Careers & Education

‘You don’t look like a doctor’: Documentary film looks at the biases and challenges Black women physicians face

‘You don’t look like a doctor’: Documentary film looks at the biases and challenges Black women physicians face

By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Dr. Khama Ennis had come a long way in her medical career. Until 2022, the Amherst resident had spent about two decades in emergency medicine, including a number of years as chief of emergency medicine at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in...

EcoMetrics 101

By Amy CorteseRay Anderson’s conversion—what he calls a “spear to the heart”—came in 1994 while he was reading Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce. In it, the Smith & Hawken cofounder argued that business should inspire a more...

Thinking Small

By John Grossmaneslie Fishbein, president of Kacey Fine Furniture, was idly watching a T-Mobile commercial when inspiration struck. What if we replace our drivers’ cell phones with camera phones, she wondered. That way, she figured, delivery personnel at the...

Office Politics: Not Optional

By Penelope TrunkHere is a message for people who say they can’t stomach office politics: You will die a slow, painful career death. This is because there’s no getting around office politics, and mastering them is essential to being able to steer your own...

Career Lift

By Courtney E. MartinLinda Castner, a no-nonsense kind of woman with a pair of aviator’s goggles as well as reading glasses hanging around her neck, leans back in her lawn chair on the edge of the runway and watches a Cessna take a pass through the overcast sky...

Reality B-School

By Christopher SheaDonald Trump has redrawn the New York skyline and altered the prime-time television solar system. Could he do the same for business education? In May, the helmet-haired superdeveloper announced the founding of “Trump University.” At the...
Education for Profit

Education for Profit

By many measures, the University of Phoenix is the most successful institution for higher education in American history. With more than 325,000 students currently enrolled—22 times the number at the University of Chicago—Phoenix is vast, and contains...

Teaching in Springfield

On Thursday afternoon, April 5, the parking lot of the Meline Kasparian Professional Development Center behind the High School of Science and Technology on State Street was packed with the cars of college graduates or those soon to be grads who’d shown up for...

Generation Gap?

“Kids nowadays?”That phrase used to signal a long, weary complaint by parents about their wayward teenagers. But I’m hearing it more and more in offices, in executive suites, from managers who just can’t fathom their new work force....

Making the Grade

A successful career begins before your graduate, not afterward. Consider these pointers from those experienced enough to know.1. Take leadership roles. The best way to learn to lead is to do it. Generation Y has been raised to be great team players in everything from...
Careers and Education

Careers and Education

The crisis in the cost of college came about not only because of predatory lenders, opportunistic schools and a crashing economy. Lesser things contributed: the housing bubble that began in the 1980s and has made it more difficult for students in the Valley and...
Structuring the Unstructured

Structuring the Unstructured

When I arrive at the Florence Organic Community Gardens, Pandora Redwin is standing a couple feet off the ground, balancing on a wooden post and tending to a tarp that stretches out over her. Next to the tarp structure, several smoothed logs stretch out in a circle....

College: The Debt Trap

For years, student loan debt has been mounting, and borrowers have been trapped in a bubble in which the availability of financial aid and the cost of college have driven each other up. Since the crash of 2007, the time bomb has exploded, with more and more graduates...

Still In Denial

One of the most important people in finance was overlooking Central Park from his Fifth Avenue apartment, enjoying the Bach that his twin teenage daughters were playing on violin and speaking to the young Fulbright scholars from Iraq and China he’d invited for a...
The Next Generation

The Next Generation

Part of knowing which way to steer your career is knowing what is changing in the landscape. In 10 years, Gen Y will have taken over middle management; maybe in five years, if my own office is any indication. But I am sure Gen Y will run the show differently. And no...

A Matter of Degree

After high school, it's tougher for young people to continue their education than it has been for a long time. Parents losing jobs and threatened with home foreclosure are taking children out of college, or sending them to the school that's most affordable...

Careers & Ed: Amateur Hour

It was glaringly sunny in Washington, D.C. on April 5, the day President Barack Obama signed the JOBS Act, and there was some confusion as to the location of the afterparty. One faction of Rose Garden attendees gathered on the roof of the W Hotel and wondered where...
Navigating Change

Navigating Change

Cooley Dickinson Hospital is a small community hospital Northampton that has, in recent years, worked in partnership with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, then returned to its status as an independent entity, and now is forging a partnership with Massachusetts...
Rethinking College Admission

Rethinking College Admission

I spent the past year working as an admissions officer at Amherst College. My predominant responsibility was to recruit students and review their applications. When I’d meet with eager high-schoolers and their white-knuckled parents, I was often bombarded with...
The DIY Career

The DIY Career

Last summer, I spent weeks shopping for an anniversary present for my wife. I searched all my usual retail sources but couldn't find anything that hit just the right note. Then I went to Etsy.com—an ecommerce site where artisans sell unique handmade...

Entry Points

If you’re in the job market, you’ve probably noticed that every second job advertised online seems to be related to healthcare. From nursing to massage to long term PCA (personal care attendant) positions, healthcare is one of the Valley’s strongest...
Snow Jobs

Snow Jobs

Thankfully, the snow sports industry offers an astounding number of job opportunities. There are positions for anyone who just wants to be a ski bum for a season, as well as permanent jobs for those looking to make a career out of winter sports. Most jobs at resorts...

Careers and Education: Off Track

According to a recent study, Gen X and late baby boomers are on track to replace only about half of their current income when they reach retirement—which means they’ll need to seriously downgrade their lifestyles. Most financial planners recommend...