Reverend Dr. Ray Hammond co-founded Bethel A.M.E. in Boston with his wife, Gloria. Rev. Hammond earned degrees from Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. He later earned a master’s degree in religion, focusing on Christian and medical ethics, from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Rev. Hammond is co-founder and chairman of the Ten Point Coalition, an ecumenical group of Christian clergy and lay leaders mobilizing the Greater Boston community around issues affecting black and Latino youth; an Executive Committee member of the Black Ministerial Alliance; chair of the Boston Opportunity Agenda. He also serves as a trustee of the Yawkey Foundation, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, BMC Health System, and the MATCH School.

Leslie Harris was appointed Associate Justice of The Suffolk Juvenile Court in 1994. Prior to his appointment, he worked as a teacher, street/youth worker, Probation Officer for the Suffolk Superior Court, Public Defender, and Chief of the Juvenile Division of the Suffolk County District Attorney. Judge Harris is the recipient of many honors and awards, including the Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University, the David Nelson Public Interest Award from Boston College Law School, Public Service Award from the Ten Point Coalition, the Heroes Amongst Us Award from the Boston Celtics/ Herald Newspaper, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Boston College Law School Black Law Student Association.

Jackie Jenkins-Scott, President and Founder of JJS Advising, is a dynamic and accomplished Executive widely recognized as an innovative and transformational leader. She brings a proven track record of over three decades in leading mission driven institutions from vulnerability to high performing levels. Jenkins-Scott served as President of Wheelock College for 12 years. Under her leadership, Wheelock added new areas of study including cross-disciplinary and online programs; increased undergraduate enrollment by over 50 percent; and grew representation of ethnically and differently-abled students by 40 percent. Jenkins-Scott has served on the board of directors of The Boston Foundation; the Kennedy Library Foundation and Museum; the Boston Plan for Excellence; WGBH; the National Board of Jumpstart; the Council on Social Work Education; Century Bank and Trust Company; and the Tufts Health Plan.

Gregory King is an entrepreneur and innovator with over 25 years of experience in strategic planning, business development, and executive management of technology focused businesses. Previously, he was the Vice-President of Business Development at Hancock Software, an MBE and product development company that develops program management software for the Low-Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). He is currently the Managing Director of TSK Energy Solutions LLC, a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) focused on delivering energy innovations to commercial properties, and the Board Chair of Citizens for Safety, a not-for-profit focused on preventing gun trafficking in urban neighborhoods via Operation LIPSTICK and Where Did The Gun Come From (WDTGF).

Eva Mitchell’s career in education policy centered on applying lessons learned from education reform movements across Massachusetts, at the federal level, and the international level. Her last state-wide role was associate commissioner for district and school accountability at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Prior to that, she was senior coordinator at Massachusetts’ state office of Educational Quality and Accountability. Ms. Mitchell has served as vice president of Cambridge Education USA, as part of an international management consulting group, and as a school quality consultant in the US and in Dubai.  Her urban development experience includes work with public school construction compliance teams, and she led city-community urban development processes.  She received a B.A. from Harvard, and a Master’s in Education from Boston University where she was a recipient of the Martin Luther King Fellowship.

Robert Ward is of counsel with the law firm of Kenneth V. Kurnos Esq. Prior to that he was the former founding and first dean of the University of Massachusetts School of Law-Dartmouth and for 10 years prior to its merger with the University of Massachusetts he served as dean of Southern New England School of Law in North Dartmouth and has been involved in legal education since 1978.  In 1982 he joined the faculty at New England School of Law where he taught Evidence, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Prisoner’s Rights, and seminars on Race and the Law and Anatomy of a Homicide. Professor Ward also served as the Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Enrichment program, an academic achievement program designed to increase the number of people of color practicing law.  He has been a visiting professor at Northeastern University School of Law, the University of Idaho College of Law and an adjunct faculty member at Suffolk University School of Law. Professor Ward holds a B.S. from Northeastern University and a J.D. from Suffolk University School of Law. 

Gerald Chertavian is the Founder of Year Up Inc. and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. He began his career as an officer of Chemical Banking Corporation and then became the head of marketing at Transnational Financial Services in London. In 1993 he co-founded Conduit Communications. Mr. Chertavian serves on the Board of Advisors for the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative and is a member of the World Economic Forum's Youth Unemployment Council. In 2006, he was elected as a Fellow with the Ashoka Global Fellowship of social entrepreneurs, and in 2008, he was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to serve on the Mass. State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Mr. Chertavian has actively participated in the Big Brother mentoring program since 1985 and was recognized as one of New York's outstanding Big Brothers in 1989. Mr. Chertavian earned a B.A. in Economics, Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, from Bowdoin College; and an M.B.A., with honors, from Harvard Business School. 

As FVP| Regional Director of Government Banking & Finance, Ms. Lee manages People's United Bank’s Government Banking Group for MA, ME, NH, CT and NY. Prior to joining People's United Bank in August 2014, Ms. Lee was with the law firm of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC, where she served as the Vice Chair of the Public Finance Group. Ms. Lee also served as General Counsel and then First Deputy Treasurer for the Massachusetts State Treasury from 2003 to 2011 where she was instrumental in the passage of the legislation that established the Asian American Commission, and served as the Commission’s first Interim Executive Director. Prior to joining the State Treasury’s senior staff, Ms. Lee was an associate at Morgan, Brown & Joy, concentrating her practice in employment discrimination, labor law and commercial litigation.  Ms. Lee’s other public sector experience includes her work as a civil rights attorney for the United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights and as an assistant district attorney and Chief of the Civil Rights Division for the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office.  Ms. Lee was named one of the “Best Lawyers Under 40” by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association in 2004.  In 2006 Ms. Lee was one of recipients of the Ten Outstanding Young Leader Award from the Boston Junior Chamber of Commerce. 

Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins, a member of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department since 2002, was appointed as the Sheriff of Suffolk County on January 22, 2013. In November of 2014, he was elected to the position, and was re-elected in 2016. As Sheriff, Tompkins manages all operations at the House of Correction, Suffolk County Jail and the Civil Process Division. In addition to providing care, custody and rehabilitative support for inmates and pre-trial detainees, he also oversees a management, security and administrative staff of over 1,000 individuals. He was recently appointed Chairman of Roxbury Community College’s Board of Trustees, having previously served as Vice Chair. Sheriff Tompkins is also a former member of the prestigious Executive Session on Community Corrections at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Sheriff Tompkins holds a Bachelor’s Degree in communications from Boston College and a Master’s Degree in Public affairs from the University of Massachusetts.