Town Manager Nominates 14 for Appointments To Boards, Commissions And Committees

In memos to the Town Clerk, and to the Town Services and Outreach Committee (TSO), dated July 10, 2023, Town Manager Paul Bockelman nominated 10 people for reappointment to 8 boards, commissions, and committees, and 4 people for new appointments to three commissions, and committees.

All nominations were endorsed unanimously (5-0) by the TSO with no discussion at its meeting on July 13, 2023, and will now be forwarded to the full Town Council for approval with a likely vote at the council’s next meeting on July 17. 

The individuals nominated were as follows.

Reappointments

Board of Assessors:

Three-year term (reappointment):

(expires June 30, 2026)

• Richard Morse

Board of Health:

Three-year term (reappointment):

(expires June 30, 2026)

• Lauren Mills

Design Review Board:

Three-year term (reappointment):

(expires June 30, 2026)

• Erika Zekos

Disability Access Advisory Committee:

Three-year term (reappointment):

(expires June 30, 2026)

• Seren Derin
• Martha Blakey Smith

Local Historic District Commission:

Three-year term (reappointment):

(expires June 30, 2026)

• Steven Bloom

Personnel Board:

Three-year term (reappointment):

(expires June 30, 2026)

• Rebecca Woodland

Public Art Commission:

Three-year term (reappointment):

(expires June 30, 2026)

• James Barnhill

Public Shade Tree Committee:

Three-year term (reappointment):

(expires June 30, 2026)

• Ellen Keiter

• Sara Lawler

Biographical Information
The Town Manager provided the following biographical profiles for the nominees for reappointment.

Board of Assessors:

• Richard Morse grew up in Northampton, attending public schools there. He then graduated from Amherst College and from Boston College Law School. He has worked for several years as a high school teacher and served as an assistant district attorney in Springfield for 22 years, prosecuting street crime and domestic violence on a busy trial calendar. He attended the four-day “assessor’s school” at UMass in the summer of 2016, which is a prerequisite for being on the board. He has been a member of the Board since 2017.

Board of Health:

• Lauren Mills states that she seeks to represent a segment of the community as the Board of Health explores the social determinants of health and the role of public policy in supporting people, especially the BIPOC community and low income members of our town. She has been involved in discussing safety issues that have arisen in organized sports. Ms. Mills has been a member of the Board since 2021.

Design Review Board

• Erika Zekos has been a South Amherst resident and is a member of the faculty of the Department of Architecture at the University. She is a practicing artist and architectural designer with an interest in community-engaged design. Prior to serving on the Design Review Board, she served as a member of Town Meeting. She is currently a regular volunteer for the Jones Library and the Amherst Survival Center. She has been a member of the Board since 2019.

Disability Access Advisory Committee

• Seren Derin is the Fiscal Director of the Stavros Center, an organization dedicated to helping people with disabilities to live independently. She was first appointed to the Committee in 1991 and has served continuously since 2007. As a long-standing member and former chair of the committee, Derin brings a depth of experience with advocacy for those with disabilities.

• Martha Smith is a semi-retired architect who has practiced for over 40 years in the Town. She was the Facilities Board Member of the UMass Architectural Access Board for over 30 years. She brings valuable design and construction experience and working knowledge of the hurdles faced by those with disabilities. She continues to work part-time at the University and would be required to recuse herself from any UMass review until after she retires. She has been a member of the Committee since 2020.

Local Historic District Commission:

• Steven Bloom chaired the study committee that developed the boundaries and plan for the North Prospect-Lincoln-Sunset Local Historic District. He also lives in the district. He served on the Historical Commission for three years and has been a member of the Local Historic District Commission since 2022.

Personnel Board:

• Rebecca Woodland is Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and co-director of the Center for Education Policy. Her research interests include leadership for curriculum and instruction, teacher education, professional learning communities, and organizational collaboration. Much of her recent scholarship focuses on social network analysis, school improvement, and program evaluation around the issues of teacher education and effective instruction, curriculum, and instructional leadership in schools. She has enjoyed the ability to contribute to her community by merging her personal and professional strengths and interests. She has been a member of the Personnel Board since 2017.

Public Art Commission:

• James Barnhill is a published, award-winning photographer who, since moving to town, has become very involved in the community. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts School, one of more than twenty non-profit and for-profit boards on which he has served. He has been a member of the commission since 2019.

Public Shade Tree Committee:

• Ellen Keiter is an avid gardener and has been inspired to advocate for public shade trees after learning of the social significance of trees, or lack thereof, in racist housing policies. She is an advocate for tree planting whenever feasible and became aware of the committee’s work during a tree planting Saturday at Rolling Green Apartments. She also has worked to preserve Amherst’s majestic older trees. She has been a member of the committee since 2021.

• Sara Lawler: Ms. Lawler has been an active volunteer with the Public Shade Tree Committee since August 2019 and has been a member of the committee since 2020. She is an Ecological Designer working in a local planning and design firm. In her professional life, Ms. Lawler works on a variety of development and restoration projects that integrate ecological and human systems. Ms. Lawler has a life-long passion for green infrastructure and sustainability and wants to spread those values in the Town.
  

New Appointments

Cultural Council
One-year term (1) as voting member:

(expires June 30, 2024)

• Sylvie Wolff,  Amherst College

Three-year term (1) as voting member:

(expires June 30, 2026)

• Kimberly Manyanga, UMass

Disability Access Advisory Committee
Three-year term (1)
(expires June 30, 2026)          James Kruidenier, Moss Lane

Public Art Commission
Three-year term (3):

(expires June 30, 2025)          Thomas Warger,  Alpine Drive

Profiles
The Town Manager provided the following biographical profiles for the nominees for new appointments.

• Sylvie Wolff is a student at Amherst College who was inspired to get involved in serving her local government by her classmates. She also heard from members of the Town Council and her professors who stressed the importance of having college students involved in local government. On campus, she is involved in the college’s radio station and the campus farm. She is eager to bring a college student’s voice to the work of the Cultural Council. She identifies as Latina and speaks Portuguese.

• Kimberly Manyanga is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion. As an immigrant from Zimbabwe (who speaks Shona as well as English), Manyanga is actively engaged at the university in entrepreneurship and public health and is interested in bias in data reporting. She expressed interest in serving on the Cultural Council to broaden her involvement in the Amherst community and bring her perspective to decisions being made by town committees.

• James Kruidenier was the executive director of Stavros Center of Independent Living in Amherst for nearly 29 years. Stavros actively advocates for the civil rights of people with disabilities – regionally, statewide, and nationally. Beyond his professional background, Kruidenier brings lived experience with hearing and deaf issues and other physical disabilities.
  
• Thomas Warger is an art enthusiast who brings strong project management skills to the commission. He is an experienced information technology executive who has worked extensively in higher education and is recently retired. His experience includes planning, budgeting, communications, and personnel management along with grant-writing and research.