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Board of Trustees
Melony Swasey (Chair) is a residential Realtor with Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty, advising clients in Metro Boston since 2010. Having served in Eliot School board leadership since 2016, Melony's commitment to racial equity and community development has helped guide the Eliot School's impact as a Boston institution. With a degree in urban planning from Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art and Planning, Melony thinks critically about urban and environmental sustainability. She's been a Jamaica Plain community member since 2004.
Ling Luo (Treasurer) works in the financial services industry and has been employed by Fidelity Investments since 2006, primarily supporting institutional clients and corporate functions. Ling moved here in 2000 for school and graduated from Boston College's Master of Science in Finance program.
Photo by Gretjen Helene
Edward Forte (Secretary) is principal and founder of Forte Architecture + Design, a professional architectural and design services firm serving commercial, retail, government and residential clients in the northeastern United States and beyond. An architect with over 30 years of professional experience, he is a graduate of the Boston Architectural College and has studied urban design, planning and restoration architecture at L'Universita' della Sapienza, in Rome. He is active with Boston Centre/South Main Streets, which named him Volunteer of the Year in 2014.
Jamie Day is Head of Global Art Direction for IDEXX. Previously a consultant on marketing, Creative Director at LiteBoxer and Associate Creative Director at MullenLowe, throughout his career, he has created award-winning work for a wide variety of national and global clients across many forms of media, including broadcast, digital, outdoor, brand experience and social content. He is passionate about art, design and the creative process. Jamie lives on Holbrook Street, across the street from the Eliot schoolhouse, and his wife, Deirdre, sits on the Eliot School’s Advisory Council and Marketing Committee. Their young children attend classes at the Eliot School.
Betty Herschman is a major donor advisor with Movement Voter Project (MVP). Over the course of her 20+ year career as a policy advocate, development and communications specialist, and educator, she has directed international advocacy for an Israeli activist NGO focused on the city’s role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; helped build the organizational capacity of seminal Boston-based organizations responding to domestic violence and disparities in health care access; and taught in the Boston Public Schools. Betty holds an MPA from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and an MAT from Boston University. Her involvement in the Eliot School is rooted in her belief in the personal, political, and healing power of art for young people and the need for racial equity in access to art and craft education, making, and markets.
Carolyn Brunis Luc is a highly creative collaborative leader with 17 years of progressive experience developing and growing equitable programs that drive positive outcomes for historically excluded populations. She is passionate about people and has spearheaded community and corporate-wide engagement to advance inclusive communities and work environments. Prior to joining Suffolk, Carolyn worked over 13 years fundraising and engaging business leaders, companies, and individuals in social issues such as food insecurity, child abuse prevention, and urgent needs for non-profit organizations in the Greater Boston area. Currently, Carolyn is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Suffolk Construction. She is responsible for strengthening internal diversity and inclusion efforts by working with key stakeholders and executives across the organization to drive sustainable DEI strategies and outcomes. Carolyn has been with Suffolk Construction for nearly five years and currently serves as a committee member on the organization’s 501c3 non-profit, the Giving Circle. She holds a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree from Regis College in Weston, MA.
Fifile Nguyen is a strategy consultant with expertise in business & service design, branding & marketing, and product strategy & development. She’s helped design digital and physical experiences from employee training websites to medical devices to space station modules for clients like Intel, Galvanize Therapeutics, Sierra Space, and Live Nation. Born in Texas to Vietnamese war refugees, Fifile holds a BBA in International Business and BS in Textile & Apparel Design from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MBA in Business Design from the University of Toronto. Fifile has supported the Eliot School in several ways for over ten years. Before joining the board, she served on its Advisory Council, creating a Community Insights Study to help with strategic planning. She has been a member of our sewing faculty from 2013-17, and 2023 to present. And, in her spare time, Fifile teaches undergraduate courses on business analysis and research at Endicott College.
Meredith Wallace has worked at Brigham and Women's Hospital for over a decade and is the Executive Administrator for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology overseeing all operational, financial, academic and research affairs for the department and leading the Women's Health Service Line. Previously, she worked in healthcare strategy consulting and clinical research, and interned at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Meredith has a Masters in Public Health focused on Healthcare Administration and Policy from Boston University School of Public Health and a BA in Biology and Neuroscience from Williams College. Aside from work, Meredith enjoys being outside and active - spending time in mid-coast Maine in the summer, skiing in Vermont in the winter, or hiking around Boston with her husband and children. She has served on the Eliot School's Advisory Council from 2019 to 2022 and as a member of the Governance Committee before joining the Board.
Photo by Gretjen Helene
Eric Warasta is Principal and Portfolio Manager at Moody, Lynn & Lieberson, LLC, where he manages client portfolios and provides research coverage of the industrial and consumer cyclical sectors. He is a member of CFA Society Boston, through which he serves as a mentor to Suffolk University in the annual CFA Institute Research Challenge. Earlier positions include Cambridge Trust Company, where he was portfolio manager for the Equity Income Strategy, and the Macroeconomic Analysis Division of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Advisory Council
Henry Allen, Discount Foundation (retired)
Drew Bagdasarian, DRB Associates
Barbara Berns
Lev Breydo
Soul Brown, Rhode Island School of Design
Geoff Chasin, Cardinal Logistics Management
Estefania Ciliotta, Northeastern University Center for Design
Cornell Coley, Coley Communications
Katie Connolly, Newton Wellesley Hospital
Deirdre Day, Channel Maven Consulting
Luiza de Camargo, Junior Achievement of Northern New England
Anuradha Desai, EdVestors (retired)
Lee Englert, Steppingstone Foundation
Kathryn Fenneman, Grub Street
Greg Frank, Eversource
Julio Fuentes
Melissa Gallin
Meryl Glassman, Dignity Matters
Devin Hill, JP Morgan Securities
Andrés Holder, Boston Children's Chorus
Andrea Howard, West End House
Alex Jacobson, Jameson & Thompson Picture Framers
Jesse Johnson
Janet Kawada, Massachusetts College of Art & Design (retired)
Toni Loiacano, TMLW, LLC
Marisa Luse
Michelle Madera, Cambridge Public Schools
George Mallett, Artists for Humanity (retired)
Matt McArthur, The Record Co.
Michelle Millar Fisher, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Anita Morson-Matra, Mayor's Office of Arts & Culture
Nicole Murray
Michael Reiskind, Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council; Jamaica Pond Association
Teresa Rodriguez, Somerville Public Schools
Antoinette Russell, Eaton Vance Investment Counsel
Paul Spinale, Islington Capital Partners
Jan Spitz, Norman B. Leventhal Map Center (retired)
Corey Stallings, South Street Youth Center
Sandra Storey, Jamaica Plain & Mission Hill Gazettes (retired)
Robert Tuchmann, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LP (retired)
Norman Yu, IMB Partners
Board Emeriti Council
Charles Fox
Curdina Hill
Carolyn Ingles
Marilyn Mase
Joy Silverstein
Organizational affiliations for identification only