The student and featured speaker for Le Moyne’s graduate commencement ceremony on Friday, May 20 at 7 p.m. in the Event Center have been selected.
Shafali Desnoyers, who will graduate with her MBA, will be the student speaker. A native of Sherrill, N.Y., Desnoyers began her MBA in 2019 and moved to Charlotte, N.C. in the summer of 2020, finishing her degree remotely. She is a 2011 graduate of Le Moyne, when she received her undergraduate degree in English with a minor in business administration.
Desnoyers has worked in the corporate world the last decade and is currently a project manager at Legrand, NA in Charlotte. “My future aspirations are to join executive management in corporations to help lead organizational change, now that I have my MBA. Specifically, my capstone was written on organizational change within global corporations, focused around the shift to electric vehicles. One of my most memorable experiences from undergrad at Le Moyne was travelling to Kenya on a mission trip. That experience will stick with me for the rest of my life. After having returned to Le Moyne for my MBA, I was reminded that leading change/leading through service are important core values that I will continue to instill as I move forward in my career.”
The graduate speaker will be Dr. Kimberly Townsend, the president and chief executive officer of Loretto, a continuing care system located in New York, with assets in skilled nursing, housing, managed care, short term rehabilitation and medical adult day services. Prior to joining Loretto, Townsend was the associate general counsel and senior director of government affairs for Welch Allyn, Inc. She has been an adjunct professor in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, as well as the Syracuse University College of Law.
Townsend is currently a governor’s appointee to the New York State Workforce Investment Board. She also serves as a board member and in board leadership positions for a number of non-profit organizations. She received her BS and MBA from the Whitman School of Management, her JD from Syracuse University College of Law, her MPA from the Maxwell School of Public Administration and her doctorate in Executive Leadership from St. John Fisher College.