BusinessWest celebrates 20th Class of 40 Under Forty
SPRINGFIELD — BusinessWest will celebrate the 20th annual class of its 40 Under Forty awards, a regional recognition program honoring outstanding young professionals who are shaping the future of western Massachusetts. For two decades, the program has spotlighted emerging leaders under age 40 whose professional achievements, leadership and community involvement distinguish them among their peers.
With more than 120 unique nominations, the 40 Under Forty class of 2026 honorees were selected by a panel of five independent judges who are all 40 Under Forty Alumni: from the class of 2007, Patrick Leary, partner at MP CPAs; Scott Foster, partner at Bulkley Richardson and member of the class of 2011; Shannon Rudder, president and CEO of Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services and member of the class of 2016; Matthew Kushi, academic advisor at Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, owner of Kushi Farm and North Hadley Chili Pepper Co., and member of the class of 2021; and Tori Thompson, vice president and head of internal audit at PeoplesBank and member of the class of 2025.
To read more about the BusinessWest 40 Under Forty Class of 2026, visit businesswest.com/guides/40_under_forty_2026/#p=1
The awards gala will take place on Thursday, June 11 at 5 p.m. at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. Tickets are $140 per person, and tables of 10 are available. Tickets for this event can be purchased at businesswest.com/eventcalendar/40-under-forty-gala-2026/
Applied Mortgage opens in Southampton
SOUTHAMPTON — The Applied Mortgage Team of HMA Mortgage moved into a new office in Southampton in April with an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony. The office is located at 15 College Highway, Unit A.
The Applied Mortgage Team of HMA Mortgage has relocated to a new first-floor space that offers improved accessibility, greater visibility, and a more open, welcoming environment. The new location supports a hybrid approach to mortgage services by enhancing virtual capabilities while maintaining a strong in-person experience.
The updated layout also allows the team to host educational workshops, community events, and industry gatherings, further strengthening their role as a local resource and connector.
“This move was very intentional,” said Lindsay Barron LaBonte, Branch Manager of the Applied Mortgage Team. “We wanted a space that truly reflects how we serve people today: flexible, accessible, and built for connection.”
Applied Mortgage has served more than 18,000 homeowners over the past 35 years.
UMass prof wins life sciences prize
AMHERST — Li-Jun Ma, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been chosen as this year’s winner of the Mahoney Life Sciences Prize for her work toward mitigating the effects of a fungal pathogen that is causing the functional extinction of the bananas most commonly found in U.S. supermarkets. The Mahoney Prize comes with a $25,000 cash award.
The banana cultivar of today is not the same type as the one people were eating a few generations ago. Those, the Gros Michel bananas, are functionally extinct, victims of the first outbreak of the pathogen, called Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense (Foc) tropical race 4 (TR4), in the 1950s.
Today, the most popular type of commercially available banana is the Cavendish variety, which was bred as a disease-resistant response to the Gros Michel extinction. For about 40 years, the Cavendish banana thrived across the globe in the vast monocultured plantations that supply the majority of the world’s commercial banana crop. But by the 1990s, the good times for the Cavendish banana had begun to come to a close, due to another outbreak of Fusarium. But was it the same strain that ended Gros Michel’s market dominance?
The research undertaken by Ma and her colleagues was published in Nature Microbiology and answer the question with the intention of discovering novel means to control the spread of Foc TR4. It is significant is honored with the Mahoney Prize. Not only did they discover that this new outbreak of Fusarium did not evolve from the one that had decimated the Gros Michel bananas, they also discovered that Foc TR4, responsible for the current outbreak of banana wilt, uses some accessory genes for both production and detoxification of fungal nitric oxide to invade the host and that the virulence of Foc TR4 was greatly reduced when two genes that control nitric oxide production were eliminated.
The Mahoney Life Sciences Prize is awarded annually to honor excellence and recognize academic achievement that propels significant advances in science and industry. The Mahoney brothers all received their degrees in chemistry from UMass Amherst. They went on to become leaders in their own industries and have served as high-level alumni advisers to the campus.
Dr. Schmitt named clinician of the year
AMHERST — Dr. Ilana Schmitt, a physician with University Health Services (UHS) at UMass Amherst, has been honored by the Hampshire District Medical Society as their 2026 Community Clinician of the Year awardee. The award celebrates physicians who have made significant contributions to patients and the community.
Schmitt has special interests in developmental pediatrics, transgender care and travel medicine. In 2016, she received the Pamela Edwards Award for leadership and outreach for her work in transgender medicine at UHS.
She was born and raised on Long Island, New York, attended Cornell with a major in Russian, and worked in immigration as a case worker and occasional Embassy medical interpreter in Rome. Then, after a year in Israel, returned to the U.S., hoping to become a physician.
Schmitt completed her medical degree at Case Western Reserve University, and her pediatric residency at University Hospitals of Cleveland, where she remained on staff as an assistant clinical professor until relocating to western Massachusetts in 2008.
UMassFive offers built-in charitable giving feature
HADLEY — UMassFive College Federal Credit Union, a cooperatively-owned financial institution, is having success with a new charitable giving option introduced as part of its upgraded Online and Mobile Banking experience, launched last October.
Designed to make giving back easier and more accessible, the tool allows members to donate directly to a selected nonprofit through the Transfers menu. UMassFive securely facilitates the process and distributes 100% of donations to each organization at the end of its featured period.
UMassFive says the feature offers a convenient, trusted way for members to give back to vetted organizations. The first organization highlighted, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, received $1,985 in member donations from late October through year-end, complementing the credit union’s ongoing commitment to the organization.
The Amherst Survival Center was featured through April, with The Children’s Advocacy Center of Hampshire County scheduled from May to August. UMassFive plans to continue rotating community partners while incorporating member input into future selections. The feature is available at https://umassfive.coop/news/umassfive-enhances-digital-banking-experience-built-charitable-giving-feature