The Boston Foundation announces new class
The Boston Foundation is proud to announce the selection of 12 remarkable community leaders as the 2019-2021 class of Boston Neighborhood Fellows. The 12 Fellows, from across Greater Boston, join the ranks of nearly 170 people selected as Boston Neighborhood Fellows since 1990.
The new class fellowship will run through January 2021. The Fellows receive a two-year grant, along with leadership and other training. They play an ambassador role too, and will help the Boston Foundation surface its 2021 class of Fellows.
Fellows also get a chance to take part in core activities of the Boston Foundation's Grassroots strategy. The 2017 Fellows played an integral role in designing and leading the 2018 round of Collaborate Boston, a $100,000 prize competition that encourages new forms of collaboration to solve key problems.
"I am excited and honored to be able to spend the next two years working with this remarkable, diverse cohort of community leaders," said Natanja Craig-Oquendo, Senior Director, Grassroots Programs at the Boston Foundation. "Each of them has dedicated so much of their time and experience to improving the lives of the people in their communities, and together, I have no doubt they will be a powerful force for improving the city, even as they get a chance to expand their own skills."
Elsa Mosquera-Sterenberg has been named as a fellow. Mosquera-Sterenberg is the Arts Program Director at IBA, a community-based organization founded in Boston's South End in 1968 to provide affordable housing and social services. Elsa curates all cultural programs and events that take place in and around the community and manages Villa Victoria Center for the Arts, the largest Latino center in New England.
Aside from her role as arts administrator, she produces innovative solutions to change the social landscape and make communities more just, creative and equitable. After Hurricane Maria she co-founded the Massachusetts United for Puerto Rico Fund at the Boston Foundation, which raised $4 million dollars to assist in the island's reconstruction. She is a board member at Orfeon San Juan Bautista in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Unitas Ensemble in Boston.
The new class was nominated by past fellows, civic leaders, and key partners selected earlier this year by the Foundation for a two-year program designed to recognize and empower some of those making change happen across Greater Boston, but often without fanfare or acclaim.
The program was created by an anonymous donor in partnership with The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI) in 1990, and has been folded into the Boston Foundation's Grassroots strategy.
Visit www.tbf.org/BNF for a full list of Boston Neighborhood Fellows.
The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston's community foundation, brings people and resources together to solve Boston's big problems. Established in 1915, it is one of the largest community foundations in the nation—with net assets of $1.3 billion. SENFor more information about the Boston Foundation and TPI, visit tbf.org or call 617-338-1700.