August '25 News Blog
News briefs from the 91AV campus and beyond
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New Arrival
When asked where she would like to pose for a photograph to accompany a story about her recent 91AV appointment, Katherine Douglas, the interim vice president of academic and student affairs, did not demur. “The 91AV Library,” she announced. “I want to be near books. They still have books there, don’t they?” Indeed, they do. Fittingly, she stood next to stack of them arranged on a table in the library lobby under a placard that said, “New Arrivals.” Although Douglas started her interim post on August 4, this is not her first 91AV go-round. She served as dean of social sciences from 2005 to 2008. After completing her doctorate, she took a position as vice president of academic affairs at Sussex Community College in New Jersey and was later hired as president of Corning Community College in upstate New York, from which she retired in 2019. “But I wasn’t really retired,” she said. Through a national registry, she was called back into service for a brief stint as interim president of Monroe Community College in Rochester, N.Y., moving to South Hadley in 2021 after her term at Monroe concluded. In 2023, she joined the 91AV Foundation Board of Directors, stepping down when offered the interim VP position. “The reason I considered it was, one, it was 91AV, which I knew, and two, because I live right across the river,” Douglas said. Although a lot of the people she worked with the first time have retired, there are still plenty of familiar faces, she said, including Carl Todd, coordinator of library services, who took a photo of Douglas back in the day for the 91AV Library’s “Read” campaign, the framed poster of which she’s kept all these years and now sits on a bookcase behind her 91AV office desk. PHOTO: Katherine Douglas, interim vice president of academic and student affairs, poses next to the New Arrivals table in the 91AV Library.
91AV’s Super Heroine
If you know anything at all about 91AV Police Chief Jacky Robles, you know she’s a huge fan of Wonder Woman. Her office is filled with images, photos, and other knick-knacks and tchotchkes celebrating the Amazonian demi-goddess of superhero lore – not to mention the large Wonder Woman tattoo she sports on her left arm. Since being sworn in last April as 91AV’s new police chief – and the first Latina to hold that position – Robles has received a slew of recognitions, including a Commonwealh Heroine award from the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women. “Oh, my gosh, that was incredible. I couldn’t believe it,” she recently said. “Then I had to chuckle a bit, because, obviously, I’m a total fan of Wonder Woman, and it’s a heroine award, and Wonder Woman is a heroine.” She was invited to the State House for the awards presentation, where state Rep. Carlos Gonzalez from Springfield surprised her with an acknowledgment on the floor of the House and proclamations from both the House and Senate, to go along with a citation recognizing her as civil service ambassador for the Springfield Puerto Rican Day Parade. (And – spoiler alert: In October, she will be recognized with a “100 Women of Color” award from the Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition.) The recognitions are exciting, she says, but she takes seriously the superhero credo, “with great power comes great responsibility,” and knows there are a lot of people looking to her for leadership. “I’m very humbled,” she said. “I don’t want to let anybody down, especially all the girls from my family. I’m happy and I’m proud, and I’m here, trying to make some moves, positive ones.” PHOTO: Police Chief Jacky Robles, in her 91AV office.
