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City Year Greater Boston board

Local community and business leaders work together to advance our mission to ensure public schools are places all students can thrive.

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Joe Nedder
Board Chair, Executive Member Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, Edelman Financial Engines

Joe Nedder is the Chief Human Resources Officer for Edelman Financial Engines with responsibility for the overall associate experience. Edelman Financial Engines is America’s largest independent investment advisor serving more than 1.1 million clients across the country with comprehensive financial planning and investment advice. Prior to his current role, Joe spent 13 years at Fidelity Investments. Joe served as the Chief Operating Officer for the asset management division where he had responsibility for the core operational elements of the business including: investment operations, compliance, fiduciary oversight, recruiting and human resources.

Before assuming that role, Joe served in a number of other operational and human resources roles including: the head of human resources for asset management; the Chief Operating Officer for Pyramis Global Advisors, a Fidelity Investments company focused on servicing the needs of the institutional marketplace; the head of talent management for asset management; and as an in-house performance consultant, supporting multiple business units within Fidelity. Before joining Fidelity, Joe was the Chief Executive Officer at SofCheck, president and Chief Operating Officer at Availant, and a director at Cambridge Technology Partners. Joe began his career as a member of the Edison Management program at General Electric, where he held a variety of positions. Joe is a graduate of Dartmouth College. He is also a lecturer for Babson College and remains active with the boards of several local charitable and educational institutions.

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Isabel “Izzy” Barros ‘12 ‘13
Dean of Students, Somerville Public Schools

Isabel is an educator who works to fight systems of oppression in public schools. Isabel served as a City Year Greater Boston AmeriCorps member at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School for two years. During her time as an AmeriCorps member, she discovered her passion for working with young people and serving her community.

Following City Year Isabel taught at a nonprofit and explored the various roles of an educator. Her reality in education took shape and she completed her Masters in Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education and became a licensed school social worker. She has taken her life experience and formal education into her role at PreK-8 where she is learning and unlearning alongside students, staff and the community.

In addition to her role as an educator, Isabel is a licensed real estate agent in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with Vicente Realty, LLC and a proud aunt to her nieces.

Shweta Bhardwaj
Shweta Bhrdwaj
Partner, Bain and Company

Shweta Bhardwaj is a partner in Bain’s Consumer Products, Retail, and Customer Strategy & Marketing practices, based in Boston, Massachusetts. She has 18 years of management consulting experience, supporting clients on topics including digital strategy and operating model design, marketing and eCommerce acceleration, NPS® implementation, innovation & design, and Agile transformation. Her client portfolio spans the consumer products and retail sectors, with particular depth in personal care and durable goods (toys, furniture, sporting equipment).

In addition to her client work, Shweta actively participates in people development at Bain — global and local training programs, mentorship activities and promotion evaluations — in addition to consultant recruiting. Further, she is the former General Manager of our Global Consumer Watch group, a team dedicated to observing and reporting how consumers are feeling, how they are spending time, and how they are spending money, on a global scale – particularly critical amidst the current pandemic. She has also led pro bono engagements on behalf of the firm, most recently partnering with former Superintendent Tom Boasberg in the assessment and acceleration of the Teacher Leadership Program across Denver Public Schools. Shweta has partnered with clients across the Americas and APAC, having formerly worked in Bain's Atlanta and New Delhi offices. At Bain, she partners closely with FRWD, Bain’s Digital Marketing and Marketing Technology expert team, and I&D, Bain’s team of product managers, researchers, designers and engineers driving innovation and design work with clients. Shweta holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science, with honors, from the University of Virginia. She currently resides in West Newton with her husband, Jason, and two children, Karsin (seven) and Simi (four).

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Chris Biotti
Managing Director, PWM Division Executive, Bank of America, Private Bank

Chris Biotti is the New England division executive at Bank of America, Private Bank. In this role he is responsible for driving responsible growth in New England and Upstate New York and enhancing collaboration across the firm. Chris works with advisors to enhance the client experience by facilitating discussion of client priorities, anticipating needs and integrating the extensive resources of Bank of America, Private Bank. Chris looks to drive value by maintaining client focus. He believes strongly in the value of in-depth analysis that infuses customized client strategies across a range of needs: family, legacy, business and philanthropy. Chris is also responsible for identifying, hiring and mentoring new advisors for the region. He relishes the opportunity to help advisors broaden their skills and improve their client outreach.

Chris is also responsible for identifying, hiring and mentoring new advisors for the region. He relishes the opportunity to help advisors broaden their skills and improve their client outreach. Team oriented, Chris defines success relative to the advisors in his region. Pointing to the extensive offerings of the Private Bank, Chris notes that advisors are able to address both sides of a client’s balance sheet through an extensive complement of services and strategies: investment management, concentrated and restricted stock guidance, specialty asset management, liquidity event planning, credit structuring, wealth transfer strategies and charitable giving. Chris actively participates in diversity networks at Bank of America and is the executive co-sponsor of the Massachusetts Pride LGBTQ affinity group. Chris also strongly believes in education equality for all children, and currently serves on the Board of City Year Greater Boston. Chris began his financial services career in 1997. He previously was a branch manager and wealth advisor at Neuberger Berman in Boston. His tenures also include regional director for Lehman Brothers/Neuberger Berman in San Francisco and private banker for Deutsche Bank National Trust Company. Chris is a native of Newton, Massachusetts. He is a graduate of Belmont Hill School and Harvard University. Chris was drafted in the first round of the 1985 NHL Draft by the Calgary Flames after which he played professional ice hockey for six years.

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Latoyia Edwards (Ex-Officio)
Morning News Anchor, NBC10 Boston

Latoyia Edwards is one of the most recognizable faces of the Boston Television News Market today. Latoyia is an Emmy award-winning morning news anchor. She works for NBC Universal's brand new triopoly of NBC 10 Boston, NECN and Telemundo Boston serving millions of viewers each week. Every weekday from 4 a.m.-7 a.m., Latoyia brings her energy and credibility guiding viewers in coverage of local, national, and global stories and breaking news on Nbc10Boston Today which leads into the Today Show. You can also watch Latoyia every Sunday morning on NBC Boston at 11:30 a.m. hosting her new show, THIS IS NEW ENGLAND, which focuses on celebrating the best in our community.

Latoyia is celebrating 14 years with the company. She has covered a variety of impactful stories including Superbowl Victory Celebrations, World series titles to presidential campaigns, celebrity interviews, to high profile trials. Latoyia has worn many hats, including Health Reporter covering the latest medical breakthroughs, highlighting research at hospitals across New England and producing in-depth stories about health disparities. Latoyia’s medical reporting earned her the coveted Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Coverage Fellowship in Boston, which focuses on public and mental health. Over her 20-year career in broadcasting, she has flown beyond the clouds covering the Navy's Blue Angel and he even traveled as far away as Paraguay profiling a partnership between that country and the United States Military. She joined the NECN family as a morning live reporter in 2005 arriving from WWLP-22 NBC in Springfield, Massachusetts, where she had been a weekday anchor. Latoyia's connection with the community was immediate and she soon worked her way up to the top positions at her station. She began her career as a news writer for WBZ-1030AM radio, and later reported for the Fox affiliate WICZ-TV 40 in Binghamton, New York.

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Diane J. Exter
Retired Managing Director, Bain Capital

Diane is a retired managing director of Bain Capital. Diane helped start Bain Capital's debt business, Sankaty Advisors (now named Bain Capital Credit), in 1997 and, before retiring, was responsible for the oversight of Sankaty's loan portfolio and involved in overall firm management. Bain Capital Credit, a leading investment management firm, has approximately $29 billion of capital under management. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Diane was a managing director at BankBoston. Diane received a Master of Business Administration from the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Arts from Grove City College.

In addition to the City Year Greater Boston board, Diane is also on the board of Combined Jewish Philanthropies. Diane is married and has two sons.

Rocky Granahan
Rocky Granahan
Managing Director, Institutional Sales State Street Global Advisors

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Stephen Hoffmeister
Managing Director, Advent International

Stephen Hoffmeister is a managing director at Advent International. Previously, he worked at Bain Capital LLC and Bain & Company. Stephen co-chaired the City Year Greater Boston Investment Community Breakfast for a number of years and now serves as a vice-chair on the event committee for the breakfast. He was a member of City Year Greater Boston's Seven Generations Board before joining the City Year Greater Boston Board. Stephen earned a Bachelor of Commerce, First Class Honors, from Queen’s University in Canada and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Matthew Javitch
Principal, Rubric LLC

Matt has been involved in the real estate industry for over a decade, having worked for Citizens Bank and First Republic Bank as a commercial real estate underwriter before launching Axilon Capital Partners. Axilon is a multifamily real estate investment firm active in metro Boston. Matt previously served on the young professionals’ boards of the educational non-profit Jumpstart and The MFA Boston. He is an active member of the Massachusetts start-up community mentoring young entrepreneurs.

Eran Lobel
Media and Government Relations Committee Chair, Executive Member CEO/Executive Producer, ELEMENT productions

Eran Lobel founded ELEMENT productions in 1998 and grew it into one of Boston’s premiere full-service production and post-production companies. He leads a talented team of directors, producers and editors and has produced award winning commercials, web video, television programs and documentaries. ELEMENT works with top brands such as Nike, GMC, Subway, Dunkin Donuts, Buick, Fidelity, Verizon, Hasbro and ESPN. Their agency clients include Hill Holliday, BBDO, MMB, Digitas, Saatchi and Saatchi and Arnold. The company’s objective is to manage a creative and efficient production and post-production workflow and to provide fully integrated services to maximize its clients’ needs. ELEMENT is a member of AICP, and Eran is a founding board member of both FILMA and the Massachusetts Production Coalition (MPC) and is an active board member of the Boston Ad Club.

Eran is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and received a Master of Business Administration from Boston University. Eran has served on City Year Greater Boston’s Seven Generations Board since 2015 and joined the City Year Greater Boston Board's Media and Government Relations Committee in 2016, where he has been an active and valuable member. Eran’s wife, Lisa Lobel, is the co-founder/casting director for Boston Casting. She currently focuses her efforts on growing and managing Boston Casting’s 60,000-person online database and is a leader in innovative technologies for the casting industry. She’s also a former early childhood educator in Boston and former elementary school teacher in New York City. Eran and Lisa have three children.

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Dr. Kenann McKenzie-DeFranza
Assoc. Professor of Practice & Director Academic Innovation Strategic Partnerships, Gordon College

Dr. Kenann McKenzie-DeFranza serves as the Director of Academic Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, and Associate Professor of Practice. Her background and expertise include civic engagement research & practice, organizational consulting, PreK-12 schools and higher education professional development on subjects such as educational practices, policy, administration, and leadership. She has authored numerous papers and peer reviewed publications. She served as the inaugural Director of the Generous Listening and Dialogue Center, Tufts University from 2021-2023.

Prior to that she was director of the Aspire Institute housed at BU Wheelock School of Education, 2017 until 2021. At the Federal education level from 2015-2017, she served as Executive Director for the National Board of Education Sciences at the US Department of Education for several years, which oversees all funding for education research via the Institute for Education Sciences. Prior experiences add to over 20 years in education policy, advocacy research and teaching. In 2022, she was recognized with the Heroine Award by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Commission on the Status of Women.

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Kate Mead
Institutional Equity Portfolio Manager (IPM), MFS Investment Management

Kate Mead is an Institutional Equity Portfolio Manager (IPM) at MFS and is a member of the Global IPM Leadership team, leading the North American IPM Team.  Kate joined MFS as an equity research analyst in 1997, has been a member of the value portfolio management team since 2002 and the Global IPM Leadership team since 2014.  As an Institutional Portfolio Manager, Kate acts as the “CEO” of her strategies, taking the lead role in thinking strategically about the business, clients, operations and risk management. She has been involved in MFS’ diversity initiatives and is keenly interested in helping to bring more young women into the finance industry and identifying opportunities to develop and progress women already there. 

Kate is actively involved in her community.  She is a firm believer that educational experiences can meaningfully change people’s lives. She has been a member of Villanova’s School of Business (VSB) Finance Department Advisory Council for the last eight years working closely with the chairman of the Finance Department and the dean of the business school advising on curriculum, engaging with their women’s network to help attract more female students into finance, providing strategic input to help shape the long-term vision for VSB and the University, focusing on student preparedness for jobs and working to provide career opportunities for Villanova graduates in the Boston area.  Kate has also been actively involved with City Year Greater Boston working as a vice chair and most recently co-chair for the Women’s Leadership Breakfast.  As a member of City Year’s Women’s Leadership Network and the Red Jacket Society, Kate and her husband Warren have enjoyed sponsoring regular lunches for the unsponsored schools and Civic Engagement teams.  Kate believes that City Year, its passion for service and all of its inspiring corps members are making a real difference for thousands of Boston Public School students every year.  She has also been engaged with Horizon’s for Homeless Children, sponsoring a number of play spaces throughout Massachusetts. Kate received a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (1997) and a Bachelor of Science in finance from Villanova University (1993), graduating magna cum laude.  She is a CFA charter holder and a member of the Boston Society of Security Analysts.  She lives with her husband, two teenaged children and golden retriever in Medfield, Massachusetts.  She grew up in Colorado and is an avid skier and hiker.

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Merrill Puopolo
Merrill Puopolo
Managing Director, CBIZ

Merrill joined CBIZ & MHM in 1992 and is a member of the Accounting and Auditing* Group. She is also a member of the company’s Not-For-Profit, Architecture, Engineering & Consulting and Real Estate Practices. Merrill primarily works with closely held businesses and nonprofit organizations. She provides a wide range of services, including audits of financial statements, tax planning and consulting, internal control and system reviews, due diligence services and financial statement analysis.

Merrill holds a Bachelor of Science from University of Maryland. She served as a council member for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (2012-2016). Merrill also served as chairman of the board of directors of the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants (2013-2014), where she was also founder and former co-chair of the Women in Accounting Committee, and past vice chair of finance. Merrill holds a license as a Chartered Global Management Accountant. Merrill's civic engagement includes serving as a board member and executive committee member, Wellesley Community Children’s Center, and past vice president of finance at the National Tay-Sachs and Allied Diseases Association. Merrill has been recognized in Boston Business Journal's Who’s Who in Accounting.

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Paul Reville
Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Paul Reville is the Francis Keppel professor of practice of educational policy and administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is the founding director of HGSE's Education Redesign Lab. He completed nearly five years of service as the secretary of education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As Governor Patrick's top education adviser, Paul established a new Executive Office of Education and had oversight of higher education, K-12 and early education in the nation's leading student achievement state. He served in the Governor's Cabinet and played a leading education reform role on matters ranging from the Achievement Gap Act of 2010 and Common Core State Standards to the Commonwealth's highly successful Race to the Top proposal.

Prior to joining the Patrick Administration, Paul had chaired the Massachusetts State Board of Education, founded the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, co-founded the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education (MBAE), chaired the Massachusetts Reform Review Commission, chaired the Massachusetts Commission on Time and Learning and served as executive director of the Pew Forum on Standards-Based Reform, a national think tank which convened the United States' leading researchers, practitioners and policymakers to set the national standards agenda. Paul played a central role in MBAE's development of and advocacy for Massachusetts historic Education Reform Act of 1993. Paul has been a member of the HGSE faculty since 1997 and has served as director of the Education Policy and Management Program. Paul's career, which combines research, policy and practice, began with service as a VISTA/youth worker. He served as a teacher and principal of two systemically under-resourced, alternative high schools. Some years later, he founded a local education foundation that was part of the Public Education Network. He is a board member and adviser to a host of organizations and a frequent writer and speaker on education reform and policy issues. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Colorado College, a master's degree from Stanford University and five honorary doctorate degrees. He is the father of four children.

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Rob Ruffin
Expert Partner, Bain and Company

Rob Ruffin is an operations partner at Bain & Co and focuses on large scale supply chain transformations. In addition to client work, he also focuses on Bain Boston’s community DEI efforts. Before consulting, Rob was a process engineer at DuPont Chemicals. He joined the Board in 2022 and is a member of the Recruitment Committee. Rob has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Swarthmore College and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Diane Ryan
Associate Dean for Programs and Administration, Tisch College

Diane M. Ryan is the Associate Dean for Programs and Administration in the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University and holds faculty appointments in the Eliot Pearson Department of Child Studies and Human Development and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Prior to joining Tufts, Diane was an Academy Professor, Director of the Eisenhower Leader Development Program with Columbia University and Deputy Department Head in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY. During her 29-year career as a U.S. Army officer she served in a variety of command and staff assignments both stateside and abroad.

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Samuel Texeira (Boston ‘13)
Educator, Chicago Public Schools

Sam began his education career in 2012-2013 as a City Year AmeriCorps member. That year, he worked in a sixth/seventh grade English Language Arts classroom at the Tobin School in Mission Hill. Following that service year, Sam was accepted to graduate school at Boston College through the Donovan Urban Teaching Scholars program. During this year, in addition to student teaching, Sam worked as a paraprofessional at Dorchester Academy. Sam credits his experience at Boston College and Dorchester Academy with not only preparing him for having his own classroom, but with understanding the critical need for a strong social justice lens in his role as an educator. During this year, Sam was also selected to participate in the Male Educators of Color (MEOC) cohort. In 2014, Sam started his first full-time teaching job at the Dr. William W. Henderson Inclusion K-12 Inclusion School in Dorchester where he currently teaches United States History and Civics.

Sam facilitates "Strong Men Strong Leaders", an organization at the Henderson Schools that supports boys of color through leadership training, community service, healthy physical competition, combating negative narratives about men of color, and engaging in conversations about successes and challenges in our neighborhoods and lives. Additionally, Sam is the high school teacher representative on the Henderson's Governing Board and the History Department facilitator. Previously Sam has served as a senior advisor, student council sponsor and a former Boston Debate League coach. Sam has also supported the district as a mentor in the Boston Public Schools High School to Teacher program and curriculum writing initiatives. Sam is a winner of the 2019 Boston Public Schools Educator of the Year Award. Currently, Sam is a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts Boston in the urban education, leadership and policy studies program. He is a proud resident of Dorchester.

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National Strategic Partners
National Partners