JOSEPH CICCI has started as CEO of Javelin Strategic Consultants, LLC. The firm primarily delivers executive-level assistance to smaller businesses that may not have the personnel, capacity, or funding to have these positions filled in-house. Cicci previously worked at Case Supply as executive VP for the last 30 years. Cicci executes business development through the unique perspective of buyer and seller and generates revenue through strategic alliances. He is a relationship-focused partner and manager who strives for process improvement through team collaboration. Career highlights include securing an exclusive vendor agreement with Home Depot and incrementally adjusting prices to achieve highest margin in category in 56 locations with more than $5 million in revenue. He created a large portfolio of university-area properties/student housing with no out-of-pocket expenses, generating a multimillion-dollar portfolio sale to Unidwell, a division of Davis Marcus Partners, LLC. Cicci has been appointed to several positions, including Society of Industry Leaders through Guidepoint Global, Onondaga County Executive Board, Syracuse Mets AAA baseball team Advisory Committee, Embassy Group, LTD Officer, Syracuse University Connective Corridor, and Near West Side Initiative. He also managed a multi-location distribution company with more than $20.7 million in annual sales and 125 direct reports. Cicci holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Hobart & William Smith Colleges. 

KEVIN DRUMM, president of SUNY Broome Community College, has been appointed  co-chair of the Southern Tier Regional Economic Development Council (STREDC). Drumm joins Judy McKinney Cherry, executive director of the Schuyler County Partnership for Economic Development (SCOPED), as council co-chairs. Drumm succeeds Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger, who had served in the role since 2013. The STREDC is “working to grow the economy” in the eight-county Southern Tier region that includes Broome, Tioga, Chenango, Delaware, Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, and Tompkins counties.

SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) has appointed MARK MONTGOMERY as its chief diversity officer to deploy strategic and sustained approaches for the institution’s students, faculty, and staff. He is scheduled to join SUNY Poly July 1, in advance of the class of 2024’s orientation. This will also allow him to fulfill his current role at Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC), where he currently serves as dean of the School of Public and Human Services. Montgomery earned his associate degree in human services from MVCC. In 2000, he received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from SUNY Poly. Montgomery continued his education at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine, where he earned a master’s degree in education with a focus in academic motivation, specifically related to inmates. He received his Ph.D. in education in February 2014, focusing on how systemic influences impact student motivation and performance. In 2015, Montgomery began providing workshops in elementary schools and high schools to train teachers, administrators, and others to motivate students across cultural lines. He was nominated for the SUNY Chancellor’s Award in 2009 for excellence in service and in 2015 received the Outstanding Community Service Award from the Mohawk Valley Frontiers. A survivor of sarcoidosis, a pulmonary disease, Montgomery, along with his wife, Lisa, founded, “Joseph’s Experience,” a nonprofit which supports children who suffer from diseases, including cancer and leukemia. In 2017, he was named the Friend of Children of the year for his efforts serving these children. In August of that year, he finished a bicycle ride through all 62 counties in New York state in honor of those who suffer. In 2019, he biked across the Edmond Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to honor his parents and African American history. Most recently, in 2019, he received the NYS Commendation for lasting contribution to community. 

CHRIS FORSTER, associate professor of English at Syracuse University, recently received the prestigious New Directions Fellowship from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. He is the first Syracuse University faculty member to receive this award, which allows faculty members in the humanities and humanistic social sciences to pursue training outside their own areas of special interest. The program seeks to enable humanities scholars to delve deeply into problems that interest them the most. The $149,000 award will allow Forster to broaden his skills as a computer programmer and translate that knowledge to his work with digital humanities. Digital humanities is an emerging field that involves using computational tools for the analysis of humanities disciplines such as history, art, philosophy, and literature. Under the Mellon New Directions Fellowship, Forster will master software and programming languages, which will allow him to better develop arguments about texts from a statistical perspective. By extending his skills as a computer programmer, Forster will be able to enter emerging debates about how large text databases are reshaping the understanding of literature and its history. He will apply this first-hand technical knowledge with his students in the new Digital Humanities Integrated Learning Major (ILM). The ILM, which Forster helped to develop (and which he currently directs), allows students to creatively, critically, and ethically explore the impact of digital technology. 

MARGARET DRUGOVICH, Hartwick College president, has been elected vice chair of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU). The CICU held the election during a recent organizational board meeting, which also included the election of a new board chair and seven trustees. The vice-chair position has a one-year term, but the CICU board has the option to renew the term. Drugovich takes over after serving as CICU treasurer and chair of its finance and administrative committee. She succeeds Adelphi University President Chris Riordan, who was named the CICU’s new board chair. As vice chair, Drugovich is a member of the CICU executive committee and works with the chair to provide “oversight, guidance, and policy direction” for the organization, which says it serves as the “collective voice” for private, nonprofit higher education in New York state. She will preside over all CICU board meetings in the absence of the board chair.