Cassidy is a force at Fallon & in the community

PHOTO/MATT WRIGHT Christine Cassidy, chief communications officer for Fallon Health in Worcester

Write a Comment

By Grant Welker

2019 Outstanding Women in Business Award winners

Christine Cassidy Chief communications officer of Fallon Health in Worcester
Linda T. Cammuso Owner & partner of Estate Preservation Law Offices in Worcester
Tameryn A. Campbell President & CEO of Masonic Health System of MA Inc. & The Overlook in Charlton
Lori Fontaine Vice president of global clinical affairs for Hologic, Inc. in Marlborough
Rita Kapur Vice president of operations for Atech Turbine Components, Inc., Auburn
Kate Shamsuddin Senior vice president for product strategy at Definitive Healthcare in Framingham

Christine Cassidy’s first experience with college would make her a very unlikely candidate to one day chair a college board of trustees. But Cassidy’s second go-around at college ended up making her a great fit on Becker College’s board.

Cassidy graduated from the Worcester school in 2014, long after she established a career and raised two children.

“When you go back as an untraditional student, it’s so different,” said Nancy Crimmin, who, as Becker’s president, calls Cassidy her boss. “You’re taking the conscious choice to do this.”

Chairing Becker’s board is one of a few ways Cassidy has established herself in the Worcester community. She serves on the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce board and the United Way of Central Massachusetts’ Women’s Initiative Leadership Council. She had served on the board of Girls Inc.

“It’s always been in me to some extent to want to help others,” Cassidy said. “When you can help, how can you not?”

Cassidy, who grew up in Southern Connecticut and Western Massachusetts, lasted just a year in college on her first try. She got an entry-level job in claims approval at the Boston offices of the insurer John Hancock, before working her way up over 15 years.

“I found opportunities to take advantage of,” Cassidy said.

After her division was sold off, Cassidy took the occasion to spend more time with her kids, who were 8 and 6. A part-time gig writing for her hometown Lancaster Times newspaper evolved into an editing role for that former publication and the now-defunct North County Family & Health magazine.

By 2002, Cassidy replied to a help-wanted ad for a copy writer for Fallon, and found it to be a good fit for both her experience – as well as a right-size fit between the mammoth John Hancock and the small media outlets.

Cassidy now oversees Fallon’s communications, marketing, brand management, and public, community and government relations. She led Fallon’s 2014 rebranding campaign.

In 2017, Cassidy’s work both in and out of Fallon earned her the Katharine F. Erskine Award from the YWCA of Central Massachusetts. Cassidy, who was a Girl Scout as a kid, has found a special pride in helping younger women and girls, who she said can be a vulnerable population and still be overlooked in their careers for promotions or suffer pay gaps compared to male colleagues.

Today, it’s Cassidy’s role as Becker’s trustees chair that puts her in the most prominent position, at least outside her day job. Five years after finishing night and online classes to earn her degree in business administration, she is helping the 1,700-student school best prepare for a changing higher education landscape.

“They’re doing great in serving the future of the college,” Cassidy said of Becker’s leadership. “They will rely on all the great things they’re doing.”

Crimmin said Cassidy’s dedication to the college in cases such as eagerly meeting with students, being quick to reach out to the president in the event of an issue, or traveling repeatedly to Haiti to help with the Be Like Brit Foundation, an orphanage in Haiti named after the daughter of a Becker alumnus, Leonard Gengel, who died in the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

Cassidy’s mid-career return to college has inspired others at Fallon to do the same, Crimmin said.

“She has an amazing reputation,” Crimmin said.