Staff, Board and Advisors

STAFF

Aimee Thompson Arevalo, Close to Home’s founding Executive Director, has been living and working in Dorchester as a community organizer and domestic violence advocate since 1994. Prior to assuming full-time leadership of Close to Home in 2002, Aimee worked for Project Harmony, where she managed the development of coordinated community responses to domestic violence in seven cities in Russia, Ukraine, and the Republic of Georgia. She holds a B.A. in Religion from Oberlin College.
aimee@c2home.org

Amy Lieb is Close to Home's Director of Strategy and Operations, responsible for all of the behind the scenes work at Close to Home: financial management, fundraising, IT, office management. Amy also acts as a thought partner to Aimee Thompson Arevalo, setting strategic and operations priorities for the organization in the years ahead. Amy is experienced strategist with fifteen years of experience in strategy consulting and operations management at Monitor Group and Monitor Institute, with particular expertise in social entrepreneurs and small scale non-profits. Amy is also one of the leaders and developers of the Fast Company/Monitor Group Social Capitalist Awards and has co-written several articles on the art and challenges of performance assessment in the social sector. Amy has a BA from Williams College, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
amy@c2home.org

Heather Benjamin is a Community Organizer at Close to Home, engaging residents of the Field's Corner neighborhood of Boston in domestic violence prevention and mentoring the Close to Home Youth Team. Heather's recent projects have included: collaborating with local youth, adult residents and local organizations to create Close to Home's Public Awareness Initiatives; assisting local youth in creating peer-to-peer teen dating violence prevention workshops, materials and events; and coordinating a knitting group where local residents can come together to learn to knit and discuss domestic violence . Heather has provided trainings on community organizing to various domestic and sexual violence organizations in Massachusetts, and recently presented a workshop at the International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Trauma. In 2007, Heather was awarded Non-Profit Person of the Year by the Fields Corner Civic Association. Prior to working at Close to Home, Heather worked for Domestic Violence Center in Cleveland, Ohio, where she worked as a bilingual advocate in the shelter. In addition, Heather has experience working on issues of sexual violence, women's rights, diversity, and has worked with children and youth in educational and recreational settings.
heather@c2home.org

Vladimir Albin, Jr .is a Youth Team Leader at Close to Home, where he helps coordinate the youth team’s projects and activities. Vlad has helped facilitate trainings, has created his own digital story on Haitian street children, and performed in last year’s Acting Out Against Teen Dating Violence. In October 2007, Vlad represented Close to Home at a round table discussion about domestic violence with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and First Lady Diane Patrick. Vlad is a junior at the Engineering School and hopes to work one day as an engineer.
vladimir@c2home.org

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2011

Linda Bowen, Institute for Community Peace

Martha Jeanette Simmons, Sovereign Bank

Ellen Arnoff Sonis, Landmark Residential/ Hestia Fund

Grenville Anderson, Fiduciary Trust Company

Aimee Marie Thompson, Close to Home

ADVISORS

Guarino Design Group, Tania Allen

On time Associates, Catlin Fullwood

Raising Voices, Lori Michau

Root Cause Institute, Andrew Wolk & Julie Zack