Team - Hope Collaborative

Our Team

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.

Kevin Sheehan is the Chairman and co-founder of Hope Collaborative. Hope makes outstanding leadership development a standard for youth living in poverty around the world. He is also is the chief executive officer and co founder of LeaderJam LLC, the first global platform for engaging corporate teams with top experts and smart content to drive global change in organizations. Mr. Sheehan's work has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes Magazine, Fortune, Billboard, National Public Radio, The Wall Street Journal and other leading publications. Mr. Sheehan has a record of success building companies in the retail, Internet, non profit, and education segments. He is best known for creating Hear Music—an innovative music retail company, acquired by Starbucks, that helped redefine the national retail segment for more than two decades. He received his MBA from the Harvard Business School where he was named “Entrepreneur of the Year”and received his BA from Yale University. The Ben Franklin awards said that his book A Leader Becomes A Leader "should be in every library."

Ethan Lyle is the Chief Operating Officer, co-founder of Hope Collaborative, and is a member of our Board of Directors. Ethan's responsibilities include organizational management, high-level strategic planning, and expanding the Hope community. Ethan is a reputation management and strategic positioning consultant at Teneo, a global executive advisory firm. Prior to Teneo, Ethan worked at Kekst, a leading strategic and financial communications firm. Ethan previously served in a number of government roles, including at FEMA within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and in the White House during the Obama Administration. Ethan was also a staffer on the Obama for America 2008 presidential campaign. Ethan holds an A.B. in Government, cum laude, from Harvard University, where he was a Harvard College Scholar.

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.

Dr. Steven Schlozman is associate director of The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Along with Dr. Gene Beresin, he provides critical insight and clinical expertise in implementing Hope's 12-module leadership development curriculum. He also serves as course director of the psychopathology class for the MIT-HMS Program in Health, Sciences and Technology. Dr. Schlozman practices child and adult psychiatry at MGH, where he is the primary consultant to the pediatric transplant service. He also writes short fiction and has published one novel, The Zombie Autopsies. He received B.A.s in English and biology from Stanford University, and his M.D. from the Dartmouth-Brown Program in Medicine.

David Vaughn is Hope Collaborative's Senior Adviser and co-founder, and a member of our board of directors. He is instrumental in helping define our vision, and in building and expanding our network of community partners and sponsors. David has over 20 years of experience in non-profit management, consulting, and fundraising. Over the past five years, he has served as founder and head of the innovative Tremont School in Weston, MA. and has served on the board of directors of several schools, including the founding board of the Edward Brooke Charter School in Boston, MA and the Mason Pilot School in Roxbury MA. David was a founding director of the Social Innovation Forum, a non-profit organization that supports other non-profits in management, development, and strategic planning. David was the editor of a National Science Foundation curriculum-development project through the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Shyam Kamath, Ph.D., is a Hope Collaborative Senior Advisor. He is an internationally recognized scholar and educator who has gained recognition as a global innovator and expert in the area of community development, experiential learning and business program innovation. His distinguished career has also focused on building programs and institutions that benefit those who are underserved and underrepresented while focusing on economic opportunity and human excellence. He is the founding Dean of the College of Business at CSU, Monterey Bay and has held academic and administrative positions at leading universities in the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe. He is the recipient of numerous teaching and research awards including the Distinguished North American Lasallian Educator of the Year in 2012, the prestigious Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education and multiple outstanding professor and educator awards. Previously, he has pioneered a number of academic start-ups and has worked for leading international firms in the energy equipment and consumer goods areas. He has been a consultant to four governments and over 100 companies and non-profits worldwide.

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.

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.

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.

Loren Gary brings critical expertise to our curriculum planning effort as a member of Hope Collaborative's board of advisors. Loren is the former associate director for leadership development and public affairs at Harvard Kennedy School's center for Public Leadership. He has designed and facilitated co-curricular programs that touch more than 500 Harvard graduate students each year. Workshop topics have included self-awareness, leading teams, behavioral decision making, adult development, social entrepreneurship, and faith and spirituality. As a writer, Loren has authored or co-authored over 200 articles for two dozen publications. He has edited three books, and served as a senior editor at Harvard Business Publishing. He is currently serving as Senior Development Officer at the Harvard Divinity School and is an active contributor to non profit organizations in Boston.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Rob Hull serves as a member of Hope's board of advisors. Rob brings Hope senior executive experience in finance, strategy, and innovative approaches to organizational opportunities. He has served as a Senior Advisor at Providence Equity Partners LLC since joining 2015 where he was also the company's Chief Financial Officer, Managing Director, and Chief Operating Officer. Rob was the Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President at General Motors Acceptance Corporation of Canada Limited where he helped lead the effort to make GMAC bank holding company with the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Mr. Hull served an Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer overseeing Finance, Technology, Human Resources and Investor Relations at Marvel Entertainment, Inc. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia, and has his MBA from the Harvard Business School. He enjoys the value of family, travel, and community--and is excited to help Hope create new paradigms for leadership development among the at-risk teen population.

Ezra Greenfield is the Director of Education Programming for Hope Collaborative. Her responsibilities include managing the leadership development program implementation, curriculum expansion, learning plan development, facilitating pilot learning modules, and providing supervisory support and evaluation to Hope facilitators and on-site co-facilitators. Ezra is a passionate art educator and youth advocate who received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her M.Ed. from Lesley University. She has experience working with diverse organizations in both community arts and public education, including New Urban Arts in Providence, Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion in Boston, Arlington Center for the Arts, and Cambridge Public Schools. Ezra’s own multi-media creative practice explores themes of memory, mythology, personal symbolism and storytelling, and she enjoys merging these interests with a teaching practice centered on inquiry, youth empowerment and community-building through art.

Mona Serageldin is an emeritus advisor who advised Hope Collaborative on strategy for social inclusion and bridging to a variety of cultures. She served us well, and was the Vice President of the Institute for International Urban Development with over 35 years of professional experience working in Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean before he passing in 2018. She specialized in local development, strategic planning, social inclusion, and policy and program assessment. Dr. Serageldin worked on projects sponsored by UNDP, UN-HABITAT, the World Bank, the InterAmerican Development Bank, and various foundations. In 2003-2004 she served as one of the experts on the Millennium Project Task Force 8 on Improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. We honor her and miss her unique and powerful contributions.

Dana Rochman is Hope Collaborative's Intern for music and arts production. From a young age, Dana has been a natural performer. In 2012, she began her studies at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she will receive a dual degree in Music Business and Professional Music with a concentration on performance and songwriting. She is a student leader on campus, serving on the Berklee Student Government Association, as well as helping to run the Peer Mentoring Program. In 2015, she was the recipient of the "Students Helping Students" award for student leadership. Over the course of her career at Berklee, Dana has studied under eminent teachers, such as Karen Carr, Gwen Leathers, Walter Beasley, Dennis Montgomery, Larry Watson, Paula Cole and Livingston Taylor.

Ben Gass is Hope Collaborative's Intern for social media marketing. Ben graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in entertainment management--and set off a career in entertainment and media, working for a variety of organizations that include Boston's ABC television affiliate, and a leading radio broadcast company. He has a passion for live music and supporting arts organizations of various kinds--and has travelled extensively pursuing a variety of cultures and music geographies. Ben is helping build Hope Collaborative's web presence, including our social media sites that include Facebook and Twitter. He has taken part in critical components of our live event production.

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.

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.

Alicia Herman serves as our Digital Marketing and Research Manager at Hope Collaborative. She has professional experience in grant writing, programming and applications, research and outreach, museum studies, social work, education, and visual arts that gives her a unique set of skills and broad understanding of the needs and interests of youth and families. She earned a graduate certificate in museum education at Tufts University, a Masters in Social Work from Hunter College, CUNY and a Bachelors degree in Psychology from Clark University. In addition to her contributions to Hope Collaborative, Alicia Herman works at museums and arts centers including the Museum of Science in Boston, the Umbrella Community Arts Center in Concord, MA and Danforth Arts in Framingham, MA. Alicia Herman’s passion is to empower youth with education, to connect youth with the means to express themselves, and for young individuals to learn about the world around them and build broader community connections.

Lynn Witty is an Associate Facilitator for Hope Collaborative. Lynn is an artist and an educator. She is a singer songwriter, recording artist and actor. Her performance credits include nationally recognized names and venues. She has been an advocate for the arts and has invested many years in non profit work in Boston and the Greater Metropolitan New York area. She has a Masters Degree in Education from Sacred Heart University and is an alumna of Walnut Hill School For The Arts. Lynn is passionate about supporting kids and teens from under-resourced communities with impactful leadership development programming. She believes that arts-integrated interventions are particularly effective in bringing classrooms, neighborhoods, and youth communities to life at a new level. She has worked with Hope to implement the program with partners around Greater Boston. She is a passionate mother and civic advocate.

Vanessa "Nessie" Ruiz is an Associate Facilitator for Hope Collaborative. An artist and educator originally from Florida, she received a BFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design and a MFA in Visual Arts from the University of Chicago. Nessie's photographic work revolves around social issues affecting marginalized groups of children, both locally and abroad. Since 1999, she has been passionately involved with children-focused non-profits in the US, Sri Lanka, and South Africa where she has created and implemented art, empowerment and leadership programs for kids and teens. Besides her non-profit work, she has also been a college instructor since 2010. Nessie believes wholeheartedly that art has the power to transform lives and has dedicated her own life to bringing that art to underprivileged youth.

Samantha Dell’Aquila is an Associate Facilitator for Hope Collaborative. She is an artist and educator with a vast amount of experience in education, specializing in art. Samantha received her Masters in Visual Art Education from Lesley University and her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography from Lesley University College of Art and Design. She is passionate about hands-on learning through the arts for students of all abilities. Samantha practices a unique student-centered approach to her work specializing in empowerment, and uses strength-based methods to improve learning. She embraces new challenges and strives to help students be the best that they can be.

Rose O'Neil serves as Hope Collaborative’s Education Advisor. She has been involved in the education field for over 15 years, and has a wide-range of experience including volunteering in an orphanage in Mexico to working in an after-school bilingual education program for migrant families in Oregon. After receiving her Master’s of Arts in Teaching degree, she moved to England where she educated youth in an urban school setting. From there she relocated to Massachusetts, where she taught for several years and maintained her license through professional development in community building, leadership, and evaluation. She has designed and implemented curriculum in many settings and brings a wealth of knowledge on best practices. Rose believes in the positive impact of community involvement and is currently serving as an elected town representative, as well as volunteering in several non-profit organizations.