Teri Williams is BECMA’s President and Chief Operating Officer and serves on the Board of Directors of OneUnited Bank, the largest Black-owned bank in the U.S. with headquarters in Boston. She is responsible for implementing the bank’s strategic initiatives, as well as its day-to-day operations. Under her leadership, OneUnited Bank has consolidated the local names and product offerings of four (4) other Black-owned banks to create a powerful national brand supported by innovative products and services.
Mrs. Williams holds an MBA with honors from Harvard Graduate School of Business and a BA with distinctions in Economics from Brown University. She served as Treasurer of Dimock Community Health Center in Roxbury, Massachusetts, for over five (5) years.
She is also the author of “I Got Bank” What My Granddad Taught Me About Money (Beckham Publishing), a financial literacy book for urban youth. Mrs. Williams has received numerous notations and awards for her contribution to urban communities, including from the Urban League, the NAACP, and the National Black MBA Association.
Mrs. Williams is married and has two children, one a recent graduate of Brown University and one currently attending Boston College.
JocCole “JC” Burton, LEED AP BD+C is CEO of Maven Construction. JC is a Dorchester-based business leader who has spent her 25 year career in the real estate development and construction industry. As a successful developer and general contractor, JC is highly regarded in environmental conservation, energy reduction and sustainability programs. Her company, Maven Construction, is focused on energy-efficient K-12 and higher education, multifamily housing, retail and institutional projects.
At her core, Ms.Burton is a builder of teams and processes, always driving results for clients. During her career, she has worked diligently on the delivery of high-performing projects while striving for inclusion and equity. Her firm has built world-class facilities, including more than 50 LEED projects (some of the first LEED Platinum projects in the United States) and three Net-Zero projects. She has also developed an online sustainability platform to help assess final drivers for green investments.
Ms. Burton is the first Black woman to hold a mayoral appointment with Boston’s Construction Licensing Board, which is part of the city’s Board of Examiners and is responsible for issuing Boston Builders Licenses to qualified individuals who complete the application process and pass the examination. She also serves on the Boston Employment Commission, the Environmental League of Massachusetts, the advisory board of Ben Franklin Institute of Technology’s Construction Management Department, and Browning the Green Space, a nonprofit organization driving inclusion in the renewable energy sector.
She has served as the Founding Director of the National Association of Black Women in Construction; USGBC – Atlanta Chapter Chair of the Board; a member of the Urban Land Institute Urban Product Council; a former White House Champion of Change: Clean Energy; former USGBC Center for Green Schools Advisory Group LEED for Neighborhoods TAG, LEED TAG; and 2005 USGBC Greenbuild Host Committee Member.
Ms. Burton is the mother of one elementary-aged daughter. In her spare time, she likes to cook with her daughter, and advocate for access to better food for under-resourced children. She also enjoys working with children interested in STEM careers.
Farrah Belizaire, a native of Brockton, MA, is a 2011 graduate of Boston University, where she earned her BS in Health Science and MS in Administrative Studies. She is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Boston University’s Black Alumni Leadership Council.
In 2012 Farrah was inspired to launch her passion project, LiteWork Events. LiteWork Events is a social event brand connecting Boston’s urban young professionals. LiteWork creates spaces that bring out the city’s most culturally vibrant and upwardly mobile demographic, providing underrepresented groups an opportunity to find community and authentic relationship-building. Her efforts have been featured in the Boston Globe, the Bay State Banner and WCBV Channel 5. Past partners have included the Museum of Fine Arts, the Huntington Theatre Company, the W Hotel, the Lawn on D, Diageo and PASHA Entertainment.
Diversity and inclusion is also engrained in Farrah’s professional career. Farrah currently serves as Manager of Diversity and Inclusion in the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences at Boston University School of Medicine. In this role, Farrah is responsible for developing and implementing programs and strategies that promote diversity and inclusion as it relates to recruitment and retention of underrepresented students, which includes taking an active role in developing pipeline programs. In this role, she partners with national STEM networks, industry leaders and local stakeholders to increase diverse representation in the biomedical sciences.
Reginald Nunnally (more commonly known as Reggie) has been involved in economic development for the past 27 years, initially as the Executive Director of the Grove Hall Neighborhood Development Corporation.
Governor Deval Patrick appointed Mr. Nunnally as the Executive Director of the Supplier Diversity Office for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2009 and he was responsible for the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Technical Assistance Program. In 1996, he was also appointed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino as the first Executive Director for Boston’s Enhanced Enterprise Community, responsible for processing over $44 million in federal funds for Empowerment Zone economic development projects.
His career highlights include facilitating the process for financing the Mecca Mall in Grove Hall, the South End Health Center, the Merengue Restaurant, the Best Western Roundhouse Hotel Suites, and the Hampton Inn Hotel. Mr. Nunnally was also the creator of Boston Connects Inc., a microloan program geared toward existing small neighborhood businesses and individuals aspiring to start or expand a business within Boston’s Empowerment Zone neighborhoods.
Mr. Nunnally sits on a number of Boards and Advisory Committees. He is married to Mrs. Kathlean Nunnally and has two adult children and a granddaughter.
Terryl Calloway is a Boston native who earned his BS in Business Administration from Northeastern University. In 1984, he founded Calloway Entertainment Incorporated (CE), a firm specializing in event planning and concert promotion.
Among CE’s notable successes has been the production and promotion of more than 2,000 concerts and events given by performers such as Prince, Stevie Wonder, Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, Boyz II Men, and Destiny’s Child. CE also promoted the 29th Annual African American Student Union of the Harvard School of Business, the play The Color Purple, and the Beantown Jazz Festival.
Mr. Calloway was the owner of the Gallery Night Club for five years and is currently the owner of Calloway Graphix, Printing and Marketing Inc., a professional printing and marketing firm with clients throughout New England.
For the past five years, he has worked with the current owners of Slade’s Bar and Grill, promoting highly successful regular and special events at the restaurant.
Early on in her professional career Beverley Johnson, president and founder of Mattapan-based, real estate and urban planning consulting firm Bevco Associates INC., made two decisions that would shape the course of her working life — she would do something she had a passion for and she would not spend all day in the office just running a business. She wanted to be out working with clients.
A former employee in the Washington, D.C., office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Johnson has a passion for work that helps stabilize neighborhoods through economic and physical revitalization. With many real estate development projects this can be a valuable outcome — if someone makes sure it happens.
For decades in Boston, Johnson has been one of those people.
Bevco provides consulting services on a number of specific aspects of the urban planning process, including project management, public land conveyance, permitting and zoning. However, a large part of its work is also in community engagement.
Priscilla is the co-founder of the Black Economic Justice Institute, Inc. (BEJI), a nonprofit 501( c)3 tax-exempt organization with a goal to advocate and develop programs that address justice and economic opportunity for black and other people of color of Boston.
Ms. Banks was born and raised in Roxbury, Massachusetts. She was educated in the Boston Public Schools and attended Cambridge College in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she received a Master’s Degree in Education. Her career started in finance and she worked for several banks including Bank Boston and was the Payroll and General Services Manager for the City of Boston’s Treasury Department.
Ms. Banks is a licensed minister and an active member of the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She is the author of the book, “I Look Back and Wonder How I Got Over.”
Most recently, Priscilla ran a grassroots campaign for Boston City Council At-Large, which highlighted issues of housing affordability, transportation, and city contracting with minority-owned businesses.
She currently resides in Roslindale, Massachusetts with her husband, Brother Lo Banks.
Lee Pelton joined the Boston Foundation in June 2021, after serving as President of Emerson College (2011-2021) and Willamette University (1998-2011).
In May 2023, he ranked #3 on Boston Magazine’s annual list of the most influential people in Boston, following Maura Healey, the newly elected governor of the Commonwealth and Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.
Pelton has positioned The Boston Foundation, one of the nation’s first and most influential community foundations, as an agent for social change by centering equity in its programs, grantmaking and civic leadership. Under his leadership, the Foundation’s defining ambition is to achieve equity, which first involves acknowledging and then seeking to eliminate the structural and underlying causes of outcome disparities for historically marginalized communities.
A signature Boston Foundation program is its Racial Wealth Partnership, established in late 2022, as part of the Foundation’s commitment to close racial wealth gaps in Greater Boston and the region by expanding homeownership by people of color. The Partnership is a broad-based group of more than 40 members representing sectors including banking and finance, housing, issue advocacy, government, healthcare, life sciences and education.
As a college president for 23 years, he led with a core belief that higher education must serve to deepen students’ appreciation of humanities. He believes that the nation still looks to colleges and universities to solve its most pressing problems and, as such, college and university presidents have an obligation – in addition to broad mission-driven duties on their campuses – to engage in the larger society. To Pelton, nurturing the humanistic spirit also goes hand in hand with confronting and trying to solve the urgent moral and social problems of the moment.
Pelton has combined authentic leadership, civic engagement, and a deep commitment to social justice with his skill and vision for growing institutional capacity and effectiveness. The result has been a legacy of stronger, more diverse institutions that have expanded opportunities for students. Along the way, Pelton often has been recognized as a civic and education leader, both regionally and nationally.
While a college president, Pelton emerged as a powerful national voice on social issues and the value of liberal arts education. In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook mass shooting, he gathered over 250 college and university presidents to sign a letter asking President Obama to assist in establishing common-sense gun legislation. He has been active nationally and has written widely in support of affirmative action, beginning with the 2003 Michigan University and Law School Supreme Court cases. Pelton has advocated for college-in-prison initiatives, seeing firsthand at Emerson College’s prisoner education programs that policy inadequacies hamper their effectiveness.
Following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, Pelton’s essay America is on Fire reflects powerfully on the significance of Floyd’s death with a frank and honest reference to his own experiences in America. His essay quickly and widely spread, having reached an audience of more than 6 million people around the globe. Forbes Magazine placed it at the top of its list of the five most noteworthy writings that appeared after the George Floyd incident.
Pelton began his academic career at Harvard University, where he earned a Ph.D. in English literature with an academic focus on 19th-century British prose and poetry. He taught English and American literature at Harvard and served as senior tutor at Winthrop House. He later served on the Harvard Board of Overseers and as a vice-chair of its executive committee. After Harvard, Pelton served as dean of the college at Colgate University and Dartmouth College. He graduated from Wichita State University, located in his hometown.
He has been awarded three honorary degrees, and he enjoys a very long list of awards and recognitions for educational excellence and social justice, including, among many:
A serial entrepreneur, Newton resident Settles established Darryl’s Corner Bar & Kitchen in Boston and moved on to real estate development. He is known for his transformative initiatives and partnerships that empower communities of color in the hospitality, real estate, and business development sectors where he promotes minority businesses and recruits minority investors. His residential projects are committed to creating vibrant, attractive, and sustainable neighborhoods and his music projects – BeanTown Jazz Festival and The Beehive – have enhanced the local cultural scene.
Settles’ latest innovation is the Critical Mass, a vast resource of information and statistics as well as ways to take positive action to combat racial injustice. He has been active in the community as chair of the Newton Economic Development Commission and founder/board member of the Black Economic Council. He has served on many boards and shares his knowledge and experience with the next generation of leaders as a lecturer at Babson College and Lasell University. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors for his success, leadership, and commitment to economic justice.
Glynn Lloyd has been a pioneer in the field of transformative urban economic development for over 25 years. He is the President and Founder of City Fresh Foods and is currently the Executive Director of the Foundation for Business Equity. The Foundation’s first Initiative: The Business Equity Initiative has designed and is executing a unique approach to truly scaling up our local Black and Latino Enterprises in Eastern MA (www.easternbank.com/BEI).
In 1990, after graduating from Boston University, he became one of the inaugural members of Teach for America, teaching 5th grade in Louisiana. Upon returning to Boston, he decided to pursue an innovative approach to community economic development by creating community owned and operated enterprises. Glynn founded City Fresh Foods Inc., a nationally-renowned food service business, and over 20 years grew it on average 15% annually to $9M in revenue.
City Fresh Foods pioneers ethnic meals to homebound elders and healthier meals to school age children, and was one of the first companies to receive Social Venture Capital, eventually returning a healthy multiple to its investors. Under Glynn’s leadership, City Fresh raised hundreds of thousands of investment capital, twice expanded its production capability to larger facilities, practiced open book management, and introduced fresh local ingredients from area farms into its supply chain.
Glynn played a pioneering role in the local foods systems movement by catalyzing Article 89, a recently passed Boston zoning law amendment that allows urban farmers to grow for the market as a right. To help institutionalize these practices, Glynn founded the Urban Farming institute, a community-led nonprofit supporting the development of the new urban farming industry in Massachusetts.
Glynn has extensive experience assisting some of region’s prominent nonprofits, including the transition of Commonwealth Kitchen to new leadership. As previous board chair of Sportsmen’s Tennis Club, Glynn assisted in the transition of leadership at both the board and management level, at a critical time of this African-American led community institution’s life cycle. He was also selected and appointed by Governor Deval Patrick to serve as a Trustee for Roxbury Community College, as part of the college’s pivot into its best possible future. Most recently, he helped found the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, a coalition of black business, community, religious and labor leaders working together to improve economic indicators in the Black community.
Glynn resides in Roxbury with his wife Sara and daughters, Grace and Ayana.
Malia Lazu, an award winning, tenured strategist in diversity & inclusion has sparked deep economic development and investment in urban entrepreneurship for over twenty years. In her most recent role as EVP and Regional President at Berkshire Bank, Malia worked to generate wealth for communities by expanding access to capital and spurring economic growth—especially in communities of color that have traditionally been left behind.
In her first nine months at Berkshire, Malia evolved the $13 billion bank’s strategic focus beyond traditional community banking services to prioritize tangible community impact. She helped to diversify the board of directors; developed a suite of financial products and programs that support entrepreneurs of color; and launched ReevX Labs, a collaborative workspace and innovation hub for the urban startup community.
A serial entrepreneur in her own right, Malia has created and led a number of socially responsible business accelerators across Boston. She worked with the city to create Accelerate Boston which helped launch over twenty minority businesses in its first five years and continues to help minority entrepreneurs raise capital. She was also the founder and president of the Future Boston Alliance, now known as Epicenter, which built an ecosystem of creators, consumers and investors to develop businesses in the creative industries. As a fellow at MIT’s Community Innovators Lab, she launched The Urban Labs, a multicultural agency helping brands see returns on diversity.
Malia began her career as a political organizer and bridge-builder founding Mass VOTE, a state-wide voter engagement campaign. She has led culture-shifting campaigns for the actor and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, as well as businessmen and philanthropists like Peter Lewis and George Soros.
Malia currently sits on the boards of GBH, Boston Harbor Now, Massachusetts Business Roundtable, Revolutionary Spaces, Chica Project and The Nation magazine editorial board. She was named one of Essence Magazine’s 50 Founders To Watch in 2017, Boston Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business in 2019 and Boston Magazine’s The 100 Most Influential Bostonians in 2021.
In addition to her role as a Lecturer in the TIES Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management, she is also the Founder and CEO of The Lazu Group.
Lawyer and real estate executive Richard L. Taylor was born on April 6, 1949 in Montgomery, Alabama to Evelyn Lewis and Franklyn Taylor, Jr. Taylor graduated from Richmond Hill High School in 1967. Taylor went on to attend Boston University, where he became the first Rhodes Scholar in the history of the university. After receiving his B.A. degree in journalism and public communications in 1971, he earned his second B.A. degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University in 1973. Taylor went on to earn his joint M.B.A. and J.D. degrees from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School in 1977.
Upon graduating in 1977, Taylor joined Boston Consulting Group as a managing consultant providing strategic planning services to Fortune 500 companies. In 1979, Governor Edward King appointed Taylor to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Board of Directors and the MBTA Retirement Fund Board. The following year, Taylor was hired as the vice president of development for Fidelity Management and Research (FMR) properties, where he secured rights to Commonwealth Pier and the Commonwealth Flats. From 1985 to 1990, Taylor served as chairman of Taylor Properties, where he developed retail establishments at Orange and Red Line MBTA stations. In 1990, Governor William F. Weld appointed Taylor as secretary of transportation and construction, and chairman of the board of the MBTA. While there, Taylor oversaw the Big Dig project, construction of the Leonard P. Zakim Bridge and the Old Colony commuter rail system, and the reconstruction of Dudley Station Bus Terminal. In 1993, Taylor joined Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) as division vice president of central and western Massachusetts, although he later transitioned to the role of vice president of national accounts. Taylor was named chairman of Taylor Smith Group, LLC in 1999, where he managed the business real estate development and commercial brokerage areas. During his tenure there, the company completed over $300 million worth of project, including the Olympia Tower, Bradford Estates and Douglass Plaza.
In 1990, Taylor was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in engineering technology by the Wentworth Institute of Technology; and in 1992, he received an honorary doctorate degree in public service from Bridgewater State College. Taylor was the founding president of the Minority Developers Association, and has served on the board of higher education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Boston NAACP, and on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He also served as president of the Boston Ballet and chairman of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts.
Carole is a Senior Manager at Gravestar, Inc., an Asset Management Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she has worked for more than 16 years managing their retail portfolios in Cambridge and suburban communities along the 128 corridor. Prior to her commercial real estate endeavors, Ms. Montgomery worked in the residential sector for 30+ years managing low, moderate and market rate housing throughout the City of Boston, Western Massachusetts, and for a short time in the Washington, DC Tri- State area.
Ms. Montgomery also assumed a leadership role in steering the reorganizing efforts of the historical Roxbury Multi Service Center, Inc. (RMSC), a 50+ year old organization that was formed to respond to social issues that affected the lives of African Americans in the Roxbury and N. Dorchester Neighborhoods. Ms. Montgomery lives in Dorchester and is the proud mother of 5 children and 6 grandchildren. Member of the Institute of RE Management, CPM Candidate. Board Member Mass Association of Mental Health (MAMH).
Keith Chaney is a business leader who strives to drive results through an innovative and collaborative approach. In 2017, he had the opportunity to purchase City Sealcoating, Inc., a company that had been servicing Merrimack Valley for 10 years. Mr. Chaney had a vision to expand the company to service all of New England. He used the knowledge and relationships he had made working for the state and as a VP at State Street Bank to become a preferred vendor on the MA Asphalt Maintenance TRD02 Contract. City Sealcoating is now a trusted company, servicing government, commercial and residential customers. Since purchasing the business in 2017, Mr. Chaney has grown it 300% by focusing on solid workmanship, effective operations and exceptional customer service.
City Sealcoating offers a full range of asphalt maintenance services, including sealcoating, crack sealing, line striping, asphalt repairs, paving and snow plowing. Its sole mission is to provide customers with comprehensive asphalt maintenance services, leveraging the company’s many years in the industry to their benefit and allowing them to make informed decisions regarding their parking lots. Mr. Chaney and City Sealcoating view clients’ parking lots as an investment and take steps supported by data and experience to beautify, protect, and extend the life of the asphalt.
Mr. Chaney lives in North Andover with his wife and two children. He is an active member of his community but also believes in volunteering his time all around the Merrimack Valley area. He is a member of the Lawrence Leads Program, which is part of the Lawrence Partnership, and is an active member of the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce. City Sealcoating Inc. hosts an intern annually from Lawrence Public High School and has had the opportunity to aid Lawrence residents through the gas explosion crisis and COVID-19. Recently, City Sealcoating, Inc., has been involved in the Business Equity Initiative (BEI) program through the Boston Foundation. Mr. Chaney is a former member of the Board of Trustees at Roxbury Community College and is now serving as a Board Member on the Alliance for Business Leadership. He has been invited as a speaker and moderator at many events to share his inspiring story and is passionate about giving back to his community.
Dálida Rocha (she/her) is the Executive Director of Renew U.S., an organization building state-based, multi-racial grassroots power to combat our overlapping crises of climate change, economic inequality, and racial injustice.
Renew combines deep coalition building, policy development and electoral organizing to win multi-racial, working-class governing power and enact ambitious climate justice, racial justice, and economic justice legislation in states nationwide. Renew works with local grassroots organizations and coalitions that share its commitment to bold politics grounded in deep local organizing and base-building to recruit and support state and local candidates and win urgent policy victories and sustained transformation.
Renew piloted its program in 2020, supporting over 200 legislative candidates in six northeastern states, each of whom committed to fight for Renew’s ambitious policy platform and to refuse donations from the fossil fuel industry. 64% of Renew’s candidates won, and those 129 Renew legislators have already worked with the Renew coalition to pass ambitious environmental justice legislation in multiple states. Under Rocha’s leadership, Renew is expanding from its successful New England pilot to 12 states in 2022 – endorsing and supporting more than 300 candidates – and 24 states in 2024.
Prior to joining Renew, Rocha served as the Political Director for SEIU 32BJ New England District. This is the largest property service workers union in the nation, with 175,000 members. The New England district represents 20,000 janitors, security officers and other property service workers at office buildings, universities, convention centers and other major institutions. In her role as the Political Director, Rocha convened and served as the Co-Chair of the Driving Families Forward coalition. The coalition was convened with the purpose of passing the Work & Family Mobility Act legislation also known as driver’s license. If passed, this legislation will enable all qualified state residents to apply for a standard driver’s license, regardless of immigration status.
The work of justice is not one that she takes lightly and whether it is immigrantion, climate, racial and/or economic justice, we can always count on Rocha’s commitment to a world where everyone has access to their basic needs.
When she is not busy caring for her 3 children, Rocha is serving on boards such as Black Economic Council of Massachusetts and Episcopal City Mission. As a member of the Democratic State Committee and co-chair of the African Descendant Caucus, Rocha is working tirelessly to ensure that the issues of African descendants are included in the Democratic Party Platform and championed by Democratic elected officials. Rocha is a proud African immigrant from Cabo Verde.
