Laurel Carpenter, Holyoke Community College associate professor of environmental science, has been awarded a national fellowship focusing on STEM education at community colleges.
The fellowship, from the Community College Presidents’ Initiative in STEM (CCPI-STEM), is intended for community college faculty and administrators pursuing graduate degrees and conducting research related to STEM education and workforce development. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math.
Carpenter is part of a cohort of seven CCPI-STEM fellows for 2024-2025 and the only one from a college in the Northeast.
Fellows are selected from a national pool of applicants, who are evaluated based on their education, STEM experience, leadership potential, community engagement, and research.
A 2012 graduate of HCC, Carpenter is a wildlife biologist, chair of the HCC Environmental Studies Department, co-coordinator of the HCC STEM Scholars program, and a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she is pursuing a doctorate in education. Carpenter resides in South Hadley.
Fellows receive a $5,000 honorarium each year for two years to support their graduate studies. They also participate in professional development activities and are paired with a professional mentor.
Carpenter started taking classes at HCC in 2002 as a junior at South Hadley High School, but then transferred to Smith College for her bachelor’s degree. From there, she went to UMass, where she earned a master’s in wildlife conservation before returning to Smith for a master’s degree in secondary science education.
For more than 10 years, she worked as a wildlife technician, wildlife biologist, lead educator and environmental interpreter for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. While she was working, she returned to HCC to complete her associate degree in environmental science.
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Donna Haghighat, CEO of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts, has announced her plans to retire, effective June 30.
Under Haghighat’s leadership, beginning in 2017, the Women’s Fund developed new programs, sought out effective partnerships, increased grant-making, grew its corporate and individual donations and focused on racial equity and trust-based philanthropy.
Haghighat was integral in the launch of The Young Women’s Initiative for girls and young women of color in Springfield and The Greater Springfield Women’s Economic Security Hub.
The Women’s Fund is a philanthropic organization that fuels progress toward gender equity and justice, work that has been ongoing since 1997. It has been making grants to change-making organizations in the four counties of Western Massachusetts for most of its 27-year history.
Haghighat has facilitated the monthly meetings of The Women Heads of Nonprofits group in Western Mass, which the Women’s Fund hosts, and has served on the state’s Community Reinvestment Fund Advisory Board and the advisory board of the Center for Social Justice at Western New England School of Law. She was appointed by the governor to the Massachusetts Cultural Council this year and is a board member for WAM Theatre in the Berkshires.
A succession committee drawn from the board membership is charged with searching for a new CEO.
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Governors America Corp., a veteran-owned global manufacturer of engine control products headquartered in Agawam, welcomed Jeff Little as its new director of product management.
As director of product management, Little’s responsibilities include aligning product strategy with business goals, driving product discovery, market research and competitor research, driving innovation and new product development initiatives, communicating product vision and strategy to stakeholders, and monitoring and maintaining product health.
Little, a resident of Sapulpa, Oklahoma, received his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Mississippi State University. He has garnered 27 years of experience in the industry, most recently as director of product management at Enovation Controls.
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Market Mentors, LLC, a marketing, advertising and public relations agency, recently welcomed Geoff Rice as a senior content marketing specialist.
Prior to joining Market Mentors, Rice, an Amherst resident, focused his talents on the health and beauty industries and now extends his expertise to clients from businesses including manufacturing, energy, insurance and others.
A native of New York state, Rice is a graduate of Colgate University with a degree in English literature.
