BEACON HILL VILLAGE COUNCIL
Village Council members provide advice and support to Beacon Hill Village, serve as goodwill ambassadors and contribute their expertise on topics such as marketing, fundraising and program development. In addition, they assist with community outreach to increase visibility and broaden our fundraising capacity.
Nancy Adams
Nancy Adams, MD practiced primary care internal medicine in Chelsea for 35 years until her retirement at the end of 2018. She was Medical Director of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center practice in Chelsea from 2000-2011 as well as Medical Director of Chelsea Jewish Nursing Home, then of its affiliated Manuel R. Grell Home Care Agency during the years of 1994-2018. She also was a Clinical Instructor in Medicine at Tufts University from 1990-1994, then at Harvard University from 1996-2014. She has extensive experience in the delivery of geriatric care to patients with multiple complex medical problems.
H. Kim Bottomly
A scientist, entrepreneur, and former president of Wellesley College, H. Kim Bottomly was a faculty member and Deputy Provost for the Sciences at Yale University, where she made fundamental discoveries in immunobiology in the areas of asthma and allergy. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, and the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, and was recognized as one of the University of Washington’s Wondrous 100. She continues to serve on a number of non-profit boards, and is a founding member and researcher at N-FOLD LLC, a company focused on developing novel immunotherapeutic strategies designed to alter the immune system’s response to food allergens.
George Coorssen
George began his Personal Trust/Investment career at State Street Bank and Trust Co. and soon moved from Rye Beach, NH to Boston, overlooking the Common. He became a voting member of CFA Society Boston. As the investment business changed over the years he was recruited to Gardner and Preston Moss and fully enjoyed that partnership until the firm was sold in the mid 1990's. He then joined Mellon Private Asset Management where he was responsible for large high net worth family group relationships. George is a member of most neighborhood committees in Downtown Boston, including the Beacon Hill Civic Open Spaces Committee and the Friends of the Public Garden Common Committee as well as the Chinatown Safety and the BPD A-1 Neighborhood Advisory Committees. He is Co-Founder of the Downtown Boston Residents Assoc., a Private Trustee and a Realtor with Keller Williams Boston-Metro.
Joy K. Fallon
Joy Fallon is the senior minister at King’s Chapel. She has led the social justice programs, including an education and leadership program for older children in Boston schools and the creation of a home for unhoused women and men, developed with Pine Street Inn. Earlier, Joy was an attorney in the offices of the federal and state prosecutors, and was Chief Legal Counsel to Governor Dukakis.
Mike Festa
As State Director for AARP Massachusetts, Festa leads the development and delivery of AARP’s community programs, advocacy and information for its more than 800,000 members age 50 and older in the Commonwealth. Festa served in Gov. Deval Patrick’s Cabinet as the Secretary of Elder Affairs and previously in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1999-2007.
Jack Gurnon
Jack Gurnon owns Charles Street Supply Co. & Hardware, Boston’s oldest hardware store. Jack has worked in his family-owned store since a very young age on weekends, holidays, and during school vacations. Jack is a lifelong resident of Boston.
Henry Lee
Henry Lee retired after 41 years as chairman of the Friends of the Public Garden where he helped to build an organization that is a formidable guardian of the nation’s oldest green space. A graduate of Harvard and Stanford Universities, Henry served as a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service and on the faculty of Browne & Nichols and the Carroll School.
Christine Ritchie
Christine Ritchie, M.D. serves as the Kenneth Minaker Endowed Chair of Geriatric Medicine, as Director of Research in the Division of Palliative Care and Geriatric Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and as the Director of a newly established Center for Aging and Serious Illness within the Mongan Institute at MGH. She has been active in national organizations, including the American Geriatrics Society, the American Academy of Homecare Medicine, and she is a past president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Care.
David Rosenbloom
David Rosenbloom, Ph.D. is professor and interim chair of the Department of Health Law, Policy and Management at the Boston University School of Public Health. David worked for the City of Boston from 1973 to 1983, first as the director of the Parkman Center, then executive assistant to Mayor Kevin White and finally as the commissioner of Health and Hospitals from 1975 to 1983. He is a former chair of the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Board.
Janet Seckel-Cerrotti
Janet Seckel-Cerrotti is the Executive Director of FriendshipWorks, an interfaith volunteer caregiving program serving older adults in Boston, MA. Janet holds an MSW degree from the Hunter College School of Social Work in New York and is a graduate of LeadBoston. Janet has held a range of senior leadership positions in numerous organizations serving the needs of and advocating for the elderly. She is a founding member and former Board Chair of the National Volunteer Caregiving Network and is currently and active member of the MA Healthy Aging Collaborative Advisory Council and the MA Task Force to End Loneliness and Build Community.
Emily K. Shea
Emily K. Shea has been serving as commissioner on Affairs of the Elderly for the City of Boston since April 2011. Prior to her work at the City, Emily served as the executive director of the Boston Partnership for Older Adults, and then in her more recent role as director of Elder Services for Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), Boston’s anti-poverty agency. Emily received her M.S.W., M.P.H. and Certificate in Gerontology from Boston University and her B.A. from St. Michael’s College.
Jacquelin Yessian
Jacquelin earned an M.B.A. from Boston University, a master’s degree in architecture studies from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and an undergraduate degree in architecture from Virginia Tech University. Jacquelin has worked in private, non-profit and public sector architecture practice with planning, design and construction oversight for the City of Boston, MIT, and the State.