UMass professortapped forprestigious honor

AMHERST — James E. Young, distinguished professor emeritus of English and Near Eastern studies and founding director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Academy announced that Young was one of the nearly 250 members elected for 2025 on April 23, and an induction ceremony will take place Oct. 11 in Cambridge.

Since 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has honored excellence and convened leaders from across disciplines and divides to examine new ideas, address issues of importance, and work together “to advance the interest, honor, dignity and happiness of a free, independent and virtuous people.” The Academy’s founders — including John Adams and John Hancock — envisioned an organization that would recognize accomplished individuals and engage them in meeting the nation’s challenges. The first members elected to the Academy in 1781 included Benjamin Franklin and George Washington.

Young, an author whose teaching and research areas include narrative theory, cultural memory studies, Holocaust studies and visual culture, has taught at UMass Amherst since 1988.

In 1997, Young was appointed by the Berlin Senate to the five-member Findungskommission for Germany’s national Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which was finished and dedicated in May 2005. Most recently, he was appointed by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to the jury for the “National 9/11 Memorial” design competition, which opened on Sept. 11, 2011.

Flanagan joinsFlorence Bank

FLORENCE — Florence Bank recently hired Callie Flanagan of Holyoke as vice president/small business lender in the Commercial Originations department of the Florence headquarters.

Flanagan has 13 years of small business lending experience and most recently worked at the U.S. Small Business Administration as lender relations specialist/Springfield branch manager.

Skilled at building relationships, credit analysis, underwriting, portfolio management and SBA lending, Flanagan has also served as a loan officer and director of lending at Common Capital. While in the latter role, she led a small lending team to achieve top lender in the state with the U.S. Small Business Administration for multiple loan products over multiple years.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Fordham University and is vice chair of the Holyoke Economic Development and Industrial Corporation and a member of the Ladies’ Ancient Order of the Hibernians.

Kearney namedathletic director at AIC

SPRINGFIELD — American International College has named Rob Kearney to the position of director of athletics effective July 7. Kearney brings more than a decade of athletic training and leadership experience to this role and will oversee the college’s portfolio of NCAA Division II athletic programs.

The appointment follows Kearney’s prior tenure as assistant athletic director for sports medicine and performance, in which he oversaw a transformational restructuring of the department and rebuilt all aspects of the college’s athletic training and strength and conditioning programs.

Before arriving at AIC, Kearney served as an athletic trainer at Springfield Central High School and was head athletic trainer for the men’s club ice hockey program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 2014-2024. He has held roles at a number of local institutions, including the Williston Northampton School, Deerfield Academy, and Palmer Public Schools. Kearney and his husband, Joey, also own and operate CrossFit Iron Legacy in East Longmeadow.

Beyond his experience in athletic training and coaching, Kearney’s record includes a 15-year career of professional competition: In 2023, he finished third in the America’s Strongest Man competition and has a personal record of 961 pounds in the deadlift. He has competed in the World’s Strongest Man competition five times and the Arnold Strongman Classic three times. In 2020, he was awarded the title of “Pound for Pound Strongest Man in the World” by Official Strongman.

Smith College namesnew dean of libraries

NORTHAMPTON — Nancy S. Kirkpatrick has been named dean of libraries for Smith College. Most recently serving as the dean of university libraries at Florida International University, where she managed a $17 million budget and led over 100 faculty and staff across two campuses, Kirkpatrick has had a decades-long career in library administration. She will join Smith in August.

Kirkpatrick has held leadership roles across academia and nonprofit sectors and has experience as both a CEO and a senior administrator. She holds a juris doctor from the University of Richmond and a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois, and was executive director and CEO of OhioNet — a consortium supporting public, academic, and special libraries — prior to joining Florida International University. She brings to Smith broad expertise in the field of library science and experience with board leadership and governance.

The Smith College Libraries — which include the Maya Lin–designed Neilson Library, Special Collections, the Alumnae Gymnasium, Hillyer Art Library, and the Josten Performing Arts Library — are the intellectual crossroads of the Smith community. As dean of libraries, Kirkpatrick will lead a team of of professional and paraprofessional library staff whose work helps to fulfill the libraries’ mission to advance teaching, learning, research, and discovery for the Smith community and to further support women’s education through an internationally recognized collection of archives and manuscripts documenting the history of women.

Kirkpatrick succeeds Susan Fliss, who retired in March, after more than eight years as Smith’s dean of libraries.