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  • Since 1995, The Greater Boston Food Bank has operated under the leadership of Catherine D'Amato, a seasoned food banker and impassioned advocate for the hungry. D'Amato has a solid background in non-profit management as well as experience serving on the board of America's Second Harvest, the national network for domestic food distribution. During her tenure at The Food Bank, D'Amato has demonstrated a consistent commitment not only to increasing the amount of food made available to the hungry, but also to insuring that the food they receive is nutritious and of the highest quality. The Greater Boston Food Bank is a non-profit clearinghouse for donated food, which is distributed to a network of 750 food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, daycare centers for children at risk, and other charitable feeding agencies throughout nine counties in eastern Massachusetts. The Greater Boston Food Bank is one of New England's largest hunger relief organizations, annually distributing 18 million pounds of food, which is the equivalent of almost 14 million meals.
  • Adria Steinberg is the associate vice president of Jobs for the Future (JFF), a nonprofit organization that promotes innovative reform in education and workforce development. She has almost four decades of experience in the field of education as a teacher, administrator, researcher, and writer. Combining knowledge of practice, policy, and research, her articles and books have made her a key contributor to the national conversation about high school reform.
  • Deborah Frank was born in Washington, DC, and graduated from Radcliffe College summa cum laude in 1970. She worked as a social work assistant and research assistant from 1970 to 1972. In 1976, she graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency at Childrens Orthopedic Hospital in Seattle, Washington. Strongly interested in child development, she served as a fellow at Childrens Hospital Medical Center in the Developmental Pediatrics Program and later as the staff physician on the Failure to Thrive Team. In 1981, in response to a growing number of Failure to Thrive (FTT) families, she founded the Failure to Thrive Program at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center) in Boston. Franks' FTT Program, now called the Grow Clinic for Children, at Boston Medical Center, is a national model for treating FTT. The program is a comprehensive treatment plan that provides medical care, nutritional counseling and social outreach in an effort to empower parents to help their children grow. The program also operates a food pantry and clothing room for FTT patients and their families. Over 90 percent of the children who are seen in the clinic improve and ultimately graduate from the program.
  • Before taking on the leadership of Project Bread, Ms. Parker was Vice President of Programs at Crittenton Hastings House, Boston; Regional Director of Catholic Charities, Boston; and Senior Policy Advisor for Human Services to Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn. She holds two masters degrees from Boston University, one in social work and one in business administration and public management. In 2001, Ms. Parker was awarded the New England Womens Leadership Award for outstanding leadership in human services and, in 2003, the Hubie Jones Award for Urban Service, issued by Boston University's School of Social Work. In 2004, as a result of Ms. Parker's leadership, Project Bread was recognized by the Washington, D.C.-based Congressional Hunger Center for its work in effectively fighting hunger in Massachusetts. In 2007, Ellen Parker was granted the Heroes Among Us award by the Boston Celtics for her overwhelming impact on the lives of others. In 2008, she was selected by the Boston Municipal Research Bureau to receive the prestigious Shattuck City Champion Award for her significant contribution to the Boston community. And in 2009, she was selected by the Greater Boston Federal Executive Board to receive the Speaker Thomas P. ONeill, Jr. Award for Exemplary Public Service at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston.
  • David K. Shipler (born December 3, 1942) is an American author who won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1987 for *Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land*. He is an alumnus of Dartmouth College and served on the College's Board of Trustees from 1993 to 2003.
  • As a Senior Policy Advocate at MLRI, Pat works on a range of legislative, administrative, and policy matters that affect low-income families, elders and persons with disabilities. Prior to joining MLRI, Pat was a paralegal in Western Massachusetts Legal Services from 1977 to 1983 where she focused on disability, unemployment, and public benefits cases. Since 2002, under her leadership as chair of the Massachusetts Food Stamp Improvement Coalition, the Coalition has negotiated extensive policy changes to restore significant federal nutrition benefits to the Commonwealth. She has been a contributing author and edited numerous publications, including *the Food Stamp Advocacy Guide*, *EAEDC Advocacy Guide*, and *TAFDC and EA Advocacy Guide*; as well as the original *Down and Out Advocacy Guide* and the benefits section of *Legal Tactics*, 4th and 5th Editions.
  • **Thomas M. McGee** is the current major of Lynn, MA. He formerly served the Third Essex District, which includes the communities of Lynn, Lynnfield, Marblehead, Nahant, Saugus, and Swampscott. Before his election to the Senate in 2002, McGee served four terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he represented West Lynn and Nahant. Before running for public office, McGee was a lawyer.
  • Peter Galison is the Mallinckrodt Professor of the History of Science and of Physics at Harvard University and the author of *How Experiments End; Image and Logic*; as well as the newly published *Einstein's Clocks and Poincar*.
  • Dr. Baldwin was born in South Carolina and developed an early love for the ocean while living near the seashore and exploring along the beaches. She studied at James Madison University (B.S. biology), the College of Charleston (M.S. Marine Biology), and the College of William and Mary (Ph.D. Marine Science). She has published over three dozen scientific papers, including descriptions of new fish species from Belize, Tobago, Cook Islands, and Australia. She is on the editorial board for *Copeia* - the journal of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, and the Steering Committee for the Caribbean Coral Reefs Ecosystems Program of the National Museum of Natural History. She has recently developed presentations entitled "Fishes!, Bizarre Beginnings Beneath the Sea: A Little Fish Story", and "Galapagos: Way Beyond Darwin". Dr. Baldwin has been featured in *Smithsonian*, *Rodale Scuba Diving*, *More Magazine*, *The Washington Post*, *The Los Angeles Times*, *The International Herald Tribune*, *The Miami Herald*, and on the ABC television special *Planet Earth 2000*.
  • Jesse Levey has a long history as an innovator and entrepreneur. As the founder and CEO of United Leaders, Levey led the path towards innovation in civic leadership. In 2000, he served as a youth coordinator for John McCain's President Campaign where he harnessed the power of the web meeting media by developing a creative strategy that enabled Senator McCain to reach millions. He was the producer and host of the #1 rated Tufts University television program, "Jumbo Love Match," where he created new ways to use technology to build social interaction. Levey served as an account director for the Corporate Executive Board managing relationships with Fortune 200 members including Microsoft, Merrill Lynch, and Google. Levey is the recipient of numerous awards including the San Francisco City Club Board of Governor's Leadership Award, USA Today All-USA College Academic Second Team, and even being named by the Improper Bostonian & Boston Magazine as one of Boston's most eligible bachelors. Levey graduated from Tufts University Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Political Science and Communications and Media Studies. He is currently pursuing an MBA at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.