Office Hours

Monday through Friday
8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

RELATED LINKS

Meet the Staff



Administration

Scot Bemis
Vice President for Human Resources
781-736-4464
bemis@brandeis.edu

Bachelor of science, business administration, Norwich University
Master of business administration, Yale University’s School of Management

Primary responsibilities:

  • Oversees staff, budget and operations of the Office of Human Resources
  • Administers the university’s comprehensive human-resource programs and services
  • Plans and manages programs for positive employee relations
  • Implements and enforces wide range of personnel policies and procedures
  • Oversees recruitment, staffing and retention for all nonfaculty positions
  • Negotiates collective-bargaining agreements
  • Administers unemployment insurance and workers compensation; staff and union grievances; and staff performance-evaluation program
  • Plans and implements university-wide training and development program
  • Manages the university's Office of Equal Employment Opportunity

Joan Vachon
Executive Administrator
781-736-4464
jvachon@brandeis.edu

Primary responsibilities:

  • Provides administrative support for the vice president
  • Acts as a primary liaison between vice president’s office and all levels of the organization
  • Communicates and collaborates with various internal administrative departments and outside vendors on a variety of issues and events
  • Monitors the office’s budget and other information-systems data
  • Ensures the smooth functioning of the human resources office

Benefits

Michelle Scichilone
Assistant Vice President for Human Resources
781-736-4468
mscich@brandeis.edu

Primary responsibilities:

  • Manages the university's benefits programs
  • Ensures compliance with government regulations related to the various benefit plans
  • Analyzes the impact of legislative or regulatory changes on our benefit programs and processes
  • Develops and implements changes to comply with changes in regulations or business requirements
  • Manages vendor and brokerage relationships, including administration, service and performance
  • Negotiates rates, services and benefits
  • Makes recommendations on policy changes, as appropriate
  • Administers Faculty FMLA policy in coordination with the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences
  • Serves as university’s privacy officer for staff and faculty

Derek Gregoire
Senior Benefits Specialist
781-736-4459
gregoire@brandeis.edu

Primary responsibilities:

  • Administers the university’s 403(b) retirement plan
  • Provides counseling to employees regarding the various plan benefits and investment options
  • Arranges retirement plan education workshops and individual counseling with vendors
  • Administers the FMLA leave policy for staff, which includes counseling employees and manager of their eligibility and benefits under the policy
  • Conducts benefits orientation for faculty and staff

Nadynne Stamps
Senior Benefits Coordinator
781-736-4467
stamps@brandeis.edu

Primary responsibilities:

  • Administers health and dental insurance plans
  • Oversees COBRA notification process with university's third-party vendor
  • Monitors and collects HIRD forms for employees who are eligible for but waive health coverage

Ryan D. Gill
Benefits Coordinator
781-736-4468
rdgill@brandeis.edu

Primary responsibilities:

  • Administers university’s tuition-remission programs
  • Administers life and long-term disability insurance plans
  • Administers health and dependent-care reimbursement accounts

Patricia Diruscio
Human Resource Specialist
781-736-4402
diruscio@brandeis.edu

Primary responsibilities:

  • Administers university's workers-compensation program
  • Assists in the administration of staff FMLA leave process

Back to top 

Employee Relations and Employment

Mary E. Scott
Director of Employment and Employee Relations
(781) 736-4456
mscott@brandeis.edu

Bachelor's degree, Boston College School of Education
Master of divinity, Episcopal Divinity School
Law degree, Western New England College, School of Law

Primary responsibilities:

  • Assists with staff recruitment and managing the employment relationship
  • Administers university policies and works with managers and employees who need guidance on routine or unusual circumstances
  • Provides support on complex issues involving workforce planning, supervisor-employee conflicts, performance management and appraisal, compensation-related concerns, harassment and discrimination complaints, employee disability accommodations, corrective action plans, grievance administration and organizational development
  • Assists with maintaining positive employee relations by helping managers to establish expectations and responsibilities of employee performance while ensuring the rights of all employees to fair employment
  • Participates in collective bargaining and grievance resolution with the union organized workforce
  • Makes recommendations on policy changes, as appropriate
Cynthia J. Holden
Senior Employee Relations and Employment Specialist
(781) 736-4470
cjholden@brandeis.edu

Bachelor's degree, Cornell University
Master of business administration, Babson College
Certified Human Resources Professional

Primary responsibilities:

  • Recruits professional and hourly staff
  • Assists with screening and interviewing candidates
  • Helps managers with writing job descriptions, developing new positions and identifying appropriate sources for recruiting
  • Advises managers and staff on the administration of university policies, performance appraisal and conflict resolution
  • Administers manager training program
  • Investigates employee complaints and makes appropriate recommendation
  • Conducts new-employee orientation sessions and assists with transitioning new employees
  • Conducts exit interviews and counsels employees separating from the university
Melinda Cimino
Employee Relations and Employment Specialist
(781) 736-4473
cimino@brandeis.edu

Bachelor's degree, Wheaton College

Primary responsibilities:

  • Coordinates recruitment, selection and hiring process in consultation with hiring managers
  • Develops customized search plans for specialized or difficult-to-fill vacancies
  • Assists university departments with various employment-related issues such as interpreting policies and procedures, advising and consulting with managers on organizational staffing, transfers, promotions, performance appraisal, corrective action concerns and assuring compliance with fair-search and affirmative-action policies
Alyssa Cooke
Human Resources and Employment Coordinator
(781) 736-4474
acooke@brandeis.edu

Primary responsibilities:

  • Provides overall support to human resources staff
  • Serves as the first point of contact for the office
  • Assists with department Web site
  • Assists employees with completing employment-related forms and serves as contact for all general employment-related questions
  • Performs data entry of personnel records, assists with applicant tracking and coordinates scheduling new employees for orientation and all employees for training program
  • Responsible for recruiting and screening applicants for various nonexempt, union and temporary positions
  • Manages the sale and distribution of movie theater and museum tickets

Back to top 

Compensation

Lori D'Andrea Dougherty
Director of Compensation
781-736-3653
lorid@brandeis.edu

Bachelor's degree, Sociology, Douglass College, Rutgers University
Certified Compensation Professional (CCP)
Masters in Education Course Work, Leslie University

Primary responsibilities: 

  • Develops, implements and maintains compensation strategy and structure for all university staff
  • Plays major role in ensuring external and internal pay equity, creating new positions, reorganizing jobs and responsibilities, rewarding or "paying for performance" and promoting career paths and development opportunities

Back to top 

Human Resources Information Systems

Peter de Andrade
Director of HRIS
781-736-4573
pdeandra@brandeis.edu

Bachelor of science, business administration, Fitchburg State College

Primary responsibilities:

  • Responsible for the maintenance, design, development and technical support of the PeopleSoft Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
  • Responsible for support and troubleshooting all issues related to functional processes that are not working to the business community's satisfaction.
  • Designs and develops complex programmatic solutions in the ERP system, including integration and interfaces with external (third party) and internal (Brandeis) systems.

Lindsay Jacobs
HRIS Analyst
781-736-4465
ljacobs@brandeis.edu

Bachelor's degree, Communications, University of Connecticut

Primary responsibilities:

  • Provides HR and other administrative offices with functional support in the use of HR/Payroll systems, develops and delivers reports, and participates in various HRMS upgrade, business redesign, and development projects.
  • Responsible for developing, implementing and delivering PeopleSoft end-user documentation and training programs.
  • Responsible for investigating, analyzing and resolving user problems and HR related systems issues through reporting, process improvement and initiating data changes.

Anne Marie McCarney
Senior HRIS Coordinator
781-736-8411
mccarney@brandeis.edu

Bachelor's degree, Sociology, Framingham State College

Primary responsibilities:

  • Responsible for analyzing and maintaining critical, confidential data in PeopleSoft HRMS. Routes, tracks and processes all employee change forms.
  • First point of contact for issues concerning pay, HR/Payroll processes, staff leave accruals, and position management.
  • Performs general office and administrative support, such as employment verifications and assists with the HR website.

Back to top