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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The NOAH Board meetings are held at 6 PM on the third Thursday of every month at NOAH’s office, East Boston. Board Benefits || Board Responsibilities

	Board Officers
	Dharmena Downey - President (Gloucester): COO, Asian CDC Artist; Community and Environment Activism; Housing, Member NCRC Formerly Director of Housing, City of Somerville and City of Haverhill; Past E.B. Resident
	David Foss - Vice President (Winthrop): Attorney Cumsky & Levin Law and Community Activism
	Rose Fiore - Treasurer (East Boston): Senior Associate Director of Administration and HR, Flansburgh Associates Administration & Human Resources
	John Cannon - Assistant Treasurer (East Boston): Financial investment, Wellington Management Finance and Financial Planning
	Anjie Preston - Secretary/Clerk (East Boston): Community Activist and Entrepreneur. Since migrating to Massachusetts from the west coast, she has become involved improving the East Boston community.  During the 80s, Anjie worked in the travel, temporary staffing, and the local court system.  In the 90s, her activism included involvement with the Main Streets Initiative and the East Boston Columbus Day Celebration.  In the new millennium, Anjie has embarked on several entrepreneurial endeavors.  Her hobbies, both past and present include tennis, block party organizing, softball, as well as various entertainment pursuits.
	Jean Healey - Assistant Clerk (East Boston): Jean Healey is a lawyer for the Attorney General's Office, and was also a lawyer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, PC in Boston, MA. Her prior practice involved health care, including litigation, regulatory, and fraud and abuse matters. Jean also provides pro bono representation to clients such as the Anti-Defamation League and Innocence Project, as well as assisting individuals in cases involving social security disputes, restraining orders, and prisoners' rights. Prior to becoming an attorney, during law school Jean assisted with research projects and articles pertaining to Massachusetts affordable housing law (40B) and microfinance topics, i.e., promoting community entrepreneurs, and the reduction of poverty through small business loans. From her experiences ranging from being an investigator for the Washington, D.C. Public Defender and youth mentor in Boston, to participating in local suburban campaigns in Massachusetts, Jean has long recognized and supported the need for affordable housing in Massachusetts.
	Board Members
	Mary Ellen Welch (East Boston): Mary Ellen Welch is a second grade school teacher by day, and a community activist by night. Her work includes activism on social justice and civil rights issues, education, environmental action and justice, open space creation and preservation, transportation and political action. Affordable housing opportunities are considered to be the most important action at NOAH.
	Kempton Flemming (East Boston): Accountant, City of Boston Finance and Community Activism
	Nina Gaeta-Coletta (East Boston): Parent/Teacher, East Boston High School Education & North Suffolk Mental Health Association
	Kathy Burlinson (East Boston):Former VNA Nurse, East Boston Health Center Healthcare, Community Activism, Condo Assoc
	Gloribell Mota - (East Boston): Gloribell Mota is the Director of Training and Education for the Massachusetts Democratic Party. Gloribell has also worked as the Organizing Director for City Councilor, Felix D. Arroyo. She graduated from Emerson College with a Visual and Media Arts degree. Gloribell was born in the US and comes from a multi-ethnic family: her mother is from El Salvador and her father from the Dominican Republic. Gloribell's career and philanthropic work has focused on active social and economic justice for Boston communities. She is also on the Board of the East Boston Community Health Center. As a NOAH tenant and living with her two children, ages 4 and 12, Gloribell has been extremely active on the Boston Parent Organizing Network (associated with the East Boston Eccumenical Community Council or EBECC). "I believe that community input is the essence behind keeping our neighborhoods safe and secure - something NOAH continuously tries to achieve."
	Christian A. Rivera - (East Boston): Attorney for Goulston & Storrs Real Estate, Affordable Housing and Tax Credits
	Kyla Piercey, CPA - (East Boston): Kyla Is a certified public accountant, and is a Forensic Accounting Manager in the Boston office of StoneTurn Group, with over 8 years of experience in litigation and investigatory matters including: class action securities claims and financial statement restatements; damages analyses; lost profit and business interruption claims; construction claims; royalty audits; general business litigation and other special audits and investigations.
	Andrew Danforth - A native of Foxborough, Massachusetts, Andy is an independent consultant to the international residential finance community. He has a quarter century of executive, accounting, technological, entrepreneurial and operational experience in banking and finance, and has held executive finance positions for two public companies. In his consultancy, clients have varied from large banks and Wall Street brokerage houses to local lenders and government agencies. He is currently an advisor to the Mexican government on its continuing evolution of a competitive and liquid secondary mortgage market, and to a UN/NGO on the practical application of Shari'ah (Islamic law) to micro lending programmes in Southeast Asia. Andy has worked with several non-profits, including a charitable trust and an endowed scholarship fund. He is a founder of an ad hoc, for-profit fund that invests in affordable and sustainable housing, cohousing and brownfields mitigation. Andy is a supporter of economic democracy and serves as board secretary of the Cooperative Fund of New England and is a founder of its sister fund, the Cooperative Capital Fund, the first venture capital funded formed specifically to support democratic and cooperative businesses.
	OPEN	If you would like to serve on our dynamic and active Board, please contact Philip Giffee or Dharmena Downey at 617-567-5882

Seeking New Members

NOAH is seeking to elect several new members to join its talented, established and energetic Board of Directors. We are especially interested in attracting members with expertise in Suburban Development Planning, Real Estate Development, Financial Management, Lending, Property/Asset Management and Organizational Development. Prior experience in the non-profit sector or as a member of a non-profit Board is desirable, but not required.

Board Benefits

New members will have the benefit of joining NOAH at an exciting time when we are identifying new opportunities and developing a strategic plan for our future.

Contact: Dharmena Downey, Board President (617) 569-3899 or Philip Giffee, Executive Director (617) 418-8240

Membership on NOAH’s Board offers many benefits, including opportunities to:

• Make a meaningful contribution to the communities that NOAH serves
• Become part of an energetic and vibrant leadership body whose members share important values
• Use personal and professional skills to support the organization’s mission
• Acquire new skills
• Help to steer the future of the organization
• Participate in creative, strategic thinking and problem-solving
• Have fun

Board Responsibilities

• Attend and prepare for all Board meetings, assigned committees and organizational functions
• Commit freely of time and skills in support of NOAH’s mission and programs
• Remain informed about the mission, services, policies and programs of NOAH
• Assist the Board in carrying out its fiduciary responsibilities
• Serve as an ambassador for NOAH in the broader community
• Observe carefully conflict of interest and confidentiality policies
• Work effectively and collaboratively within the organizational structure