I have been a strategic leader in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors for over 40 years. I have held senior management positions with three United Ways including 27 years as Executive VP/Community Services at United Way of RI. I served as Interim President of this United Way in 1996. I began my career as a caseworker for the Boston Welfare Department and managed a Neighborhood Employment Center for Boston’s anti-poverty program. At the United Way of Rhode Island, I built a team that leveraged funds with individual and corporate donors, local and national foundations and government to achieve maximum impact in affordable housing, community development, family support, workforce development and out of school time programs. I was one of the individuals who led a coalition which designed and successfully lobbied for Rhode Island’s welfare reform legislation. This is recognized as one of the most progressive reform laws in the country. I was one of the key players to convince the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) to establish a Rhode Island Office in 1991, which has resulted in over 6,000 new units of affordable housing being built or renovated in the state. I was elected to a four-year term on the Cumberland School Committee in 1986 and chair of the Committee in 1988. I have been president of the boards of Lincoln School, Amos House, RI Kids Count, the RI Service Alliance (Serve RI), Clean Power Now, Cumberland Library, the Butler Hospital Foundation and Children's Friend.I am a Senior Fellow in International and Public Affairs at Brown University's Watson Institute. I am also on the faculty of the Tufts University affiliated Institute for Nonprofit Practice and teach in its RI-based Core Certificate Program. I've also taught at Boston College Graduate School of Social Work and Providence College. In 2015 one of my Brown courses was designated as a "featured course" in the online student publication, The Critical Review (see link below).