TAMIKA OTIS has been named corporate responsibility officer and community relations manager at KeyBank for its Central New York market. She will be based in Syracuse. Otis has more than 15 years of leadership and program-management experience and will oversee KeyBank’s broad community engagement strategy. This includes Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) compliance and execution of KeyBank’s National Community Benefits Plan in Central New York. Since 2017, KeyBank has invested more than $284 million in its Central New York market through this plan, supporting small business and home lending in low- and-moderate income communities, affordable housing and community development projects, and philanthropic efforts targeted toward education, workforce development, and safe, vital neighborhoods. Most recently, Otis served as director of the KeyBank Business Boost & Build Program, powered by JumpStart. The initiative was designed to stimulate economic growth and workforce development by fostering small-business success. As director, she exceeded all of KeyBank’s established performance metrics for the four-year program in just three years. Also during her time at Jumpstart, Otis managed and executed grant funds across four upstate New York markets during the COVID-19 pandemic, deploying capital to 128 small and under-resourced business owners.

ALICE CHENEY has been promoted to relationship manager at Key Private Bank in Syracuse. In her new role, she will continue to enhance client relationships and provide financial guidance to help them meet their goals, while also working to develop new business. Prior to her promotion, Cheney worked in various roles, including 10 years with Key Private Bank and will be celebrating 20 years with KeyBank later this year. A Central New York native, Cheney graduated from Alfred State College.

CALEB HAYDEN has joined Ryan Biggs | Clark Davis Engineering & Surveying, D.P.C. — a firm specializing in structural engineering and land surveying in Skaneateles Falls — as structural design engineer. He will assist in the design and investigation of educational, municipal, and health-care projects. Hayden is a Norwich University Corps of Cadets graduate in civil engineering. He is also an engineering officer in the New York National Guard, where he oversees a horizontal construction platoon of soldiers.

D&B Engineers and Architects — an engineering and consulting firm specializing in wastewater, water supply, hazardous waste, construction management, architecture, solid waste and civil and environmental engineering — has promoted GUNTHER J. SCHNORR to senior engineer. He joined D&B Engineers and Architects in 2019 as engineer III in the firm’s Syracuse office which services municipalities and private firms in Central and Western New York state. Schnorr has more than 10 years of environmental-engineering experience in hazardous-waste investigation, design and remediation at former manufactured-gas plant sites, utility sites, and industrial sites including residential/industrial building decommissioning and demolition. Schnorr earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental resources and forest engineering from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse.

WHITNEY SMITH, a certified physician assistant, has recently joined Carthage Pediatric Clinic at 117 N. Mechanic St. in Carthage. She has six years of pediatric experience in outpatient private practice and newborn nursery. Smith recently moved to the North Country of New York state from Fayetteville, North Carolina and originally hails from Concord, North Carolina. She completed her bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a Spanish minor from Davidson College in 2009. Smith received her master’s degree in physician-assistant studies from Methodist University in North Carolina in 2015. After completing her education, Smith began her physician-assistant career at Cross Creek Pediatrics in Fayetteville, North Carolina From there, she gained experience at Kids First Pediatrics in the same city, before moving to Northern New York. 

The Central New York Lyme & Tick-Borne Disease Alliance has hired ELIZABETH BALFOUR as its new education coordinator. Balfour was an instructional specialist with the Catholic Charities of Onondaga County and brings more than 10 years of experience working with diverse students, adults, and families across Central New York. She delivers extensive knowledge in supportive health resources, education, and counseling to clients and families, plus connections to community and government-backed programs. Balfour attended Onondaga Community College, before graduating from SUNY Cortland with a bachelor’s degree in adolescence education and English. With the Alliance, she will create and refine educational programs, opportunities and partnerships to prevent and identify tick-borne diseases. The Alliance said it was able to hire Balfour full-time thanks to grant funding from the Central New York Community Foundation and the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation.