Board of Directors
Miki Akimoto
Leland (Lee) Goldberg
Naomi (Mio) Leavett
Swapnil (Neil) Maniar
Ceasar McDowell
Carlene Pavlos
Katya Fels Smyth
Jon Zaff
Meet Our Board
Miki Akimoto, Vice President, Senior Foundation Officer, Philanthropic Management, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (Clerk)
Miki manages a number of discretionary foundations where Bank of America, NA serves as Trustee or Co-Trustee. She previously headed Associated Grant Makers (the Massachusetts/New Hampshire regional association of grant makers) and has worked in the federal government’s AmeriCorps program and in consulting. She has a strong commitment to social justice and to working to bridge disparate service and community sectors.
Leland (Lee) Goldberg, MBA, Managing Director, Boston Office, Getzler Henrich & Associates (Treasurer)
Lee is a well-known and highly regarded Interim CEO and management consultant, having successfully restructured over 300 companies in his more than 25 years of management experience. He is an expert in business planning and integrating operational metrics with financial planning. He has a long-standing commitment to domestic and international work that seeks to empower poor and marginalized communities.
Naomi (Mio) Leavitt, Ph.D., Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Forensic Services
Mio has spent the last 25 years working with those who have been failed by systems and supports. She worked at Bridgewater State Hospital for over a decade, and now works in the courthouses of the Commonwealth assessing criminal defendants (alleged perpetrators of violence towards others) as well as those struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues facing involuntary civil commitment. On her off hours she works with victims of various societal forces: homeless women, holocaust survivors, asylum seekers, and orphaned children in South America and Africa.
Swapnil (Neil) Maniar, Ph.D., MPH, Director of Health Equity Programs in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Community Health
Neil collaborates with clinical and community partners to develop and implement innovative programs to eliminate health disparities, in particular those associated with infant mortality, cardiovascular disease, cancer, violence, asthma, and other chronic diseases. Through a focus on the social determinants of health, these programs are designed to improve outcomes and ensure optimal health across the lifespan among residents of some of Boston’s most underserved neighborhoods.
Ceasar McDowell, Ed.D., CEO, Engage the Power; Professor of the Practice of Community Development, MIT
Ceasar’s work focuses on the development of community knowledge systems and civic engagement. He has been working on the use of narrative and story making as a tool for sharing and maintaining grassroots knowledge. His research and teaching interests also include the use of mass media and technology in promoting democracy and community-building, the education of urban students, the development and use of empathy in community work, civil rights history, peacemaking and conflict resolution.
Carlene Pavlos, M. Div., Director of Injury and Violence Prevention, Massachusetts Department of Public Health (Chair)
Carlene has worked for more than 15 years within state government as an internal advocate for victims of violence. To keep herself grounded she has also spent at least one evening a week with women incarcerated in the state prison in Framingham. These women have generously and gently – but quite fiercely – taught Carlene the value of connection and allowed her to see the power of a full frame approach.
Katya Fels Smyth, Founder and CEO, Full Frame Initiative
Katya brings over two decades of experience in program development, evaluation, system change, community networking, and creating social will to address seemingly intractable social problems to FFI. Katya is advancing the Initiative’s priorities as its CEO and as a Research Fellow at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Prior to launching FFI in 2007, Katya founded and led On The Rise, Inc., a Cambridge, Massachusetts -based organization providing innovative and effective support and community to the area’s most disenfranchised women. In her 11 years at On The Rise, the organization helped over 1,000 women achieve new levels of safety and personal agency. Significantly, she also helped change community dialog about who “can” be helped and systemic responses to women with trauma histories not seeking traditional trauma services. A recipient of several social entrepreneurship awards and fellowships, Katya speaks, publishes and provides consultation nationally on the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs that work at the intersection of entrenched poverty, violence and trauma. She has also participated in international training efforts for domestic violence advocates. She is a member of the Massachusetts Governor’s Council to Address Sexual and Domestic Violence, and co-chairs its Systems Change and Integration Committee. Katya holds an AB with honors in Biology from Harvard and received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from the Episcopal Divinity School.
Jonathan Zaff, Ph.D., Vice President of Research and Policy Development at the America’s Promise Alliance
Jon’s research focuses on studying the social contexts that promote positive outcomes among youth, particularly with regard to academic achievement and civic engagement. In his role with the Alliance, he directs all research activities, including, among others, their national and local surveys on youth development and evaluations of the Alliance’s programming.
