Staff, Board and Advisors

STAFF

Aimee Thompson, 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

Elizabeth Reardon is Close to Home’s Program Director. She has worked in the Fields Corner Neighborhood of Dorchester as a community and youth organizer for seven years. Prior to work with Close to Home, she worked as Manager of Youth Development at Dotwell, a community-based organization in Dorchester. She has also worked to access services for women and children in a domestic violence safe-house in Oakland, California. She recently completed a qualitative impact assessment of a domestic violence program in Kampala, Uganda. She holds a Master of Public Health with a concentration in International Health from Boston University.
elizabeth@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

Van Lan Truong is a Vietnamese Community Liaison at Close to Home, working with the Vietnamese community as well as local organizations and businesses in Fields Corner. Prior to Close to Home, Van Lan served as Mayor Raymond Flynn’s liaison to the Vietnamese community in the City of Boston. She has extensive knowledge in working with the Vietnamese community in the U. S. as one of the co-founders of the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans and founder of the Vietnamese American Women’s League of Massachusetts. She also has extensive experience in the media and currently hosts a Vietnamese language television show at Boston Neighborhood Television Network. Van Lan is a strong advocate for women’s issues, especially domestic violence.

Dashawn Watkins is 21 years old and has been a part of Close to Home for over 4 years. He became involved with Close to Home because of personal experience with abuse in his family, and his desire to uncover the reasons behind this kind of violence. With added knowledge and an interest in helping other youth in the community to learn more about these issues, Dashawn became a founding member of the Close to Home Youth Team. Dashawn has helped develop curriculum and trained other youth in Dorchester about teen dating violence issues, created and performed skits on reaching out to friends dealing with domestic violence, organized and hosted public events to raise awareness about domestic violence, participated in creating and implementing research projects to learn more about the youth community, and has helped create Close to Home's public awareness campaigns. Currently, Dashawn is employed at Close to Home part time providing administrative support and is in school to become an IT specialist.

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.

Daniel Fairclough is a Youth Team Leader at Close to Home, where he helps coordinate the youth team’s projects and activities. Dan often serves as MC at Close to Home events, has created 2 digital stories, created a mural design for Close to Home, has experience facilitating teen dating violence trainings, and performed in the last two Acting Out Against Teen Dating Violence events. Daniel is also a talented artist, who enjoys making comic books, video art, and music. Dan is a junior the Boston Latin Academy and hopes to go on to art school.

STUDENT INTERNS

Chelsea Lettieri is a Social Work Intern and is currently attending graduate school at Boston College for her masters in social work. She is interested in working in the domestic violence field in the areas of programming, education and policy. Chelsea attended University of Maryland for her undergraduate degree where she double majored in family studies and criminal justice. She recently finished a year of Americorps where she assisted domestic and sexual violence victims throughout the criminal justice process. Chelsea just moved to Boston and is enjoying learning her way around a new and exciting city.
chelsea@c2home.org

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Lakshmi Balachandra, Treasurer
Harvard Business School

Linda Bowen
Institute for Community Peace

Vicky Gwiasda, Clerk
CALICO Center

Jeannette Simmons, Interim Board President
Sovereign Bank

Ellie Sonis,
Landmark Residential, Hestia Fund

Aimee Thompson
Close to Home

Eva Thorne (on leave)
Brandeis University

ADVISORS

Guarino Design Group
Tania Allen

On time Associates
Catlin Fullwood

Raising Voices
Lori Michau

Root Cause Institute
Andrew Wolk
Julie Zack