Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires welcomes four new board members
Great Barrington — The Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires has announced the addition of four new members to its board.
Stephanie Bosley serves as the community connector partnership coordinator with Berkshire Community Action Council. She has held positions with 1Berkshire, the American Cancer Society, the town of Adams and the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition. She serves as a commissioner on the Berkshire County Commission on the Status of Women as well as on the board of directors of Hoosic River Revival.
Patrick Danahey is a Berkshire-based entrepreneur, operations strategist and design enthusiast. In 2017 he co-founded R3SET Enterprises. Recently Danahey and his team opened Sp3ak Easy Studio, the Berkshire’s first video podcasting studio, helping organizations harness the power of contemporary marketing and storytelling. He is a Berkshire Leadership Program graduate.
Auric Enchill graduated from Tufts University in 2018 with a U.S. history major and an entrepreneurial studies minor. He currently works as a sales manager at Elegant Stitches, his family-owned business in Pittsfield. He recently completed the Dulye Leadership Experience and is currently serving on the board of the Berkshire Immigrant Center.
Ilene Marcus is founder of Aligned Workplace, where she helps organizations build cohesive teams for business growth. She is also the author of “How to Deal with Annoying People.” After 30 years in the C-suite of multi-million dollar organizations, and earning her Master of Social Work and Master of Public Administration from Columbia University, she served as adjunct faculty in the social work master’s program for 10 years.
–E.E.
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VIM Berkshires hires Belmuth
Great Barrington — Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires welcomes Gail Belmuth to its staff as director of development and communications.
Belmuth has more than 25 years of experience in communications and marketing for a wide range of corporate, political and nonprofit clients. Most recently, she ran a successful communications consultancy, with a focus on helping organizations through major transformations. In her new role, Belmuth will be member of VIM’s management team, responsible for fundraising and development, business and community partnerships, special events, media relations, social media, advertising, marketing, and communications.
Belmuth’s consultancy clients included CVS Health, Novartis, Montefiore Medical Center, Marsh McLennan, Siemens, Xerox, Alcoa, International Rescue Committee, Accenture, ITT/Xylem, Deloitte and Ingersoll Rand. Previously, Belmuth was global chief communications officer for International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. She also served in leadership roles at several leading global communications agencies, including Burson-Marsteller. Early in her career, Belmuth worked with reforming governments in the former Soviet Union and Latin America. She graduated from Brown University. Since moving to the Berkshires from New York four years ago, she has been a part-time executive director at Berkshire Pulse and a member of the wellness committee for the Southern Berkshire Regional School District.
–E.E.
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White Kirkby of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Barnbrook Realty achieves top-selling status
Great Barrington — Realtor Maureen White Kirkby of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Barnbrook Realty was the top-selling agent in 2019 among real estate agents in Berkshire County based on closed-dollar volume, according to the Berkshire County Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service.
White Kirkby has been selling real estate in the Berkshires for 25 years. She draws inspiration from her mother, Mary White, who has been in the business for 40 years and founded Barnbrook Realty.
The allure of the Berkshires has also contributed to her success. “The local economy is good. People who want to own a second home love to come to the Berkshires. In the Berkshires, we have something for everybody. It’s a year-round draw — so many sports activities, theater, art, biking, hiking, and fishing,” White Kirkby said.
–E.E.
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Thibodeau, Maloney join Jack Miller Contractors
Williamstown — Jack Miller Contractors has added to its team Shawn Thibodeau as project manager and Kris Maloney as bookkeeper.
Thibodeau is a lifelong resident of Southern Vermont with a career focused on carpentry, construction and project management since the mid 1990s, when he began as a carpenter apprentice. He has been a professional carpenter for 20 years, working for David Tierney Construction in Pittsfield and Blue Heron Construction in Bennington, Vermont. Thibodeau owned his own construction company for five years and was most recently project manager for Hayden Plumbing & Heating in Bennington.
A resident of North Adams, Maloney joined JMC after a 21-year stint at Williams College where she worked as benefits administrator, overseeing a comprehensive employee benefit program for approximately 1,100 faculty and staff. Her background includes four years working as a human resource administrator and payroll supervisor for Patten Corporation in Stamford, Vermont. As payroll specialist, Maloney was responsible for the administration of the benefits program and processing of payroll for hundreds of employees at North Adams Public Schools for six years and, prior to that, at Berkshire Health Systems management services. She holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
–E.E.
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Bennington College Prison Education Initiative to award associate of art
Bennington, Vt. — Bennington College has received accreditation from the New England Commission of Higher Education to award a Bennington College associate of art degree to incarcerated students through its Prison Education Initiative.
Now in its fifth year, PEI brings Bennington College faculty to Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum-security men’s prison in Comstock, New York, to provide a liberal arts education to incarcerated students. PEI will graduate its first class of Associate of Arts candidates in a Commencement ceremony that will take place Saturday, June 13, at Great Meadow.
PEI currently enrolls 36 students in credit-bearing courses with an additional 10 enrolled in an introductory college preparatory course. Since PEI’s inception in 2015, more than 70 incarcerated students have taken credit-bearing courses in the humanities, math, and computer science.
Those who are awarded degrees while in prison and are later released have a reduced rate of return to prison and higher rate of employment. For PEI students who do not re-enter society, the academic experience can have a positive impact on their own quality of life and that of their family members.
As a member of the Bard Prison Initiative’s Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison, PEI’s presence at Great Meadow provides education to underserved upstate students farther north than any other consortium member. In 2016, PEI was also selected as one of the original sites for the Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative.
–E.E.