Our Team

Carmen was born in Puerto Rico and raised in California, where she worked as a hairdresser before becoming an community organizer. She moved to Boston in the 1970s, settled in Mission Hill, and has been involved in issues of housing, education and civil rights ever since. She was the first Hispanic to run for elected office in Massachusetts and opened the doors for other Hispanics to challenge the system and run for office. At 78, she is a co-founder of the Mission Hill Senior Legacy Project, an effort to create unity among seniors of all races.

Gabriela (Gabbie) was born and raised in Dorchester (Ashmont area). She grew up playing softball at Town Field in Fields Corner and drinking raspberry slush puppies at Ashmont Market with her brother and sisters. She studied Environmental Studies with a focus on food justice and theater at the University of Vermont. She enjoys a good pun and according to her abuelita, she also can cook the best arepas.

Rochelle was raised in Harlem, NY and moved to Boston as a young adult. She is the founder and CEO of The Black Literacy and Arts Collaborative Project; a published poet; a graphic designer; and a chronic entrepreneur who is currently working on her MBA at Southern New Hampshire University. Dedicated to “Black Excellence” ALWAYS, Rochelle has spent a majority of her life teaching and mentoring youth in underserved communities. Her goal is to create access and equity for BIPOC while also empowering and inspiring Black womxn across the globe to walk in their purpose, speak their truth, and model authentic sisterhood for generations to come.

John Davidow is a principal at Media Bridge and a broadcast journalist with more than 20 years of local, national and international news and news management experience. Most recently, he was Managing Editor, Digital, at WBUR. He spent most of his journalism career in commercial television, at WBEZ and WCVB, before moving to public radio. Prior to that, he was a middle school history teacher.

Nish Acharya advises leading universities, governments, foundations and companies to assist them with innovation, entrepreneurship and philanthropic strategies. He’s also a Senior Fellow with the Center for American Progress, a contributor to Forbes and the author of the “The India-US Partnership: $1 Trillion By 2030” by Oxford University Press. Nish previously served as Director of Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce for the Obama White House, as Executive Director of the Deshpande Foundation, and Bill Clinton’s White House. A graduate of Northeastern and George Washington Universities, in his free time Nish gets involved in local politics, enjoys outdoor activities with his sons, and recently completed his first half marathon.

Karen was born and raised in East Boston, the city her paternal grandmother immigrated to from Italy in the early 1900’s. From her earliest years, Karen was surrounded by children and thrived on watching them master skills and flourish to their fullest potential. This led her to the path of teaching after graduating from Lesley College with a BS in Early Childhood Education. She has spent the majority of her career working with children and families in East Boston. Previously a Program Administrator at the YMCA, she is currently a Coach/Mentor at ABCD Head Start and an adjunct professor at Urban College of Boston. Karen is passionate about ensuring all children have a strong foundation in social emotional learning, which is proven to improve academic success. She is also a proud mother of one daughter, Christina, and enjoys spending her time scrapbooking experiences and writing/journaling her life’s adventure so far!

Jacqui Banaszynski is an emerita professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, faculty fellow at the world-renowned Poynter Institute and editor of Nieman Storyboard, a site devoted to the art and craft of nonfiction storytelling. While a reporter at the St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press, her series “AIDS in the Heartland” won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing. She was a finalist for the 1986 Pulitzer in international reporting for coverage of the Ethiopian famine, won the nation’s top deadline sports reporting award for coverage of the 1988 Olympics and is in the Society of Features Journalism Hall of Fame. She grew up in a small farm village in Wisconsin and remains passionate about cheese curds, the Green Bay Packers and Lake Superior. Now based in Seattle, she divides her time between her front porch at home and an airplane to somewhere. Either way, you’ll find her with a book in hand.