Boston Beyond

President & CEO, YMCA of Greater Boston

The YMCA of Greater Boston welcomes James O’S. Morton, Esquire as its new President & CEO. Mr. Morton is the 13th Chief Executive Officer of the YMCA of Greater Boston since its founding in 1851. He joins the Greater Boston Y after serving YMCAs in Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA. Prior to joining the YMCA of Greater Boston, Mr. Morton was President & CEO of the YMCA of Greater Hartford where the Y experienced double digit growth in contributions; developed innovative programming; improved the membership engagement experience; and built many collaborative relationships. He led a successful $15 million capital campaign and launched a new strategic plan to guide the work of the organization.

He also has a deep personal and professional connection to work force development and education having served as a leader to two work force development agencies and as an educator in the Springfield, MA public school system.

Mr. Morton earned a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the University of Wisconsin and a Juris Doctorate from Northeastern University School of Law. He is a current member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, serves on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and sits on the Board of Overseers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. In addition, he has served on numerous YMCA of the USA committees and task forces around brand management, executive leadership and multiculturalism.

Mr. Morton has a compelling personal history that exemplifies the positive impact that the Y makes. With an African-American father and mother of Irish descent, he laughingly often introduces himself as “Black Irish”, and his background and personality provide him with a unique ability to forge meaningful connections with everyone that he meets. Mr. Morton is a world class runner and continues to run competitively. In 2008, he was the national Master’s champion and #2 in the world in the 800 meter, in his age bracket.

President Emerita, Lesley University

Margaret brings a wealth of experience, relationships, and ideas to her nomination. President Emerita of Lesley University, she serves on the Massachusetts board of elementary and secondary education and recently served as chair of the National Summer Learning Association board. Margaret was president of Lesley University for 22 years and, subsequently, served as president of the Walmart Foundation, where she led $900 million in grant-making for summer learning and hunger, among other issues. Earlier in her career, Margaret held leadership posts at the US Departments of Justice and Education and at the White House.

Ellen Matilda Poss Director, Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston

Jill Medvedow is the first Ellen Matilda Poss Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Under Medvedow’s leadership, the ICA constructed a new museum on Boston’s waterfront, hiring architects Diller + Scofidio for their first major project. The ICA’s iconic new building opened to critical and public acclaim in 2006, increasing museum attendance tenfold. Alongside the Board of Trustees, Medvedow has successfully led two major capital and endowment campaigns, and has transformed the ICA into one of the nation’s most ambitious centers for contemporary art. At the ICA, Medvedow has created a national model for teen arts education, investing in urban adolescents as future leaders, artists and electorate. With more than 7,000 teens participating in ICA teen education programs annually, ICA teens were recognized by the White House twice over the past year, including a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program award.

Medvedow’s leadership has been consistent throughout her career from her early work in Seattle to her founding of Vita Brevis, a contemporary arts organization that produced temporary projects in nontraditional sites, linking history and landscape to public art. She was the first Deputy Director and Curator of Contemporary Art at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Medvedow is co-editor of Vita Brevis: History, Landscape, and Art 1998–2003, published by Steidl. Medvedow sits on the national advisory boards of the PBS series Art 21 and the National Arts and Learning Curriculum, she served as Chair of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s Working Group on the Creative Economy, and she is a member of Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s Economic Development Transition Team. Her transformative direction of the ICA is subject of an MIT Sloan School of Management Case Study on Leadership and Risk.

Rahn Dorsey was Boston’s first-ever Chief of Education. Appointed by Mayor Walsh in September 2014, Dorsey has worked to set a strategic agenda for the city to improve the quality of instruction and student support across Boston’s educational ecosystem and to better integrate school, community and work-based learning opportunities.

Since 2009, Rahn Dorsey served at the Barr Foundation as Evaluation Director, leading development and implementation of data monitoring and evaluation frameworks for Barr’s investments. Prior to Barr, Rahn gained over 15 years of experience as a program evaluator and researcher with Moore and Associates and Abt Associates. During these years, his work spanned public policy, education, community change, and public health issues.

Dorsey currently sits on several Boston and New England boards and community organizations including: The Black Philanthropy Fund, Boston After School & Beyond, Third Sector New England, Bethel A.M.E. Church, The Boston School Quality Working Group, and Project Hip Hop.

Senior Managing Director, Partner, and Chief Operating Officer, Investments, Wellington Management

Sandhya leads a global team at the intersection of all the investment functions, which acts as a strategic engine powering a strong, dynamic, global, and scalable investment platform. The group builds shared centers of excellence across corporate access, research services, early career investor development, knowledge management, strategic initiatives, and business management for all investors. It also drives integration and ensures Wellington’s investment platform is flexible and adaptable to changing client needs and market conditions. In addition, Sandhya serves on a number of committees and oversight groups, including the Fund Approval and Closure Committee and the Error Resolution Council, and is the chair of the Wellington Management Foundation Advisory Board.

Prior to this role, Sandhya was associate director of Global Multi-Asset Strategies, and prior to that, she led the Client Integration Group. Before joining Wellington Management in 2006, she was a senior vice president at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co, (1994 – 1998; 2000 – 2006) and spent two years at SunTrust Capital Markets (1998 – 2000).

Sandhya earned her dual BA degrees in economics and theatre, magna cum laude, from Middlebury College (1993). Additionally, she holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society Boston.

President, Plazak Associates

Kathy Plazak is a seasoned business executive with extensive experience in corporate and nonprofit management. In 2002 she established Plazak Associates, a consulting practice providing hands-on management services to corporate, foundation, and business clients, with a focus on executive-level management of major projects and initiatives, governance issues, and leadership for organizations going through transition. Prior to launching her consulting practice, Kathy was Vice President of Public Affairs for New England Financial, responsible for charitable giving, a range of social responsibility programs, and federal, state, and local government relations. She also served as Corporate Secretary.

In her consulting role, Kathy has served as Interim Executive Director/CEO for several nonprofit organizations; led planning efforts to merge and launch nonprofit organizations; assisted boards with strategic planning processes, governance, and leadership performance reviews; organized capital campaigns; and managed large and small conferences and events.

In addition to her professional experience, Kathy has a long track record of leadership in volunteer roles. Current board affiliations include Boston After School & Beyond, and the Institute for Nonprofit Practice.

Superintendent, Boston Public Schools

Dr. Brenda Cassellius has spent three decades as an educator devoted to helping all children succeed and thrive. Most recently as Minnesota’s commissioner of education she worked to enact comprehensive education reforms that benefited every child throughout the state. Her straightforward, community-driven approach resulted in a remarkable list of accomplishments, including historic new funding for schools, the enactment of all-day kindergarten, state-funded preschool for 25,000 three and four year old children, and the highest high school graduation rates on record.

A respected educator throughout her profession and across partisan lines, Dr. Cassellius is best known for her unrelenting advocacy and commitment to ensuring all children are given an equitable and excellent education. While commissioner, she served on the board of directors for the Council for Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and contributed to the development of their 10 Equity Commitments, which state education chiefs across the nation have adopted to further equity goals and outcomes.

Since starting her career in 1990 as a special education paraprofessional, she moved on to roles as a classroom teacher, administrator and superintendent in school systems in Minnesota and Tennessee. She’s successfully led redesign and change efforts that put students first, focus on achievement and have resulted in better outcomes for all students. She believes change can happen quickly if it is purposeful, collaborative, and grounded in effective strategies, and her record has proven that belief to be true.

Prior to serving as commissioner, Dr. Cassellius was the superintendent of the East Metro Integration District, where she led an integration and achievement agenda with 10 East Metro school district superintendents. She also served as an associate superintendent in the Minneapolis Public School District, where she led 19 middle and high schools and was responsible for the implementation of the Minneapolis Secondary Redesign; and as academic superintendent of middle schools in Memphis, Tennessee where she was responsible for middle school and district reforms that led to accelerated gains, narrowed achievement gaps, and the end of corporal punishment.

Dr. Cassellius is married to Jason and is celebrating her 20th anniversary this year. She is the proud mother of three children, Christian Michel, Ani Grace, and Charles Justice. Outside of work, she enjoys playing hockey, water skiing, and spending time with family and friends.

Vice President, External Affairs, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated

Stacia has served as Vice President of External Affairs at Vertex Pharmaceuticals for the past five years. In this role, she leads Vertex’s engagement with the Boston Public Schools and community providers, particularly around STEM learning. Prior to joining Vertex, Stacia served in a variety of roles, including at the Mass Biotechnology Council and the Massachusetts House of Representatives. She is a graduate of Harvard University.

Commissioner, Boston Centers for Youth and Family

In his role as Commissioner, Morales serves within Mayor Walsh’s Health and Human Services Cabinet and oversees many of the key functions and programs of BCYF, including an array of out-of-school-time programs, elderly and family-centered programs, recreational activities, youth violence prevention and intervention efforts that connect at-risk youth to services and youth employment opportunities.

Prior to serving as BCYF Commissioner, Morales served as the Executive Director of the historic Boston YMCA Achievers Branch of the YMCA of Greater Boston, and oversaw the Egleston Square Youth Teen Center, both of which address the comprehensive needs of teens within Roxbury and surrounding communities by offering a wide variety of programming, including discussion groups, sports, recreation, arts, and educational enrichment opportunities, to prepare teens to transition into college and successful careers pathways. During his tenure at the YMCA, Will was instrumental in advocating for older active adults and he helped secure resources for the Roxbury YMCA Seniors on the Move program.

A native of Roxbury, William has a longstanding passion for serving the Boston youth community; he is also a local youth trauma responder working at times with the Boston Police Department, and the BCYF Streetworkers to address area violence. William previously worked as the Senior Director at Wheelock College where he founded the Office of Community Partnerships & Programs, he also served as the Chief Operations Officer of Youth Enrichment Services.
Morales graduated from Springfield College with a B.S. in criminal justice and currently working towards attaining his M.B.A in management from Cambridge College.

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 and a member of the Senior Faculty at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education (HGSE). He has been a member of the HGSE faculty since 1997 and has served as Director of the Education Policy and Management Program. He recently completed nearly five years of service as the Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As Governor Patrick’s top education advisor and spokesman, Reville established the Executive Office of Education and had oversight of higher education, K-12 and early childhood education in the nation’s leading student achievement state. He served on all four of the state’s education governing boards and in the Governor’s Cabinet.

Reville played a lead in the Administration’s efforts on education reform 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, Reville 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 U.S.’s leading researchers, practitioners and policy-makers to set the national standards agenda.

Reville played a central role in MBAE’s development of and advocacy for Massachusetts historic “Education Reform Act of 1993,” the Commonwealth’s landmark initiative to establish standards and accountability. Reville also founded the Alliance for Education, a local education foundation which was part of the Public Education Network, a national association on whose Board Reville served for many years.

Reville has published a wide range of articles on educational improvement and edited the book entitled “A Decade of Urban School Reform: Persistence and Progress in the Boston Public Schools”. He is a graduate of Colorado College, holds a Master’s degree from Stanford University and five honorary doctorates.