Who We Are

Clerk

Tommy Bellaire

Tommy has lived in Winchester since 2004 and is a proud product of its public school system. He currently is an analyst at Education Resource Strategies, a nonprofit that works to increase resource equity in urban school districts. Before joining the NFSJ’s board of directors, Tommy coordinated events for the Network on a volunteer basis, including the organization’s MLK Day of Service and the Juneteenth commemoration panel. Outside of his work to advance social justice, Tommy enjoys writing snail mail, studying maps, and sharing his love for the outdoors.

Steering Committee Member

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.

Treasurer

Charlie Danzoll

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.

Operations Manager

Shawn Macannuco

Shawn and her husband Dave moved to Winchester in 1999 and raised their three sons here. They enjoyed the strong sense of community in the schools their boys attended – McCall, Winchester High School, Lynch, Muraco, and WCNS. Shawn is an active volunteer in town: she served on the Parent-to-Parent board for 11 years, participated heavily in the school systems, was active in various (albeit small) ways at the Unitarian church and is currently board president of WinCAM, Winchester’s community access media organization. Shawn has been involved with the Network since moving to Winchester, first as a long-time volunteer and now as the organization’s Operations Manager.

Board Member

Timothy Matthews

Timothy Matthews, EdD, is a developmental psychologist focused on early education and the experiences of LGBTQ+ families. After beginning his career in non-profit fundraising and corporate marketing, Tim transitioned to a new path centered on PreK-12 education; aside from graduate school, he has worked in the Boston Public Schools’ Central Office, as postdoc at Harvard, and as a freelance organizational and curricular consultant. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he tackled the most rigorous job of his career: stay-at-home parent for two children 5 and under!

Dr. Matthews’s educational background includes a BS in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell (2000); a MA in Urban Education Policy from Brown (2012); plus an EdM in Language & Literacy (2018) and EdD in Human Development (2020), both from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. An avid gardener and choral singer, Tim lives in Winchester with his husband, Dr. Greg Sawicki, and their young children, Jacob and Rose. Locally, he serves on Winchester Town Meeting and the Traffic and Transportation Advisory Committee, and has previously sat on the boards of a chamber orchestra and Episcopal church.

Steering Committee Member

Terry Marotta

Terry moved to Winchester in 1979 where she and her husband, David, have seen rise to adulthood somewhere between three and six children, of both the home-grown and the ‘honorary’ kind. She has been an author, a newspaper columnist and a public radio commentator, and has volunteered for many years with Winchester’s Chapter of A Better Chance.

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.

Executive Director

Rebecca Slisz

Rebecca Slisz has been active on the Schools & Youth Committee and Indigenous Peoples’ Advocacy 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.

Steering Committee Member

Sandy Thompson

Sandy Thompson and her late husband, Lew, moved to Winchester in 1966 and brought up their two children, Andrew and Deborah, in the town. Over the years she has been involved in many community organizations. In 1990 she attended a four-day workshop with VISIONS, a diversity, equity and inclusion training and consulting organization. Inspired by what she learned at the workshop, she set out to bring some of the VISIONS concepts to Winchester and, with the help of many others, founded the Winchester Multicultural Network, now the Network for Social Justice. She is a member of the Response and Advocacy Committee and the Immigrant Justice Committee.

RAC Chair | Steering Committee Member | Liaison to the Board

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.

President

Susan Verdicchio

Susan and her husband, Shizuo Mukai, M.D., have lived in Winchester since 1990. After volunteering with a number of community groups while her three children were growing up, Susan was elected to the Winchester School Committee in 2013. She was re-elected and served as its chair, helping to implement full-day kindergarten and a later school day start for middle and high school students. Susan joined the Winchester Select Board in 2019, becoming part of the first majority-female Select Board in the town. She served as board chair during the pandemic, supporting mixed-income housing development, education funding, and a proposal for non-citizen local voting. Susan is an active member of the League of Women Voters and Town Meeting member, as well as a member of NFSJ’s Indigenous Peoples’ Advocacy Committee.

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. 

Vice President

Hilda Wong-Doo

Hilda Wong-Doo has lived in Winchester since 1990. She and her husband, Keith, have two kids. She recently retired from the financial industry where she was responsible for product development of wealth management technology. During her career, she was a strong advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion and joins the Network’s board to continue that passion. She currently chairs the Winchester Cultural District and serves on the board of the Winchester Historical Society. In her spare time, she counts fish for the Mystic River Herring Count.

Board Member

Albert Pless

Albert W. Pless, Jr. is the Director of Equity and Social Justice for the Town of Reading, Massachusetts, bringing more than 25 years of experience in public health, community engagement, equity, and municipal leadership.

Albert moved to Winchester in 2008 with his wife and three children. All three of his children attended and went through the Winchester Public Schools community, giving him a personal connection to the town and its schools.

Albert holds a master’s degree from Southern New Hampshire University and earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science. He has also served as an adjunct faculty member at Tufts University School of Medicine and Johnson & Wales University. His work centers on connecting public health, civic engagement, and equity to strengthen communities and create greater opportunities for all.

Board Member

Barbara Hannula

Barbara Hannula has been a proud resident of Melrose since 1990. She and her
husband, Bill, have built their lives there while raising their two adult children, who
continue to inspire her commitment to community and service.

Recently retired from a successful career as a technology executive in the financial
services industry, Barbara brings decades of leadership experience in innovation,
operational excellence, and strategic transformation. During her tenure, she also served
as an executive sponsor for her company’s diversity and inclusion program—an effort
that deepened her dedication to creating equitable, welcoming environments where
people can thrive.

In retirement, Barbara enjoys traveling with her family and exploring new places, a
passion that fuels her curiosity and broadens her perspective. She is excited to bring
her professional expertise, collaborative spirit, and long-standing community roots to her
role on the nonprofit board.