Forum Network

Mary Jo Meisner joined the Boston Foundation in November 2001 as Vice President for Communications, Community Relations and Public Affairs. In her current capacity, she is responsible for all of the Foundation's communications, media relations, public affairs, and civic leadership activities, including the Boston Indicators Project and helping shaping the Foundation's public policy initiatives. Prior to joining the Foundation, Ms. Meisner spent 25 years in the newspaper business as a reporter, editor and news executive at newspapers throughout the United States. From April 1997 to February 2001, she was Editor and Vice Chairman of Community Newspaper Company, New England's largest newspaper publisher, with more than 1 million readers each week. The company was sold to the Boston Herald in February 2001. From June 1993 to January 1997, Ms. Meisner was the Editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where she oversaw the merger of the afternoon Milwaukee Journal and the morning Milwaukee Sentinel in April 1995. Prior to joining the Journal as Editor in 1993, Ms. Meisner was Managing Editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. From 1987 to 1991, Ms. Meisner was City Editor of the Washington Post, where she was responsible for the coverage of the city of Washington and oversaw the criminal investigations of then-Mayor Marian Barry. She also has served as Metropolitan Editor of the San Jose (CA) Mercury News and Metropolitan Editor of the Philadelphia Daily News. She started her career as a reporter for the Wilmington News-Journal in Wilmington, Delaware. Ms. Meisner is a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) and the International Press Institute, of which she is still a member of the board. She also served for many years on the board of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association. She has served as a Pulitzer Prize juror three times and was chair of the 1996 ASNE Writing Awards. In addition, she has taught various writing, editing, journalism ethics and management courses at the Maynard Institute, The Poynter Institute for Media Affairs and the American Press Institute. Ms. Meisner serves on the board of several Boston area organizations, including the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay, the Greater Boston Food Bank, the ACCESS Scholarship Program and REACH Beyond Domestic Violence.

Deborah C. Jackson has served as the Chief Executive Officer of the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay since 2002. During this time, she has led the organization through tremendous growth including the doubling of its territory to serving over 190 cities and towns in Eastern Massachusetts. She has expanded the chapters capacity to respond to disasters, strengthened other core services; enhanced the local Red Cross brand, launched innovative fund raising strategies to grow resources; and built a stronger, dedicated volunteer core including leadership board members. Deborah's career in urban policy and community services has spanned more than 25 years. During this time, she has held a number of executive positions in health and human services including Vice President of the Boston Foundation, Senior Vice President of Boston Children's Hospital, and President and CEO of Goodwill Industries (Ma.). She also serves on a number of Boards and has held numerous appointed positions on task forces - serving the Mayor of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including; the Boston Chamber of Commerce Pinnacle Award for Non-Profit Leadership, the Womens Business Hall of Fame Award and was recognized by Boston Magazine as one of the areas 100 Most Influential Women. She is a frequent speaker, presenter and panelist.

Born in 1931 into a family of Georgia sharecroppers, David C. Driskell is today a renowned painter and collector of art, as well as one of the leading authorities on the subject of African American art and the black artist in American society. His paintings can be found in major museums and private collections worldwide. His contributions to scholarship in the history of art include many books and more than 40 catalogues for exhibitions he has curated. Prof. Driskell studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and received his undergraduate degree in art at Howard University (1955) and a Masters in Fine Arts degree from Catholic University (1962). He joined the faculty of the Department of Art at the University of Maryland in 1977 and served as its Chair from 1978-1983. Driskell curated the groundbreaking exhibit Two Centuries of Black American Art: 1750-1950 which laid the foundation for the field of African American Art History. Since 1977, Prof. Driskell has served as cultural advisor to Camille O. and William H. Cosby and as the curator of the Cosby Collection of Fine Arts. In 2000, in a White House Ceremony, Prof. Driskell received the National Humanities Medal from President Bill Clinton. In 2007, he was elected as a National Academician by the National Academy.

Andrea J. Cabral was elected on November 2, 2004 and sworn in on January 5, 2005 as the 30th Sheriff of Suffolk County. She is the first female in the Commonwealths history to hold the position. In her 21 year career in public service, she has a demonstrated a commitment to public safety. Sheriff Cabral began her legal career in 1986 as a staff attorney at the Suffolk County Sheriffs Department at the Charles Street Jail, working to prepare and argue motions for bail reduction for the Suffolk Superior Court. Subsequently, she served as an assistant district attorney at the Middlesex County District Attorneys Office from 19871991. Sheriff Cabrals published works include *Obtaining, Enforcing and Defending x.209A Restraining Orders in Massachusetts *and coauthored *Same Gender Domestic Violence: Strategies for Change in Creating Courtroom Accessibility*.

Elyse Clawson currently serves as the Executive Director of the Crime and Justice Institute. She brings over 30 years of experience and a substantial background in criminal and juvenile justice, substance abuse and mental health treatment, and education. Throughout her career, Ms. Clawson has worked extensively with elected officials and other policy makers as both a national consultant and department director. Elyse Clawson provides consultation on policy and practice in criminal/ juvenile justice, and human services for state and local government. She also makes presentations to professional organizations, legislatures, and other policy groups. She is currently a member of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections Advisory Council and was recently appointed to a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Department expert panel tasked with reviewing Department of Corrections programs and system both in the institution and upon reentry. She is a member of American Probation and Parole Associations, American Corrections Association, and National Association of Probation Executives. She is a Fulbright Senior Specialist.

Linda Pinkow is a media activist who has been co-news director of WMBR, community radio at MIT, since 1995. She began doing radio in 1979 at WBRS, where she served as program director, special productions director, and producer. From 1986 through 1993, Pinkow was a member of the Great Atlantic Radio Conspiracy, a collectively produced, leftist public affairs program that was aired on dozens of radio stations.

Judith Vecchione has contributed to many major documentary series, including *Nova*, *American Experience*, *Vietnam: A Television History*, and *Frontline*. She won an Emmy and a Red Ribbon at the American Film Festival for her work on Vietnam, and was Series Senior Producer and Producer of the first two programs of the critically acclaimed documentary series *Eyes on the Prize*. She has been Executive Producer for a number of award-winning national PBS documentary series, including *Americas*, 10 hours of programming on Latin America and the Caribbean; *The China Trilogy* ("China in Revolution," "The Mao Years," and "Born Under the Red Flag"); a three-part international coproduction, *De Gaulle and France*; and a six-part series on women scientists today, *Discovering Women*. She has produced specials, including "Fire Wars," which aired on *Nova*, and "Tug of War: The Story of Taiwan"; and she was Executive Producer for the film biographies *Eleanor Roosevelt* and *Mary Pickford* (for *American Experience*), and for *China in the Red* and *Young & Restless in China* (for *Frontline*.) She was also WGBH's Executive Producer for Martin Scorsese's multi-platform series, *The Blues*. Her programs have won awards from American Women in Radio and Television, the Chicago Film Festival, the Columbus International Film and Video Festival, the USrrr International Film and Video Festival, as well as the George Foster Peabody Award, three Christopher Awards and four CINE Golden Eagles, among others. In addition to her programming responsibilities, Vecchione is Executive Director for the Producers Workshops at WGBH, an initiative of CPB and PBS that has trained more than 150 national and regional producers, from public broadcasting stations and from the independent community, over the past eight years. Workshop participants have come from 40 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico; 48% of the Workshoppers have been minorities. Projects in development include an ITVS-funded special on Latino civil rights after World War II, *The Battle After the War* (working title), and films on Johnny Cash and on public health.