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2026 C-SUITE AWARDS B12 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER 19, 2026 Progress Means banking built for your business. Building a business demands your full focus. Every day presents new opportunities and new challenges. At Centreville Bank, we work quickly to understand your goals, provide timely answers, and deliver banking solutions tailored to your business. That's progress on purpose. C E N T R E V I L L E B A N K . C O M /SmallBusiness 8 0 0 . 3 7 7. 4 4 2 4 2 0 + L O C AT I O N S WINNER CATEGORY | N O N P R O F I T C H I E F F I N A N C I A L O F F I C E R Jennifer "Jenn" Pizzoferrato Chief Financial & Operating Officer The American School for the Deaf Size of Organization: $55 million Employees: 335 full-time; 9 part- time; 83 seasonal/per diem Education: Bachelor's degree, psychology, University of New Hampshire; graduate certificate, accounting, University of Hartford J ennifer Pizzoferrato is chief financial and operating officer of the American School for the Deaf (ASD), where she oversees finance, operations, human resources, technology, facilities, safety, residential life, admissions, risk, compliance, legal affairs, marketing, inter- preting services and capital projects. She has more than 15 years of leadership experience at ASD and works with the executive director and board on strategic planning and the school's financial and operational needs. What have been your biggest professional accomplishments over the past year? Over the past year, I advanced into the chief financial and operating officer role while helping lead signif- icant growth and transformation at ASD. I supported the expansion of autism services, including the devel- opment of a new Autism Expansion Center, while strengthening our finan- cial and operational foundation. I also led projects across capital initiatives, enterprise risk manage- ment, technology modernization, organizational restructuring and strategic planning. I am especially proud that ASD has achieved six consecutive years of clean indepen- dent financial audits while continuing to make strategic investments that expand opportunities for the students, families and communities we serve. WINNER CATEGORY | N O N P R O F I T A RT I S T I C D I R E CTO R Donna Lynn Hilton Artistic Director Goodspeed Musicals Size of Organization: $16 million Employees: 72 full-time; 300 seasonal Education: Bachelor's degree, theatre production, East Carolina University D onna Lynn Hilton is a creative producer who has spent nearly four decades helping build Goodspeed Musicals into Connecti- cut's largest producing theater and one of the nation's leading developers of new musicals. She joined Goodspeed in 1988 and is now in her sixth season as artistic director, leading the first theater in the country honored with two Tony Awards. What have been your biggest profes- sional accomplishments over the past year? My biggest professional accom- plishment of the past year was the successful world premiere of the new musical "The Snow Goose." The book by Paul Gallico was optioned by Good- speed in 2022. We commissioned Claire McKenzie and Scott Gilmour to adapt the beloved book into a musical, led development of the work and premiered it at The Goodspeed on Aug. 28, to audience and critical acclaim. I believe it is important to note that there are few theatres in the country with the capacity and commitment to undertake the world premiere of a commissioned musical of the scale of "The Snow Goose." The entire Goodspeed community – artists, staff, audience and trustees are to be commended for the work. In what ways are you involved in the community? My community work and my work at Goodspeed are one and the same. Goodspeed has been part of life in Connecticut for 150 years. Part of my work is to make sure it remains that way for the people in East Haddam and for the audiences who come to us from all 169 towns in the state, for genera- tions to come.