New AVPs and chief of staff

Two new associate vice presidents and a new chief of staff for the President’s Office have joined Mount Holyoke. 

Penn’lope Davis has joined the College as the associate vice president for Human Resources. Penny comes to Mount Holyoke after serving as the chief human resources officer for the Department of Social Services for the State of Connecticut. She has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut. She has worked in various leadership positions with the State of Connecticut and is excited to make the transition to higher education.

Karla Youngblood FP’99 will be joining Mount Holyoke College as the associate vice president for Facilities Management in February. Karla, an alum of Mount Holyoke’s Frances Perkins Program, is coming to the College from Amherst College, where she has been the director of facilities operations since 2019. Previously, she was the operations director at Smith College. Before moving into higher education, Karla was a project manager for the City of Springfield. 

Bett Schumacher will join the President’s Office in February as the President’s chief of staff and secretary of the College. Bett has extensive experience in this role, having served as the chief of staff and secretary of the Board of Trustees at Amherst College since 2017. Before coming to western Massachusetts, she was the chief of staff to the president at University of the Pacific in northern California. Bett will join Paul Kandel, AVP for strategic initiatives (and chair of our COVID-19 Health and Safety Committee), who moved from Finance and Administration to the President’s Office in July last year, and Julie Yurgielewicz, who continues as executive assistant.