OUR STAFF
Alan Khazei Melissa Biffert Emily Cherniack
Ethan Gray
| Heidi Johnson Henri Makembe Greg Propper
Tara Robinson
Brittny Saunders Tim Zimmermann |
OUR BOARD
| Alan Khazei Kristen Atwood Richard Barth Josh Bekenstein David Gergen Ben Goldhirsh | Rob Gordon Hubie Jones Jonathan Lavine Michelle Nunn Jon Schnur |
STAFF BIOGRAPHIES
Alan Khazei is the founder and CEO of Be the Change, Inc. Alan previously served as the Co-Founder & CEO of City Year, a youth service corps that helped to inspire the development of AmeriCorps. Founded in 1988 with 50 young people in Boston, City Year now operates in 17 U.S. cities and in Johannesburg, South Africa with an annual budget of $50 million and 1,400 young adults serving 100,000 children annually. Alan serves on the Boards of Citizen Schools, City Year, New Profit and Share our Strength. In 2006 US News and World Report selected Alan as one of America's 25 Best Leaders. An honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Alan currently lives in Brookline with his wife and daughter.
Akhazei@bethechangeinc.org
Melissa Biffert is the director of strategic partnerships at Be the Change, Inc. She holds a BA from Middlebury College and a Certificate in the Management of Community Organizations from Tufts University. Throughout her career, Melissa has been dedicated to civic engagement. Most recently, she developed, executed, and evaluated programs to engage more than 80,000 Tufts alumni at the Tufts University Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. Melissa has served as site manager for Jumpstart and as both an AmeriCorps member and AmeriCorps program director for the Parasol Community Foundation. She was also a Board member of the Massachusetts Service Alliance. Melissa will be working from New York to plan our ServiceNation 2008 summit.
MBiffert@bethechangeinc.org
Emily Cherniack is the director of organizing 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.
ECherniack@bethechangeinc.org
Susannah Cowden is the special projects assistant at Be the Change, Inc. Susannah is an honors graduate of Middlebury College and holds a masters in teaching-secondary from Western New Mexico University. Prior to joining Be the Change, Susannah taught high school science in New Mexico as a Teach For America corps member. Susannah volunteers as a tutor at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, and is involved in social justice and equity issues in Nepal.
SCowden@bethechangeinc.org
Ethan Gray is the director of education policy at Be the Change, Inc. He is an honors graduate of Harvard College and holds a masters degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in education policy and management. He previously worked as a research assistant at Education Sector in Washington, DC. His past publications include an online article about entrepreneurship in education and an essay suggesting a student-centered philosophy for the ongoing curricular review of Harvard College. Ethan currently serves on the board of trustees for the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra.
EGray@bethechangeinc.org
Nicole Goberdhan is an intern at Be the Change, Inc. She is a senior at Boston University, pursuing a BA in pure and applied mathematics. Over the past four years she has worked in countries, such as Thailand, Nicaragua, and Guyana, in regards to international development. Recent projects include: re-establishing local governments, constructing houses for low-come families, and creating over twenty-two music and ESL programs in schools. Nicole will be based in the Boston office throughout the summer.
ngoberdhan@bethechangeinc.org
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.
Henri Makembe is the director of web technologies. He holds a BA from the University of Maryland and is a 2009 MBA candidate at University of Maryland. Henri has served as a web developer at the National Association of Homebuilders, where he managed a national client support network team, and as senior developer at Doceus Inc. Henri will manage Be the Change’s online development and strategy, helping create and implement innovative web tools to help build our community. He is based in the Washington, DC office.
HMakembe@bethechangeinc.org
Greg Propper is the managing director for Be the Change, Inc.. He holds a BA with high honors from Tufts University and a J.D. from Cardozo School of Law in New York City. Greg 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 helped lead the "Save AmeriCorps" campaign of 2003 that restored cut funding from the federally sponsored national service program. During his two law school summers, Greg held internships 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 was recently appointed to the Board of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University.
GPropper@bethechangeinc.org
Tara Robinson is an intern at Be the Change, Inc. She is a senior at Boston University majoring in Sociology. Her experience includes field managing for NHPIRG as well as starting up the student group Boston University Students for MassPIRG. In the fall she plans to begin a year of service as a corps member for Americorps VISTA and then pursue a Masters degree in Counseling to become a Guidance Counselor.
trobinson@bethechangeinc.org
Brittny Saunders is the director of anti-poverty initiatives. She graduated with high honors from Harvard College in 2003 with a degree in Sociology. As an undergraduate Brittny was a fellow in the Civil Rights Summer program, a joint initiative of the Civil Rights Project and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. Brittny is currently a J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School where she has been heavily involved with the Harvard Black Law Students Association, the Harvard Law School Democrats, and the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Brittny has interned with the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, the MA Office of the Governor's Legal Counsel, and the ACLU Racial Justice Program. Before attending Harvard Law School, Brittny taught elementary school in the Bronx as a Teach for America corps member and also earned a masters degree in childhood education from Fordham University.
BSaunders@bethechangeinc.org
Tim Zimmermann is the director of communications. He has been a journalist and blogger. He graduated from Yale with a B.A. in History, and has a Masters degree in War Studies from King's College in London. Tim was Diplomatic Correspondent at US News & World Report, before moving on to become a Correspondent at Outside magazine in 1998. He has written for a wide variety of publications, and in 2002 published “The Race,” a history of round-the-world sailboat racing which was selected by Barnes & Noble for their "Discover Great New Writers" program. Tim has won a number of journalism awards, and was a finalist for a 2005 National Magazine Award in the category of feature writing.
TZimmermann@bethechangeinc.org
BOARD MEMBERS 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.
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.
