Stony Brook’s Small Business Development Center names new director

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The Small Business Development Center at Stony Brook, which provides free one-on-one business advising, has named Martha Stansbury as its next director.

Stansbury has worked at the center as its administrator since 2017, developing budgets and managing operations.

In her new role, she will report to Peter Donnelly, associate vice president for technology partnerships and economic development at Stony Brook University’s Economic Development Office.

Stansbury will lead a team of eight at SBDC, which is located at the university’s Research and Development Park (Building 17). The team provides confidential counseling in business planning, marketing, fiscal management, access to capital and technology transfer. The center aims to assist entrepreneurs as well as business and industry leaders who are looking to solve their problems and increase productivity and profitability.

“Martha will bring a wealth of experience, passion and vision to SBDC at Stony Brook in her new role,” Donnelly said in a news release about the center appointing a new director.

The SBDC is one of 20 in New York State. The centers are overseen by the State University of New York System Administration. Since 1984, NY SBDC has helped 582,806 state residents. Officials say that $8.7 billion has been used so far to start or expand businesses with 263,997 jobs created or saved. It is part of the U.S. Small Business Development Centers, which funds the state centers.

“Martha’s commitment to community engagement is also evident through her many external roles including as a member of the Women Economic Developers of Long Island serving in the roles as vice president and president,” Donnelly added.

“Martha has also been a trustee of the Three Village Chamber of Commerce and was voted in 2020 to her present role as treasurer,” Donnelly said. “Last year, Martha received the chamber’s Roy Dragoda Award for 15 years of community service with the chamber and voted as the 2024 Member of the Year for her contributions to the chamber’s financial management system.”

Stansbury said in the news release that she is “honored to have been given the opportunity to lead the Small Business Development Center at Stony Brook as the New York State-wide network embarks on its 40th year.”

She said that with the center’s state-certified business advisors and support from the university’s Economic Development Office, “I will endeavor to increase the economic impact our center has in the small-to-medium-size enterprise arena throughout Suffolk County.”

Stansbury previously served as a management consultant where she provided facility management of Stony Brook University’s Business Incubator and Agriculture Consumer Center. She also served as a business manager for Gallery North; a management consultant, accounting systems manager for an international LCD distributor; assistant to the director of development at Boston College; and a commercial real estate analyst for the Bank of New England.

A resident of East Setauket, Stansbury earned her MBA from Fordham Gabelli School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and teaching from Boston College.