MICHAEL KUDARAUSKAS has joined Crown Risk Management, LLC as VP of legal affairs and claims. He previously founded the workers’-compensation defense law firm of Wolff, Goodrich & Goldman, LLP in 1997 and left his practice as senior partner after 25 years of providing legal representation and guidance to employers, municipalities, insurance carriers, third-party administrators, and insurance agencies on all workers’-compensation and various employment-law issues. In his new role at Crown Risk Management, Kudarauskas will directly service employers in all aspects of workers’-compensation claim prevention, loss investigations, and claim management. He will also continue Crown Risk’s vision of providing sound employee-benefit programs, health-insurance plans, qualified retirement plans, and property and casualty programs to employers across the U.S.

Nascentia Health recently added five new staff members to its CNY workforce.

CHRISTINE KINTER, RN, has joined Nascentia’s Rome office at The Beeches as a care manager. She supports the organization’s managed long-term care plan and is also an on-call nurse for patients in Oneida County. Kinter is a registered nurse with 10 years of experience. She received a nursing degree from SUNY Morrisville and is currently completing a bachelor’s degree from Utica University.

KURT SCHOTT has come aboard as a data analyst in Nascentia’s Syracuse headquarters. He works with its reporting and analytics team to assure accuracy with mandatory reporting data. Schott previously spent more than 25 years with KS&R, working on all aspects of programming, management, and preparation of sampling and survey data for reporting. He is a graduate of Onondaga Community College.

ALANI TSOUVAS comes to Nascentia as a credentialling and contract-management specialist. She is responsible for organizing, maintaining, and verifying all aspects of the credentialing process with medical providers in the organization’s insurance plans. Tsouvas previously worked at Van Rensselaer Manor. She is a graduate of SUNY Morrisville.

LYNN VECCHIO has joined as a claims-support specialist. She responds to inquiries related to coverage and payment for Medicare and Medicaid plans and ensures claims are processed properly. Vecchio has experience as a fraud analyst and claims specialist with other health-care providers.

JULIA ROBERT has come aboard as executive assistant to Nascentia’s chief administrative officer. She previously worked for Christopher Community, Inc, in the development department, assisting with grant management and reporting. Robert is a graduate of Le Moyne College. 

SHALOM C. SIMMONS has been named the new director of medical/surgical & patient care services at Finger Lakes Health. She has more than 20 years of health-care experience. Most recently, Simmons served as administrative nurse manager, for general surgery and the surgical step-down unit at Montefiore Health System Moses Campus, in Brooklyn. There, she was responsible for the professional practice of nursing and the delivery of patient care on a 22-bed unit and a 15-step down bed unit with 86 personnel, and fiscal responsibility for an annual budget of $9.1 million. Simmons earned her master’s degree in nursing administration from New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing in New York City and recently earned her post-master’s certificate as an acute-care nurse practitioner from the same institution. She earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Stony Brook University. In addition, Simmons earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Barnard M. Baruch College in New York City. 

Goldberg Segalla has added SAMANTHA M. MCDERMOTT to the firm’s Global Insurance Services group in Syracuse. McDermott focuses her practice on complex coverage matters and insurance-coverage litigation across New York state. She draws on experience as a law clerk at an international insurance company, where she researched, drafted memoranda, and created multi-jurisdictional surveys on various topics involving insurance coverage, cybersecurity, and employment and labor matters. McDermott earned her bachelor’s degree from Le Moyne College and her law degree from the William & Mary Law School.

JANA ROSINSKI has joined Syracuse University Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) as instruction and education librarian. In this newly created position, Rosinski will lead SCRC’s instruction and education program, supporting primary source teaching and engaging in the Syracuse University Libraries’ information-literacy initiatives. SCRC’s instruction program is the university’s hub for student engagement with primary sources. In her role as SCRC curatorial assistant since 2019, Rosinski drew from interdisciplinary experience teaching with primary source materials while providing the opportunity to engage with students, faculty, and visitors within SCRC’s programming, instruction, and exhibitions. This newly envisioned position furthers SCRC’s commitment to a reparative framework in primary source teaching and instruction and will enable Rosinski to lead SCRC’s instruction and educational program, in line with the Syracuse University Libraries’ information-literacy initiatives and current primary source literacy strategies, to better meet the needs of all participants. Rosinski holds a master’s degree in writing studies from Eastern Michigan University and is completing a doctorate degree in philosophy in the composition and cultural rhetorics program at Syracuse University. Rosinski has held research fellowships at the Strong National Museum of Play and the Digital Studies Center at Rutgers University-Camden. Outside of SCRC, Rosinski has supported students through positions in the University Writing Center, the Graduate Editing Center, and as a graduate instructor in the Writing Studies, Rhetoric and Composition Program. 

Webucator, Inc., which provides onsite and online training in a variety of technologies and business topics, recently appointed BRIAN P. HOKE as CEO, effective Jan. 24. He succeeded Dave Dunn, who will remain with the company for several months to assist in the leadership transition and will remain indefinitely in an advisory role. Hoke was formerly principal of Bentley & Hoke, LLC, a web-development consultancy in Fayetteville, that he formed in 2000 and has managed since then. Local clients for which the company provides website development, design, and marketing consulting services include ACR Health, The C&S Companies, Colden Corporation, Manlius Pebble Hill School, Onondaga County, Syracuse Hancock International Airport, Upstate Venture Connect, and many others. Bentley & Hoke’s client work will be managed by Hoke and a team at Webucator. Founder Nat Dunn started Webucator in 2003; his brother Dave Dunn began as CEO in 2009. Together they have led the company through almost two decades of steady growth, expanding the variety of training topics, delivery methods, and number of companies and students served. Prior to founding Bentley Hoke in 2000, Hoke served as teacher, dean of students, director of technology, and chair of the Computer and Information Science Department at Manlius Pebble Hill School, a Pre-K-12 independent day school. Hoke previously taught at Institut auf dem Rosenberg, an international boarding school in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Hoke holds degrees from Hamilton and Dartmouth Colleges. Since its establishment in 2003, Webucator has trained more than 84,000 students from over 15,000 organizations, including over 70 percent of the Fortune 100 companies. Webucator delivers training online and in person, through instructor-led live and self-paced classes.