MWPC 2011 Officers of the Board of Directors

President, Pam Nourse

Pam is a resident of Acton and the Director of Institutional Advancement for Germaine Lawrence, Inc., where she oversees development, advocacy, marketing and volunteer management. She previously was the Vice President for Public Affairs and Information for Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and the Executive Director of Mass. Choice, now known as NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts. Ms. Nourse also served as Commissioner for the state's Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission. She chaired the Governor's Advisory Committee on Women's Issues under Governor Weld and is a past chair of the Massachusetts Coalition for Choice

Vice-President, Alona Abalos

Alona is a resident of Wakefield, Massachusetts and the Director of Operations at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate. Previously she served as Director of Corporate Programs for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, where she began as a member of its Government Affairs team and then serving as the Chief of Staff for the Corporate Affairs Division managing an active and dynamic team consisting of internal communication, media relations, community relations, and government relations. Prior to joining Blue Cross Blue Shield, Alona served as General Counsel and Chief Policy Advisor to the Massachusetts Senate Minority Leader. Alona was born in the Philippines and grew up on Maui. She graduated with honors from Boston University's College of Arts and Sciences and received her law degree from Boston University School of Law.

Treasurer, Karen Grant

a resident of Melrose, is the Vice President of Development & Communications at Peace First. There she is responsible for creating and implementing the organization's national development and communications strategy. Before joining Peace First, Grant spent several years in state and national politics. She served as Deputy Executive Director and Communications Director of Boston 2004, Inc., the non-profit, non-partisan host committee for the 2004 Democratic National Convention and worked in press relations for a variety of candidates and elected officials. Prior to her work in the political arena, Grant organized special events for Children's Hospital Boston. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Boston University.

Secretary, Joyce Ferriabough-Bolling

Joyce, a resident of Roxbury, is the MWPC Public Relations Committee Chair. She is a political and communication strategist, community outreach and crisis management specialist. She specializes in strategic multi-faceted campaigns of any kind where message crafting, strong writing skills, knowledge of media, and educational outreach and promotion are key. In addition to story and editorial placement, she has also produced television, radio, and print advertisement for a range of clients. She is the former field producer/writer for major market television including WCVB's Chronicle. She is very active in political and community circles and in 2010 was named one of The Top l00 Influencers in Massachusetts by Politics and Campaigns for her messaging and fund raising skills She has was profiled for her work in the July 1994 edition of the Boston Globe Magazine. In addition, Joyce was most recently honored with the National Women's Political Caucus' 2011Women of Courage Award for her work to further civil rights and equality.

2011 Board of Directors Slate

Kate Anderson, a resident of Houghs Neck, is the MWPC Legislative Committee Chair. She serves as a Senior Policy Advisor to US Senator John Kerry in his Boston office. Prior to joining Senator Kerry's staff she was the Associate Director of Legislation and Government Affairs for the Massachusetts Nurses Association. She has served on the boards of the EMA Fund, the MWPC PAC, and the MWPC. Kate holds a Masters of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a BA from Macalester College.

Elena Ayot a resident of Boston's Back Bay, is Intellectual Property counsel at Perry, Krumsiek & Jack, LLP. She is also a co-founder and principal of the SanEle Group, through which she provides a full range of business consulting to start-up entities. Elena has worked in both small and large intellectual property practices where she focused primarily on patent and trademark prosecution, patent and trademark counseling, and patent and trademark litigation. Elena has also handled licensing agreements based on patents. Prior to law school, Elena worked as a Program Specialist for Covance, a clinical research organization. Elena serves on the Advisory Board of the American Heart Association, as well as the Audience Development Committee for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She has also served as the fundraising manager for a Massachusetts senate campaign. Elena is currently the President of IvyLeagueSpeakers.com, an Ivy League alumni speakers' bureau that gives 25 percent of its speaking fees to deserving students seeking an Ivy League education. Elena graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Biology, and received her Juris Doctor from New England School of Law.

Julie Burns a Charlestown resident, is Senior Director of Public Affairs & Business Integration Public, Government & Regulatory Affairs at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. She was previously Director of Mayor Thomas M. Menino's Office of Arts Tourism & Special Events and President of his office's non-profit Fund for Boston Neighborhoods. Mayor Menino also appointed Ms. Burns Executive Director of Boston 2004, Inc., a not-for-profit bi-partisan corporation created to organize Boston preparations for the Democratic National Convention. She served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Menino beginning in 1998. She worked for the Dewey Square Group and as Director of Special Projects and Special Assistant to Debra DeLee, the CEO of the Chicago Democratic National Convention. She served in several positions in Senator Charles S. Robb's Office, including Legislative Correspondent. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.

Jody Dow, a resident of Brookline, is the Vice Chairman of the Northeast Region of the Republican National Committee. Ms. Dow is currently serving her sixth term as State Committeewoman, and was the National Republican Committeewoman from 1994 to 2001. Ms. Dow is a former GOP candidate for Massachusetts Secretary of State. President of the Brookline Women's Republican Club, Ms. Dow has also served as a Brookline Town Meeting Member and was the Chairman of the Brookline Planning Board. Before Ms. Dow's political involvement took center-stage, she was the Assistant Director of the Affiliated Nursing School Program at Children's Medical Center in Boston, where she also taught.

Ana Gabbidon, a resident of Jamaica Plain, is Special Assistant to the Office of At Large Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley.  She graduated in May 2008 from Emerson College and received a B.S. Degree in Organizational and Political Communication.  While at Emerson, she wrote and produced a public service announcement on youth violence, she also designed and executed a poll focusing on bipartisanship in Congress.

Leah Green, a resident of Boston’s North End, works at Deloitte as a marketing manager in its public sector practice where she has primary responsibility for all marketing and eminence activities in the Northeast. In her role, she provides account support for the state governments of Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Deloitte, Leah worked in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office under both Tom Reilly and Martha Coakley. During her six years in the Attorney General’s Office, she worked with many key constituencies, including business, organized labor and local officials, on a full range of issues before that office, including labor and consumer regulatory matters. She also served as community outreach director for Lowell’s professional hockey franchise. Presently, Leah is as a board member for the Garden of Peace, a Memorial to Victims of Homicide. She holds a Masters in Communications and a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Iona College in New Rochelle, NY, where she also received her teacher’s certification.

Michelle Haynes is the Director of Communication and Government Relations for Cape Air/Nantucket Airlines and the Executive Editor of Cape Air's seatback magazine Bird's Eye View. She served as Executive Officer of Consumer Affairs and Economic Development under Governor William F. Weld. She was Producer at WBZ-TV and Monitor Television, Boston. She serves on several Boards including the Salvation Army of Cape & Islands and Martha's Vineyard Chamber of Commerce. She earned a Bachelor of the Arts in Broadcast Communication Art from San Francisco State University.

Meg Hogan is the Vice President of External Relations for the Home Health Foundation (HHF), which includes Home Health VNA, Merrimack Valley Hospice and HomeCare, Inc., one of the largest and most respected home care agencies in Massachusetts. In this role Meg oversees the development and implementation of strategic, agency wide marketing, advertising, and philanthropic initiatives to advance and promote patient care services to a variety of constituencies. Before joining HHF, Meg served as COO for the National Patient Safety Foundation, Executive Director for the New England Healthcare Assembly, and Senior Director of Education and Marketing for the Massachusetts Hospital Association. Currently, she serves on the Mass Home Care Alliance Legislative and Policy Committee, the Legislative Elder Caucus and as a board member of The Andovers Village at Home. In 2008, Meg acted as her sister Kate Hogan's Communication Director as Kate ran for State Representative for the Third Middlesex District and won. Meg holds a bachelor's Degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an MBA from Western New England College.

Gail Jackson-Blount of Haverhill is the Principal of Jackson Communications, providing communications strategies, programs, new business development and fund raising consultant services to private and public companies. She most recently served as Chief Outreach Strategist for Martha Coakley's US Senate Campaign where she developed and managed an outreach strategy to connect the candidate to diverse constituents throughout Massachusetts, Senior Director of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley managing the Merrimack Valley office, with a primary focus of cultivating leadership level donors, developing and co-managing strategic partnerships and events. As the chief Massachusetts executive on the national leadership team, Gail served as Executive Director for Community Outreach and Political Affairs of the 2004 Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) leading all state and regional political and community outreach. She served as Director of the Ad Club Foundation providing diversity programs and strategies to New England's Advertising and Communications Industry, Executive Director of Communications at Roxbury Community College, Public Information Director at Action for Boston Community Development, Inc., the nation's largest and oldest anti-poverty agency, and global communications for Wang Laboratories, Inc. A staunch supporter of programs benefiting youth and young girls, Gail also serves on the boards of the Girl's Golf Program of New England and the Haverhill YWCA.

Carolynn Jones, a resident of Medford is a Human Resource Management Professional and Consultant who has a wide range of HR experience in internal management and consulting positions. She has broad experience across the HR disciplines with concentration in management and employee coaching and counseling. Her extensive experience is across a wide range of corporate and non-profit organizations including higher education, high tech, life scenes, financial services, health services, manufacturing and the federal government.

Patricia Lynch, a resident of Boston, is a founding partner of Lynch & Fierro, LLP a law firm specializing in providing legal, legislative, regulatory and public policy solutions for businesses, trade and professional associations and non-profit organizations. Patricia's past experience includes many years in private practice. In the public sector, she has served on the staffs of Governor Michael S. Dukakis and Congressman John Olver, she was also General Counsel to the Secretary of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation. She has lectured extensively on consumer protection issues and on the legislative process and lobbying.

Michelle McGee of Kearney, Donovan & McGee, P.C. in Boston, focuses her practice on government affairs representation before government bodies at the local, state and federal levels. Ms. McGee has extensive experience representing clients' interests before both the Massachusetts and Connecticut legislative and executive branches of government. Formerly, Ms. McGee worked at New England Electric System (now National Grid) where she developed and implemented comprehensive legislative and external strategies to achieve New England Electric's public policy initiatives in both Massachusetts and Connecticut. She was a founding member of a diverse coalition of stakeholders formed to educate interested parties, build consensus on important issues and to support the passage of electricity industry restructuring legislation in Connecticut. Prior to establishing Kearney, Donovan & McGee, P.C., Ms. McGee was a member of the government affairs practice group at Choate, Hall & Stewart. She is currently on the Board of the Women's Lunch Place and the Women's Network Advisory Board of the Boston Chamber of Commerce.

Ann Murphy, a resident of Waltham, is a past president of the MWPC Board, and is currently a Vice President in the communications practice at O’Neill and Associates. She brings to her role more than 25 years of experience in media relations ranging from print and broadcasting to government, political and corporate public relations. Women’s Business Boston listed Ms. Murphy on their “Top 10 PR Specialists” list in September, 2006. Prior to joining O’Neill and Associates, Ms. Murphy was the director of media relations at Cablevision. In this capacity, she served as the company’s chief spokesperson, coordinated media events with cable partners such as C-SPAN and Home and Garden TV, and supported marketing efforts to launch new products such as digital television, cable modems and other high tech options.

Lora Pellegrini, joined the MWPC in 2005 as a Board member, and served as the Caucus' Vice President from 2006-2008, then as Board President from 2008-2010 and is now the MWPC PAC Co-Chair. Ms. Pellegrini, a resident of Charlestown, is the President and CEO of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, a trade association representing eleven health plans covering over two million subscribers. Prior to joining the Association, Ms. Pellegrini served as Chief Advisor for Legislative Affairs to Governor Deval Patrick. Prior to joining the Governor's staff, Ms. Pellegrini spent thirteen years, most recently as the Vice President of Government Affairs and Community Relations, at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Prior to joining Harvard Pilgrim in 1996, Ms. Pellegrini served as an Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and on the staffs of former Governor Michael S. Dukakis and U.S. Senator John F. Kerry. She is a former member of the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee and is a graduate of Wheaton College and New England School of Law.

Lauren Stiller Rikleen is the founder and Executive Director of the Bowditch Institute for Women's Success. Most recently, Ms. Rikleen has been appointed as a Visiting Scholar by Boston College, where she will serve as an Executive-in-Residence at the Center for Work & Family in the Carroll School of Management, as well as, teach an adjunct course in the Law School. She is also an equity partner at Bowditch & Dewey, LLP, managing an active mediation practice and a diverse environmental law practice, emphasizing negotiation, enforcement and compliance issues. She is the author of Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women's Success in the Law, a book which is highly acclaimed for its thoughtful insights about the management of today's law firms and the related institutional impediments to the retention and advancement of women in the legal profession. She is currently working on a book about the Millennial generation and its impact on a multi-generational workplace. Lauren's background includes an extraordinary focus on issues relating to the advancement of women in the profession. As a former President of the Boston Bar Association, Lauren established the Task-Force on Professional Challenges and Family Needs, which produced a nationally recognized report entitled: Facing the Grail - Confronting the Costs of Work/Family Imbalance. Lauren is frequently requested to appear as a keynote speaker and also continues her work as a consultant and speaker to lead programs and workshops addressing gender and diversity, workplace issues, generational issues, and the topic of unexamined bias. In 2011 she will do this through a new entity: the Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership.

Meredith Warren is a Partner at Lyric Consulting. She previously served on the Massachusetts House of Representatives Minority Leader's Office as Deputy Chief of Staff and Communications Director. She worked as a Victims Witness Advocate for the Middlesex County Office of the District Attorney. She reported for the Eagle –Tribune Publishing Company, during which she and her team won a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. She was the Washington Correspondent for the Boston University News Service, and worked at various prestigious news outlets. She can be heard frequently as a guest on New England Cable News discussing political issues. She graduated from Boston University with the BS in Broadcast Journalism.

Alexandra Zaroulis is a seasoned communications professional who has over 17 years of experience in public relations and public affairs. She is currently working as the Spokesperson for the Executive Office of Administration and Finance. Ms. Zaroulis has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors working in politics, public relations and journalism. Prior to her work as an independent public relations consultant she was Account Supervisor for Solomon McCown & Co., where she managed communications and crisis strategy for national and local accounts in the Public Affairs and Consumer divisions. In addition, she has worked as Communications Director for various political campaigns, including serving as Midwest Communications Director for Gore Lieberman 2000. Alex was also a producer for “Monitor Radio,” the broadcast edition of The Christian Science Monitor. She frequently appears on New England Cable News and WGBH-TV, where she comments on a wide range of public policy issues. Alex graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Political Science, and received her Master of Science in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University’s College of Communications.

Board Member Emeritus Dolores Mitchell is the Executive Director of the Group Insurance Commission, the agency that provides life, health, disability and dental and vision services to 265,000 State employees, retirees and their dependents. She has been in that position since 1987, serving in the administrations of Governors Dukakis, Weld, Cellucci, Swift, Romney, and now Governor Patrick. She is a member of a number of professional and community organizations, including the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium, of which she is a Director, the Massachusetts Healthcare Purchaser Group, of which she is currently the President, the Greater Boston Big Sister Association, of which she is Board President, her local Democratic Town Committee, of which she is Vice President, the Leapfrog Group, and the National Academy for State Health Policy, the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors, the Massachusetts Health Council, the Business Advisory Group of the E-Health Initiative, of which she is Co-Chair, and the E-Health Collaborative of which she is a Director. She is a frequent speaker on health care, politics, women's career issues, and related subjects.