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Board of Directors
Marsha Feinberg, Director of Strategic Development, Founding Chair Emerita
Marsha Feinberg is a social entrepreneur and consultant who has been active in urban youth programs for over 25 years. Marsha has played a major role in helping launch many leading non-profits by providing strategic planning, fundraising and community building expertise. She founded and directed the JFK Library Corps in 1983, was the Founding Chair of the Board of Citizen Schools in 1998 and served for 10 years in that role, growing Citizen Schools from a Boston based program to a national network of after school programs. Marsha worked at City Year during its early years and five years ago helped launch the Clinton Democracy Fellows Program in South Africa. A graduate of Columbia Business School, Marsha serves as a member of a number of non-profit boards of trustees, including the New England Board of Directors of Facing History and Ourselves.
Priscilla Cohen, Vice Chair of Board of Trustees
Priscilla Cohen has played a leadership role in strategic planning, program development and fundraising for several social enterprise organizations. After serving as a founding board member of Citizen Schools for 12 years, Priscilla joined the organization as the Director of Strategic Initiatives. In addition, Priscilla is the Director of the FAO Schwarz Family Foundation, where she launched and manages a two-year fellowship program for recent college graduates interested in becoming leaders in the education and youth development field. After graduating from Williams College and Harvard Business School, Priscilla worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.
Rosemarie Torres Johnson, Co-Chair of the Corporation
Rosemarie is a member of the Board of Directors at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge and sits on its Executive Committee. She previously served as a member of the Coordinating Council for Children, Youth and Families (Cambridge Kids’ Council), an advocacy board dedicated to improving the quality of life for the city’s youth and their families. Before moving to Massachusetts, she served on the advisory board of an independent high school she and a group of parents and community activists helped to found in Orange County, CA. A graduate of the University of Southern California, Rosemarie worked as a public relations executive, and spent time as a bi-lingual kindergarten teacher.
Carolyn M. Peter, Chair of Board of Trustees
Carolyn Peter was the Director of the Winsor School in Boston for 16 years. Prior to that, she was an English teacher at several independent schools and was Department Head and Head of Upper School at Lincoln School in Providence, RI. As Winsor’s Director, Carolyn led the School to become a more diverse and inclusive community while also advancing its academic program. She has served as trustee at a number of independent schools, and she is presently a trustee and member of the Executive Committee at Belmont Hill School. Carolyn is a graduate of Wellesley College and Brown University.
Rosita Brailovsky-Fine, Trustee
Rosita Brailovsky-Fine has worked in non-profit, specializing in strategic planning, personnel management, and development for the past fifteen years. She worked in the Office of Major Gifts at Brandies University for seven years, followed by joining Gann Academy as Director of Development. She is involved in various development initiatives at The Park School, Noble and Greenough School, Temple Emanuel, and serves on several local non-profit boards. She is passionate about her commitment to ensure that all students receive the best education available regardless of socioeconomic, personal, or academic challenges.
She holds a B.S. from Cornell University in Industrial and Labor Relations with a concentration in Organizational Behavior, and a M.Ed from Harvard University in Higher Education Policy and Counseling.
Rosita is co-founder of Details Design Consultants, a design firm in Newton MA.
Patrick Day, Trustee
Patrick Day is currently Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at the University of Massachusetts Boston. At UMass, he oversees the offices of Student Life, Health Services, Public Safety, Service Learning and Community Outreach, Housing Coordinator, Interfaith Campus Ministry, Beacon Leadership Program, Judicial Affairs, and the Early Learning Center child care facility.
Patrick has worked in Student Affairs at large universities (12,000-32,000 students) for his entire career. Prior to his current position, Patrick served as the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs at Temple University in Philadelphia. He also was Senior Student Affairs Officer and Assistant to the President at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. From 1995 to 1999, Mr. Day served as the Assistant Dean of Students at 24,000-student Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.
Patrick earned his M. Ed. in higher education administration from Texas Tech and his B.S. in education and social policy from Northwestern University.
Lisa DiAdamo, Trustee
Lisa DiAdamo attributes her own interest in working in independent schools to her tremendously positive Park School experience and the opportunity to learn from teachers like Dean Conway and Sally Baker.
After graduating from Tufts, Lisa taught English and worked in the admissions offices at The Noble and Greenough School and Pike School in Andover. She earned her Master's degree in English from Bread Loaf School at Middlebury College. More recently, she worked as Director of high school advising at the Solomon Schecter School. She now consults independently with clients.
In addition to Co-chair of Beacon’s Corporation, she serves on the Board of the Jockers family Foundation and has served on the Board of Trustees at Park School.
Rebecca Forrester, Trustee
Since moving to Boston, Rebecca has served in leadership roles for a number of organizations. She has worked with the Associates of the Boston Public Library on “Literary Lights for Children,” assuming several roles including Event Chair (three times), Author Selection Committee member, and student presenter coach.
She has also been on the Board of Julie’s Fund, an organization whose mission is to provide educational opportunities for disadvantaged children, and in particular supports The Epiphany School in Dorchester. Rebecca has also served on the board of Westwood Land Trust.
She has been involved with Beacon Academy as both a monthly book club host and more recently as a coach.
Louis Mercedes, Trustee
As a member of the law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, Louis practices in the area of corporate law concentrating on corporate finance and private equity. In the private equity area, Louis has represented investors in venture capital financings and in a variety of complex business transactions. On the finance side, Louis has experience representing banks and financial companies in connection with loan transactions in the radio and television broadcasting, cable television, publishing and other media industries within the US.
Victoria Munroe, Trustee
Victoria Munroe is President of Victoria Munroe Fine Art, an art gallery in Boston specializing in contemporary and historical drawings. She also has a gallery in East Hampton, New York, called The Drawing Room. Before opening her business in Boston in 2001, she had a gallery in New York that represented contemporary artists. Victoria graduated in 1975 from Radcliffe College where she majored in old master drawings. Victoria serves on the Board of Citizen Schools and of Tada Children’s Theatre in New York, and she is a supporter of Citizen’s Committee for Children in New York City.
Mary Rivet, Trustee
Mary Rivet currently heads her own consultancy, Arcadia Consulting, specializing in collaborative approaches to strategic planning and organization change for for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Most recently, she was co-director of the Social Innovation Forum, a venture philanthropy nonprofit located in Cambridge, MA. Prior, she was a principal and partner at Mercer Management Consulting. She is a trustee of Building Impact, a nonprofit dedicated to building civic engagement in the Boston area. She has also served as a member of the Corporation of the Winsor School, and as President of the Board of Trustees of the Lexington Montessori School.
Arlene Spence
Arlene Spence graduated with a BSBA from Northeastern University with entrepreneurship concentration. She joined the Management Training program of Fleet Bank upon graduation. Shortly thereafter, she married Michael Spence and started having a family. She believed that it was best for her children to stay at home until they were in school full time.
In 2008, she got her degree in American Sign Language (ASL)/English Interpreting. Most recently, she worked part-time as an educational interpreter in the Newton School System.
Arlene is currently a Trustee at Belmont Hill School where she has an 8th grader and a junior who is currently studying a year abroad in China. Her daughter is in the 4th grade at Southfield school.
John Ross Wiley, Trustee
Jon Ross-Wiley has been in the field of education ever since graduating from Bowdoin College in 1995. The product of two educators, Jon credits his parents for placing a high value on education as a life-long career. After teaching almost every grade from first to twelfth, Jon found that he was most at home working with students during the late elementary years. Two years after coming to The Park School as a fifth grade teacher, Jon stepped out of the classroom to become the Head of the Middle Division, overseeing grades 3, 4, and 5. Jon first learned about Beacon Academy when he attended a symposium held at the school in 2008. He was sold. Jon lives in West Roxbury with his wife, Sahar, his daughter, Soraya (3), and his son Zia (1 and half).