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The Board of Directors, currently numbering 18, are volunteers who represent a wide variety of professional expertise, providing the leadership and knowledge to maintain Gifford's standard of excellence.
OFFICERS
Geline W. Williams is President of the Gifford School Board. . She is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association, an independent state agency that coordinates technology, training, policy and legislation for the eleven elected District Attorneys and their combined staffs of eighteen hundred prosecutors, victim-witness advocates, and investigators. Prior to taking that position in 2000, Ms. Williams spent fourteen years as a Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney and focused particularly on issues of child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault. She began her legal career as a civil litigator in Boston before joining the public sector.
Marcia B. Stern is Vice President of the Gifford School Board. She is a retired early childhood special educator and currently is affiliated with the Concord Children’s Center. Her youngest son attended The Gifford School.
J. Arthur Taylor is Treasurer of the Gifford School Board. He retired from a 39-year career in banking, most recently with Bay Bank. After retirement he studied furniture making for three years at the North Bennett Street School and currently makes furniture in a shop in West Concord. He has been active in town governance in Carlisle and has served on the board of several non-profit organizations, including Emerson Hospital and Hurricane Island Outward Bound School.
Ellen E. Michelman is the Secretary of the Gifford School Board. Most recently she was the Director of Special Education at the Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester. Prior to that she served as an Administrator of Special Education for the Brookline Public Schools for nineteen years. Her professional experience also includes service as a special education consultant and involvement on several special education advisory committees.
Board Members
Martha M. Cowden currently is an independent consultant to government and non-profit community agencies and specializes in planning and research, program development, community collaboration, grant making, and resource development. She has worked in government, politics, and community-based agencies focusing on human services, early education, public education, criminal justice, mental health and mental retardation.
Robert L. Fenn is retired from a 30-year career with Lowell Shoe in Hudson, N.H., where he served as Executive Vice President. For eight years he was President of Gifford’s Board.
Miriam Freidin, M.D., is an adult and child psychiatrist in private practice, with offices in Boston and Lexington. She has been a dedicated supervisor and teacher of residents in child psychiatry at Tufts New England Medical Center for nearly 30 years. Dr. Freidin has been active in the New Council of Child Psychiatry for many years, serving as president from 2000-2002. In addition, she has been involved with the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society since 1980 and has been a member of its Ethics Committee since 1993.
Dr. Toni Hays is the Dean and Associate Professor for the Regis College School of Nursing and Health Professions. She is a graduate of Boston College, Boston University, and Brandeis University. Dr. Hays is a resident of Wayland and is committed to issues related to school-based health care. She was instrumental in the development of the first academic model for school-based health care to serve underserved children in Boston’s inner city Catholic schools. Dr. Hays has been on several home care, long term care and hospital boards. She currently serves a member of the Parmenter Community Board, the Newton Wellesley Hospital Institutional Review Board and the Maristhill Nursing Home Board of Trustees.
Reno R. James is Vice President of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, one of New England’s largest charitable organizations focused exclusively on education. Reno formerly was the Senior Vice President for Administration at Cambridge College.
Penelope W. Kirk was President of Daylight Daycare, Inc. for 25 years and the owner of Little Executive Center at New England Executive Park. She has been a consultant to businesses regarding child care issues, a volunteer for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and ESL teacher, and presently volunteers at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and visits hospitals and Alzheimer’s units with her dog, Bailey, who is learning to be a therapy dog. She recently re-habbed a two family house in Roslindale as a “retirement project.”
Andrew R. Klein, Ph.D., currently is a senior research analyst at Advocates for Human Potential, Inc., a human services and criminal justice research and technical assistance provider. He also is the editor of the National Bulletin on Domestic Violence Prevention, published by Thomson West. Formerly, he served as chief probation officer for an adult and juvenile court in Massachusetts.
Joseph B. Lillyman, LICSW is a clinical social worker in private practice in Concord, serving children and adults from surrounding towns in the greater Boston area. He is actively involved in mental health advocacy and has served as past President of the American Association for Partial Hospitalization, and he presently chairs the Consortium for Psychotherapy, another advocacy group of multi-disciplined mental health professionals that network across the U.S. He has been affiliated with Gifford since its inception, first as a staff member in 1965 and then again in 1973 as a Board member.
Margaret W. Manion, M.D., a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a partner at Weston Pediatric Physicians in Weston, MA, where she has practiced since 1991. She is a Clinical Instructor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Manion serves on hospital committees at both Children’s Hospital and Newton Wellesley Hospital and contributes pediatric insight to Tufts Health Plan Medical Directors for Pediatrics and Quality Management.
Philip J. Ortins is Vice-President of C & R Management Corporation of Chestnut Hill and has been involved in real estate management for more than 30 years. He has been actively involved in the construction and renovation of The Gifford School’s campus during the past 15 years.
Ceeya Patton-Bolman, RN, MSN, is a volunteer with the Harvard Humanitarian
Initiative, and works specifically with Humanitarian Studies for Residents. Her background, Pediatric Cardiovascular Postoperative Care, led to volunteer work with Project Hope in the development of the initial Pediatric Cardiac Surgery program in Poland. As a University of Minnesota clinical nurse specialist, she co-authored the long term follow-up series of pioneering cardiac surgery there. Her interest in complementary therapy and balance in the life of residents developed as a result of partnership with husband, Chip Bolman, a cardiovascular surgeon. In addition, Ceeya is a contributing editor to HealthCareNet News-Nursing, an online journal founded by AED-Satellife for nurses in developing countries. In collaboration with Satellife, she has traveled to Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda to visit nurses in a variety of practice settings.
Robert Rothberg, Esq., is a business lawyer with more than 30 years experience in private practice and industry. He is of Counsel to the Boston law firm of Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP.
Robert M. Turner teaches in the financial accounting area at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at Babson College. Prior to joining the faculty at Babson, he taught at Boston College, Boston University, and LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York. Previously he was Associate Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Boston College. He began his professional career at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Peter S. Yozell has been in the insurance business for over 60 years, the last 35 as a health and welfare broker. He has been active in the Weston Town Committee and is currently serving on the Town of Weston’s Housing Needs Committee. Previously, Yozell had chaired the Town of Weston Committee on Employee Health Insurance Matters.
Honorary Board Members
Frank C. Bequaert formerly worked as a staff member at the IBM Scientific Center in Cambridge, MA and as a professor at Northeastern University. Frank and his wife, Lucia, own and operate Bequaert Old Books, and antiquarian bookstore in Fitzwilliam, NH. Frank was one of the original members of the Gifford Board of Directors and served as President of the Board.
Tristram Blake is Executive Director of the South End Community Health Center. Tris is particularly interested in management issues in non-profit organizations. He has been an organizational consultant to Gifford.
Nancy Grady has worked for many years as a teacher, tutor, and consultant for learning disabled students.
Martin R. Leinwand, Esq., has been associated with The Gifford School since 1978 when he was a middle school teacher. Following a twenty-year law practice with Ropes & Gray and McDermott, Will & Emery, where he specialized in advising healthcare facilities and companies, Mr. Leinwand became a Senior Vice President of Healthways, Inc. A Gifford Board member for twenty years, including terms as President and Vice-President of the Gifford Board, he spearheaded the school's fundraising efforts to rebuild the school's campus in Weston. He and his wife, Eileen, are now residents of Franklin, TN.
Dan Rothenberg is active in the real estate business in the Greater Boston area. He has been actively involved in the development of The Gifford School’s campus.
Mel Scovell became active in managing community health centers and mental health centers after many years as a businessman. In the early 1970s he served as Assistant Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Welfare as head of the state Medicaid program. His late wife, Cynthia, was a long-time Gifford Board member.
S. Norman Sherry, M.D. retired after 36 years of practice specializing in developmental-behavioral pediatrics. Dr. Sherry serves as Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and has been a board member of the Child Welfare League of America for 24 years.
Consuelo K. Tagiuri, M.D., is a retired psychiatrist and faculty member of the Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry at Cambridge Hospital. She also was the supervisor of early childhood programs at Boston’s Children’s Hospital until 2000. For twenty years Connie was Gifford’s school psychiatrist. After retiring from the school, Connie became a member of the Board of Directors where she served for the past twenty years, until her recent retirement.
Len Tucker attended Andover Academy and then went on to Yale University to become a civil engineer. He served as a captain in the army during World War II and was recalled to serve in Morocco during the Korean War. As a civilian, he worked in construction for forty years. After retiring in 1951, Len volunteered in an inner city school and served on Gifford’s Board of Directors.
Executive Director
Michael J. Bassichis came to The Gifford School as a social worker in 1976. Prior to this time he worked at The Judge Baker Child Guidance Center and Camp Wediko and trained at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Roxbury Court Clinic. Having been the Assistant Director for many years, he was appointed Executive Director in 1987.
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Mission
History & Future
Past Executive Directors
Board of Directors
Administration & Staff
Employment Opportunities
Professional Development & Training
Campus & Location
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