Francis J. Farina, attorney at law and certified public accountant, was named assistant professor of business administration and accounting at Saint Michael’s College starting this fall semester. He was visiting assistant professor of accounting at Albright College in Reading, Pa., last year and has been a sole practitioner—attorney and CPA—since 1999.

He will be teaching auditing, federal taxation, and, in the spring term, accounting seminar, and in other terms, financial accounting and perhaps commercial law.

Patricia Prelock, Ph.D., has been appointed dean of the University of Vermont College of Nursing and Health Sciences, succeeding Dr. Betty Rambur.

Larry Sudbay, President and Chief Executive Officer of SymQuest® Group, Inc., is pleased to announce today that Kristin M. Dolan has been hired as a Client Support Specialist at the Burlington Office.

Dolan is a recent graduate of St. Michael’s College with a degree in English. Prior to joining SymQuest she served as an intern in Public Relations at the Emily Post Institute. Dolan’s previous employment also includes serving as a Promotional Representative for Long Trail Brewing. Dolan previously lived in the Londonderry, NH, area prior to moving to Vermont.

John “Tag” Carpenter Jr. of Shelburne has been hired by FairPoint Communications to serve as Small Business Sales Manager in Vermont managing a team of account executives. Prior to joining FairPoint, Carpenter worked for Peregrine Outfitters as Sales Manager. He has ten years of experience in the communications industry and 20 years experience in sales management. Carpenter graduated from Burlington High School and the University of Vermont and volunteers for the Keybank Vermont City Marathon Race Committee.

Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent, who earned her doctorate in religious studies from Brown University in June 2009, has been named assistant professor of religious studies at Saint Michael's College, starting this fall semester. Dr. Saint-Laurent was a junior fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library in Washington, D.C., for the 2008-2009 academic year where she researched and completed her dissertation, titled Apostolic Memories: Religious Differentiation and the Construction of Orthodoxy in Syriac Missionary Literature.

ARC Mechanical Contractors Inc. announced that Lee Parry, a Cornish, NH, resident and Travis Chamberlain, a Claremont, NH, resident, recently completed an intensive, three-day service course. The course, centered on Mitsubishi Electric’s CITY MULTI R410A system, covered specifications, system design, installation, commissioning, maintenance and troubleshooting.

Effective August 31st, Gary Band became the new editor of the Vermont Standard. He succeeds Kevin Forrest who has led the 156-year-old weekly newspapers editorial department for 30 years.

Band, 39, will be living in Hartland. A Navy veteran and 1998 honors graduate of Northeastern University, Band worked as a reporter and editor at three Massachusetts weekly newspapers. While at each of them he won recognition for his news and feature stories, columns and editorials on important issues, plus was lauded for his constant presence in the local communities he covered.

Jason Busic, who earned his doctorate in Spanish literatures and culture from The Ohio State University in June 2009, has been named assistant professor of modern languages at Saint Michael's College, starting this fall semester.