Who We Are

Liora Norwich



Susan K. Lewis



Sahar Ahmed Awerbuch



Robin Smith



Juanita Zerda



Michael Bettencourt



Charlie Danzoll



Deirdre Giblin



Wei Han



Shawn Macannuco



Elena Varipatis Baker



Phil Coonley



Karen Hirschfeld



Raegan McCain



Rebecca Slisz



Hillary Turkewitz



Dennis Brett



Terry Marotta



Kaye Nash



Felicity Tuttle



Sandy Thompson



Lily Yamamoto



John Swan



Executive Director & CEE | Chair
Liora Norwich
With over 15 years of non-profit experience, Liora joined the Network for Social Justice as Executive Director in March 2019. A Canadian by birth, Liora spent a decade in Israel and Palestine, working with local partners and international organizations to advance social justice and civic engagement through integrated community development initiatives with Palestinian, Israeli, and Bedouin organizations. She also had the privilege of helping to launch Israel’s first community development studies master’s program, Glocal, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Since moving to Boston in 2014 Liora has worked with and consulted for a diverse sub-set of mission-driven organizations, including JVS, the CARE Research Center, the Social Innovation Forum, and most recently, Hostelling International USA (HI Boston). Liora received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2014, and her MBA in non-profit management from the Heller School at Brandeis University in 2018. In addition, Liora has been a lecturer at Brandeis University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Concordia University in Montreal, and Regis College in Weston Massachusetts, and has published on the comparative development of social movements and the political mobilization of ethnic minorities.



President
Susan K. Lewis
Susan Lewis is an educator and former media professional who has been active with the Network since 2007. Early in this work, she focussed on programming for schools and youth, leading the MLK Day event and serving on the School Impact Committee. More recently, she served as the Board Vice President. Susan also has served as Co-President of the Family Action Network and on the Winchester League of Women Voters Steering Committee. After a career in science journalism, Susan became a middle school science teacher and currently teaches in Concord. She has a B.A. from Harvard and M.Ed. from Lesley University. Susan lives in Winchester with her husband, Senator Jason Lewis. They have two daughters, Sophie and Jessie, whom they hope will inherit an ever more just and inclusive world.



Vice President
Sahar Ahmed Awerbuch
Sahar is an expressive arts therapist and a teacher. Her main focus are people of all ages who have special needs. She is a strong believer in the power of the arts and using the arts as a way of connecting and understanding others. She is the founder and executive director of Brio Integrated Theatre, a Winchester-based nonprofit whose mission is to integrate people of all ages and abilities using the arts.



Treasurer
Robin Smith
Robin moved to Winchester in 1994. In addition to raising three daughters, Robin works full time as a pediatrician. She has been a volunteer with the Winchester Multicultural Network since 2002. Robin served as a network co-chair for four years and as the chair of the School Impact committee for over ten years where she has been a passionate advocate for accommodations for religious and ethnic holiday observances in our public schools.



Clerk
Juanita Zerda
Juanita is a senior leader with proven record of assisting social justice organizations assess and increase their programmatic impact. She is known for her empathetic understanding and way of communicating personal, intrapersonal, systemic and ideological complexities of diversity, equity and inclusion issues. Her 15+ years of multidisciplinary experience includes working in education, housing and community development, health and human services, and workforce training and education fields.
Juanita currently serves as Program Development and Learning Advisor at UTEC in Lowell, MA, a workforce development and education organization serving disconnected youth. Prior to this she held management positions at the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy, Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development and Commonwealth Corporation. Juanita’s consulting portfolio includes working with funders and providers from public agencies such as Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Health and Human Services and Rhode Island’s Department of Adult Education; and private funders such as the United Way of Massachusetts and Jobs for the Future. She holds a J.D. from Los Andes University in Bogotá-Colombia and an M.A. in Philosophy from Boston College. Juanita is fluent in English, Spanish, and French. She lives in Massachusetts; her Northern-Irish husband and 2 energetic boys keep her on her toes (or maybe it is the other way around).



Board Member
Michael Bettencourt
Mike and his wife, Katie moved to Winchester in 2010 with their two daughters, Grace and Violet. Mike currently serves as Chair of the Winchester Board of Selectman, is a Town Meeting member, a member of the League of Women Voters and formerly served as a member of the Finance Committee. Mike received a B.A. in Political Science and English from Wheaton College (MA), and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School. Mike has spent his career fighting for social justice and equality, working as a Fellow at the Congressional Hunger Center in Washington, D.C., the Housing Justice Project, in Seattle, WA, the New England Center for Homeless Veterans and Victim Rights Law Center in Boston, MA.



Board Member
Charlie Danzoll
Charlie is a committed social justice advocate and experienced humanitarian and development leader and practitioner, having devoted his career to improving the lives of marginalized people across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Since 1988, Charlie and his family have lived in Lesotho, Rwanda, the Republic of Georgia, Haiti, Ethiopia and Switzerland. He is currently a management and strategy consultant in the international development and humanitarian field focusing on organizational change and leadership. After earning a B.A. in History and Political Science from the Colorado College, he traveled to Lesotho where he joined the Outward Bound School of Lesotho leading programs on racial justice, peace education and conflict management under Apartheid. Charlie and his family moved to Winchester in 2017, where his wife joined Oxfam America.



Board Member
Deirdre Giblin
Deirdre has specialized in immigration law for over 20 years, with a focus on asylum and refugee law, at a refugee resettlement agency for 10 years and in legal services for 10 years. She joined The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute in June 2018. Deirdre helped co-found two legal and mental health collaborative programs, both funded by the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture and designated by the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs. From 2008 through 2017, Attorney Giblin was appointed as the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) New England Pro Bono Liaison helping to manage the AILA/PAIR Pro Bono Detention Bond project, and other regional AILA pro bono initiatives. She is a member of the ABA International Law Section, the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association Legislative Committee, as well as Greater Boston Legal Service’s Corporate Board, Amnesty International’s Leadership Circle and UNICEF USA’s Hepburn Society. Ms. Giblin was a Case Scholar at Boston University, a Parker Scholar at Columbia Law School, and earned her J.D. from Penn Law in 1993.



Board Member
Wei Han
Wei Han moved to Winchester in 2003. He and his wife Iris have two daughters. Originally from Beijing, China, Wei became a U.S. citizen in 2007. He has worked in the IT industry for 20 years. Wei has been organizing Parent Association at Winchester School of Chinese Culture since 2013. He cofounded Chinese American Network of Winchester in 2016. Wei was the first Chinese-American Town Meeting Member in Winchester. He currently serves on the board of Council on Aging, WinCam, and Community Music School in Winchester.



Office Manager
Shawn Macannuco
Shawn and her husband Dave moved to Winchester in 1999 and are raising their three sons here. They have enjoyed the sense of community in the schools they have been involved with – McCall, Winchester High School, Lynch, Muraco, and WCNS. Shawn is an active volunteer in town: she is currently co-president of Parent to Parent, is a member of the Youth Advisory Committee at the UU church, and is a new board member of WinCAM. Shawn is also involved in AFS, a foreign exchange program, for which she serves as secretary to the MassBay district and also as a liaison to students in the region. After volunteering for the Network for many years, Shawn has been our Office Manager extraordinaire since January, 2011.
EMAIL:office@NFSJ.org



Community Engagement and Development Coordinator
Elena Varipatis Baker
Elena moved to Winchester in June 2015. Since that time, she has volunteered at Ambrose School and the Winchester Farmers Market. Elena received Masters degrees in Social Work and Public Health from the University of Michigan. She has worked with several non-profits where her responsibilities included analyzing a university-community partnership, developing behavioral health materials targeting underserved American Indian teens; managing workplans; fundraising; and overseeing submissions to funders and review boards. Elena is excited to be back in the non-profit arena, particularly an organization whose focal area is her own community.



Immigrant Justice Committee | Co-Chair
Phil Coonley
Phil has lived in Winchester since 1976, where he helped raise two children. In 2009 he retired from the US Department of Transportation’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge where he was an economist for 20 years, and for a later 15 years its SES Chief Administrative Officer. In Winchester, Phil was active in Kids Corner, youth baseball and youth soccer; and now in the Tennis Association, Unitarian Society, Sustainable Winchester, Winchester Trails, and the MetroNorth node of Mass 350.



Immigrant Justice Committee | Co-Chair
Karen Hirschfeld
Karen has nearly 20 years of experience designing, implementing, and evaluating international development projects throughout the Americas, South, Central and Southeast Asia, and West and Central Africa. Currently the President of Hirschfeld Consulting Services, a global full-service consulting firm that provides communications, business development and evaluation services to NGOs, contractors and individuals working in the development space, she has worked for corporations, NGOs, international organizations and the federal government. She has worked in a range of fields, including Democracy, Governance and Elections; Human and Women’s Rights; Health and Public Health; Countering Violent Extremism; and Humanitarian Assistance.
In her most recent position at the United States Agency for International Development, she promoted the involvement of women and ethnic minorities in the peace process in Myanmar, promoted economic development in post-earthquake Haiti, and helped communities struggling to resist the recruitment of youngsters by the violent extremist group, Boko Haram, in Cameroon. Ms. Hirschfeld worked in Afghanistan for two years; from 2002-2003, she managed small-scale infrastructure repair projects for the International Organization for Migration, and from 2003-2004, she was Deputy Director of The Asia Foundation’s Elections Program. Ms. Hirschfeld holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.



Schools & Youth Committee | Co-Chair
Raegan McCain
Originally from the Chicago suburbs, Raegan has lived in Winchester for over 13 years with her husband and 3 children. Raegan works as a Creative Director and is passionate about helping businesses define their visual identity and inspire connectivity. Raegan is active in the Lynch School community and town government. In 2016, she co-founded Winchester for Peace, a family-centered social justice community. She enjoys spending time with her family at Wright-Locke Farm, traveling in her VW Vanagon, visiting the ocean and playing music.



Schools & Youth Committee | Co-Chair
Rebecca Slisz
Rebecca Slisz has been active on the Schools & Youth Committee. Her passion for social justice was ignited as a high school student growing up in Connecticut at the time of a lawsuit there against de facto segregated schools. After living in the Midwest for 10 years, Rebecca moved to Winchester with her husband and two children in 2015 and is committed to helping build support for equity and inclusion in the schools and town.



RAC | Chair and IPAC | Co-Chair
Hillary Turkewitz
Hillary has volunteered with the Network since it was established. She chairs the Response & Advocacy Committee, which is committed to providing support and advocacy for people who have been targets of, or witnesses to, bias and/or discrimination. And she is Co-Chair of the Indigenous People’s Advocacy Committee, which fosters analysis of historical representations of Native Americans, and promotes understanding of and advocates for the rights of contemporary Native Americans, including those who lived on the land now known as Winchester.



Steering Committee Member
Dennis Brett
He has lived in Winchester for over 25 years. He and his wife have raised three children here and have greatly appreciated living in this town. Dennis has been involved with the Multicultural Network for five years considering it a privilege to work with an organization with noble goals. He is looking forward to working on accessibility issues going forward. A retired school counselor, he has since his retirement been teaching classes in English as a Second Language, doing pastoral care at his church and singing.



Steering Committee Member
Terry Marotta
Terry moved to Winchester in 1979 where she and her husband have seen rise to adulthood somewhere between three and six children, of both the home-grown and the honorary kind. For 36 years she wrote a weekly Our-Common-Life kind of column, continues to serve as a volunteer with Winchester ABC and even now still misses her very early work as a classroom teacher in nearby Somerville.



Steering Committee Member
Kaye Nash
Kaye and her husband, David, have lived in Winchester for 40 years and their two children graduated from Winchester schools. Joining the Network in 1991, she served as an advisor to the Multicultural Issues Group (MCI) at Winchester High School. A deacon, at the First Congregational Church in Winchester, Kaye co-led an education and discernment process that, in 2001, led to the congregation’s declaring itself Open and Affirming of all persons including the LGBTQ community. She served as chair of the Network’s Board Development committee, and continues to serve on the Program, and Response committees.



Steering Committee Member
Felicity Tuttle
A 30-year Winchester resident with her husband and two daughters, Felicity works in town in residential real estate and has participated in the Network Board since 2008. She has a strong interest in accessible and affordable housing so presently also serves on the Winchester Housing Partnership Board and each season with Winchester Trails leads curriculum-based nature walks for 4th and 5th Graders in Winchester.



Steering Committee Member
Sandy Thompson
moved to Winchester with her husband in 1966 and brought up her two children here. A founder of the Winchester Multicultural Network, she had been involved in several Winchester community organizations (The Winchester Cooperative Nursery School, A Better Chance, The Winchester Community Music School, and En Ka Society) before committing most of her volunteer time to the Network in 1991.



Steering Committee Member - IJC
Lily Yamamoto
is a long-time resident of Winchester where her three children attended public school. She is the principal/senior designer of LMY Graphic Design Studio. Lily guided the Network visual communications from 2008–2018 and is a member of the Immigrant Justice Committee.



Board Member
John Swan
Jon and his wife Robin moved to Winchester in 2014 with their four young children – all of which are students in Winchester Public Schools. He is a Partner at the Boston Consulting Group, where he focuses his time with retail and consumer goods companies. Jon is from rural Montana, growing up on and off an American Indian reservation where he is an enrolled member (Chippewa Cree Tribe). He attended Harvard Business School (MBA) and Harvard Kennedy School (MPP) as well as the University of Montana (BS – Economics). He was on the founding team of the Native American Bank (FDIC insured bank owned by Tribes) and previously worked for Senator Max Baucus and the National Congress of American Indians.
She is the Founder and President of Managing across Cultures, a consulting firm, specializing in training, coaching and developing leadership and teamwork for Senior Executives. Dr. Araoz is originally from India. She has consulted in over 25 countries and has a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and an LL.B.
She is retired from her job as Vice President for Carlson GMAC Real Estate. Her real estate career began in Winchester Center and spanned 30 years. She is a Trustee of the Arthur Griffin Foundation which gives grants for beautification projects in Winchester and for scholarships for students going on to college majoring in photography-related fields. She chaired the Winchester Council on Aging for several years.
is the President of Autism Housing Pathways, a non-profit that works with families to create housing solutions for their family members with developmental disabilities. A 20-year resident of Winchester, she serves on the Winchester Housing Authority, and is the WHAs representative to the Winchester Housing Partnership Board. She was a member of the Adult Services Subcommittee of the Massachusetts Autism Commission.
Kristine Bremer is a consultant specializing in media, communications and development. Her firm, Oceanside Partners USA, LLC, helps build the capacity of organizations to increase sources of support, grow programs, engage stakeholders, and communicate impact and outcomes.
Cari is the rabbi of Temple Shir Tikvah, the reform Jewish congregation in Winchester. Before her arrival in Winchester she was the associate rabbi in Princeton Junction NJ. Rabbi Cari lives with her family which includes a husband, two children, dog and cat in Arlington.
Dotty Burstein served on the Winchester Multicultural Network for 13 years and is now a Community Advisor for the Network and a co-editor of The Journey. She works as a volunteer for the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, where she is editor of the Young Adult Resource Guide and the Resource Guide for Older Adults–publications for homeless and poor individuals. Dotty is a member of the Winchester League of Women Voters, where she served as president, editor of its newsletter, and Steering Committee member. For four years, she was also a member of the State League’s Administration of Justice Committee. As a member of the Winchester Democratic Town Committee, Dotty has served as a delegate to several state conventions. She has lived in Winchester for 30 years.
Doug Cromwell is a retired law librarian from the U.S. Court of Appeals, 1st Circuit. He has lived in Winchester for 30 years in the family home (which has been in his family since the mid-1920s). He was a founding member of the board of The Winchester Multicultural Network and served for a number of years after which he became a Community Advisor.
Marianne DiBlasi was born with a disability, Spina Bifida, which rendered her legs partially paralyzed. She grew up and still lives in Winchester. Marianne is currently pursuing a Masters of Divinity program at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge MA. She is the president of Disability Visibility, a consulting, training, and coaching company that helps organizations enhance communication skills, value differences, and leverage the unique contributions of their disabled employees. She is also the editor of Disability Issues, a quarterly newsletter devoted to providing disabled individuals, their families, and advocates with relevant information to improve their quality of life. Prior to founding Disability Visibility, Marianne worked in corporate America for 22 years in various human resources, sales and marketing positions.
Harris Gibson, MD, who recently retired, is Chief of Thoracic Surgery Emeritus at Winchester Hospital, Lawrence Memorial Hospital, and Melrose-Wakefield Hospital. He taught Surgery at the Boston University School of Medicine. After completing his residency as a Fellow in thoracic surgery at Boston City Hospital, under the direction of Boston University, Tufts University, and Harvard Medical School, he joined the professional corporation of Cardio-Thoracic Associates and was with the group until he retired.
Rick Goldberg has a PR consulting practice in which he helps semiconductor and high tech companies reach their target customers through web-based articles and social media. He is the program chair of the Boston IEEE Consultants Network and has leadership roles in several diversity organizations including GBIO (Greater Boston Interfaith Organization), MoveOn, AARP and the Winchester Democratic Town Committee. He has lived in the Boston area since 1973 and in Winchester since 1979.
Tom Howley is a Panera Bread franchisee with restaurants in CT, RI and southeast MA. Tom and his wife Nancy have two children, Patrick and Brett. Tom is a Town Meeting Member and has served on the Planning Board and Board of Selectmen.
Heather Janules is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister. She began her ministry with the Winchester Unitarian Society in August of 2015. Her social justice ministry is motivated by a vision of inclusion in our multicultural world. A native of nearby southern NH, she lives in Wakefield, MA with her elderly Labrador retriever.
Agnes Lugira and her husband are from Uganda and have served on various committees for Winchester’s St. Mary’s Parish. She has been an instructor in the Early Childhood Education Program at the Urban College of Boston. Lugira is a past board member and was instrumental in initiating Winchester’s Black History Month celebration.
Peter F. MacDonnell is the Chief of Police in Winchester. Peter joined the police department in 1988, and was appointed Chief of Police on July 1, 2016. He was born and raised in Winchester, and graduated from Winchester High School in 1978. He is a graduate of both the University of Massachusetts/Boston and Anna Maria College, and holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology, and a master’s degree in criminal justice.
Judy Manzo is the owner of Book Ends in Winchester. Judy served as President of the Chamber of Commerce, and for the past 22 years, has collaborated with the Network in supporting numerous events including the Annual Winchester Reads Program. Judy is a longtime resident of Winchester. She and her husband are the proud grandparents of three grandchildren and three step grandchildren.
Shukong Ou has lived in Winchester nearly 30 years with his wife Joan and raised two kids. His work is in network security for private global wide area networks provided by AT&T and holds two patents relating to security technology. In Winchester he is an advisor to the Multicultural Network and the Winchester Community Music School, mentors students at local elementary schools in origami, helps out at the Winchester Farmers Market, was awarded “Producer of the Year 2013” at WinCAM, and has started a group playing ukulele for fun Shukulele . Shukong is also a member of the Community Ethics Committee in the Boston area.
Dr. Christopher Palmer is a psychiatrist at McLean Hospital, Director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education, and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He has worked for years with numerous organizations on Diversity and Inclusion, especially relating to the LGBT population, including work with the Massachusetts Medical Society, the American Medical Association, Washington University School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, Lexington Montessori School, the Lexington Public Schools, and the Winchester Multicultural Network. He has lived in the Boston area for over 18 years and currently resides in Lexington.
Jeanne Phillips is the Human Resources Manager/Director at Winchester Hospital.
Allan Rodgers retired at the end of 2010 after serving for 42 years as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, a statewide legal advocacy nonprofit which carries out systemic advocacy on behalf of the poor. He recently published a book about his law reform experiences, called RAP-UPS of a Retired Reformer: Stories About How Legal Services Advocates Transformed the Laws for Poor People in Massachusetts. A resident of Winchester for 51 years, Allan is a student at the Music School; his late wife, Sandy Rodgers, was one of the founders of the Highland Avenue facility; and he is a member of many boards of nonprofits in Winchester and Boston, including the Board of Overseers of the New England Conservatory.
Elisabeth Sayre has been teaching English to Adult non-native speakers during her 20-year career as a tutor, conversation group leader, and classroom instructor. As a member of the Network’s original Board, she spearheaded its outreach to international residents and continues to welcome our diverse community through International Connections’ activities. She has served in various positions on Winchester ABC’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee since Winchester’s program began in the 70s.
John Suhrbier was a member of the Winchester Multicultural Network’s Board of Directors for eight years and currently is on the Network’s Finance Committee. He chairs Winchester’s Housing Partnership Board, a group established by Town Meeting to help expand housing opportunities in Winchester for low, moderate, and middle income households. He previously was a Commissioner of the Winchester Housing Authority and was a co-founder of the non-profit Winchester Housing Corporation. His professional work for thirty-five years focussed on the relationships between transportation and the environment, including issues of civil rights, environmental justice, community impacts, air quality, and climate change. Within the National Academy of Sciences, he is an emeritus member of the Transportation Research Board’s Transportation and Air Quality Committee.
Rosemary Sullivan is past president of the Winchester Seniors Association and the present chairman of the WSA Human Resources Committee. She has taught in the Newton and Belmont Public Schools and served as a project manager in Training and Development at Verizon. At Verizon she facilitated a 2 day workshop in Diversity and a workshop in Ethics. Originally from Northern New York, she is a long time resident of Winchester.
Paula Tognarelli is the Executive Director and Curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography. The Griffin Museum of Photography located in Winchester outside Boston, Massachusetts, is a small nonprofit photography museum whose mission is to promote an appreciation of photographic art and a broader understanding of its visual, emotional and social impact. The museum houses three galleries and maintains four satellite gallery spaces and several virtual on-line galleries as well. Ms. Tognarelli is a resident of Cambridge, MA.
Fred Yen started the farmers market and initiated the climate action plan for the town of Winchester. He has a background in art and photography, the restaurant business and as a licensed contractor in the residential sector. Fred has lived in Winchester for over 25 years.