Jennifer Berryman Naide

Jennifer Berryman Naide

Milton, MA - Beloved mom, wife, daughter, sister, friend and award-winning journalist and communications leader, Jennifer Berryman Naide, 53, passed away peacefully and surrounded by her family on November 18, 2025, following nearly six years of treatment against myxoid liposarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer.

She is most devastated to be leaving far too soon the loves of her life for the last 27 years: her husband, Ken, and incredible daughters, Elana, and Abby. No amount of time with Ken, Elana and Abby would have been sufficient. She loved her family. She loved her life. And she was not ready to leave. Jen asks that our friends and family continue to support Ken and the girls in the weeks and years ahead.

Jen is also survived by her wonderful, always supportive parents, Connie and Richard Berryman of Concord, NH; sister Alisa Catani, brother-in-law Michael Catani, and nieces Sarah and Mira Catani of Barrington, RI; in-laws Albert and Susan Naide of Southington, CT; and countless lifetime friends and colleagues.

Jen loved spending time and hosting friends at the lake in Sunapee; hiking in the Blue Hills with the family's rescue dog, Jake; and connecting with friends. One of her favorite things to do with her family was travel, which gave her a lifetime's worth of happy memories, including: riding a camel across the Moroccan Sahara; sunrise safaris in Krueger National Park; visiting the Taj Mahal; building homes in Haiti; skiing Breckenridge; hiking the south of France; celebrating Nobel Prize week in Stockholm; navigating (quite poorly) a pedicab through Lucca during a trip to Italy with the girls; living in London and Seville, Spain for a time; watching humpback whales migrate through the waters off Cabo; seeing the peak of Denali emerge above the clouds in Alaska; and visiting a dozen other stunning National Parks plus Croatia, Ireland, Spain, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Prague, Lisbon, Paris, and all over the beautiful U.S.

Her love of broadcast journalism began in high school when she interned and then found herself doing on-air news reporting and anchoring news at WJYY-FM in her hometown. At Ithaca College, she discovered the magic of television and was hooked, working briefly at WGOT-TV and WMUR-TV in Manchester, NH after college before jumping at the opportunity, in 1995, to work the overnight shift at WCVB-TV in Boston, which would become her professional home for the next 19 years. WCVB-TV is where Jen came to deeply appreciate that when people allow you to share their stories, it is a gift, a privilege and most of all, a responsibility. During her tenure, WCVB-TV was named the best news station in the country multiple times and Jen's work earned national and regional awards including Emmys, Edward R. Murrow awards and Gracie Awards. She loved every minute of her time at 5 TV Place in Needham - even the difficult ones - and learned something from everyone with whom she worked, even if it was only patience. Until the end, the adage 'five is family' held true and provided meaningful companionship and comfort, for which she is eternally grateful.

In 2014, she went to work at UMass Chan Medical School as its executive vice chancellor for communications, where she led the award-winning marketing and communications team and promoted the exceptional biomedical science and education at the state's only public medical school. Jen and her team supported the enormous growth and reputational surge of UMass Chan in recent years.

She would like to thank her many caregivers over the last six years, and send love to the women of the sarcoma support group at Dana-Farber.

Please (please!) don't send flowers. If you are so inclined, consider honoring Jen's memory with a donation to the sarcoma and bone cancer team at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; or rescue a dog you can smother with love; share a memory or story with her family; seize the moment to plan a trip of your own; hug a friend; or perform a simple act of kindness in your daily life.

A celebration of life is being planned.