BOSTON — Two public colleges in Massachusetts have new presidents, after the Board of Higher Education voted Tuesday to approve leaders for the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
New MCLA President James "Jaimie" Birge, a Lee native, was previously the president of Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, N.H. and the interim president at Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, W.V.
More than 16 years ago, in May 1999, Massachusetts teen James Sprissler underwent a pioneering and life-altering procedure at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. But Sprissler's surgery was not like most surgeries. Sprissler, a Stoughton native who was diagnosed with spina bifida while in his mother's womb, underwent surgery in utero.
Decades ago, there was not much a pregnant mother could do to help her unborn child diagnosed with spina bifida or other rare birth defects. But, thanks to medical advances and the work of some pioneering doctors, the possibility of fetal surgery today offers hope to families like the Sprisslers awaiting babies with difficult diagnoses.
