CUMMINGS FOUNDATION - Key Persons
A Woburn native and graduate of Woburn High School, Salem State College, and University of Vermont, Mr. McKeown also studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and had lectured at Massachusetts Center for Continuing Legal Education. He was a marathon runner, competitive swimmer, bicyclist, golfer, and tennis player.
Spending his entire working career with Cummings Properties, Mr. McKeown maintained many community roles, including service as a member and treasurer of Woburn Industrial Development Finance Authority and president of Woburn Business Association. He was once selected as "Boy of the Year" at what was then named Woburn Boys Club. Closely associated with that organization nearly all his life, he went on to become the first-ever Club alumnus to be elected a director, and then served two terms as its youngest president, as well. In 2014, the Club was renamed James L. McKeown Boys and Girls Club in his honor.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director
- Grants Manager
Andrew Bishop joined Cummings Foundation as grants manager in 2022, building on his years of professional experience working within private foundations, and he was appointed deputy director in 2023. He most recently served as grants officer at The Klarman Family Foundation, a Boston-based family foundation, where he led day-to-day grantmaking operations. Previously, Andrew held various programmatic and grants management roles at DentaQuest Foundation (Boston, MA) and The Healing Trust (Nashville, TN).
A graduate of Belmont University, Andrew also holds a Master of Business Administration, specializing in nonprofit management, from University of Massachusetts Boston. Andrew resides in Salem with his husband, Luke, and their son.
Dr. Arlan Fuller is a retired gynecologic cancer specialist. He was chief of gynecologic oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital for more than 20 years before transitioning to Winchester Hospital Center for Cancer Care, where he served as vice president for oncology services. He earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College and his medical degree with honors from Harvard Medical School. He was also an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School.
Fuller's professional focuses have been the development of surgical techniques in the management of ovarian cancer and the use of robotic surgery in the treatment of cervical and endometrial carcinomas. He has authored more than 100 academic papers and book chapters in the field of gynecologic oncology.
Beyond academic medicine, Fuller has taught surgery and demonstrated surgical techniques in operating rooms in the south of Italy and in Latin America. Within the sphere of global health, he is particularly interested in the screening and early diagnosis of cervical carcinoma, the most common cause of death for women in the developing world.
Job Titles:
- President of Union College
- President, Union College / Trustee since 2017
Dr. David Harris is the president of Union College. Prior to his appointment in March 2018, he served as provost and senior vice president of Tufts University. While at Tufts, Dr. Harris oversaw eight schools and the library system, as well as multiple cross-school programs, centers, and initiatives. He was also responsible for setting institutional priorities that defined and advanced the University's mission.
Previously, Harris served at Cornell University as professor of sociology, and in a series of administrative roles, including senior associate dean, vice provost for social sciences, deputy provost, and interim provost. In 2010-2011, he served as deputy assistant secretary for human services policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he led the Office of Human Services Policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.
Harris holds a B.S. in Human Development and Social Policy, and a Ph.D. in Sociology, from Northwestern University. His broad research interests involve social stratification, race and ethnicity, social identity, and other areas of public policy.
His work has applied theories from sociology, economics, and psychology to empirical studies of racial and ethnic disparities in socioeconomic status, the fluidity of race, and racial and nonracial determinants of residential mobility. Harris co-edited The Colors of Poverty: Why Racial and Ethnic Disparities Exist, and has authored numerous publications in academic journals, public policy outlets, and major national newspapers.
Job Titles:
- Project Director for the USAID - Funded Strategies to Prevent ( STOP ) Spillover
Dr. Kochevar currently serves as Project Director for the USAID-funded Strategies to Prevent (STOP) Spillover program, aimed at decreasing risk of spillover of high-priority zoonotic viruses at selected interfaces in Africa and Asia. Dr. Kochevar has published in peer-reviewed research and teaching journals, garnered extramural funding for her work, and is a dedicated teacher with special interests in translational medicine, international aspects of interprofessional One Health education, and global One Health diplomacy.
Job Titles:
- Chairman and CEO, Cummings Properties / Trustee since 2019
- in 1992 As General Manager
Dennis A. Clarke joined Cummings Properties in 1992 as general manager of Community Weeklies, Inc., a local newspaper chain that was closely affiliated with Cummings Properties at the time. He transitioned to the real estate side of the organization in 1996 as operations manager, was elected president and chief executive officer in 2004, and was named chairman and CEO in 2018.
Clarke grew up in Winchester and graduated from Harvard College. He has held multiple leadership positions with NAIOP Massachusetts, including president and Executive Committee chairman. Clarke and his wife Alicia (Angeles) have three sons and one daughter.
Job Titles:
- Vice Chancellor and Co - Founder of University of Global Health Equity
- Vice Chancellor, University of Global Health Equity ( Retired ) Trustee since 2022
Dr. Agnes Binagwaho is the retired inaugural vice chancellor and co-founder of University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda. A professor of pediatrics at UGHE, she is also a senior lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an adjunct clinical professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine.
Born in Rwanda, Binagwaho moved to Belgium when she was three years old and lived in Europe until she returned to Rwanda in 1996, two years after the 1994 genocide. Between 1996 and 2016, she held various high-level government positions, including five years as minister of health. She also provided clinical care in the public sector.
Dr. Agnes Binagwaho (left) posed with Bill and Joyce Cummings in front of one of the Foundation's "Iron Butterfly" sculptures during a 2021 visit to Woburn. The former minister of health for Rwanda, Binagwaho served as vice chancellor of University of Global Health Equity until her retirement in 2022.
Job Titles:
- President and CEO, Benjamin Franklin Cummings Inst. of Technology / Trustee since 2021
- President to Lead Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology
Dr. Aisha Francis is the first female president to lead Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology, a century-old nonprofit college located in the heart of Boston. A seasoned businessperson and former college educator, she excelled as chief of staff and chief executive officer at the affordable urban college prior to being appointed its president and CEO in 2021.
In her current role, Dr. Francis oversees the college's day-to-day operations and plays a critical role in advancing its mission to prepare graduates for successful careers in technology fields. She is also a staunch advocate for educational equity.
Prior to joining Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology, Francis held leadership positions in development and marketing at Harvard Medical School, Economic Mobility Pathways, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, and Boston Medical Center. She is also a founding member of the Boston chapter of Chief, a national organization supporting the advancement of women in business, and was recognized among Boston Business Journal's "40 Under 40" leaders to watch.
Francis serves on the boards of Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Boston Employment Commission, and Boston public radio station WBUR. The Nashville, TN native completed her undergraduate education at Fisk University and earned a masters and doctorate in English Literature from Vanderbilt University. She currently resides in Hyde Park with her husband and two children.
Job Titles:
- Trustee Emeritus
- Tufts University President
Dr. Anthony P. Monaco became the 13 th president of Tufts University in 2011. A distinguished geneticist, Monaco also holds faculty appointments at Tufts University's School of Medicine as a professor of neuroscience and at its School of Arts and Sciences as a professor of biology.
Before assuming the presidency at Tufts, Monaco served as the pro-vice-chancellor for planning and resources at the University of Oxford, beginning in 2007. He was also a professor of human genetics at Oxford, beginning in 1997, where he led the University's Neurogenetics Group, a team of scientists investigating the genetic underpinnings of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, language impairment, and dyslexia.
From 1998 to 2008, Monaco directed Oxford's Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. Under his leadership, the organization doubled in size, and is now the largest externally funded university-based research center in the U.K.
A native of Wilmington, Delaware, Monaco received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1981, and his M.D. and Ph.D. through Harvard Medical School's Medical Scientist Training Program. His doctoral research led to a landmark scientific discovery: the gene responsible for X-linked Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies.
Tufts University president Anthony P. Monaco serves on the Foundation board, while half the members of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine's board of advisors are officially designated by CFI.
Job Titles:
- President of Roger Williams University
- President, Roger Williams University / Trustee since 2022
Dr. Ioannis N. Miaoulis became the 11th president of Roger Williams University in August of 2019. Raised in Greece, he was a first-generation college student. He holds a doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering, a Master of Arts in Economics, and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Tufts University, as well as Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from State University of New York.
Job Titles:
- Trustee Emeritus
- President, Harvard University / Trustee Emeritus
Dr. Lawrence Bacow is the 29 th president of Harvard University. Prior to his appointment in February 2018, he was the Hauser Leader-in-Residence at Kennedy School of Government's Center for Public Leadership. Before joining Harvard, Dr. Bacow served for 10 years as president of Tufts University.
Nationally, Bacow is well known as an advocate of broader access to higher education and the importance of need-based financial aid. At the international level, he played an important role in efforts to strengthen universities' commitment to civic engagement.
Originally from Pontiac, Michigan, Bacow attended college at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and went on to earn three degrees from Harvard. He spent 24 years on the faculty of MIT, where he served as chancellor, faculty chair, and the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies.
Job Titles:
- Chancellor of UGHE
- Co - Founder of Partners in Health
Job Titles:
- President
- Trustee since 2019
Eric S. Anderson joined Cummings Properties in 1999. He began as an associate property manager and steadily rose through the ranks. He was appointed executive vice president in 2013 and president in 2018.
A 1998 graduate of Colby College and a United States Marine Corps veteran, Anderson was honored as one of Boston Business Journal's "40 under 40" in 2013. He previously served as a member of the Board of Overseers at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, is vice president and treasurer of New Horizons at Marlborough, and founded Massachusetts Association of Business Incubators. Anderson and his wife, Kari, live in Westford with their two children.
Job Titles:
- Founding Partner of Hill
- Retired Founding Partner, Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos / Trustee since 2022
Jack Connors, Jr. is a founding partner of Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Inc., a full-service marketing communications company. Under his leadership, Hill Holliday evolved from a one-room shop to one of the top 20 advertising firms in the United States.
Connors is well known throughout greater Boston for his business acumen, as well as his participation and influence in local philanthropy. Boston Magazine named him one of the most powerful people in Boston, and he has been a major force behind initiatives such as The One Fund, The Campaign for Catholic Schools, and The Edward M. Kennedy Institute. Perhaps his most important contribution to civic life is Camp Harbor View, which he co-founded in 2007 with then-Mayor Thomas Menino. The camp has since become a holistic year-round program for teens and their families in addition to serving 1000 kids each summer.
More than two dozen corporate, civic, and nonprofit organizations have benefited from Connors' active involvement on their boards, including Partners HealthCare System (now Mass General Brigham), Harvard Medical School, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and his alma mater, Boston College.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director Emeritus
- Retired Executive Director, Cummings Foundation / Executive Director Emeritus
After 15 years of contributions to Cummings Foundation, Joel B. Swets of Winchester, Massachusetts retired in October of 2021. He has continued to act as a valuable resource for the organization.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Joel practiced law with Weston, Patrick, Willard & Redding, P.A. in Boston for 18 years, concentrating in estate planning and tax law. From 1998-2001, he was also an adjunct instructor at Suffolk University Law School.
A graduate of Colby College, Swets received a JD degree cum laude from Suffolk University Law School, and a Masters degree in taxation from Boston University Law School. Prior to entering private practice, he completed a clerkship in the Trial Division of the United States Court of Claims in Washington, D.C.
Job Titles:
- President, Salem State University / Trustee since 2022
John D. Keenan, J.D. is the 14th president of Salem State University, the North Shore's only public four-year post-secondary school. Prior to his appointment in 2017, he spent three years as the University's general counsel and vice president for Administration.
Keenan gained leadership and policymaking experience while serving as Essex County assistant district attorney, Salem city solicitor, and a Massachusetts state representative. A staunch advocate for public higher education, he leveraged his 14-year tenure in the state legislature to champion increased funding for state universities, benefits equity for state university faculty, and university status for Salem State. He also moved several significant public projects forward, including the construction of Salem MBTA Station.
A first-generation college graduate, Keenan holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard College and a JD from Suffolk University. He serves on the board of Salem Award Foundation for Human Rights & Social Justice as well as the North Shore Advisory Board of the Anti-Defamation League.
Keenan, a lifelong Salem resident, lives with his wife and two children. He is a direct descendant of Rebecca Nurse, who was executed in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Founders
- Trustee since 1986
Joyce Cummings, founders and primary benefactors of Cummings Foundation, maintain an active role in both New Horizons communities. Both they and Patricia Cummings serve indefinite terms as trustees, along with other true community leaders who serve as trustees at New Horizons in Woburn and of Cummings Foundation itself.
This keen involvement has distinguished New Horizons as somewhat of an anomaly within the independent and assisted living industry. Through the family's planning and contributions, neither property has any type of mortgage whatsoever, and both consistently operate on a very healthy financial base. Many consider New Horizons to be among the best and lowest cost assisted living communities in Massachusetts. Indeed, the very structure of New Horizons, as Cummings Foundation-owned entities, essentially guarantees that their charitable missions will continue in perpetuity.
One of the most unique benefits New Horizons residents enjoy results from a decision by Cummings Foundation to effectively subsidize each resident's fees every month, by absorbing most cost-of-living and other operational increases on behalf of residents. This custom, while relatively unheard of in the industry, is vital to Cummings Foundation's desire to meaningfully and measurably serve as a first-class Massachusetts assisted living community.
Joyce Cummings' advocacy for educational equity and excellence has culminated in the creation of several significant partnerships with local institutions of higher learning. Learn more about Cummings' Affiliated Colleges, a group of high-quality post-secondary schools that have each been gifted more than $10 million from the Foundation.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Trustee
- Trustee since 2021
Vyriotes came to the Cummings organization as marketing manager in 2010 and, over the years, established a communications department that supports both Cummings Properties and Cummings Foundation. During much of this time, she also served as deputy director of the Foundation, and was one of the chief architects of its major annual grant-making initiative and volunteer program.
In 2021, Vyriotes became the third executive director in the Foundation's history. She is, however, still employed by Cummings Properties and retains her responsibilities as director of communications and marketing for the commercial real estate firm.
Vyriotes began her business career doing sales and marketing for Boston Duck Tours, before moving to Arizona, where she spent a decade in fundraising and patient services for nonprofit organizations. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, she also earned a master's in Integrated Marketing Communications from West Virginia University. Vyriotes was raised in Melrose and currently resides in Reading with her husband, Paul.
In 2007, Governor Deval Patrick appointed Associate Justice Margot Botsford to the Supreme Judicial Court, the oldest appellate court in continuous existence in the Western Hemisphere. She retired from the court in 2017. Born in New York City, Botsford was appointed to the Massachusetts Superior Court (Suffolk County) in 1989 by Governor Michael Dukakis. She is a graduate of Barnard College (B.A.), Northeastern University School of Law (J.D.), and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government (M.P.A.), and she brings extensive experience to Cummings Foundation's board of trustees. Botsford is the editor/co-editor of several publications, including an early work entitled "Protecting the Rights of Elderly Clients."
Botsford began her notable career as a law clerk for Supreme Judicial Court Justice Francis J. Quirico. In the private sector, she served as an associate at Hill & Barlow and later was a partner at Boston-based Rosenfeld, Botsford & Krokidas. Before her appointment to the Superior Court, she served as assistant district attorney (chief of the appeals bureau) in Middlesex County and as an assistant attorney general (government bureau & chief of opinions).
Kris Wilson joined the Cummings team in 2023, bringing more than a decade of diverse legal experience that spans in-house corporate work, law firm practice, local government, and, most recently, active-duty service at the United States Coast Guard's Office of General Law. An employee of Cummings Properties, he also serves as public affairs director for the real estate side of the Cummings organization.
Kris is active in many local philanthropic and volunteer efforts, with a particular passion for workforce development and worker's rights, and continues to serve as a reserve judge advocate general in the Coast Guard Reserve. The Saint Louis University School of Law graduate concentrated his studies on taxation and clerked in the Internal Revenue Service's office of chief counsel. He is the first generation in his family to earn a bachelor's degree, studying economics at University of Evansville. Kris lives in Jamaica Plain with his wife, Elizabeth, and their Aussie Doodle, Otis.
Job Titles:
- Professor at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
Dr. Deborah Turner Kochevar served for 12 years as dean and Henry and Lois Foster Professor at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and subsequently as provost ad interim for Tufts University. Dr. Kochevar fostered interdisciplinarity and One Health collaboration across multiple Tufts campuses and schools.
She is a former Congressional Science Fellow to the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, a diplomate and past president of the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology and has been active in the American Veterinary Medical Association, having chaired its Council on Education and the Educational Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduates. She is a former president and chair of the board of directors of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges.
Dr. Kochevar earned her undergraduate degree from Rice University, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Texas A&M; University, a Ph.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and a master's degree in Global Business Administration from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
Botsford is a trustee emerita of Northeastern University and has taught at Northeastern University School of Law, Boston University Law School, National Judicial College, and Flaschner Judicial Institue. Among her awards and honors are Judicial Excellence Awards from the Massachusetts Judicial Conference and Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, the Haskell Cohn Distinguished Judicial Service Award from Boston Bar Association, and honorary degrees from Northeastern University School of Law and New England Law School.
Job Titles:
- Associate Prof., Columbia University
- Associate Professor at Columbia University School of Medicine
A 1992 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dartmouth College, Marilyn C. Morris is also a 1997 graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine. She completed her internship at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and a fellowship in pediatric critical care at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She then served for seven years as a pediatric intensive-care physician at Children's Hospital of New York (Columbia Presbyterian).
Morris is now an associate professor at Columbia University School of Medicine and serves as chair of Columbia University Medical Center's Institutional Review Board, #1 and is medical director of the Clinical Trials office. She has a special interest in the ethical and pragmatic aspects of conducting clinical research in medical emergency situations. In 2007, she earned a Master of Public Health degree from Columbia University. Morris is the eldest daughter of Bill and Joyce Cummings. She is married and has two children.
Job Titles:
- Retired Chairman
- Trustee Emeritus
- Member of the American Institute of Architects
A former executive and chairman of Cummings Properties, Michael Pascavage left the firm, after a total of 21 years, to become executive vice president of Skanska USA Commercial Development in 2008. This Sweden-based firm built Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA, as well as hundreds of other prominent projects on several continents.
Pascavage went on to found Design & Development Solutions, an architecture, planning, and project management firm in Woburn, Massachusetts, serving institutional clients and commercial and residential private development projects.
A longtime member of the American Institute of Architects, Pascavage holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture from University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from Northeastern University.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor and Chief Strategy Officer at Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston
- Senior Advisor and Chief Strategy Officer, Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston / Trustee since 2023
Mike Kennealy is senior advisor and chief strategy officer at Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston. Immediately prior, he served for four years as Massachusetts' secretary of housing and economic development, advancing the Baker-Polito Administration's agenda to create economic opportunity and new housing for residents. He led significant investments in affordable housing production, community development, workforce skills programs, and small business support while working to strengthen the Commonwealth's leadership in the innovation economy. Kennealy shepherded through the Legislature the Administration's third economic development bill, which included the most significant housing policy reforms in decades.
After beginning his career in private equity at TA Associates, Kennealy spent 15 years helping Spectrum Equity grow to an established market leader with nearly $5 billion in assets under management and investments in more than 100 high-growth companies. He then served two years at Lawrence Public Schools as special advisor to the receiver, working to support its turnaround plan.
Kennealy and his family live in Lexington, where they have been highly involved in town government, education, and youth sports. He is the former board chair at St. John's Prep and a former member of the board of visitors for the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences at Dartmouth College. Kennealy received an AB magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with high honors in Government from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Job Titles:
- Psychologist, New York / Trustee since 2002
A 1997 graduate of Tufts University, Patricia A. Cummings was a full-time employee of the Foundation's New Horizons at Marlborough senior living community for eight years, through August 2005. She continues to serve in the volunteer role of trustee and chairperson of New Horizons at Marlborough and is vice president of Cummings Foundation.
After New Horizons, Cummings was assistant dean of Orthodox Hebrew Academy of San Francisco. She obtained her doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 2011 from California School of Professional Psychology and is a psychologist at a residential program in New York that serves youth with behavioral and cognitive difficulties.
Cummings is active in the Tufts University Alumni Admissions program, interviewing applicants for undergraduate admission, and is a former overseer of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. She has also served as a director-at-large of Middlesex Concert Band, a board member of Marlborough Hospital Foundation, and a community advisory board member for Alliance Health Project at University of California San Francisco. She is an accomplished pianist and clarinet player and a former downhill skiing instructor. Cummings is the younger daughter of Bill and Joyce Cummings.
Job Titles:
- Retired Public School Teacher and Legislator / Trustee Emeritus
After earning her bachelor's and master's degrees from Regis College, Carol A. Donovan was a teacher in the Woburn public school system for 25 years. The Woburn resident retired in 2005 after serving seven terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. She served as president of the 1991 Class of Legislators and on the Energy and Personnel & Administration Committees.
Donovan was treasurer for the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators and a member of the Special Committee on Foster Care, Legislative Caucus of Older Citizens Concerns, Massachusetts Legislative Children's Caucus (Steering Committee), and Legislative Tobacco Control Caucus.
Donovan was recognized as "Legislator of the Year" and as an "Outstanding Legislator" numerous times throughout her career by many state-wide organizations. She has served on the board of directors of Visiting Nurses Association of Middlesex East and was appointed to the Governor's Commission on Sexual and Domestic Violence, in recognition of her excellent advocacy during her tenure as a state representative. Donovan is also a trustee emerita of New Horizons at Choate, LLC.
Job Titles:
- Retired Massachusetts Legislator / Trustee Emeritus
Paul C. Casey is a graduate of Harvard University and has a Master of Public Administration degree from Suffolk University and an MBA from Boston University. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for 20 years, from 1989 to 2009, representing the 31 st Middlesex District.
Casey has been an active participant in state government and numerous community and charitable organizations since the mid-1980s. He served as chairperson for the House Committee on Taxation and on the Advisory Committee on Consolidated Health Care Financing and Delivery. Casey also serves on Cummings Foundation's Finance Committee. In his limited free time, he serves as a professional boxing referee.
Job Titles:
- Retired President and Chief Operating Officer of the Boston Globe
- Retired President, the Boston Globe / Trustee Emeritus
The retired president and chief operating officer of The Boston Globe, Richard C. (Dick) Ockerbloom began his career at the Globe as a Northeastern University co-op student worker 50 years earlier.
After graduating from Northeastern in 1952, he went on to serve the University over many decades. He is now vice chairman emeritus of Northeastern's Board of Trustees. Additionally, Ockerbloom served on Cummings Foundation's Finance Committee.
Ockerbloom holds an honorary doctoral degree from Northeastern and was inducted into the Arlington (MA) High School Hall of Fame. He has served in a wide range of important public service positions throughout the Boston area. He is also a long-time member of Winchester Country Club, where he reportedly enjoys working for four hours on some Saturday mornings to win $2.00 from Bill Cummings.
Job Titles:
- Senior Counsel, WilmerHale / Trustee since 2022
Raised in Arlington, MA, Robert Keefe attended Arlington High School followed by Phillips Exeter Academy, and went on to graduate cum laude from Harvard College in 1968 and suma cum laude from Boston College Law School in 1972. He then worked for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. for two years before joining Hale and Dorr (now WilmerHale) in 1974, becoming a member of its Litigation Department and its White-Collar Defense and Investigation Practice. He remained at the firm until he retired as a partner in 2015, but he has continued to work there as a senior counsel. His practice has included complex commercial litigation, internal corporate investigations, and white-collar criminal defense work.
Over the years, Keefe has represented myriad well-known organizations, including State Street Corporation, Ocean Spray Cranberries, Avery Dennison Corporation, Boston Scientific Corporation, Global Petroleum Corporation, Hasbro, National Hockey League, and Citicorp. North America. He has also taught at the Harvard Law School Advocacy Course, lectured to various groups through continuing legal education programs, and spoken on corporate compliance issues at the American Corporate Counsel Association and a number of local law schools.
A dedicated Cummings Foundation volunteer since 2015, Keefe has been integral to multiple committees that both select and maintain relationships with nonprofit grant winners.
Job Titles:
- President, Endicott College / Trustee since 2021
Dr. Steven R. DiSalvo took the helm of Endicott College in 2019 as its seventh president. A leader with a track record of transformative success, he previously served as president of Marian University and Saint Anselm College.
This first-generation college student made an early career of attending Fordham University, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in psychology, Master of Business Administration in marketing, and Ph.D. in educational leadership. Prior to his presidencies, he served as executive vice president of Junior Achievement of New York and executive director of Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation. He also founded and served as president of The Hopewell Group, which advised individuals, families, foundations, and corporations in the area of strategic philanthropic giving.
A strong proponent of college access for all students, DiSalvo has been a leading national voice on the topic of college affordability. His op-eds and interviews have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe, among other well-known publications.
DiSalvo serves on the boards of The New England Council, Austin Preparatory School, Life Sciences Consortium of the North Shore, and Commonwealth Coast Conference. He and his wife Eileen are the proud parents of three adult sons, Tom, Andrew, and Connor.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Retired Senior VP and Partner, Wellington Management / Trustee since 2020
Tom Pappas is an experienced investor and education advocate. After growing up in Lynn, MA, Pappas entered Tufts University, majoring in Economics and Computational (i.e. Applied) Math. He went on to become the first in his family to graduate from college and continued his education at MIT's Sloan School of Management, earning an MBA with a concentration in Finance in 1987. Tom was a Portfolio Manager for 23 years at Wellington Management Company, where he chaired bond strategy groups, mentored talent, and, as a partner, was involved with the firm's audit, diversity, and trust company committees. In 2013, Pappas was a Fellow at Harvard's Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI), studying social entrepreneurship and focusing on educational insights to help lower-income students succeed. He has also become an active angel investor and startup mentor, very involved with the Gratitude Railroad impact investing network and locally via Hub Angels.
Pappas has served as a board member or in a leadership role for several Boston-area organizations, including Museum of Science, MassINC, Bridge Boston Charter School, Wellington Charitable Foundation, Tufts University, and Move the World Foundation, which he founded to help improve educational pathways in Massachusetts "gateway cities." Pappas and his wife Jill, a retired teacher, live in South Dartmouth, MA.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Trustee since 1986
established Cummings Foundation, Inc. in 1986. At that time, the commercial real estate firm Bill founded in 1970, Cummings Properties, was thriving, and the Winchester, Massachusetts couple decided they wanted to give back in the Greater Boston areas where the growing business operated and where its staff and clients lived.
Over the years, Joyce and Bill gradually donated the large majority of Cummings Properties commercial property to the Foundation. Today, nearly all of the buildings managed by Cummings Properties are actually owned by and operated for the sole benefit of Cummings Foundation. Clients who lease space at these properties feel good about this business decision, knowing that Cummings Buildings Power Charities.
Job Titles:
- Executive VP and Chief Investment Officer, Cummings Properties / Trustee since 2019
- Its First Chief Financial Officer
William Grant joined Cummings Properties as its first chief financial officer in 1998, was named senior vice president in 2016, and advanced to executive vice president in 2023. He oversees the organization's expansive diversified investment portfolio and manages its relationships with multiple internal and external financial advisors.
Grant grew up in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and received his undergraduate and master's degrees in accounting from Bentley College. He also attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
He has served on the board of directors of Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) since 2009 and as chairperson for its Health Care Cost and Quality Committee since 2012. He currently resides in Andover with his wife, Kathy. They have two adult children and five grandchildren.