Newton people in the news…

Denise Hayes has been named to the board of directors of the Boston Arts Academy Foundation. An acclaimed educator and community leader, she has championed initiatives for inner-city students and community development in her native Pittsburgh and in Ohio. She moved to Newton with her family a few years ago. Of her appointment to the BAAF, she has said, “The Foundation’s dedication to empowering young artists speaks to me, and I’m looking forward to bringing my experience and enthusiasm to help support their mission.”

Steven Branfman is a will ride on September 28 in the PMC Unpaved, a charitable off-road gravel ride through the Berkshires to raise funds for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. A three-time cancer survivor himself, Branfman lost is son to brain cancer in 2005. He has ridden in the on-road Pan-Mass Challenge for 21 years, and this will be his first PMC Unpaved.

Danny Collins is attending Stanford University as one of 90 Knight-Hennessy scholars. Each Knight-Hennessy scholar in this graduate fellowship program receives up to three years of financial support to pursue multidisciplinary, multicultural graduate studies spanning all seven schools at Stanford University. Collins will pursue a PhD in oceans at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

Brenda Ulrich, a Newton native and now a lawyer in West Roxbury, is one of 30 amateur boxers competing in the annual Haymakers for Hope Belles of the Brawl charity boxing event to support Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The event will take place on October 10 at MGM Music Hall in Fenway. She says, “[This] began as a personal challenge — to take my newfound love of boxing …to the next level. But within days of submitting my application, it all got much more personal: one of my best friends, Darcy, who is like a sister to me, told me she has breast cancer. So while I’m training to fight, she’s fighting for her life.”

Patrick Parker recently assumed management and ownership of Spruce Law, a boutique employment law practice and strategic service counsel to Archstone Law Group, collaborating on a range of employment law matters for the benefit of the firm’s clients.