Workforce Development: Kaela Martin

03:55PM / Thursday, January 08, 2026Print Story | Email Story

Before Kaela Martin completed the Front Line Advanced Supervisor course at Berkshire Community College, she had already made smart career choices. She had landed a job as a welder fabricator at Lenco, an armored vehicle manufacturer in Pittsfield, in 2023 and was proving herself to be a valuable employee. But Kaela isn't the type of person to sit still and let her career path determine itself — or, worse, become stagnant.

"I started kind of accidentally working my way up at Lenco, just my helping my crew chief and taking on extra responsibilities. They saw potential and wanted to develop that. They wanted to give me the tools to do my job properly," Kaela said.

Lenco arranged for her to take the course at BCC, and she began working half of her time in the office and half on the shop floor.

"It was very unique position. I think it's a superpower, in a way," Kaela said. "I have respect on the team because they know I'm a fabricator and they know I understand their world, and now I also understand this world. It's helpful being able to bring the two together."

Because Kaela is always looking for ways to improve, the BCC course seemed to be a logical fit. It took a year to complete the rigorous course, which was held every Tuesday for 4-6 hours and totaled more than 150 hours. While taking the course, Kaela maintained her full-time schedule at Lenco, and those hours counted towards the technical hours required for the class. Upon completion, Kaela earned a certificate of apprenticeship and a certificate of Lean Manufacturing.

Kaela concedes that the course was challenging, but the rewards are worth it. After all, she is no stranger to hard work.

Born and raised in Sheffield, where she still lives with her family, Kaela has been around trades her whole life. She learned the value of trades from her father, who was an electrician.

"I grew up doing a lot of things with my hands. I'd be getting into trouble if I didn't have something to do," Kaela laughed.

She and her sister were homeschooled, starting at an early age, which allowed her to graduate at age 16. She experimented with different careers, including childcare, fulfillment and the medical field, before landing a job at Lenco in 2023. The company, which employs more than 100, builds armored response and rescue vehicles for police officers, firefighters and military personnel all over the world.

Currently, Kaela — whose team comprises about 20 people — is one of the leads on a major project at Lenco involving a significant equipment upgrade and a change of the layout of her entire floor.

"It can be overwhelming and stressful, but I see it as growing pains," Kaela said. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that BCC class. It gave me the tools to approach this position."

A big part of what Kaela learned in the Front Line Advanced Supervisor course, she said, is how to identify an issue before it happens — and how to learn from your mistakes.

"Having a project or an idea that fails means not just scrapping it, but identifying what went wrong and fixing it," she said. "It's important to include your operators, your fabricators, the people out on the floor who actually do the work, in your process. It's their home. We don't want to just go out there and change things. We want them to be a part of it. They're going to have some of the best insights you could possibly get."

This process can be the difference between project failure and success, she said.

"You have to be able to pick up the scraps of what didn't work and shape them, rather than just being defeated, but you also have to mentally prepare for when things go wrong. It can be frustrating when a project doesn't get completed," Kaela added. "We learned a lot of techniques and tools in the class for planning out a project and then adapting, changing and reinforcing as you go."

On a typical workday, Kaela spends some work time on her own, some with her project team and some with her crew chief. She makes sure to spend time out on the floor, talking to as many people as she can.

"A big part of what I do, no matter what it is, is that it always has to do with people. I see my coworkers more than I see my family. I love my team so much," she said. "So, to be able to walk around and have those conversations gives us that relationship where if something goes wrong, they're going to tell me. I try to make life better for the team. It's a balance between process improvement and teambuilding."

Before taking the Front Line Advanced Supervisor course, Kaela had already been introduced to BCC. Following completion of her high school homeschooling, she took Bio 101 with BCC professor Gina Foley, an experience she calls "awesome."

"I wanted to take a college class just to see if I could do it. It was such a positive experience," said Kaela, who did well on the placement test but notes the importance of having free tutoring available for those students who don't pass the test. She also praises BCC for filling valuable workforce needs.

"The best thing is just knowing that BCC is supporting and advertising the trades. Trades is such a fantastic option, but it's not taught as much in schools. It's not offered as an equal option to traditional college," she said. "If more people knew that, there would be so many more people going into the trades."

As for Kaela, she plans to keep learning and growing at Lenco.

"If I'm stagnant, I get bored. Being in a position like this at Lenco is challenging, but it's a good thing for me," she said. "I'm going to continue to develop my skills and to never say no to new opportunities, even if I think they don't align with my goals. You never know where it's going to take you."

And, while her work can be challenging, Kaela said, the rewards are tangible.

"We've had police officers come in and tell us stories or show us body cam footage of them using our trucks, and they say, 'What you're doing here saves lives. I'm home with my family and talking to you now because of you,' Kaela said. "That keeps you going. It feels good."

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BRPC Exec Search Panel Picks Brennan

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:11AM / Thursday, March 12, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Executive Director Search Committee voted Wednesday to move both finalists to the full Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, with a recommendation that Laura Brennan was the preferred candidate.

Brennan, BRPC's assistant director, and Jason Zogg were interviewed by the committee on Saturday.

Brennan is also the economic development program manager for the BRPC. She has been in the role since July 2023 but has been with BRPC since 2017, first serving as the senior planner of economic development.

She earned her bachelor's degree from Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania and earned a graduate-level certificate in local government leadership and management from Suffolk University.

Zogg is vice president of place and transportation for Tysons Community Alliance, a nonprofit that is committed to transforming Tysons, Va., into a more attractive urban center.

He previously was the director of planning, design, and construction at Georgetown Heritage in Virginia, where he directed the reimagining of Georgetown's C&O Canal National Historic Park.

They each had 45 minutes to answer a series of questions on Saturday, and the search committee said they were both great candidates. Meeting virtually on Wednesday, the members discussed which they preferred.

"In my own personal opinion, I think both candidates could do the job and actually had different skills. But I do favor Laura, because she can hit the ground running and with the time we have now, I think she is very familiar with the organization and its strengths and weaknesses and where we go from here," said Malcolm Fick.

"I would concur with Malcolm, especially because she was the only candidate who could speak directly to what's currently going on in the Berkshires, and really had a handle on every aspect of what BRPC does, could use examples, and showed that she actually understood the demographic information when that information was clearly available on the BRPC website, and through other means, and she was the only candidate who was able to integrate our regional data, our regional demographics, into her answers, and so I find her more highly qualified," said Marybeth Mitts.

Brennan was able to discus the comprehensive regional strategy the BRPC has worked on for Berkshire County and said she made sure they included voices from all over the region instead of what she referred to as the "usual suspects."

"That was an enormous priority of ours to make sure that the outreach that we did and the input that we gathered was not from only the usual suspects, but community groups that were emerging in a lot of different corners of the region and with a lot of different missions of their own, and try to encompass and embrace as many voices as we could in that," Brennan said in her interview.

Member Sheila Irvin said she liked Brennan’s knowledge of Berkshires Tomorrow Inc.

"I think that her knowledge of the BTI, for example, was important, because that's going to play a role in the questioning that we did on funding. And she had some interesting insights, I think on how to use that," said Irvin. "And in addition, I just thought her style was important.

"She didn't need to rush into an answer. She was willing to take a minute to think about how she wanted to move on and she did."

In her interview, Brennan was asked her plans to help expand funding opportunities since the financial structure is mainly grants and the government has recently been withdrawing some interest.

"With Berkshires Tomorrow already established, I would like to see us take a closer look at that and find ways to refine its statement of purpose, to develop a mission statement, to look at ways that that mechanism can help to diversify revenue," she said. "I think, that we have over the last several years, particularly with pandemic response efforts, had our movement to the potential of Berkshire's Tomorrow as a tool that we should be using more, and so I would like to see that be a big part of how we handle the volatility of government funding."

Member John Duval said she has excelled in her role over the years.

"Laura just rose above every other candidate through her preliminary interview and her final interview, she's been the assistant executive director for maybe a couple of years and definitely had that experience, and also being part of this BRPC, over several years, have seen what she's capable of doing, what she's accomplished, and embedded in meetings and settings where I've seen how she's responded to questions, presented information, and also had to deal with some tough customers sometimes when she came up to Adams," said Duval.

"She's done an excellent job, and then in the interviews she's just calm and thought through her answers and just rose above everyone else."

Buck Donovan said he respected all those who applied and said Zogg is a strong candidate.

"I think both and all candidates were very strong, two we ended up were extremely strong," he said. "Jason, I liked his charisma and his way. I really could tell that there was some goals and targets and that's kind of my life."

The full commission will meet on Thursday, March 19, to vote on the replacement of retiring Executive Director Thomas Matuszko.

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