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Our team is a group of professionals with experience in the education, child development, and urban development segments working alongside our collaborating consultants at The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at MGH. Members of our team have worked together in various non profit, corporate, and education settings.
Dr. Gene Beresin is Hope’s Senior Advisor Youth Development. He brings Hope strategic direction, best practices, and expert guidance in youth development and collaborates as our partner in implementation issues for the Hope 12-module leadership development curriculum. Dr. Beresin is executive director of The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a full professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and senior educator in child and adolescent psychiatry at MGH. He also serves as the national spokesperson and senior advisor on adolescent psychiatry for SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions). He received a B.A. in music from Princeton University, and an M.A. in philosophy along with his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Janet Dracksdorf is Hope Collaborative’s Senior Advisor, Grants and Education Strategy. She is a Strategic Education Executive and Non-Profit leader in Boston. Prior to her work as a non-profit education consultant, Janet served for ten years as president of Vista Higher Learning, a Boston-based publisher of market-leading foreign language learning print and technology products for secondary and post-secondary instructors and students. She has more than 25 years’ experience in the educational publishing, technology and teacher training industries. In addition to various industry leadership positions, she was a founding executive at Co-nect Inc., working with inner city school administrators and teachers to drive improvement in student achievement. Janet brings a unique blend of creative and operational strengths with a track record of building strong teams and driving fast-paced growth through innovative product development and sales and marketing strategies to expand the impact of mission-driven organizations.
Kelly Erin O’Brien is Hope’s advisors Senior Adviser on operations and efficiency. She is the CEO of Tendaji LLC, a business operations consultancy (‘Tendaji’ in Swahili means “makes things happen”). O’Brien holds a Master of Arts and Sciences, Sustainability and Environmental Management Program, Harvard University and a Master of Business Administration from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Her career includes Environmental Engineering, Research and Management for University of Santa Clara, New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., Fremont CA, and FMC Corporation, San Jose CA. She was founding partner and Chief Information Systems Officer of Gaia Systems, Portola Valley CA. Prior, O’Brien taught Environmental, Health and Safety Management at University of California, Berkeley. She is past-President of the Board of Directors of KUSP 88.9 FM, Central Cast Public Radio and hosted Life in the Fast Lane, a radio program highlighting technologies that help to free us from fossil fuels.
Naveen Reddy is Hope Collaborative’s Senior Adviser on public and private school partnerships and strategy. Naveen is the Director of Business Improvement for the Boston Public Schools, and brings to us critical experience in education business strategy and innovation approaches. Naveen is a multifaceted, strategic thinker with the vision to help us create new kinds of programs, and a leader in business process transformation with a fluent understanding of many enterprise-wide applications throughout the life cycle–from design, configuration, development, integration, testing, large-scale deployment, and product support. He has a Masters of Business Administration and a Masters of Science in Information Systems from Northeastern University.
Ralph Jaccodine is Hope Collaborative’s Chief Culture Officer and member of our board of directors. Ralph began his career in the entertainment business as a performer and concert promoter at the University of Notre Dame. He’s worked with acts as diverse as: Bruce Springsteen, Kiss, Van Halen, Rush, Heart, Dolly Parton, Hall and Oats and dozens of others. In 1992 he joined songwriter Ellis Paul and started Black Wolf Records an indie record label with his partner Mike Dreese, founder of Newbury Comics, a retail music business chain. Ralph manages a collection of talented artists including Livingston Taylor, Ellis Paul, Eric Andersen, Shun Ng, and Rebecca Loebe . He is the founder and Executive Director of Boston Rock/Talk a TV/radio show with Comcast and Emerson College as partners. Ralph is on the faculty of Berklee College of Music in Boston. He is on the Board of Directors of the Folk Alliance International and the Passim Cultural Center. He is a frequent speaker at national music conferences such as SXSW and CMJ.
Deb Schuler is Hope Collaborative’s Manager of Education Partners. She works with Hope’s partners and facilitators as their point-person for all things related to program deployment and evaluation: what students are learning, and how impactful the Hope Collaborative program is for them. Deb’s background in global leadership development programming in corporate settings, as well as her work as a consultant and passionate youth advocate, help drive Hope’s global outreach and effectiveness. She is passionate about family, community, and serving kids and teens from under-resourced settings.
Khaled Alsobhi is a co-founder of Hope Collaborative, and a member of our board of advisors. As an accomplished expert in global education. Khaled brings our team global experience and expert insight into the design and development of innovative youth curricula and new assessment and evaluation approaches. Khaled has done education research in regions around the world, including the Middle East, Africa, and the Far East. He has worked in the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia leading program development for a department that has impacted some 5 Million students and half a Million teachers in Saudi Arabia. He has participated as a member of the International Education Group at the Harvard School of Education. His professional interests include assessments and evaluations, statistics, big data, and new paths in early childhood development. He is a family man and active in supporting causes in the local community around Boston.
Joe Nevin is our Senior Advisor Corporate Strategy and a member of our board of directors. Joe is widely recognized as a leader in the field of retail store design. Joe’s comprehensive understanding of brand analysis, identity development, visual merchandising, and store planning has taken Bergmeyer to national prominence and an international marketplace in this field. Joe’s expertise in strategic positioning and the relationship between design excellence and the customer experience has garnered Bergmeyer wide publication and numerous design awards, and secured him frequent speaking roles at design schools and industry conferences. Institutional clients such as museums, aquariums, and universities have sought Bergmeyer’s advice on how their retail presence can enhance their cultural mission.Joe lives in Melrose where he is an active supporter of the Incarnation Parish and the Melrose public school system.
Maureen Creegan-Quinquis is a member of our board of advisors, and brings us expert insight into innovative education approaches, teacher recruitment strategies, and curriculum design. Maureen serves at Lesley University as the director of the Master of Education in Teacher of Visual Arts licensure programs, and is the director of the Creative Arts in Learning Division. Her art work has appeared on the covers of “Sites,” a French journal published by Routledge-Taylor & Francis. Maureen exhibits at a variety of galleries. Her most recent exhibits include installations at the Boston Drawing Collaborative at the Bernard Toale Gallery and Ward Nasse Gallery in New York.Maureen specializes in visual arts education program design and assessment, and the intersection of education policy and access to professional art schools and K-12 arts education. She has an MFA from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts; an MEd from Endicott College; and is a Doctoral Student, PhD in Educational Studies, Lesley University. She co-authored the book Strategies to Integrate the Arts in Social Studies in 2013.
Barr Keener is a member of our board of advisors, bringing us expert insight into innovative communications strategies and digital delivery approaches. Barr has specialized in communications law and development for over 15 years. He represents competing telecommunications providers, including firms using wired and wireless technologies, in state and federal regulatory matters. Barr negotiates interconnection agreements and issues involving universal service, pricing, and tariffing, and handles Internet-related entities in regulatory matters relating to rights management, privacy, and internet video. He also manages issues related to start-up firms in the telecom, wireless, and internet sectors including incorporation and general corporate governance. Throughout his practice, he has had membership positions in various bar associations. He is active in his church and is a writer, blogger, and contributor to the public discourse across a variety of pressing issues that entrepreneurs, businesses, and people in the new digital economy face . Barr enjoys family life and running in his free time.
Jay Himmelstein serves on Hope Collaborative’s advisory board. Jay brings us critical insights into strategies for curriculum deployment reaching teens in the public arena with new relationships and technologies. Jay is a Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health and Quantitative Health Sciences and Chief Health Policy Strategist and Senior Advisor for Office of Health Policy and Technology for the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Center for Health Policy and Research. His professional career in research, policy development, and service is dedicated to improving health care and health outcomes for those served by the public sector. He has placed special emphasis on Medicaid programs and health services for people with disabilities, and is a nationally recognized physician, educator and researcher. His most recent work has focused on the intersection of health policy and information technology, enhancing patient engagement, and leveraging University partnerships with Medicaid agencies to facilitate health system transformation. Dr. Himmelstein has served as a health policy advisor and strategist at the state and national level for more than 20 years. He was appointed as the physician representative to the Massachusetts Public Health Council by Governor Dukakis in 1988 and served as a Robert Wood Johnson National Health Policy Fellow on the health staff of Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
Laura Stone is a Hope Collaborative strategic advisor, published author, and leadership development expert. She served as Executive Coach for the Authentic Leadership Program at Harvard Business School and Faculty for the Authentic Leadership Institute at Unilever in London, UK. She is currently the founder of Purpose Stone, a global leadership development company to access and advance the unlimited human potential of individual and organization purpose. She was CEO at Stone + Company for 20 years providing strategy development, implementation and executive alignment for leaders and their teams. For almost 30 years, Laura served on the Board of the Chair Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Foundation. Laura notes that her purpose as a leader is to wake us up to what really matters then dance in it! Results include creating $200M of sales because of partnership overhauls to helping to eliminate and replace $1.5B sales of tobacco products at a major retail company to better align with their new purpose. Stone was included in the 2016 Women Worth Watching List by Profiles in Diversity Journal. She authored the book, A Pocket Guide to Purpose: A Quick and Simple Way to Access and Advance Your Purpose.
Jill Norton is a highly collaborative, experienced nonprofit leader and trusted adviser on topics ranging from transforming K-12 public schools to impactful state education policies to evidence-based decision-making. He is skilled at bringing together stakeholders with diverse perspectives to respectfully exchange ideas in a productive dialogue that moves toward a consensus focused on what’s best for students. He is also an author of applied policy research for practitioners and policymakers.
Ted Finn is a 30-year entrepreneur with residence and operating experience in North America, Europe, and Asia. He is highly skilled in brand development, product innovation, marketing, and international operations and sales. He is also passionate about building innovative products, great teams, solving problems, creating value, and making a difference.
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Hope Collaborative is a Massachusetts 501(c)(3) non profit organization with a mission to make outstanding leadership development a standard for kids and teens living in poverty. Our program is arts-integrated, student-driven and team-focused. We provide our partner sites–both school and after-school programs–with expert facilitators, curriculum, technology access and support they need to implement world-class programs.
Address: Hope Collaborative Office, 14 Clark Street, Belmont, Massachusetts, 02478
Email: Info@hopecollaborative.com | Call: 617-826-9703
