-work students from Springfield College, Square One Chief Family Services Officer Jenise Katalina was recently named Field Supervisor of the Year.
The award was presented by the Springfield College School of Social Work at a ceremonial breakfast on April 26. The recognition comes following Square One’s longstanding partnership with Springfield College and Katalina’s years of leading the school’s aspiring social workers by supervising their field work at Square One.
Kerelejza joined the Square One team in September 2011 as a healthy families home visitor. Within her first year, she was promoted to supervisor in the program, followed by promotions to director of Program Development and assistant vice president of Family Services. She currently serves in a senior-level position as the chief Family Services officer.
Before joining Square One, Katalina served for six years as a supervisor in a Springfield-based residential program for latency-age children struggling with emotional and behavioral challenges related to trauma. Her prior experience includes the supervision and coordination of after-school programs and drop-in teen youth programs with the YMCA of Greater Springfield.
She received her bachelor’s degree from Westfield State University and her master of social work degree from Springfield College. She is a licensed certified social worker in Massachusetts.
Katalina is the past chair of the Springfield Department of Health and Human Services’ Maternal Child Health Commission. She currently serves in a leadership capacity for the Hampden County Perinatal Support Coalition and the Springfield Baby Bottoms Diaper Bank. She serves on the board of directors for MotherWoman and is a Baystate community faculty member for the Population-based Urban and Rural Community Health program. She is also a member of many community collaborative groups, including the Project ACCESS Maternal-Child Health Partnership and Springfield’s Project Baby.
Trinity Health Of New England Names Board Members for 2019
SPRINGFIELD — Trinity Health Of New England has announced the full slate of board members for 2019.
Sister Mary Caritas, SP, vice president of the Sisters of Providence congregation and vice president of the Sisters of Providence Ministry Corp., and Paul Mancinone, founder of the Paul L. Mancinone Co., P.C., have been named to the board of directors for Trinity Health Of New England. At the same time, Mancinone will also serve as chair of the board of directors for Mercy Medical Center and its affiliates.
Kevin O’Connor has been selected to serve as chair of the board of directors for Trinity Health Of New England. He currently serves as chief legal officer for Point72, a Connecticut-based asset-management firm. James Smith has been selected to serve as vice chair of the board of directors. Prior to his retirement last year, Smith served as chairman and CEO of Webster Financial Corp. for more than 30 years.
Also serving on the Trinity Health Of New England board are Benjamin Carter, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Trinity Health; Eadie; Nakia Hall, Community Engagement manager at Northeast Charter Schools Network; Walter Harrison, president emeritus of the University of Hartford; Joyce Mandell, philanthropist and co-founder of Data-Mail Inc.; Angela Mattie, professor at Quinnipiac University School of Business; Dr. Gwendolyn Moraski, anesthesiologist with Woodland Anesthesiology Associates, P.C.; Joseph Mengacci, attorney-of counsel at Lasala, Walsh & Wicklow and special counsel for the city of Waterbury, Conn.; Sister Barbara Mullen, CSJ, provincial superior for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambery; JoAnn Price, co-founder and managing partner at Fairview Capital; and Curtis Robinson, entrepreneur and owner, operator, and president of C&R Development Co.
