Our Board

Sarah Jenness, President

Sarah Jenness grew up in Lynn, Massachusetts and moved to the East Fens in 2014. For her undergraduate education, Sarah attended Bryn Mawr, a women-centered college, as a Posse Scholar. During college, Sarah developed an interest in a variety of social justice issues, particularly those related to inequities in education, and independently majored in Sociology of Education.

After finishing her bachelor’s degree, Sarah completed an AmeriCorps Year of Service working at a charter high school in Chelsea, MA where she tutored students who faced a variety of structural challenges including homelessness. Sarah then began working at Simmons College, where she took evening classes to earn her master’s in Public Policy. While working at Simmons, Sarah learned about the Fenway CDC and began volunteering with the Organizing Committee in 2017. Sarah joined the Committee because she was interested in meeting her neighbors and because she believes that increasing access to truly affordable housing is one of the most important issues in Boston. Sarah currently works as a Program Manager at Jobs for the Future (JFF), a national non-profit that works to transform education and workforce systems to ensure economic advancement for all. In her free time, Sarah enjoys supporting local restaurants, listening to political podcasts, and singing in a community choir.

Dolores Boogdanian (Dolly), Vice President

Friends know me as Dolly. I am a 45-year resident of Boston and have been engaged in community-driven projects for much of that time. The trigger for my civic engagement came in the early 1980s, when institutional expansion and condominium conversions began squeezing out long-term residents. I saw the power of citizen action when the Rent Equity and the Institutional Expansion Boards were created and when residents’ pressured institutions to have Master Plans and I saw the value in progressive political action that resulted in greater scrutiny of bank financing for condominium conversions. I also saw the critical importance of an engaged citizenry that feels responsible for and has a stake in what happens in the neighborhood.

I remain active in the Fenway community. I have served as president of the Audubon Circle Neighborhood Association and was on the Fenway CDC’s Board. With housing prices skyrocketing (and no end in sight); continuing pressure from college students on the existing housing stock; a building boom that foretells greater demands on housing and city services, and a seeming lack of political will to or ability to put Boston’s house in order, the role of citizens and particularly of the Fenway CDC remains more essential than ever.

I hope to contribute to the CDC’s role in sharing community voices in housing creation, job creation, and fostering truly sustainable growth in our city of Boston.

Tim Coakley, Treasurer

Born and raised in Worcester County, Tim is a lifelong resident of Massachusetts who now lives in East Boston.  Since 2013, he has been Chief Financial Officer of privately-held Blauer, a leading provider of apparel and accessories to the public safety personnel market headquartered on Aberdeen Street in the West Fens.  Tim first became involved with the Fenway CDC as a member of the Finance Committee in 2017.  Tim has been very active in the Greater Boston financial community, including a recently completed term as President of the Boston Chapter of Financial Executives International.  He looks forward to contributing his financial and operational expertise to the incredibly important mission of the Fenway CDC.  Tim holds a BS degree in Finance from Boston College.

James Smith, Clerk

After raising 6 children and a career as a private investigator-starting and owning his own private investigation firm, James and his wife Rosalie retired to the Fenway 12 years ago. Living in a Fenway CDC building in the West Fens, James is a Building Captain, and has managed the Peterborough Street Food Pantry for the last 10 years where he has come to know most of his neighbors. James was born in Dallas, grew up in South Boston. He was a boxer at English High School and a member of the track team. James attended University of Massachusetts where he studied management and music, performing as part of the Elite Chamber Singers and the Jazz Ensemble. James remains a passionate performer of music.

Ryan Boxill

Ryan Boxill has lived in a Fenway CDC-owned building since 2004. He is a licensed clinical psychologist and holds an MBA with a specialization in finance. He has worked in areas such as behavioral health, health and wellness, new business-model creation, finance, disaster-related mental health, and mental health policy. He has always been interested in giving back to the community and is honored to serve on the Board of the Fenway CDC.

Brian Clague

Brian has lived in the area for almost 30 years, originally in Kenmore Square and then as a member of the Fensgate Cooperative for the last 25 years. Brian selected this neighborhood based on his impression from The Fenway News – that this is a neighborhood where the residents care about a sense of community. In Kenmore Square, Brian got involved in community organizing through sheer necessity when he and his neighbors faced eviction. Brian rallied his neighbors into an effective tenant organization and went on to serve on the board of the Mass Tenants’ Organization and to advocate for the preservation of rooming houses, or SROs. Brian has been honored to serve on the CDC’s Board again, a position he held in the past while helping FCDC to develop Hemenway House, a rooming house on Hemenway Street. Brian looks forward to serving for another term and working on the Governance Committee to engage more residents in the CDC’s efforts for the neighborhood.

Eric Daniel

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.

Amelia Hill

Amelia Hill has been a volunteer on the Fenway CDC Financial Committee since 2018 and recently joined the Board of Directors in Fall of 2021.

Amelia has worked in affordable housing asset management since 2012; since 2018, she has worked for Boston Financial Investment Management, a Low Income Housing Tax Credit syndicator. Amelia lived in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood for seven years until recently when she moved to Natick, MA with her husband and 3-year-old Henry. Amelia is originally from Washington D.C. and holds a B.A. from Wellesley College.

Robert Parker-Mason

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.

Rosaria Salerno

Rosaria has lived in the Fenway since 1970 and is a longtime neighborhood activist and one of the original founders of the Fenway CDC. With a history of defending affordable housing and community well-being, she served as an At-Large member of the Boston City Council from 1988 to 1993. In 1993, she ran for mayor as the only female in the race. She was named city clerk by the City Council in 1995 and served as clerk until 2011. Rosaria now serves as a justice of the peace and remains deeply involved in neighborhood and citywide social action.

Cathy Van Bui

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

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.

Mark Winkeller

Mark Winkeller has been a volunteer member of the Fenway CDC Housing Committee since 2022. Mark’s career has been in real estate, both in the for-profit and nonprofit arena. He recently retired after 22 years serving as Executive Director of Caritas Communities, a nonprofit housing developer and manager that provides housing to almost 1,000 low and extremely residents throughout greater Boston. He has a Ph.D. in social welfare planning from Brandeis University.

Tadesse Zerihun

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.