Holyoke Mall to host in-person community job fair

HOLYOKE — Job seekers across western Massachusetts are invited to a “Get Hired Job Fair” at Holyoke Mall on Wednesday, April 9, from 1 to 4 p.m., on the lower level in Macy’s Court.

This free community job fair, sponsored by Springfield Public Schools, features employers across more than 10 industries, seeking candidates at all skill levels to fill both full-time and part-time positions. Candidates will connect with employers one-on-one for on-the-spot interviews and hiring.

A range of western Massachusetts businesses are participating in this spring’s job fair, including Baystate Health, Berkshire County Arc, The Center School/Positive Regard Network, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Elms College, Florence Bank, Gandara Center, Gary Rome Hyundai, Golden Years USA, Hampden Charter School, Holyoke Community College, Holyoke Public Schools, Holyoke Veterans Home, Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative, MassHire Holyoke, PeoplesBank, Springfield Public Schools, UMass Police Department, Valley Opportunity Council, Valley Spring Behavioral Health, Veritas Prep Charter School, Viability and Westfield Bank.

Interested employers should contact James Geraghty, advertising manager, at 617-840-2998 or jamesgeraghty@pyramidmg.com.

Davis Financial adds to team, celebrates 20 years

HADLEY — The Davis Financial Group, based in Hadley, has hired Claire Kelly and Thomas Porter as the newest members of its financial planning team as it celebrates its 20th year in business. Their addition will be pivotal in enhancing the firm’s client services and operations and expanding its commitment to providing personalized financial planning solutions in western Massachusetts and beyond.

Porter, a graduate of Hamilton College, joins The Davis Financial Group as its chief financial officer with more than 25 years of leadership experience in financial strategy, strategic planning, and community building across various sectors, including senior executive and advisory roles for the CFA Institute, Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association, and CFP Board of Standards.

Kelly’s educational background includes earning an undergraduate degree in psychology and Judaic studies from Gettysburg College and a master’s degree in Spanish linguistics from Middlebury College. She has international experience in the film, television, and education sectors. She brings her analytical mind, interpersonal relationship skills and dedication to helping people plan their financial futures to her paraplanning role as a financial services representative.

UMass profs named 2024 Fellows by prestigious scientific institution

AMHERST — The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals, has elected Barbara Zurer Pearson, research associate in linguistics, and Don Towsley, distinguished professor in the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, as 2024 Fellows — a distinguished lifetime honor within the scientific community.

Two decades after Zurer Pearson played an instrumental role in developing the groundbreaking Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation (DELV), it remains the best test for assessing diverse children’s language abilities.

Zurer Pearson, who prides herself on having “one foot in humanities and one foot in science,” was recognized by AAAS “for distinguished contributions to applied linguistics, particularly for work encouraging bilingual development and facilitating bias-free assessment of language in children who speak minoritized varieties of English.”

In 1998, Zurer Pearson came to UMass Amherst as project manager for the interdisciplinary DELV project, developing an assessment that she admits was ahead of its time.

At the same time, working in the UMass Amherst Office of Research Development for 13 years, Zurer Pearson helped scholars across campus and around the country articulate the “broader impacts” of their research, and increase the representation of women and minorities in STEM fields.

Now, as a “mostly retired” scholar who was never on the tenure track, Zurer Pearson says being elected an AAAS fellow came as a surprise.

Towsley has taught computing at UMass Amherst since 1976, where he founded and leads the Advanced Classical and Quantum Information Research Lab.

Towsley is an acknowledged pioneer in digital networking. In 1999, he developed the first rigorous methodology for performing internet tomography, a technique for inferring internal network behavior based solely on end-to-end measurements. Fast-forward 26 years, and you’ll find Towsley helping to design the internet of the future by leading UMass Amherst’s efforts in helping to build networks based on quantum computing.

In 2020, Towsley and colleagues received a five-year, $26 million initial grant from the National Science Foundation to form a new Engineering Research Center, the Center for Quantum Networks at the University of Arizona. Towsley co-leads one of three research thrusts focused on quantum network architecture and performs research on fundamental performance limits of quantum networks.

Thanks to a seed fund created by anonymous donors, including a gift of $5 million, Towsley is leading the creation of a UMass Amherst center of excellence to support research in quantum information systems. This center, bringing together researchers from CICS, the College of Engineering and the College of Natural Sciences, will work on building quantum computers and developing a quantum internet to provide network security and to connect these new quantum computers.