Board of Directors

Heather Barry

Heather Barry is the Associate Director of the Tufts University Institute for Global Leadership and directs the Institute’s high school global issues program, Inquiry. She is the author of “Educating for Global Leadership: The Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) Program” in Innovations in International Education and co-author of “Educating Global Leaders” (New Designs for Youth Development) and was the content consultant for Secrecy and Democracy for Educators for Social Responsibility. She was the Principal Investigator for the U.S. Department of Education Fund for Innovation in Post Secondary Education grant “Creating a Blueprint for Leadership and Citizenship Development: The EPIIC Educational Process.”

Lemma Jarudi

Lemma Jarudi is currently a student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She is on leave from her former position as a teacher in the Boston Public Schools. Lemma taught at Charlestown High School for six years, offering classes in Entrepreneurship, AP Economics, and Arabic.  At Charlestown High, she launched C-town Spirit, a non-profit organization that teaches entrepreneurship. She also launched an Alumni Club to encourage high school graduates to maintain their network of peer support post-graduation and to support each other through college. She is a graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2004 to spend a year studying Arabic in Cairo.

Paul Jasinski

Paul Jasinski is a certified public accountant and has been involved with the financial services industry for over 35 years.  He is a graduate of Northeastern University.  Paul has organized and run several business units during his career and most recently served as president of a mutual fund complex.  He has frequently served as an instructor in financial services industry training programs.  Paul administers a family sponsored scholarship program focused on community service.  

Jack O’Brien

Jack O’Brien is a longtime teacher, coach and mentor. In a decade of coaching basketball at Charlestown High School, he led his teams to a record-breaking five state championships in six years. More important, during his tenure, nearly every one of his players who stayed with the Charletown program through his senior year went on to college. A graduate of Salem State College, Jack previously coached in Salem and his hometown of Medford. Irish America Magazine recently named him one of its Top 100 Irish-Americans.

Thaddeus Miles

Thaddeus Miles is Director of Public Safety at MassHousing. In order to help bridge the technology, Thaddeus spearheaded the development of eleven community-run computer centers in the Roxbury and Dorchester areas of Boston. Thaddeus later worked with HUD to create a consortium of all of its New England Neighborhood Network Centers. This consortium, entitled MassIMPACT, for which he serves as Executive Director, concentrates its energies on Improving Peoples’ Access to Computers and Technology. He has served as an invited Reflective Community Practice Fellow at MIT, focusing on helping others understand the important lessons learned in bringing technological resources to public housing. Thaddeus is also part of an on-going Harvard Law School initiative exploring ways of using technology to facilitate the rehabilitation process of prisoners in third world countries. He is an expert computer animator and owns Dream Benders Studio which specializes in 2D/3D animation products and services, and he is an accomplished photographer. He was recently named Boston's Crimefighter of the Year.

Tom Nardone

Tom Nardone is currently the President of Henderson Associates, a promotional products firm located in Bedford, NH. Tom has been affiliated with Henderson for seven years with his roles ranging from public accountant, to Controller, to his current role as a shareholder and President. Prior to joining Henderson Associates, Tom worked for the Boston-based public accounting firm, Vitale, Caturano and Company. He is a graduate of Babson College and has been a volunteer with multiple non-profit organizations. He is currently working as a strategic partner with the C-town Spirit and Entrepreneurship Education Foundation located in Charlestown, MA.

Nicolas Souffrant

Nicolas Souffrant, a graduate of Charlestown High School and Bentley College, is a financial representative for New York Life. He is also a mentor for Diamond Educators and a volunteer basketball coach in Boston.

  
Neil Swidey

Neil Swidey is author of The Assist, a Boston Globe Bestseller about the transformative power of high school basketball and the narrow margins faced by young men growing up in Boston. The Washington Post named The Assist one of its Best Books of 2008. Neil is a staff writer for The Boston Globe Magazine and a co-author of Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy. His writing has been featured in The Best American Science Writing, The Best American Crime Writing, and The Best American Political Writing. He grew up in Somerset, Mass., where he played enough basketball to realize that he'd have a better shot writing about it. He graduated from Tufts University, where he met his wife, Denise Drower Swidey. They have three daughters.

Altia Taylor

Altia TaylorAltia Taylor is a current community college student who is studying to become a licensed social worker. A native of Roxbury and a GED recipient, she is the sister of Alray Taylor, after whom the scholarship fund is named. She lives in Boston with her spouse and two children, and she enjoys working with students to help them overcome obstacles and get ahead. 


ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

Shawn Brown

Shawn Brown, a graduate of Charlestown High School and Merrimack College, is a Senior Career Specialist in Alternative Education at Boston’s Private Industry Council. He is also a founder of Diamond Educators, a mentoring group for inner-city youth in Boston.

Lisa Fliegel

Lisa Fliegel devotes her life to fostering resilience in the lives of those young people who live on the cusp of trauma and disregard. Utilizing the arts as an incentive toward health and hope for a positive future Lisa has worked in Israel, Palestine and the USA. Lisa believes that you cannot have mental health without social change. As an art therapist and mental health counselor, advocacy for social justice lies at the foundation of her work. Lisa is a renowned teacher, trainer and consultant and widely published in her field. A watercolor and mixed media artist, Lisa has exhibited locally, nationally and internationally.

Michael Fung

Michael Fung was headmaster of Charlestown High School for ten years, from 1997-2007. He began his career in the Boston Public Schools as a math and science teacher at English High School in 1971. Michael went on to teach at Brighton High School before being appointed principal of the Taft Middle School in 1978. He served in this capacity for ten years and then held a variety of leadership positions in the Boston Public Schools, including District E Superintendent, High School Zone Superintendent and Director of the Office of Technology and Information Services

Michael Wanyo

Michael Wanyo is a private business consultant providing financial, managerial, and operational services to a diverse base of small business organizations. He has been a principal in several start-up companies and in a number of different industries. He is an at-large board member of The Bromley Heath Tenant Management Corp, a board member and principal in EMA Services, Inc., and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the American Society for Quality (ASQ), the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS), and the Association of Turnaround Managers (TMA). He is actively involved in the Vitale, Caturano & Company Foundation, which supports Greater Boston charities and local community services. Additionally, he served for five years as a Director on the New England Region Board of Advisors for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. He is one of the original incorporators of C-town Spirit and Entrepreneurship Education Foundation, Inc.