Ellen Kennedy Reflects on Past, Future of BCC Before Retirement

President Ellen Kennedy last year at a certification ceremony.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — President Ellen Kennedy feels Berkshire Community College is in a good place to welcome new leadership. 

She will retire at the end of the school year after more than 17 years with the college, 14 as president, and looks back on the students, faculty, and campus as a whole with pride. 

"Our faculty is extraordinary. Our administrators and staff are just exceptional. Our students are so special, so committed to their own learning and their own growth as people and in pursuit of their own goals, it's just really exciting," she said recently.

"We have an excellent board of trustees. We have an excellent foundation. I mean, we're just in such a good place right now, and I feel like it's the right moment." 

Kennedy praised the climate and culture BCC has worked to create, explaining, "I think I love the way we are able to empower people to bring their good ideas forward and then to see them be put in place." 

Earlier this year, BCC was designated as a Leader College by Achieving the Dream, a national non-profit focused on student success and community economic mobility.

The college's enrollment is up 20 percent this year, and Kennedy said the state's tuition coverage for all 15 community colleges has been a game-changer for Berkshire County.  BCC's nursing program has also doubled in size. 

"And that took everyone's commitment. It's not just me," she said about the nursing program's expansion over the years, underscoring the work of department leaders. 

Kennedy is the college's second-longest serving president. She was tapped to lead the state's first community college on the departure of Paul Raverta, who was interim and president for seven years. She was the school's vice president of administration and finance and chief financial officer prior to being picked as interim president, then was selected by the trustees from 38 applicants to continue in the role. 

The board of trustees will lead a search for the new president. 

"I just know this place, this college, will attract really excellent candidates, because it's just a really special place, frankly," Kennedy said. 

"So I'm not at all worried about what comes next." 

WWII Veteran Reflects on D-Day at VFW Post Induction

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:25PM / Saturday, June 06, 2026

The members in the picture are Bret Miller, Coast Guard, Desert Storm; Hank Morris, Army, Vietnam; Brad Havill, Navy, Global War on Terror; VFW Post 448 Vice Cmdr. Mark Pompi, Army, Global War on Terrorism, Afghanistan; Post Cmdr. Arnold Perras, Korea; Joe Difillipo, Army, Vietnam; Teri Billington, Navy, Desert Storm; and Carmen Ostrander, Air Force, Afghanistan.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Anthony Salatino Jr. says his memory is getting a little foggy about his time in the Army. 

But he remembers how terrible D-Day was, and feeling lucky he wasn't among those in the initial invasion force 82 years ago. 

 

"One of the most horrible things was in Normandy. We went shortly after D-Day. I got lucky, very lucky on D-Day. We went to a staging area the night before … and at the very end, somebody called, I was in headquarters, they called all the headquarters personnel at the center," the 103-year-old said. "We did not go. There's about 30 of us. The rest of the battalion was gone, and the reason for that was because there was another battalion coming from the States, and they had no headquarters. 

 

"We stayed back, but we did go to Normandy shortly after that, and when we went to Normandy, it was all over."

 

Salatino was attending an induction ceremony on Thursday at the Lt. John N. Truden VFW Post 448. Joseph Texidor, who served in the Army for 17 years with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was sworn in as the post's newest member. 

 

Salatino served in the Medical Corps and wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, a World War I veteran wounded at Verdun. Salatino was in the Army for about three years.

 

"The whole memory is what I just told you, very, very alive to me," he said. "That is, I can never forget, never forget that."

 

D-Day on June 6, 1944, was the start of Operation Overlord, and the largest invading force to cross the English Channel since 1066. Their goal: to liberate Europe from Nazi Germany.