Debra Brandy, MassBay’s Community College Senior Financial Aid Counselor, explains some of the services she and others provide at MassBay, including teaching students how to use the massbay.edu website to apply for scholarships, or via the O

Matthew Mori, a MassBay Community College student and 2020 graduate, started his higher education at a four-year institution, but left school to work out some personal issues.

Heidi Getchell-Bastien, J.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Criminal Justice and Government

Professor Getchell-Bastien joined MassBay Community College in the Fall of 2018. She teaches criminal justice and government courses, advises the Civic Engagement and Student Advocacy Club, and serves as the campus Civic Engagement Coordinator. In January of 2022, she was awarded the MassBay Distinguished Faculty Scholarship Award.

MassBay Community College alum Carlos Oviedo of Roslindale, MA, credits the hands-on biotech lab coursework he completed with MassBay biotechnology professor Dr. Nirmal Singh for helping him land a position as a product development assistant in the COVID lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, MA.

With more than 20 years of teaching experience in both traditional academic institutions and nontraditional settings such as prisons and homeless shelters, she feels she has found her niche at community college.

“The mission of the community college is open access. It is the vanguard of defining what higher education’s role is in this country. Community college faculty are agents of social change. Teaching here is an excellent fit for me. Principally, my role here ties up the threads of my own life — education, writing, and social justice.”

MassBay Community College student, Isis Sanchez Zarate, originally came to the U.S. to participate in an exchange program to learn English. In her native country, she had earned a bachelor's degree in registered nursing.

I went to Stonehill College and received a BSBA degree with a Major in Accounting.

I went to Suffolk University for my MBA and my concentration was Management Information Systems.

I grew up in the Riverdale section of Dedham and went to high school at Catholic Memorial in West Roxbury.

I have a son named Joey.

I’ve been at MBCC since January, 1999.

Edward J. Derba, MBA
Adjunct Professor of Business
MassBay Community College

I dropped out of high school at age 16 and didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. Everybody says that you have to go straight to university after high school, but most people aren't sure what they want to pursue at that age.

MassBay Community College graduate, Emma Laurie, expected to be in and out of MassBay in two years, just keeping her head down, getting her work done, and then transferring.

Roger Pao, JD, is an attorney and educator with extensive experience in online education and a passion for helping students be successful in the online environment. A graduate of Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, and Duke University, summa cum laude, he worked as a transactional attorney with prominent law firms — an international law firm and a Boston-based law firm. He has served as a subject matter expert for and taught a variety of online undergraduate and graduate-level courses.