Alisa Hunter, is the President and CEO of Legacy Coaching & Consulting, LLC. She previously served as the Chief of Pathway to Post-Secondary Success at Tenacity. Before joining Tenacity, Alisa worked for Wediko Children’s Services (merged with The Home for Little Wanderers in April 2020) for over ten years, where she last served as a Program Director. As a proud native of Boston, she has devoted her career to the service of its youth and families. Alisa has over a decade of experience working in the field of human services for state agencies and local nonprofit organizations. Her breath of experience includes direct service; training and capacity building; and program development and management. Alisa is a staunch advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and seeks to bring this lens to her professional and personal endeavors.

Amanda Shabowich (she/her/hers) is a 30-year-old lifelong Boston resident, who serves as the Director, Youth and Young Adult Pathways at United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. From 2021-2023 she served as a member of the MA LGBTQ Youth Commission. From 2019-2022, she served as a Youth Transition Funders Group (YTFG) Economic Well-Being Youth Fellow.

After dropping out of high school, Amanda attended BDEA, which provided her with a supportive environment, including the flexible schedule she needed to work overnight while earning a diploma. After graduation, Amanda was offered an internship at the school, as a teacher’s assistant, her first formal experience working with young adults. In this role, Amanda provided one-on-one support, designed and facilitated lessons, and assisted with post-graduate planning.

In April 2015, she became an advocate for resources for out-of-school youth, planning and hosting youth-centric events, and building partnerships with other youth-serving organizations across the city with Youth Voice Project. Amanda has spoken about her work across the country, as well as designed and led workshops on the importance of amplifying youth voice through storytelling, self-care and healing for opportunity youth, designing inclusive youth programming, and inter-generational relationship building. In 2017 she was recognized by Mayor Walsh and the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions for her local and national leadership. Since joining United Way in 2019, Amanda led a collective impact effort funded by the state’s investment of over $1 million by providing individualized coaching to 18-24 year olds in subsidized housing across Boston.

Angela Collins is an accomplished public relations leader with extensive expertise in brand development, product lifecycle strategy, nonprofit fundraising, multi-cultural engagement, corporate social responsibility, and cause marketing. She has helped numerous organizations, ranging from grass-root nonprofits to multi-national corporations, navigate through major revitalization initiatives by building communications strategies to better position them for growth.

Collins is a 28-year veteran of the communications industry. She now serves as the National Sr. Director in the department of Patient and Community Solutions at the American Heart Association. She previously served as the Senior Vice-President of Diversity and Inclusion at Brodeur Partners, where she provided strategic oversight of the organization’s plans to ensure inclusivity and reach diverse stakeholder groups.

Previously, she spent 17-years leading integrated communications planning for the American Cancer Society, where she led the team of PR professionals charged with building relevance for the Society’s 850M fundraising portfolio. She helped achieve incremental revenue growth with key strategic corporate partners, including brands such as eBay, Chevy, Lane Bryant, the NFL, Pantene and Shoe Carnival.  Additionally, Collins led planning for the organization’s first ever integrated multi-cultural consumer engagement strategy, helping to increase engagement and revenue across the Society’s diverse key constituencies in support of its award winning “More Birthdays” brand revitalization.

Cris is the Executive Director of Corporate Transactions at Sarepta Therapeutics. Prior to this role, she worked as the Executive Director of Institutional Initiatives for the Office of Technology Development (OTD) at Harvard University. In addition, she served as the Director of Technology Transactions at OTD and the Executive Director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science. Prior to joining Harvard, Cris served as the Director of Intellectual Property and Corporate Counsel for pSivida Ltd., an innovator of drug delivery technologies. She also has worked as a litigation associate in law firms in Boston, MA, and Greenwich, CT. Cris holds a JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law and a BA from Yale University. In addition to her professional work, Cris is the founder of the REAL Ride, a 5000 mile, gravel cycling event that raised funding for Boston Day and Evening Academy.

Born and raised in Boston, Dre Woodberry is a class of ‘07 BDEA alumnus.  Before graduating from BDEA, Dre was experiencing homelessness which inspired him to use this as a topic for his capstone project and the short film “What it’s Like to be Homeless in Massachusetts” to shed light on the experience of others dealing with homelessness. Dre was presented the Best Youth Filmmaker award at the Roxbury Film Festival in 2007. Shortly after, he received the James Baldwin Scholarship — a full scholarship at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA where he earned his bachelor’s degree.

In 2020, Dre joined the Iota Chi Chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and currently serves as the chapter’s vice president. He has received three awards in two years of being a member which makes him the first and youngest member to receive multiple awards on the chapter and district level in such a short period of time in the district’s 100-year history. These awards include the chapter and district’s Superior Service awards and this year’s Omega Man of the Year award.

Currently, he is Director of Family Engagement at The Possible Zone. With over 15 years of experience in youth, family, and community engagement, he has also served as a Youth Development Specialist for the Boston Public Health Commission, Teen Director for the Yawkey Boys and Girls Club of Roxbury, and Admissions Director for Boston Green Academy. Because of his love for technology, he has also started a tech education program for the elderly with the Iota Chi Chapter. More recently, Dre has worked closely with another Hampshire College alumnus to create a technology drive for the Omo Child Home in Jinka, Ethiopia. They have collected over 120 devices for the school and organization, and they have traveled there to personally meet and connect with the students, staff members, and local tribal leaders.

Evelyn Zayas, AVP Branch Manager of Brookline Bank, has a passion for helping people prosper through financial education. While growing up in Boston, MA, she realized basic financial gaps are common, even as adults, as the resources are not easily available to learn financial stability and planning. Evelyn has a strong passion for serving the community and has had the chance to make a difference as Secretary of the Jamaica Plain local first, serving since 2018. She enjoys bringing people together and does this through her weekly Business Network International (BNI) group. Leading the group for two years as President taught her the importance of listening to her peers to build on ideas and to create a strong team. Her daily motivation is to make a difference into peoples’ lives through her leadership at the bank as a Branch Manager. Her 20+ years of experience in the industry has made her a trusted advisor to her clients. Evelyn resides in Dorchester with her daughter.

Email Evelyn: ezayas@brkl.com

With over 15 years in the alternative asset management sector, Jon is currently a Manager of Portfolio Reporting at Audax Private Debt, specializing in analytics, fundraising support, and portfolio metrics. Despite a recent relocation to Salem, MA, Jon still feels a great attachment to the Boston community, having lived there for 20 years. Jon’s years in Boston began at Northeastern University, where he received his BS in Business Administration, Finance & Insurance Management, and Management.

Jon became connected to Boston Day and Evening Academy when his wife was employed at the school. Over the years, Jon has been inspired by the BDEA’s mission to meet the needs of students who have not been adequately served elsewhere in the district and is eager to support the school as a Board member so that BDEA can continue to carry out its critical work in the community.

Jumaane Kendrick is the Director of Programs and Partnerships of MissionSAFE – a community diversion program created to divert youth from the school to prison pipeline and the Founder of Beyond The Block Youth Solutions Inc. a nonprofit youth entrepreneurship and mentorship organization that engages young people to be both accountable for their actions and capable of finding their abilities to make change and find success in their lives. He has earned a Masters Degree in Business Administration at Lasell College in Newton, MA and an undergrad degree in Business Management at Bays State College of Boston.

In addition, Jumaane was a gang interrupter with Ten Point Coalition mediating battles between rival gangs, and a Coordinator at The Violence Intervention Advocacy Program who provides support and resources to all gunshot and stab wound victims who enter Boston Medical Center’s Emergency room providing trauma response support and resources to help survivors recover emotional, mentally, and physically to live healthy lives.

Jumaane is described as an “exemplar of forgiveness” and is the definition of resiliency and overcoming adversity from being a high school drop out, ex-offender, ex-gang leader, and a survivor of street violence. Today Jumaane has successfully transitioned from the “streets to the boardroom” and decided that his life wasn’t going to end on the sidewalk or in a life prison sentence. Jumaane committed to preserving the lives of his friends and himself, but with a lack of opportunity in his neighborhood, while childhood friends dying daily he set out to put in end to preventing himself and others from losing anymore friends to street violence Jumaane started Lasell Denim & Co. a clothing and production company in remembrance of his friend Terrance Lasell Jacobs who was killed in 2009. Jumaane’s focuses were to occupying his friend’s time and provide a safe place to be to prevent further retaliation or incarceration. Through his efforts several of his friends created their own companies, went off to college, found career paths, or have left the streets in the past.

Salesia Hughes-Hibbert, affectionately known as C.C., is a native of Boston, Massachusetts.  A graduate of Cambridge College with a Bachelors in Juvenile Justice, a master’s in counseling psychology and a certificate of advanced graduate studies in Marriage & Family Therapy. Currently, Salesia is the Vice President for Behavioral Health Services for Children’s Services of Roxbury and has a private practice as an independent licensed Mental Health Counselor. Salesia has over 20 years in the mental health field.

Outside of her work life, Salesia is an active member of the Parent Council at Boston Day & Evening Academy, volunteers on a consistent basis for Edward Brooke Charter school and Little Leaders Prep School. Salesia is also very involved in her Sorority Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Chi Eta Zeta Chapter.

Sonya B. Page is Founder and Owner of Page Consulting LLC, a female-owned and operated business with a deep commitment to empowering the nonprofit sector. Sonya has well over a decade of frontline fundraising experience from some of the nation’s top nonprofit organizations, including Catholic Charities, the Greater Boston Food Bank, and Massachusetts General Hospital. She founded Page Consulting in order to help small and mid-sized nonprofits learn how to best position themselves for fundraising success in an increasingly competitive environment. In addition to working with nonprofit clients, Sonya regularly leads free workshops for local nonprofits and provides access to free, practical fundraising tips and tools. She is passionate about contributing to the growth of the nonprofit sector, and has been recognized by donors and colleagues alike for her professionalism, collaborative approach, and commitment to transparency.