February 16, 2026

People in Business: Feb. 16, 2026 – Christa Douaihy & Krista Ellis

BY MassLive

Two attorneys at Community Legal Aid, a nonprofit organization that provides free legal services annually to over 9,000 low-income and elderly households in Central and Western Massachusetts, have been recognized.

Christa Douaihy

Krista Ellis

Christa Douaihy, coordinating attorney for Community Legal Aid’s Housing Unit, was recognized by Mass. Lawyers Weekly as one of the 2025 “Top Women of Law.”

Douaihy joined Community Legal Aid in 2022 as a experienced litigator in New York and Massachusetts. She began her career in 2008 at Legal Services of the Hudson Valley, where she advocated for the civil rights of people with disabilities in cases involving housing, employment, and family law. She went on to hone her legal expertise as a civil litigator and disability rights advocate at The Bronx Defenders and in private practice. She is the coordinating attorney in Community Legal Aid’s Fair Housing Unit. She serves as an adjunct professor at Western New England School of Law, where she teaches the Access to Justice course.

Community Legal Aid Coordinating Attorney Krista Ellis was honored by the Women’s Bar Association at the organization’s 2025 gala with the Emerging Women Leaders in the Law Award . A graduate of American University Washington College of Law, Ellis has worked in Community Legal Aid’s Family Law Unit since 2019. She also recently graduated from the Massachusetts Bar Association’s 2024-2025 Leadership Academy.

Douaihy and Ellis are based in Community Legal Aid’s Springfield office and represent clients primarily in Western Massachusetts.

The Greenfield Community College Foundation welcomed new members to its Board of Directors while honoring four members who completed their six-year terms of service.

Departing members Deb Berryere (president), Ann Barker (vice president), Jacqui Zuzgo and Savitri Rambissoon were recognized.

The board elected James Fitzgerald as President and Jane Wolfe as Vice President. Fitzgerald and Wolfe both joined the board in 2023.

The foundation also welcomed four new members:

Tim Grader, a real estate investor, broker, and property manager, is the owner of Cohn & Company Real Estate and Stillwater Real Estate Services and a Greenfield Community College alumnus.

Colleen Kucinski, executive director of The Literacy Project, has spent more than 25 years advancing educational access through leadership in higher education and philanthropy, including 18 years at Greenfield Community College and eight years at the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts.

Hannah Rechtschaffen is executive director of the Greenfield Business Association. Her background includes strategic roles with W.D. Cowls and the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation.

Mary Siano, a social worker and civic leader, has served on local boards and committees including the Greenfield School Committee, the Community Health Center of Franklin County, The Literacy Project and the League of Women Voters of the Greenfield Area. She is a longtime GCC volunteer and Annual Campaign co-chair.

MountainOne announces the appointment of Brett Brbovic as senior vice president and chief financial officer of MountainOne Financial, MHC and its subsidiary, MountainOne Bank. Brbovic will join the leadership team operating from the company’s headquarters in North Adams.

Brbovic joins MountainOne with more than 18 years of experience in the financial services industry. He most recently served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Berkshire Bank and its parent company, Berkshire Hills Bancorp.

Brbovic succeeds Steve Owens, who has announced his retirement following a 14-year tenure as chief financial officer, chief operating officer and chief information officer.