Friends-Boston Leadership Team
Juma Crawford – Executive Director
Juma Crawford brings a wealth of experience in educating and working with youth from high risk communities with the ultimate goal of graduation from high school and success in college. Immediately prior to Friends-Boston, Juma served as the Director of Alternative Education and the Head of Little House Middle School at College Bound Dorchester. Before that, he served as the Upper School Principal at the Community Charter School of Cambridge and had a prior role as Faculty Co-founder and Foundation Board Member of the Codman Academy Charter Public School in Dorchester. Juma has a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Amherst College, a M.Ed. from Harvard University with Concentration in Social Policy and a J.D. from Boston College Law School. |
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Michelle M. Harrington – Deputy Director
Michelle Harrington has a unique breadth and depth of experience in the non-profit sector in Greater Boston due to twenty two years in the field. Most recently, Michelle was the Boston Executive Director of Strong Women, Strong Girls (SWSG), where she built community support and led partnership efforts, including the creation of a pilot program with Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts and the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston. Prior to joining SWSG, Michelle was the Development Director for Federated Dorchester Neighborhood Houses, Inc. (now College Bound Dorchester). She worked closely with the senior management team to create a new mission and branding strategy while increasing individual and corporate giving to ensure the viability and sustainability of the organization.
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Caitlin Day-Lewis – Director of Development
Caitlin Day-Lewis has dedicated her career to ensuring that all children have an equal opportunity to reach their full potential. Caitlin has served as Associate Development Director at Jumpstart for Young Children. There she worked to build support and awareness for improving early education nationwide. She began her service in the non-profit sector as an AmeriCorps VISTA*Member, launching Youth Venture’s New Hampshire program for youth social entrepreneurship. Caitlin’s interest in working toward a quality education for all children began with a college tutoring program in a St. Louis elementary school. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and Educational Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. Caitlin is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and a mentor of ACCESS in Boston. |
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Marisa Meldonian – Director of Impact and Evaluation
Marisa Meldonian has vastly contributed to the development and growth of Friends of the Children-Boston’s mentoring program since she first started working as a mentor in 2008. Marisa served as a positive role model to six kindergarten and first grade students in a Boston Public School. A year later, working as a Program Manager at Friends-Boston, she collaborated extensively with a team to develop the mentoring program into a part-time volunteer model in order to enhance and expand the program by recruiting social work students as interns. She designed new performance measure initiatives to develop improved assessments of the needs of the children in the program. As AmeriCorps Program Director, Marisa successfully developed the Friends-Boston model into one of the largest social work training programs in Boston. Marisa holds a Bachelor’s of Arts in International Studies and History from Denison University.
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Julie Sayles – Director of Programs
Julie Sayles is committed to promoting strength and resiliency in children to advance their academic success and healthy development. Prior to joining Friends-Boston, Julie served as Program Director for Student Support with Boston Connects, a program designed to nurture the strengths of elementary school children and alleviate non-academic barriers to learning. Working closely with schools and community agencies, she focused on developing and strengthening partnerships to bring increased access of Boston’s rich resources to students and families of the Boston Public Schools. She has also worked as Student Support Coordinator in a Catholic K-8 school, an After-School and Summer Program Director, and a social worker in the NYC foster care system. Julie holds a Masters Degree in Social Work and Education from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. |
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