Director

Betsy joined the CCI board in February 2019. She became a friend of Community Change in 2015 at a house party, then joined the fundraising committee for the recent 50th Anniversary celebration and now considers CCI her primary focus as a funder and organizer in the work to dismantle white supremacy and support racial justice.

She has participated in each of CCI's umbrella programs from White People Challenging Racism to Showing Up For Racial Justice and continues to build community through programs offered by CCI such as Knapsack meetups, the Watering Hole and the AROS symposiums.

Betsey is a retired preschool teacher and a yoga instructor who lives in Cambridge Mass with her husband Matthew who is the Executive Director at Boston Building Resources in Roxbury. She has two daughters who live in New York City where she grew up.

CCI created the path along which I learned about my own internalized white racial superiority and the history of systemic racism in America. It is a container to hold people in courageous community to work together towards a just future. I know Community Change will be an important part of the rest of my life and I am honored to be a part of this legacy organization.

Director

Aba as spent the last two decades engaged in social justice as an educator, facilitator, organizer, consultant, and nonprofit executive. From working internationally at the United Nations in South Asia, to conducting civil rights trainings all over the United States, to leading high impact social justice organizations and efforts, Aba has committed herself to building the capacity and leadership of organizations dedicated to social transformation.

Taylor’s experience has included facilitating YW Boston’s Dialogues on Race and Ethnicity, and Class Action; designing and facilitating racial justice trainings for institutions such as the Boston Latin School, YWCA, the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable, the Alliance for Nonprofit Management, as well as myriad health care, educational, youth, religious, and other groups and organizations. Aba holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Pan-African Studies from Columbia University and a Master of Arts degree in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from the School of International Training. She is a Rockwood Leadership Institute alumnus and a certified trainer with Quabbin Mediation.

Passionate about arts, culture, and creative expression Aba is a closeted writer and a very out cinephile and sci-fi nerd. For Aba, liberatory parenting, as well as spiritual and healing practices, are her North Star.

Director

Abraham is a co-founder of Freedom Beyond, a network of circles of white people working to break free from the chains of white supremacy. Abraham was a middle school teacher of students of color for a decade before realizing that good teaching alone could not dismantle white supremacy. Today, he organizes healing spaces for people with dominating power (especially other white people, men, and wealthy people) so that they can begin the journey of deep, lifelong alignment with movements led by marginalized people.

Executive Director

A Chicago native born on the crossroads of working-class, Black and female, Shay Stewart-Bouley’s career since 1997 has focused on weaving these intersections into her daily life and professional work. Since the mid-1990s, Shay has worked in the non-profit sector, during the earlier years working primarily with marginalized groups and in the later years focusing on non-profit administration working both as an Executive Director at a small faith-based non-profit in Southern Maine and non-profit consultant/grant-writer to other organizations. In the early-2000s, Shay moved from her native Chicago to Maine and, as a Black woman living in one of the least diverse spaces in the United States, found herself writing regularly about race relations, social justice, and white supremacy.

Shay is a prolific blogger at her award-winning blog Black Girl in Maine, where race is a major theme but also daily life as a Black, middle-aged woman in a world where these traits frequently are not valued. Shay also writes for the Portland Phoenix, crafting a monthly column titled “Diverse City” that celebrated its 10th year in 2013. Shay holds an undergraduate degree from DePaul University, where she self-designed a program to focus on African-American Health and Wellness and health disparities; she also holds masters of education degree in Administration and Supervision from Antioch University New England. When Shay isn’t working, she can be found on a yoga mat, where she is training to become a 200-hour registered yoga teacher in the Ashtanga tradition. If you need to reach her write her at first name at communitychangeinc dot org.

Director

Stephen was born in Boston, currently lives in Brockton. After 32 years as an Arlington Public Schools K-12 Administrator, he is now the President of Massachusetts Partnership for Diversity in Education and a former adjunct faculty member of Empowering Multicultural Initiatives (EMI), now known as IDEAS.

Stephen is also currently a co-facilitator of WPCR (White People Challenging Racism: Moving from Talk to Action) where he currently teaches every fall in Wellesley.  

He formerly served as President of the METCO Directors Association and is one of the longest-standing members of the Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers (MAPS) Board of Directors. He holds a BA from Boston College and an M.Ed, from Antioch University. Stephen is active in many local cultural, civic, political and professional organizations and in his time off, he's a professed world traveler and "professional beach bum." He also loves music and is an avid automobile enthusiast and professional bowler.

He identifies as a (black) person of color,(2nd generation Cape Verdean-American).

Director

Alex joined the CCI community in 2015. He has been active in with the Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Boston Chapter and, as of 2017, serves on the CCI Board. Originally from a white, middle-class family in New Hampshire, Alex is committed to dismantling the institutional and cultural white supremacy -- both in his community and within himself. The CCI community has helped him to build deeper and more authentic relationships. Most importantly, CCI has shown him how building genuinely multiracial, multi-class, and intergenerational communities that center Black and Brown people is essential for liberation. 

In his spare time, Alex finds joy reading, writing, painting and talking about new ideas. Most importantly, he loves spending time building community with his partner, friends, and family. He also aspires to get in touch with his family's cultural roots by learning to prepare French Canadian and Irish cooking for his loved ones!

Board of Directors Chair

Susan is an independent consultant and trainer who integrates many years of experience in nonprofit community development, grassroots leadership development, public education, and racial justice organizing. Her current work focuses on capacity building for community-based organizations, nonprofit and public agencies in the areas of community building, public education reform and racial justice organizing. She has served in leadership roles in several nonprofit community development organizations, most recently as Director of NeighborWorks® National Community Building and Organizing Programs. Susan has developed and led training workshops and courses and provided strategic assistance in organizational and board development, institutional racism, cultural proficiency, and leadership development. She was a founder of the Boston Parent Organizing Network and a 2-term (8 year) member of the school board for the City of Boston. 

Susan has come to believe that we will never get to creating truly just and equitable communities without addressing the deep legacy of racism in the United States. She is the author of The Education of a White Parent: Wrestling with Race and Opportunity in the Boston Public Schools (Levellers Press, 2012)and is a part-time faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, Graduate School of Education.

Susan holds a B.A. in Urban and Community Studies from the University of Michigan, an M.S. in Community Economic Development from New Hampshire College (now Southern New Hampshire University), and a Master’s Certificate in Dispute Resolution from the University of Massachusetts/Boston.