KATIA PALUCCI recently joined Dermody, Burke & Brown, CPAs, LLC as an associate in the tax department of the Syracuse office. She received both a bachelor’s degree in accounting and an MBA from Le Moyne College. Prior to being hired on a full-time basis, she interned in the tax department at Dermody, Burke & Brown. Palucci is working to complete the certification process to earn her designation as a CPA.

SAMANTHA THOMAS has also joined Dermody, Burke & Brown as an associate in the tax department of the Syracuse office. She received a bachelor’s degree in economics, with a minor in accounting, from Syracuse University and is set to graduate in May 2021 with a master’s degree in taxation from Le Moyne College. She comes to the firm with years of experience at the Syracuse University South Side Innovation Center. Thomas is working to complete the certification process to earn her CPA designation.

BRIAN KIRKPATRICK has been appointed by GZA GeoEnvironmental Inc. as a senior project manager in its ecology group, based in GZA’s Syracuse office. He is a certified wildlife biologist with more than 30 years of experience as a consultant serving a broad range of clients in New Jersey, New York, and other states. His work has included permitting, wetlands delineations and assessment, wetlands mitigation, endangered-species habitat, wildlife-habitat analysis, regulatory-constraints analysis, biodiversity planning, and environmental-impact analysis. Most recently, Kirkpatrick has focused on the wildlife impacts of renewable-energy facilities, including assisting in permitting the largest solar facility built on a Superfund site to date. He earned his bachelor’s degree in wildlife resources from West Virginia University and has completed additional studies in wetlands creation and analysis at Rutgers University.

SAMANTHA WARNE has joined the MVHS Sister Rose Vincent Family Medicine Center (SRVFMC) as a family nurse practitioner, where she will provide outpatient care to patients of all ages. Prior to joining SRVFMC, she was employed as a registered nurse in the Cardiovascular Stepdown Unit at Mission-St. Joseph’s Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. Warne earned a master’s degree in nursing, family nurse practitioner from Western Carolina University and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Binghamton University.

BRITTANY GANDY, M.D., has joined St. Joseph’s Health Family Medicine in Liverpool. She began her residency at St. Joseph’s family medicine practice in 2017 and was promoted to chief resident in 2019. Prior to joining St. Joseph’s Health, she earned her doctorate of medicine from Ross University in Portsmouth, Dominica and her bachelor’s degree in integrative physiology from University of Colorado. In 2019, Gandy also started teaching clinical skills to second-year medical students at SUNY Upstate Medical University. 

Cortland Area Audiology Clinic has hired health-care executive CLIFF CAREY. He brings nearly two decades of experience in team development and audiology operations leadership to his new position. Carey brings the team up to 12 clinical and administrative professionals in three locations, serving patients from 12 counties in Central New York and four more in northern Pennsylvania. He is a former health-care marketing executive, startup entrepreneur, and mergers-and-acquisitions specialist. He previously served as an executive business coach at a leading health-care consulting firm where he supported nearly 50 New York and New Jersey hearing-care locations successfully through the 2020 economic shutdown related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Carey will focus on solutions, growth, and development. 

MICHELLE L. WISNER has joined Security Mutual Life as second VP, reinsurance, with responsibility for the company’s reinsurance operations. She brings more than 30 years of experience in the life-insurance industry, including 13 years in reinsurance management. Wisner previously worked for Equitable, Upstate Administrative Services, Inc., and Lincoln Life & Annuity Company of New York. She earned her associate degree from Columbia College and has earned the following LOMA designations: associate, customer service; associate, reinsurance administration; and fellow, Life Management Institute. 

MATTHEW (MATT) HUDNALL has joined Preferred Mutual Insurance Company as senior VP, underwriting. He will be responsible for providing leadership and strategic vision to the underwriting function, to product-development initiatives, as well as agency-partnership development. Hudnall brings more than 20 years of underwriting-service experience, and operational and leadership knowledge with considerable time in commercial-lines underwriting. Most recently, he was VP of small commercial new business underwriting at the Hanover Insurance Group, in addition to holding several leadership roles in underwriting services with several national carriers. 

Bousquet Holstein PLLC announced that JEFFREY C. FASOLDT, JR. has been admitted to practice law in New York state and is now an associate attorney in the firm’s real estate practice group. Prior to joining the firm, he participated in the firm’s summer associate program, following his second year of law school, where he assisted with a variety of complex real estate and land-use matters. Fasoldt graduated from Syracuse University College of Law in 2020. During his time in law school, he served as a research assistant to Professor Robin Paul Malloy, focusing on the interactions of land use, real estate, and disability law. Fasoldt also worked as a judicial intern for the Honorable David N. Hurd in U.S. District Court. Fasoldt received his undergraduate degree from St. Bonaventure University. 

Drive Research, a market-research firm based in the Syracuse area, has promoted EMILY TAYLOR to project manager. In this role, she will manage research projects for the company, assist with the design and development of methodologies, create research instruments, oversee fieldwork, and play a major role in analyzing data to develop actionable research reports. Taylor joined the company in 2017 as a research analyst and has quickly risen to this supervisory role.

ASHLEY REYNOLDS has joined Drive Research as a recruitment manager. In his role, she will play an integral part in managing client projects and taking a lead in recruiting people to participate in the company’s qualitative-research studies.