Longtime UMass employee joins Willie Ross School

LONGMEADOW — Willie Ross School for the Deaf has hired Alyssa Kristek as its new director of operations and chief financial officer. Kristek most recently served as the director of administration and finance at Hillel House at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with extensive experience throughout her career in finance and business management.

Kristek has worked at UMass Amherst since 2004 in various roles. In her most recent position at Hillel House, a nonprofit Jewish community center on the UMass campus, Kristek provided oversight and coordination of the organization’s bi-annual budget projections, financial calendar and operating budget; provided oversight and coordination of all grant applications and contracts; oversaw and implemented all human resources administrative functions including payroll and benefits; and provided general facilities management, among other responsibilities.

Prior to her position at Hillel House, Kristek was the finance and business manager for the Center for UMass-Industry Research on Polymers from 2007-2022; and served as bookkeeper and finance administrator for the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Graduate School from 2004-2007.

Kristek joins Willie Ross after the school’s longtime CFO, Bonnie Katusich, retired in June after more than 20 years. In her new role, Kristek will manage the day-to-day finances and payroll; revenue billings for tuition, outreach programs, and the school’s audiology clinic; maintain and update personnel files; procurement, inventory, and maintenance of organizational technology; and work in conjunction with the President and CEO and the Audit & Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees.

Kristek earned a bachelor of arts in psychology and a Master of Business Administration from UMass. She lives in Bondsville with her husband and daughter.

Smith College adds two to board of trustees

NORTHAMPTON — The Smith College board of trustees has elected two new members – Cecilia Robinson Edwards and Catherine P. Koshland – who bring to the board expertise in business, generative AI, societal change, and environmental science. Their appointments began July 1.

Edwards, Class of 1988, is a partner and principal solutionist at Wavestone, a global management consulting firm focused on supporting large enterprises to drive impact along their generative AI and sustainability transformation journeys.

Experienced in driving business value through the use of next-generation IT, Edwards is currently focusing her leadership on the concept of collaborative transformation — the ability for business leaders to use their resources and social capital to bring together different stakeholders across sectors to drive accelerated societal change at scale. Edwards produces and hosts The Business of Impact, a weekly podcast on this topic.

Starting her professional career as an officer in the United States Air Force, Capt. Edwards was the launch manager on the Titan Satellite Launch program, supporting the successful launch of five satellites. She holds an AB in mathematics from Smith College and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Koshland, Class of 1972, is the Wood-Calvert Professor, Emerita, in the College of Engineering, and an emerita professor of environmental health sciences in the School of Public Health, and in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests include air pollution and its health impacts; energy, technology, and social and cultural impacts; and environmental health regulation and policy.

In 2021-22, Koshland served as Berkeley’s interim executive vice chancellor and provost. From 2004 to 2014, she served as UC Berkeley’s vice provost for academic planning and facilities, a role that was expanded in 2009 to include teaching and learning. In 2015, she became vice chancellor for undergraduate education, a role she held through June 2022. In 2002-03, she was the chair of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate.

Koshland began her undergraduate studies at Smith then graduated with a BA in fine arts from Haverford College in 1972. She studied painting at the New York School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, and received her MS in 1978 and her PhD in 1985 in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. She is a former chair and member of the Haverford College Board of Managers.