Team
Advisory Council
The Advisory Council of the Women’s Foundation of Boston is an active volunteer group formed to provide advice and support to the organization.
Martha (Marty) Blue is an accomplished Board and Executive Team member with significant leadership experience in rapid growth environments. Until June 2019 she was SVP of Business Development at CarGurus, where she also launched the Sales, B2B Marketing, Product, and Industry Relations functions. Prior to CarGurus, Marty spent 16 years in licensing at Reebok International. She is currently an Independent board member at Openbay, a Senior Advisor at Boston Consulting Group, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School, and a member of the Board of Directors at Good Sports. Marty holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Harvard University and has a Masters in Business Administration from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College.
After a career working at real estate investment advisory firms, Cherise Bransfield shifted to work in fundraising, first as a development director for a local private school and then as a nonprofit fundraising volunteer. Currently, she is chair of the development committee at Rosie’s Place. She also serves on the Advisory Board for Waypoint Adventure, a nonprofit based in Lexington, whose mission is to lead youth and adults with disabilities on outdoor adventures. Finally, Dartmouth College has been the focus of many of her volunteer fundraising efforts, including leading reunion campaigns and becoming one of the founding members of the Centennial Circle, the first women’s giving group of its kind among Ivy League institutions. She is also a board member for the 90-year old Dartmouth Women’s Club of Boston.
Ellen Calmas brings 30 years of brand building experience with Fortune 500 and entrepreneurial companies to her role in strategic planning, marketing and sales support for Neighborhood Pay Services (NPS), the company she co-launched in 2008. Products created by NPS have helped increase access to housing for U.S. renters with less than perfect credit by reducing upfront costs and payment friction. Ellen is also part of the NPS team working to assist renters avoid eviction due to outstanding rental balances during the recent pandemic. She is active in health, civic, and arts organizations in the Greater Boston area and holds board positions for the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Emerson College, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation/New England Chapter, and the Boston Arts Summer Institute.
Chandra Clark is the Executive Director of the VHL Alliance (VHLA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing research, education and support to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and quality of life for those affected by von Hippel-Lindau Syndrome.
For the past 17 years, Chandra has served in nonprofit leadership roles, developing innovative programs and creatively cultivating opportunities in the community to support the advancement of underserved populations. Her passion lies in advocating for equity in healthcare, education, and economic access. Her diverse professional background includes business and talent development, fundraising, marketing, and external relations with experience in collaborating with corporations and organizations to develop and implement multi-level projects, partnerships, programs, and community initiatives.
Yolanda Coentro is the President and CEO of the Institute for Nonprofit Practice (INP), which equips promising nonprofit leaders with the skills, confidence, and resources they need to make their organizations effective, innovative, and sustainable. Under Yolanda’s leadership, INP is deepening programmatic impact, scaling nationally and is a leader in equity and inclusion work. She has consulted with organizations and companies across sectors to advance organizational change and actualize their equity and inclusion objectives. She is currently on the board of The BASE, the Needham Education Foundation, serves on Independent Sector’s Public Policy Committee and is an Advisory Board Member of Common Purpose Boston and The Center for State Policy Analysis. A graduate of Boston College, she has a Master’s in Social Work and is a proud alum of the Institute for Nonprofit Practice.
Katherine Collins
Katherine Collins is the first Head of Sustainable Investing at Putnam Investments and Founder of Honeybee Capital Foundation. After many years serving as head of research and portfolio manager at Fidelity Investments, Katherine set out to re-integrate her investment philosophy with the broader world, traveling as a pilgrim and volunteer, earning her MTS degree at Harvard Divinity School, and studying biomimicry and the natural world as guides for investing in an integrated, regenerative way, beneficial to our communities and our planet. Katherine is author of The Nature of Investing, and serves on the boards of Last Mile Health, the Omega Institute, the Santa Fe Institute, and the Harvard Divinity School Dean’s Council. She is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and Wellesley College, and is a CFA charter holder and a beekeeper.
Margarete Dupere is an accomplished human capital executive and leadership coach. She has helped leaders and teams make the cultural, behavioral and organization changes that create an inclusive, empathic, empowering work environment and improve business results.
Marge spent 18 years at State Street where she was Senior Vice President, Global Human Resources; she served as Global Head of Organization Development for Analog Devices, was a Consultant with Korn Ferry/Hay Group and was Managing Partner for a Boston-based professional services firm.
She holds an MA in Organizational Psychology and a BA in Psychology, is a graduate of the Columbia University Coach Intensive Program and served as a coach and facilitator for several of Harvard Business School’s Executive Education programs. Her board and non-profit work has focused on women, education, wellness and food insecurity.
Rana el Kaliouby is co-founder and CEO of Affectiva. Having defined the category of Emotion AI, Rana is now pioneering Human Perception AI: technology that can understand all things human. A passionate advocate for innovation, ethics in AI and diversity, Rana has been recognized on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 and Forbes America’s Top 50 Women in Tech. Rana is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and a Post Doctorate at MIT.
Marshall Everson
about Marshall Marshall Everson is Vice President, Investments and Strategy at York IE, a vertically integrated strategic growth firm. In this role, he identifies and evaluates investment opportunities and works directly with entrepreneurs in the B2B software sector on all stages of the startup lifecycle. Previously, Marshall was a strategic development analyst at Oracle, where he helped run the mergers and acquisitions process for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. He began his career playing professional hockey in both the United States and Norway. Marshall has a bachelor of arts degree in government and economics from Harvard University.
Nicole Fitzpatrick is deputy general counsel at Akamai Technologies, and sits on the Diversity and Inclusion Executive Steering Committee within the company. She joined the Akamai legal team a decade ago, following spending over ten years working in private practice, both as a partner at Goodwin Procter, and a junior partner and associate at WilmerHale. Nicole serves her community by sitting on the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee of the Meadowbrook School, the Board of Directors of Girls on the Run, Greater Boston, and is a class manager for the University of Virginia School of Law. She earned degrees from the University of Virginia School of Law and Boston College.
Laurie Glimcher
about Laurie
Laurie H. Glimcher, MD, was named President and CEO of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2016. She is also Director of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and the Richard and Susan Smith Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Previously, she was the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean and Professor of Medicine of Weill Cornell Medicine and Provost for Medical Affairs of Cornell University. Dr. Glimcher is a distinguished immunologist, widely renowned for her work in one of the most promising areas of cancer research.
A trailblazer in cancer research, Dr. Glimcher’s research identified key transcriptional regulators of protective immunity and the origin of pathophysiologic immune responses underlying autoimmune, infectious, and malignant diseases. Dr. Glimcher speaks nationally and internationally on cancer, immunology, skeletal biology, and translational medicine, and has contributed more than 350 scholarly articles and papers to the medical literature.
Dr. Glimcher is a magna cum laude graduate of Radcliffe College, and holds an MD degree cum laude from Harvard Medical School.
Victoria Gonin Victoria Gonin currently serves as the Executive Director of Alumni Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a strategic and highly-collaborative leader with experience in corporate and higher education administration. As an innovative thinker, Victoria has the ability to inspire and mobilize teams, capitalize on individual strengths, and build mutually beneficial partnerships to implement change.
Victoria is committed to supporting women’s development through engaging women’s programming. She is particularly focused on connecting women leaders so that they can be inspired to have a greater impact in their communities and in the world. Victoria served as President and Co-Founder of one of the earliest women’s giving circles in Boston, Womenade Boston. She is a graduate of Middlebury College.
Diane Hessan
about Diane Diane Hessan is an award-winning entrepreneur, researcher and author. She is the founder and Chairman of C Space, formerly Communispace, which was the first company to build online communities for market research. Diane was CEO of the company during 14 years of exponential growth, as the company’s 700 employees worked with hundreds of global brands to gain insight and inspiration from their consumers. She was also CEO of Startup Institute, which designed and ran bootcamps for people who needed the skills and connections to work in tech. Diane has consolidated all her investment and advisory work into a company, Salient Ventures, which helps accelerate the next generation of growth companies in tech.
Diane is author of the recently published book, Our Common Ground: Insights from 4 years of Listening to American Voters. She also co-authored the book Customer-Centered Growth: Five Strategies for Building Competitive Advantage, a Business Week best-seller that is published in 11 languages.
Diane serves on the boards of Panera, Eastern Bank, Brightcove, Schlesinger Group, Tufts University, Mass Challenge, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She received her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and her B.A. in Economics from Tufts University.
An accomplished CEO, executive coach and business consultant, Jamie excels in organizational design, business and board development, strategic communications, and relationship management. Since 2003, she has been President of Jamie Jaffee Enterprises, an executive coaching and advisory firm. Her clients span corporations, foundations, and nonprofit organizations. Previously, Jamie worked at Fidelity Investments, where she built and led the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund serving as its first President. Fidelity Charitable is now the largest grant maker in the country with $20B donated to charities world-wide since inception; charitable assets grew from $0 to $2 billion during Jamie’s tenure. Throughout her career, she has remained committed as a leader and mentor to women at all stages of their careers – many have grown to become senior executives within their organizations. A graduate of Michigan State University, Jamie has also held senior positions at Bain/Bridgespan, State Street, Massachusetts General Hospital, and The Boston Foundation and has served on numerous nonprofit boards.
Josh Kraft recently transitioned into the role of President of Kraft Family Philanthropies, after having served and steered the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston (BGCB) for nearly 30 years. As Founding Executive Director, he spearheaded the construction of today’s state-of-the-art Gerald and Darlene Jordan Boys & Girls Club. As Nicholas President and CEO of BGCB, Josh continued his service for the 12,500 youth served there each year. Josh also serves on the boards of Brandeis University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Herren Project, and is a co-chair of the Hate Crimes Task Force for Massachusetts.
Caroline Kung
about Caroline
Caroline Kung (Strategic Initiatives Manager) is passionate about partnering with, investing in, and advising women entrepreneurs to scale and grow businesses with positive impact. Caroline was a Managing Director at H.I.G. Capital, a global private investment firm, and has served on the boards of numerous companies. Earlier in her career, Caroline worked in investment banking at Merrill Lynch and business planning at Armani. Caroline is a member of the Advisory Board for the Center for Women and Enterprise and Treasurer of the Boston Chapter of Alumnae-i Network for Harvard Women. She also volunteers with Beacon Hill Village and FriendshipWorks to help alleviate elder challenges. Caroline has an A.B. in Psychology and East Asian Studies from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Nancy Leeser is the Principal at Meaningful Meetings, an organization focused on building professional connections through networking with image and styling confidence. She enjoys making connections and establishing partnerships along with building teams, business development and business strategy. Her corporate career included multiple leadership positions in call center management and customer service for the high tech, transportation and bio-tech industries. She then transitioned to higher education, where she developed corporate relationships for the Simmons Leadership Conference, growing the dollar volume of sponsorships by 500%. Nancy earned a marketing degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an MBA and Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Northeastern University.
Katie Lemaire
Katie Lemaire worked for more than 35 years as a management consultant for Hay Group and then Korn Ferry, where she helped leaders build their organizations, ensure that they have the right capabilities in place and leverage their leadership teams. Over her career, she led multiple global teams and helped build the firm’s thought leadership in areas such as performance management and executive team performance. As part of the Korn Ferry team, she collaborated with the Rockefeller Foundation on research to identify the qualities that drive women to become CEOs of the world’s largest companies. Katie has also served as an advisor to many Boards of Directors, helping them improve their governance practices. Since retiring in 2020, she is an advisor to multiple organizations and serves on the Board of Directors of the American Youth Foundation. Katie earned her BA from Colby College and her MBA from Babson College.
Jennifer Lum is an investor and entrepreneur. She co-founded Forge.AI and Adelphic (acquired by Time) and was an early team member at Quattro Wireless (acquired by Apple), m-Qube (acquired by VeriSign) and WebHosting.com (acquired by AT&T). Jennifer previously worked as a management consultant with financial services and technology companies.
Jennifer is an angel investor as well as an advisor to startups and venture capital firms. She is an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at Harvard Business School and an advisor to student entrepreneurs at MIT.
Melissa Luna is Executive Director of GreenLight Fund Boston. Prior to joining GreenLight, she led programming and managed a national portfolio of grantees in the fields women and politics, and sex trafficking at Swanee Hunt Alternatives. Melissa has more than 15 years of experience in nonprofit management, strategic planning, and program evaluation. She launched programs focused on youth development, civic engagement, and broad systems change in the city of Boston during her 10-year tenure at Sociedad Latina. Melissa credits her passion for social justice and civic engagement to her years spent during her undergraduate studies serving in Boston’s communities as part of Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA). She currently serves on the boards of PBHA and March Forward Massachusetts. Melissa graduated from Harvard University and is an alumna of the Institute of Nonprofit Practice.
Nicole Obi is a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded several venture backed start-ups. Until 2018, she was Vice President of Customer Insights & Engagement Strategy at Fidelity Investments, and she is currently the Lead for Strategic Initiatives at the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts. Nicole is a member of the Boston Chapter of The Links Inc, a volunteer service organization for professional Black women. She also serves on the Intensive Community Program Committee of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and is on the Board of Advisors for WGBH. Nicole earned master’s degrees from the MIT Sloan School of Management and the MIT School of Urban Planning & Design, and she holds a BS degree from Hampton University.
Donna Quirk is Head of Business Development for Yot.me, a virtual events/events management platform and experience marketing CRM for nonprofit organizations. She is responsible for partnerships with nonprofits and brands. Donna has spent over 20 years in the nonprofit world, serving as Director of Corporate and Foundations at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts, Head of Development at Big Sisters Boston and Development Officer at City Year Boston. She has served on the Board of Directors at Heading Home Inc. for the homeless and The Vincent Club, supporting Women’s Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her academic focus was on teaching and library work and culminated in a master’s degree in Education Administration from Boston College.
Jill Roberts worked for many years in marketing positions at Hill, Holliday Advertising, Epsilon Database Management and Fidelity Investments before taking time off to raise four children. She is very active in the nonprofit world as a member of the Boston Ballet Board of Trustees and Chair of the Boston Ballet Gala, Chair of the New England BRIF Council, member of the Jewish Federation National Women’s Philanthropy Board, and past president of Women’s Philanthropy for the Combined Jewish Philanthropies. Jill is also actively involved with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Huntington Theatre Company and YPO Gold. She is a graduate of the MIT Sloan School of Management and Wellesley College. She lives in Newton with her husband, Mitchell, and in her free time, she is a choreographer for local musical productions.
Jill Shah
about Jill Jill Shah is the President of the Shah Family Foundation, which supports innovative and transformative work where education, healthcare and community intersect in the city of Boston. The foundation’s primary work and support is centered on Boston’s schools and community organizations, with the goal of sharing broadly the programs and solutions that prove successful. Jill’s civic interests include healthy food in schools, food access in high-needs neighborhoods, rigorous and successful public schools for all kids, and a deeper collaboration between education and healthcare around issues of physical, mental, emotional, and social health.
Jill is a graduate of Providence College where she earned a B.A. in English. Before launching the foundation, Jill was an entrepreneur in Boston, involved in internet start-ups, including iXL and RxCentric. She also served on the executive team during the turn-around and sale of Mercator Software. She sold her last company, Jill’s List, to MINDBODY in 2013.
Jill is the recent recipient of the Boston Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Bostonian award and the Playworks Game Changer award. She is an overseer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the overseers of the Museum of Fine Arts, and serves on the boards of the Belmont Hill School, and the Winsor School.
Christina Heenan Suh holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in English and Marketing and a master’s from Columbia University. A former management consultant, her work focused on strategy and implementation projects for Fortune 100 clients. She was also an account executive at Hill+Knowlton (WPP) marketing consumer packaged goods. As an Executive Board Member of the Brookline Education Foundation, which funds professional development in the Brookline Public Schools, Christina led their Grant and Oversight Committees. She currently sits on the board of the Brookline Library Foundation and teaches ESL at Rosie’s Place in Boston.
Matt Verlinden is a business executive with a record of driving success in the biopharma and pharma industries as well as management consulting. He is currently a Senior Director at Ipsen Biosciences in Cambridge where he helps lead two global drug development efforts in oncology. Before that, Matt was a Director of Strategic Innovation at Biogen. He has his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management as well as two degrees in chemical engineering. He comes to Boston from Iowa where he grew up on a farm that raised Black Angus cattle, corn and soybeans.
Maryanne Waldman is a First Vice President – Financial Advisor for RBC Wealth Management. Prior to her current position, she was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. After graduating from Brandeis University in 1975, Maryanne began her career in financial services at Merrill Lynch in New York City. From there she returned to graduate school at Columbia Business School, earning her MBA in finance in 1979. After graduation, Maryanne joined Citibank in New York and two years later, relocated to Miami as part of the team that launched the bank’s first bond office outside of Manhattan. She later moved to Smith Barney as a full-service financial advisor before returning to the Northeast in 1991. She serves on the board of the Global Interdependence Center and currently resides in Boston.
Ross Wilson is the Executive Director of the Shah Family Foundation. Prior to this position, Ross Wilson spent almost two decades serving the Boston Public Schools in a variety of roles in including Deputy Superintendent, Chief of Staff, Assistant Superintendent for Human Capital, Principal, kindergarten teacher, literacy specialist, and teacher of students with disabilities. Ross holds Bachelors Degrees in Special Education, Elementary Education, and Psychology, and a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology from Marist College; a Masters Degree in Education Leadership from the University of Massachusetts Boston; a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Boston College and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School. Ross is the president of the Boston chapter of Achilles International.
Ross and his wife, Lesia, live in Boston and are the proud parents of three boys who attend Boston Public Schools.
Eileen Wynne is a CPA and qualified financial expert. Her expertise includes high-tech and industrial manufacturing, higher education, public and municipal utility, and nonprofit sectors. She most recently was the Chief Accounting Officer and first internally-promoted female executive officer of Analog Devices, Inc., a Fortune 500 semiconductor manufacturing company. Her nonprofit experience includes servicing clients including Oxfam America, Project Bread, and Cambridge College; serving on the board of The Resource Partnership whose mission was to improve the quality of life of individuals with disabilities through employment; membership on the audit committee for the Old Colony Boy Scout Council; and as a Partner for Social Venture Partners-Boston. She has also mentored students in the MIT FUSE program and supports many local organizations. She earned an MS from Bentley University and a BA from St. Anselm College.
Dune Thorne is a Partner at Brown Advisory where she serves on the firm’s Executive Committee. In 2010 she founded Invest in Girls, a nonprofit focused on financial literacy for under-represented high-school girls that now works with over 4,000 girls across the country. She has given a TedX talk on gender diversity in leadership, published articles in Financial Planning and Forbes.com, been a guest multiple times on Bloomberg TV, and was featured on Wharton Business Radio Dollars and Change Podcast. Dune earned her BA at Dartmouth College and her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she completed independent studies on women and investing.
Tatiana Yglesias
about Tatiana Tatiana Yglesias is an executive leader currently performing as principal consultant for business transformation. She has +12 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry across multiple areas of the value chain, from research to sales and marketing. In her pharma career at Novartis, Tatiana has had the opportunity to lead across multiple organizational areas, countries and roles; leveraging strategic and organizational agility to accelerate results.
Originally from Costa Rica and having moved around the globe; Tatiana feels at home in Boston, where she currently lives. She holds an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering, an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a MSc. in Chemical Engineering from MIT’s School of Engineering.
Laurie H. Glimcher, MD, was named President and CEO of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2016. She is also Director of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and the Richard and Susan Smith Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Previously, she was the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean and Professor of Medicine of Weill Cornell Medicine and Provost for Medical Affairs of Cornell University. Dr. Glimcher is a distinguished immunologist, widely renowned for her work in one of the most promising areas of cancer research.
Linda Henry is the CEO of the Boston Globe Media Partners. She is a co-founder of HUBweek, a civic collaboration between the Boston Globe, Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and MIT that explores the future being built at the intersection of art, science and technology. Linda is also an early-stage impact investor, an Emmy-Award winning television producer with two shows currently airing, and a community activist. She serves as a director of the Red Sox Foundation, is a trustee of the Liverpool Football Club Foundation, chair of the Boston Globe Foundation, and chairman of the John W. Henry Family Foundation. In addition, she is a founder of the Boston Public Market, serves on the advisory board of MassChallenge, and is on the board of the Engine at MIT. She earned a BS from Babson College and her MS from MIT.
Bekah Salwasser joined the Red Sox Foundation as the Executive Director in January of 2018. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Brown University and has extensive experience in philanthropy and both professional and semi-professional sports. After four years working as Community Relations Director for the Boston Celtics, Bekah went on to lead Scholar Athletes as its Executive Director, a program that supports public high school athletes with both their athletic and academic achievements. Earlier in her career, Bekah served as a professional soccer player for the Boston Breakers and as Executive Director of the Charlestown Lacrosse and Learning Center.
Kimberly Fay Boucher is a business executive who has driven high performance organizations in technology, consumer products and social enterprise/nonprofit industries over the past 25 years. She is currently the Technology Commercialization Business Leader for the CTO at Analog Devices, where she is responsible for driving new technologies from incubation stages to successful businesses. Kim is also a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where she teaches Disciplined Entrepreneurship in the Martin Trust Center. She holds a BS in Management Industrial Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is a NCAA Academic All-American Women’s Basketball player and has been inducted into the WPI Hall of Fame.
Ami Kuan Danoff (Co-Founder and CFO) is a private investor and the trustee of a foundation. She is a Harvard Quantum Founder and a member of the Harvard FAS Dean’s Council. Ami earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in Visual and Environmental Studies and holds a dual master’s degree in Applied Economics and International Finance from the Sloan School of Management at MIT. She was a portfolio manager in global equities at Putnam Investments and co-manager of the Putnam International New Opportunities Fund, and also worked as an international equities analyst at Fidelity Investments.
Christina Heenan Suh holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in English and Marketing and a master’s from Columbia University. A former management consultant, her work focused on strategy and implementation projects for Fortune 100 clients. She was also an account executive at Hill+Knowlton (WPP) marketing consumer packaged goods. As an Executive Board Member of the Brookline Education Foundation, which funds professional development in the Brookline Public Schools, Christina led their Grant and Oversight Committees. She currently sits on the board of the Brookline Library Foundation and teaches ESL at Rosie’s Place in Boston.
Christina Gordon (Co-Founder and CEO) holds a dual master’s degree in International Finance and Applied Economics from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Boston University and also studied for a joint master’s degree in Women’s Studies and Sociology at Brandeis with a focus on women in the workplace. Christina is a former assistant fund manager and technology industry equity analyst at Wellington Management. She also worked as a stock analyst at Fidelity Investments. She is a trustee of a private foundation, a member of Women Moving Millions and currently sits on the board of Rosie’s Place, a sanctuary for poor and homeless women in Boston.