Bay Path University in Longmeadow announces that Natalia F. Blank has been elected to serve as the vice president for academic affairs. Blank will serve on the executive leadership team and work across all divisions at the university.
Blank comes to Bay Path from D’Youville University in Buffalo, New York, where she served as vice president for academic affairs. She has nearly 20 years working in university administrative roles, including associate provost for academic affairs and assessment at Norwich University in Vermont.
Blank has served in roles on both the faculty and administrative side in education. As a teacher-scholar, she has been the author of numerous publications, earned several awards and honors for teaching excellence and has received multiple grants in support of student and faculty research.
Blank received her Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Nizhegorod State University in Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia. She went on to receive her doctorate in organic/organometallic chemistry from Dartmouth College.
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American International College in Springfield announces the appointment of Devin Kindred as the director of Residence Life and Student Conduct.
Kindred will oversee residence education, student conduct and housing operations at AIC. Serving as the chief housing officer for the college, he will manage the daily functions of the residence halls, supervise the professional live-in hall staff and administer the student conduct process.
Kindred previously served as AIC’s assistant director for Residential and Commuter Student Living, managing housing operations and commuter-student relations. He also facilitated the Safe Zone – LGBTQ+ education series presented to more than fifty faculty and staff on campus.
Before joining AIC, Kindred held positions as a residence hall director at Sacred Heart University and residence director at Stonehill College.
Kindred earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in human resource management from Western New England University. He later attained his Master of Education in higher education leadership from Endicott College.
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Cooley Dickinson Hospital’s chief community relations and communications officer, Jeff Harness, has announced his retirement and is seeking to raise $34,000 in support of the hospital’s New Beginnings program. The goal represents his 34 years of service to the organization.
New Beginnings is a program that promotes education and support for pregnant and postpartum people in, or working towards, recovery from substance use. The goal of the program is to help foster a connection between parents and their new babies — growing parental confidence and sustaining their recovery.
New Beginnings, which began in 2018, is open to Cooley Dickinson OB/GYN & Midwifery patients who are pregnant or up to two years postpartum. Topics discussed in the program include discomforts of pregnancy and comfort measures, stress management, relapse prevention, nutrition during pregnancy, neonatal abstinence syndrome (neonatal withdrawal) — expectations, scoring system, and how to soothe a baby with withdrawal symptoms, labor and birth, postpartum planning, what to expect from social work/DCF, breastfeeding and newborn care.
Those interesting in donating can do so at cooleydickinson.com/givenow (select “Jeff Harness – New beginnings” from the dropdown menu), by calling 413-582-2256, or by mailing a check to PO Box 329, Northampton, MA 01061.
Since he began at Cooley Dickinson in 1989 as a part-time inpatient behavioral health counselor, Harness has held numerous roles throughout the organization including as director of the Western Massachusetts Center for Healthy Communities, director of integrated care and population health, and director of community health and government relations.
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New England Public Media’s Elizabeth Román has been promoted into the role of managing editor — daily and digital news. Román will take the lead on delivering daily news programming on the radio, NEPM website and social media channels.
Román is continuing to focus on expanding the diversity of sources in news coverage and opportunities to create more Spanish-language news content. As the daughter of Puerto Rican parents who migrated to Massachusetts more than 40 years ago, Román has intended throughout her career to provide accurate representation of communities of color in western Massachusetts.
Roman is a graduate of Holyoke Community College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Prior to working at NEPM, she was a reporter at the Springfield Republican for almost two decades, edited El Pueblo Latino, co-founded Colectivo de Medios Latinos, and appeared as a panelist on NEPM’s “The Short List” and “Connecting Point.”
Román joined NEPM in 2022.
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