Who We Are
Find out more about careers at Be the Change, Inc.
Interns
Our Board
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Alan Khazei Kristen Atwood Richard Barth Josh Bekenstein David Gergen Ben Goldhirsh
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Rob Gordon Hubie Jones Jonathan Lavine Michelle Nunn Jon Schnur Paul Fireman |
Staff Biographies
Alan Khazei has pioneered ways to empower citizens to make a difference. In 1987, as a young graduate from Harvard Law School, he turned down lucrative offers from corporate law firms to co-found a nonprofit organization called City Year with his friend, Michael Brown. City Year unites young adults ages 17-24 from all backgrounds for an intensive year of full-time community service mentoring, tutoring, and educating children. It served as the model and inspiration for President Clinton’s AmeriCorps program and now operates in 20 U.S. cities and Johannesburg and London.
In June 2003, when AmeriCorps faced a drastic funding cut, Alan joined with other service leaders to organize the “Save AmeriCorps” coalition, an effort that saved the program and led to an increase of $100 million dollars. Inspired by the success of the Save AmeriCorps campaign, in 2007, Alan launched Be the Change, Inc., a nonprofit that creates national issue based campaigns by organizing coalitions of non-profits, social entrepreneurs, policymakers, private sector leaders, academics, and citizens. In 2009, ServiceNation, the first campaign to be launched from this platform, played a key role in the enactment of the strongly bi-partisan Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. Read More. 
Sarah Beaulieu has extensive experience in fundraising, program development, and volunteer management. Most recently, she was the Deputy Chief Operating Officer at the University of Massachusetts Foundation working on policies, procedures, accounting, and finance. Previously, she served as Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at Boston College. She also has experience in annual fund and major gifts at Brown University. Sarah has a B.A. from Brown University and an M.B.A. from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. She has also completed graduate course work at the Boston University Graduate School of Social Work. Sarah is on the board of Boston City Singers, volunteers with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, and lives with her partner in Jamaica Plain, MA.
Lizzie Burns graduated with an honors degree in Political Science from Williams College. While there, she was very involved in community service working with various organizations and institutions, including a local elementary school, the Special Olympics of Massachusetts, and Record for the Blind and Dyslexic. Lizzie also served two years as the President of the Williams Lehman Council of Community Engagement – the umbrella board that manages all of the community service groups at Williams College. Lizzie also worked as an intern at the American Civil Liberties Union, where she helped the advocacy department mobilize its grassroots operations. Upon graduating, Lizzie pursued her passion for public service by working as the Deputy Finance Assistant on Alan Khazei’s Senate campaign, supporting events and other fundraising efforts. She is excited to continue her work in the nonprofit sector at Be the Change, Inc.
Emily Cherniack is the Chief of Staff at Be the Change, Inc. She holds a BA and masters in education policy from the George Washington University. While a masters candidate, Emily worked for the U.S. Department of Education, assisting state education directors and policymakers to successfully support and educate the 5 million non-native English speaking children in our nation's schools. She has also served as a corps member, program manager, and service director at City Year Boston. Emily is a member of the City Year Boston alumni board and is active in community service in the greater Boston area.
Elizabeth Clay is the Deputy Director of OpportunityNation. Before joining Be the Change, Inc. she served for three years in the Office of Governor Deval Patrick, as a Policy Advisor and then as Director of Grassroots Governance and Commonwealth Corps. Before joining the Patrick administration, she worked for Abt Associates, researching housing and community revitalization. Elizabeth is also the co-author of Shaping Vibrant Cities, a guidebook on effective community planning and political engagement for neighborhood organizations. It is based on community organizing work with Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy in Bangalore, India. She is a graduate from Columbia University and holds a Master in City Planning degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ross Cohen is the Director of Mission Serve for ServiceNation, where he is working to connect military and civilian elements of national and community service. Prior to joining Be the Change, Inc. and the ServiceNation coalition, Ross worked as the Deputy Campaign Manager for a U.S. House of Representatives race in South Florida and as the Deputy Policy Director for a Presidential campaign.
Before entering politics, Ross served in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper for three years, serving in the 1st-501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, and deploying to eastern Afghanistan as a part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Ross has also worked at the International Herald Tribune in Paris, France, and at the UB Post in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
He is an honors graduate from Brown University and holds a Master in Public Affairs from Princeton University.
Mark Edwards is the executive director of OpportunityNation, the next campaign of Be the Change, Inc. OpportunityNation is seeking to build a national coalition of anti-poverty nonprofit groups, business leaders, thought leaders, and grassroots organizations in an effort to build support for a nonpartisan agenda to expand opportunity across America. Prior to joining Be the Change, Mark was the managing partner of Edwards & Company, Inc., a marketing and communications company focused on elevating educational institutions and not-for-profit organizations. He has also served on several nonprofit boards, including the board of Horizons for Homeless Children for the last 18 years (as board chair for five years), where he played a critical leadership role in growing that organization into the country’s largest nonprofit focused on the needs of homeless children. Mark is a graduate of Harvard College and lives in Massachusetts with his wife and three daughters.
Jamie Folsom is Director of Technology for Be the Change and its campaigns and initiatives. He is a native of Boston Massachusetts, and skilled in envisioning, creating, and deploying useful and usable technology tools. He has extensive experience teaching with and about technology. He holds a Master's Degree in Educational Technology from Harvard University, and he has worked as a teacher, trainer, and web developer for 15 years. His work includes diverse projects in the nonprofit sector, in educational, arts and cultural institutions and for a wide range of public and political organizations and corporations. Jamie served for two years as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea, West Africa, where he learned a great deal about the appropriate, and improvisational uses of technology, and about the importance of access to, and participation in education, politics, the media and community.
Heidi Johnson is the creative strategist at Be the Change, Inc. Heidi has worked with a diverse range of organizations in the private and non-profit sectors to create unique brands, marketing campaigns, special events and website designs that help celebrate each organization’s mission, vision and values. She has developed signature events and products for City Year, Earthwatch, The House of Blues Foundation, Oxfam America, many educational institutions and the White House Commission for National Service. In addition, Heidi has led signature co-branding initiatives with The Timberland Company, Honest Tea, Aramark, PepsiCo, T-Mobile and Pepperidge Farm. Her design work has been published in numerous periodicals and is on exhibit at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum. Heidi received her Master of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the recipient of a special recognition from the American Institute of Architects and is a grantee of The National Endowment for the Arts.
Katie Loughmiller graduated summa cum laude from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. Prior to joining Be the Change, Inc., Katie studied abroad with Pratt Institute in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. While studying abroad, she taught an after school drama workshop in a local high school culminating in a play in which she wrote and directed. Katie has worked in many different educational settings in Washington D.C, New York City and Boston. She also worked for the non-profit organization Project Bread - The Walk for Hunger Inc. as the Massachusetts Child Hunger Initiative Assistant. There, she worked on statewide outreach for the food stamp and summer food service programs. Katie continues her theatre work and can often be seen on or behind the North Quincy Community Theatre and Milton Players stages.
Greg Propper is the Executive Director of the ServiceNation campaign and the managing director for Be the Change, Inc.. Greg was one of the first staff members of Be the Change, Inc., where he helped to launch the campaign with the ServiceNation Presidential Candidates Forum and Summit on September 11, 2008. Prior to his role with Be the Change, Inc., Greg was an advocate and organizer, helping to lead the "Save AmeriCorps" campaign of 2003 that restored cut funding from the federally sponsored national service program. He is a former Dutko Fellow and has also been employed as the issue advocacy coordinator for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the national mobilization coordinator for City Year, Inc. Greg has worked with the Appleseed Foundation in Washington, D.C. and with the New York City Law Department juvenile prosecution division in the Bronx, N.Y. Greg is a member of the board of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University. He holds a BA with high honors from Tufts University and a J.D. from Cardozo School of Law in New York City. He is currently based in Los Angeles, where he oversees ServiceNation's growing relationship with the entertainment community.
MaryLee Walsh grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts with six siblings and moved to the West Coast after graduating from Providence College in Providence, RI. Prior to joining Be the Change, Inc. she worked on the Emmy nominated show, Everybody Hates Chris. While working as a producer’s assistant she served as the Community Liaison, coordinating set visits for such groups as the Make A Wish Foundation. In addition to her experience in the entertainment industry she has worked on multiple political campaigns, for ESPN the X-Games, and for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. MaryLee has taken part in numerous endurance events to raise monies for suicide prevention, mental health awareness, and cancer research.
Cara Willis is originally from Massachusetts and attended Boston University where she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Political Science and History. She previously worked in the Office of Governor Deval Patrick as the Governor's Scheduling Coordinator. In her free time, Cara is actively involved with the New England dance community as a performer, choreographer, and teacher.
Michelynn Woodard is the Managing Director of West Coast Operations for Be The Change, Inc. Michelynn has over 15 years of broad experience in both the non-profit and corporate sectors. Most recently, Michelynn served as President and Chief Operating Officer for West Brands, LLC and Chair of the Kanye West Foundation. Prior to that, Michelynn was Program Director, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) Foundation where she worked with talent interested in creating social activism platforms and developing strategic philanthropic initiatives. Michelynn also served as Director of Network Distribution for Fox Broadcasting Company, where she was the liaison to the network for over 50 local television stations throughout the country. Her career began at Public Broadcasting Services in the Corporate Development division. Michelynn is an honors graduate of Hampton University. She resides in Los Angeles.
Tony Woods is a native of northern California. In 1999, he began his military career when he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as an Army officer. Tony deployed twice as a platoon leader to Iraq from 2004 to 2005 and from 2005 to 2006. In 2006, Tony began graduate studies at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Tony graduated with a Master in Public Policy with emphasis on the strategic management of nonprofits and NGOs in 2008. Following graduate school, Tony worked as an assistant secretary to governor David Paterson of New York. Prior to joining ServiceNation, Tony was a candidate for Congress in the special election to fill the vacated seat left by Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher in California's 10th Congressional district (his home district).
Ning Jun Yuan is the Digital Media Coordinator of Be the Change, Inc. After graduating from the University of Georgia with a major in history, he served for two years as an AmeriCorps member in City Year Boston. He provided classroom assistance, tutoring, and mentoring in the Dorchester neighborhood Boston and continues to be involved in the local service and nonprofit community. Having lived in China and Malawi while growing up, he pursues an interest in the intersection of technology and the global community.
Board Member Biographies
Founder and CEO, Be the Change, Inc.
Founding Staff Member, City Year, Inc.
Kristen Atwood was a founding staff member of City Year, Inc. She played an instrumental role in the development of the organization. She recruited the corps for the City Year’s summer pilot program in 1988; she also influenced the culture of City Year profoundly by using her fluency in American Sign Language to devise tools and other cultural elements that are still in use today. She continues to serve as a resource on City Year’s strategy for international growth and expansion and has been a champion of City Year South Africa. Kristen is the proud mother of five children and is actively involved in the Nobles School, where two of her children are currently students.
President and CEO, KIPP Foundation
Richard Barth is President and CEO of the KIPP Foundation. He has led the KIPP Foundation through the process of identifying five organizational imperatives to ensure the sustainability of the KIPP network as it grows to over 100 schools in the next five years. In the past two years, Richard has overseen the expansion of KIPP’s leadership development programs, put in place a disciplined approach to managing growth, recruited two new outside directors to the KIPP Foundation board, and secured over $25 million in new, long-term funding commitments. This year, he is participating in the inaugural class of the Aspen Institute-New Schools Fellows program. Mr. Barth came to KIPP from Edison Schools, where he served as President of District Partnerships and managed Edison Schools’ partnership in Philadelphia. Prior to joining Edison, Richard was one of the founding staff members at Teach For America. He earned a BA in American History from Harvard University in 1989.
Managing Director, Bain Capital
Josh Bekenstein is the Managing Director at Bain Capital. Mr. Bekenstein joined Bain Capital at its inception in 1984. He has been a Managing Director since 1986. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Josh spent several years at Bain & Company where he was involved with companies in a variety of industries. Mr. Bekenstein received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Yale University.
Sandy Edgerley graduated from Harvard University with an AB in Biology in 1984, cum laude general studies. She graduated with distinction with an MBA in 1989, also from Harvard. Ms. Edgerley worked at Bain & Company, a management consulting company, for ten years (1984-87, 1989-96) as an Associate Consultant, Consultant and Manager on the consulting staff, then as Director of Recruiting and Training. She left Bain & Company to raise her children and pursue philanthropic efforts that help children in the Boston community. Ms. Edgerley is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Boys and Girls Club of Boston, which annually serves 14,000 youth in the inner city of Boston and Chelsea. Ms. Edgerley is also involved with the United Way of Massachusetts Bay as a Board member and has been a Co-Chair of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society since 1998. Ms. Edgerley also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Horizons for Homeless Children. She is a trustee of the Meadowbrook School in Weston, where she formerly co-chaired the school expansion effort. Additionally she serves on the Executive Committee of the Harvard College Fund as Co-Chair of Reunion Giving, as well as on the Board of Dean's Advisors of Harvard Business School. Ms. Edgerley is also a trustee for the Noble and Greenough School, where she is the Co-Chair of the Long Range Planning Committee. In addition, she is an Overseer of the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston. She has been married to Paul B. Edgerley, managing director of Bain Capital, for 20 years. They have four children: Brian, Matthew, Hayley, and Michael. The Edgerleys live in Brookline, MA.
Chairman, Fireman Capital Partners
Paul Fireman is the Chairman of Fireman Capital Partners located in Boston, Massachusetts. Fireman Capital Partners is a platform for Paul and his partners (which include his son Dan) to manage relationships and make investments in the consumer product and real estate sectors. Until 2006, when he led the sale to Adidas, Paul was Chairman & CEO of Reebok International Ltd in Canton, Massaeechusetts. He introduced the first women's athletic shoe in 1982 and throughout the years began aggressive international expansion of his company. Reebok's products are sold in more than 170 countries. Paul attended Boston University and is a graduate of Tabor Academy. Paul and his wife, Phyllis, reside in Brookline, Massachusetts as well as Palm Beach, Florida. As co-founders of the Paul and Phyllis Fireman Family Foundation, Paul and Phyllis, manage one of Massachusetts' largest private foundations. They have 3 children and 7 grandchildren.
Director, Center for Public Leadership, Harvard University
David Gergen is a Professor of Public Service and Director of the Center for Public Leadership. Over the past three decades, he has served as a White House advisor to four presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. In the mid-1980s, he began a career in journalism, becoming Editor of U.S. News & World Report . He joined the Kennedy School faculty in January 1999, while remaining Editor-at-Large for U.S. News and a frequent television analyst. In the fall of 2000, he published a best-seller , Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton . He also chairs the National Selection Committee for the Innovations in American Government program. He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School and holds fourteen honorary degrees. He served three-and-a-half years in the Navy and is a member of the Washington, DC Bar. His wife, Anne, is a family therapist in Cambridge.
Founder, GOOD Managzine
Benjamin Goldhirsh is the founder and Chairman of GOOD, an editorially led, member driven community of people, NGOs, and corporations pushing our world forward. GOOD’s mission is to provide content that coalesces this community, experiences that deepen the relationships within this community, and utilities that empower this community. Active in both regional and international philanthropic endeavors, Ben is one of the Directors of The Goldhirsh Foundation, which supports dynamic social programs, environmental initiatives, innovative medical research, and leading cultural institutions. Ben serves on the Board of Millennium Promise, an organization guided by the UN’s Millennium Development goals to end extreme global poverty by 2025, as well as the Los Angeles Board of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship and the board of City Year Los Angeles. A graduate of Brown University and Phillips Academy, Ben currently resides in Los Angeles.
Senior Vice President for Civic Leadership, City Year, Inc.
Colonel Rob Gordon, retired, is the Senior Vice President for Civic Leadership at City Year, Inc., a member of AmeriCorps, which was a policy initiative he helped found when he was a White House Fellow and Director of Special Operations for the Office of National Service in 1993. Prior to joining City Year, Rob was the Academy Professor of Social Science and Director of American Politics at the United States Military Academy at West Point. A graduate of the National War College and the Army Command and General Staff College, Rob received his BS from the United States Military Academy and an MA in public affairs from Princeton University.
Social Entrepreneur in Residence, City Year, Inc.
Hubie Jones is the Social Entrepreneur in Residence at City Year, Inc. Born in the Bronx neighborhood of New York City, Hubie came to Boston in 1955 after graduating from the City College of New York. After receiving a master's in social work from Boston University, Hubie moved through a series of positions in Boston social work agencies. Starting at Boston Children's Services in 1957, he left for Judge Baker Guidance Center in 1961, and in 1965, he became the director of the Roxbury Multiservice Center, where he remained until 1971. Under Hubie, RMC became a national model for neighborhood-based social services for low-income city residents. Hubie spent the 1971-1972 year as the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Community Fellow at MIT, and from 1972 until 1977 he was an associate professor in the department of urban studies and planning at MIT. He then became the first African American appointed to a deanship at Boston University, serving as the dean of the School of Social Work from 1977 to 1993. Between 1995 and 2002, Hubie served as special assistant to the chancellor for urban affairs at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. In 2002, he founded the Boston Children's Chorus, consisting of eighty young people from diverse ethnic and socio-economical backgrounds. Hubie has been honored numerous times for his dedication to children's advocacy, and friends and colleagues have established The Hubie Fund, to benefit ongoing social concerns in Boston.
Managing Director, Bain Capital
Jonathan Lavine serves as the Chief Investment Officer of Sankaty Advisors, the fixed income and credit affiliate of Bain Capital, which he started in 1997. Today, Sankaty is one of the nation’s leading managers of leveraged loans and bonds, credit derivatives, mezzanine and distressed debt, with 70 investment professionals in offices in Boston, London and Chicago and approximately $25 billion in committed assets under management. Before the formation of Sankaty, Jonathan worked in Bain Capital’s private equity business. Prior to joining Bain Capital, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. He began his career at Drexel Burnham Lambert in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department.
An active participant in charitable organizations, Jonathan is a member of the Boards of Columbia College, Children’s Hospital Trust, City Year, Horizons for Homeless Children, and Stand for Children. Jonathan also serves as a Director of the Boston Celtics. In 2004, Jonathan was honored as one of the Boston Business Journal’s 40 outstanding Bostonians under the age of 40. Jonathan received an M.B.A., with Distinction, from Harvard Business School, and a B.A., Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Columbia College. While at Columbia, he received the David Truman Award for outstanding contribution to the academic affairs of the college.
Co-Founder and CEO, Points Of Light & Hands On Network
Michelle Nunn is the CEO of Point of Light & Hands On Network. Prior to co-founding Hands On Network, Michelle was the founding director of Hands On Atlanta, a non-profit organization that helps individuals, families, corporate and community groups find flexible volunteer opportunities at over 400 service organizations and schools. Hands On Atlanta volunteers, now 37,000 strong, are at work every day of the year building community and meeting critical needs in schools, parks, senior homes, food banks, pet shelters, low-income neighborhoods and more. From her initial leadership as Hands On Atlanta’s first staff person, Michelle has played a central role in the growth of a national movement that became Hands On Network with a membership of 73 affiliate organizations across the country and around the globe – all based on the same “Hands On” model of service that started with three founding affiliates in Atlanta, New York, and Washington, D.C
Michelle currently serves on the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. She has received a variety of awards and was recently named by Georgia Trend Magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential Georgians." Michelle resides in Atlanta with her husband, Ron Martin, her son, Vinson and her daughter, Elizabeth.
Michelle graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Virginia in 1989. She has studied at Oxford University and in India. She was a Kellogg National Fellow and has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She has also received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Oglethorpe University.
Co-Founder & CEO, New Leaders for New Schools
Jon Schnur is the CEO and co-founder of New Leaders for New Schools - the national non-profit organization devoted to high achievement for every child by attracting, preparing, and supporting the next generation of outstanding leaders for our nation's urban schools. New Leaders for New Schools aims to provide 25 percent of the new urban principals needed in the U.S. by 2012 - and ensure that 90-100 percent of students in schools led by New Leaders principals for at least 5 years achieve proficiency in core academic subjects and graduate from high school ready for college.
Jon founded New Leaders in 2000 and has led the organization since then. Previously, Mr. Schnur served as Special Assistant to Secretary of Education Richard Riley, President Clinton's White House Associate Director for Educational Policy, and Senior Advisor on Education to Vice President Gore. He has developed national educational policies on teacher and principal quality, after-school programs, district reform, charter schools, and preschools. Jon graduated from Princeton University and a Wisconsin public high school. Jon is deeply committed to educational excellence for every child. He adores spending time with his wife Elisa, son Matthew Sam, and daughter Elizabeth Rebecca.
