Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | Novermber 27, 2017 | Worcester Business Journal 11 Vote for your favorite companies in over 40 categories that include best aer-work bar, best bank for business, best advertising agency, best place for a business dinner and more! e winners will be unveiled in the January 8, 2018 edition of the Worcester Business Journal, and honored at a special networking reception following the issue in late January. Voting closes on December 1, 2017 www.wbjournal.com/BOBAwards Who are the best business-to-business companies in Central Massachusetts? BOB A W A R D S B E S T O F B U S I N E S S VOTE NOW! Presenting Sponsor Supporting Sponsor The Worcester Business Journal wants to know and is asking you to vote on the region's best B2B companies in our 5th annual Best of Business (BOB) online readers poll. W May 2017: Becker gives out its first master's degrees in mental health counseling. The program launched in 2015 as the college's first master's program. January 2018: Scheduled open- ing of the the $7.3-million Colleen C. Barrett Center for Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which will bring MassDiGI, the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute, now located in down- town Worcester, to campus. Spring 2018: A new three-year strategic plan is expected to be completed in order to help guide the college. Fall 2018: Two new programs will begin: a master's degree in fine arts in interactive media, and an exploratory program that allows first-year students to take classes in 10 different majors in just two semesters. Crimmin is overseeing a period of transition for the school with a number of academic programs and the opening of a new innovation and entrepreneurship building. Becker milestones and a doctorate in educational leader- ship from Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. She lives with her husband, Bill, on campus. They have two sons, Patrick, 21, and Jonathan, 20. The students' president Crimmin is the first woman to lead the school in almost a century, accord- ing to Becker. The last was Mary Becker, who became president when her husband, E.C.A. Becker, died. "I really see her as the students' pres- ident," said Professor Paul Cotnoir, the director of the college's 600-student design program. "We see Nancy as someone who can take the changes that Robert Johnson started and really run with them in a comprehensive way," Cotnoir added. Crimmin wants to improve the school's retention rate, which has risen to 73 percent, and its graduation rate, which is just 30 percent. "We absolutely need to increase our graduation rate," Crimmin said. The college – which costs $53,858 for residents and $40,558 for commuters this school year – is sensitive to prices for students, aiming to be at the low end of its competitors. "It is a concern," Crimmin said. "We need to be making sure that we're prov- ing that value." While Crimmin works toward those goals, she enjoys a strong support from faculty and staff, said Deitrick, the pro- fessor who is also the faculty union president. Deitrick hailed Crimmin's ability to transition from a student affairs back- ground into a larger role. "She asks a lot of questions and lis- tens carefully to what people are say- ing," he said. Crimmin takes over the presidency at a time when Becker has been making strides. When Johnson was hired in 2010, the school had recently lost its former pres- ident, chief financial officer and accounting firm, and financials were more precarious. But since then, SAT scores for incoming students, enroll- ment and the school's endowment have all spiked. The school has become more selective, and has made a name for itself with MassDiGI. "We are doing things at Becker now," Deitrick said, "that I didn't dream that we'd be doing when I got here." The Colleen C. Barrett Center for Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship will open in January, bringing the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute to campus. Crimmin replaces Robert Johnson, who left in May to become the UMass Dartmouth chancellor. He hired her at Becker as a vice president in 2012.

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