Fenway CDC 51st Annual Meeting

Dear Fenway CDC members and supporters:

A heartfelt thank-you to all who were able to attend Fenway CDC’s 51st annual meeting and celebrate with us on Thursday, April 25th, in person at the Linda K. Paresky Conference Center at Simmons University.

We were thrilled to welcome 140 neighbors, partners, and members at the event. We hope you enjoyed connecting with community members, elected officials, and partners.

Scroll down for more details regarding our newly elected board members and Community Service Awardees. Check out the photo album from the event here, as well as our year in review video here.

Be on the look-out for more information regarding our upcoming community vision conversations. We appreciated the chance to celebrate our work together and look forward to more future engagement.

If you would like to sign up for FREE to be a member, visit www.fenwaycdc.org/become-a-member/ or contact membership@fenwaycdc.org

Sincerely,

Fenway CDC Board and Staff

2024 Newly Elected Board Members

Eric Daniel worked for more than 30 years at Houghton Mifflin Company where he was executive editor for mathematics. Eric finds Boston a wonderful place to enjoy classical music and theater and studied Tai Chi for many years at the Chinese WuShu Research Institute in Chinatown. He has a B.A. from Lehigh University and an M.A. from Boston University. Eric has been a stalwart volunteer of the Urban Village Committee for more than five years where he has read and commented on hundreds of pages of technical development proposals. He has helped set up and clean up at numerous meetings, events and fundraisers, maintaining his signature affable, calm, and cheerful demeanor.

Robert Parker-Mason serves as a semiconductor Reliability Engineer at Analog Devices, Inc. and also as a Finance Consultant for the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color. Robert earned degrees from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and Morehouse College. He is interested in helping Fenway CDC develop co-op home ownership initiatives to foster intergenerational housing and a neighborhood with strong families as its backbone. Born and raised in the Fenway, Robert has firsthand experience of the challenges and opportunities of the community. With his educational, professional, and leadership background, he feels well-equipped to collaborate with fellow board members and staff in designing and implementing initiatives resulting in a thriving, inclusive community.

Mary ElizaBeth Peters has been a Fenway resident since 2013 and has worked in the Fenway since 2004 for the Wheelock Family Theatre. She is a teacher with the Boston Public Schools and also a playwright, teaching artist, and disability access and inclusion consultant. She holds a Masters Degree from Emerson College and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is interested in joining the Fenway CDC Board because she has a deep interest in affordable housing and wants to become involved in the neighborhood community in a more substantial way. She lives in a limited equity coop and has enjoyed relationships with neighbors, businesses and local nonprofits in our neighborhood. She wants to deepen her participation in the community and work for affordable housing and resident empowerment.

Cathy Van Bui is a resident of 71 Westland Ave and moved to Boston five years ago. While she did not know anyone in the city, she considered herself lucky to find housing she could afford in the Fenway area which gave her easy access to everything she needs: grocery, health clinic, work, etc. About 2 years ago, Cathy started volunteering with Fenway CDC. She says that her experiences have been amazing and feels connected to so many people in the neighborhood. She hopes to contribute even more in tangible ways and make the neighborhood an even more vibrant and diverse place.

Martin Ward is a retired attorney who attended Georgetown University, and clerked in Washington DC. He practiced law in the federal government as well as in private practice. He was appointed to a bi-national panel on the Canada/U.S free trade agreement. Martin later moved to Boston, passed the Boston bar, began private practice here and volunteered as a Boston Bar Association Advocate, representing indigent defendants in criminal cases. He also devoted time to representing those involved in imports and exports to the United States in various state and federal courts and agencies. After returning to government service one more time, he retired from the Department of Homeland Security.

In 1987, he married Cindy Brophy, the love of his life, and became a Fenway resident. Now a widower, Martin looks forward to working to further affordable housing and increase community in the Fenway.

Previously a volunteer intern with Fenway CDC, Tadesse Zerihun has over 20 years of international work experience as a team leader, managing humanitarian and recovery projects devised for under-privileged communities of post-conflict countries located in Africa, Central and Southern Asia, as well as the Middle East. He is passionately interested in providing support to facilitate links with institutions that offer technical skills and capacity building to help get individuals ready for employment. He feels that his prior experience prepared him well to help Fenway CDC achieve its mission. He believes Fenway CDC can make a lasting difference with collaborative efforts toward affordable housing and building community.