Board of Trustees

Board Meeting Schedule

July 26, 2023 | 4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Virtual session

September 21, 2023 | 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
RPHS Upper Campus, 2179 Washington St., Roxbury, MA

December 7, 2023 | 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Mission Hill Campus, 120 Fisher Ave., Roxbury, MA

February 8, 2024 | 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
RPHS Lower Campus, 1286 Hyde Park Ave, Hyde Park, MA

March 21, 2024 | 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Lucy Stone Campus, 22 Regina Rd., Dorchester, MA

June 18, 2024 | 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Dorchester Campus, 206 Magnolia St., Dorchester, MA

Current Members

Ronald currently serves as the Director of Teen Programs for the Museum of Fine Arts Boston under the Learning & Community Engagement Division. Prior to joining the museum, Ronald served as the Director of Community & Member Engagement at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston’s Mattapan Teen Center. In that newly created role, he led club efforts to establish, cultivate and maintain relationships with community stakeholders and local organizations in service of club members and their families.  Prior to his focus on community engagement, Ronald was the Founding Director of the Mattapan Teen Center where he led the development and implementation of teen programming.  During his tenure at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, he held various leadership positions within the organization, including Founding Director of the Leaders in Training Program at Camp Harbor View and Teen Director at the Yawkey Boys & Girls Club of Roxbury. Ronald holds a bachelor’s degree in African American studies with a Minor in Political Science from Howard University in Washington DC. He resides in Boston with his wife and two children.

Ayanna Cundiff is a Human Resources Operations Manger at Rogerson Communities. As a certified HR professional, it is Ayanna’s passion to make an impact on people’s lives by making the place they spend most of their time, work, enjoyable and fulfilling.

Although born and raised in Roxbury, MA, Ayanna attended Lexington Public Schools through the METCO program. She furthered her education by receiving her Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences degree from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS). Ayanna then went on to graduate summa cum laude from Cambridge College with her Master’s in Business Administration. Ayanna is passionate about learning and education and hopes to pursue a doctorate degree in the future.

In her spare time, Ayanna is a motivational speaker and mentor to at-risk young women. Utilizing her personal experiences, she encourages young women to strive for greater than what is expected based on their environment and upbringing. Ayanna is in the process of writing a book that details her experiences, challenges, and successes. She is hopeful that by sharing her story, other minority inner city youth will be inspired.

Through all of her achievements, Ayanna’s inspiration and reason to succeed has been her son, Jason. Jason attends Uncommon School’s Roxbury Prep Charter School in Nubian Square (Roxbury Prep High School). It was important for Ayanna to enroll Jason in a school within the community that could offer him a college focused education while simultaneously using the curriculum to address real life issues that Jason faces as an African American male growing up in the inner-city; Roxbury Prep accomplishes that and much more. Ayanna’s experience with Roxbury Prep has been nothing short of an amazing partnership. By coming together to educate, motivate, and develop Jason into the best individual he can be, there is no doubt that Jason will soar to unseen heights. As a single parent, Ayanna has depended on Roxbury Prep to assist her in raising Jason to be a well-rounded successful young man; RPHS has exceeded her expectations!

Will serves as a Principal on NEPC’s Public Practice Group where he works across an array of public fund clients to implement customized investment programs. Will assists clients with asset allocation studies, manager searches, performance measurement, and technical projects. Will has been with the company since 2011 over which time he has remained a member of the Asset Allocation Committee along with the Diverse Manager Committee. Prior to working on the Public Practice Group, he worked on their Public Markets Research team helping lead the effort on manager research for Large Cap equities.

Before joining NEPC in 2011, Will worked at Brown Brothers Harriman in their Securities Lending Operations group.  He was responsible for processing and recording the daily transfer of funds from Brown Brothers Harriman to clients, along with analyzing and reporting project payments and outstanding funds to senior management.

Will earned his B.A. in Economics from Tufts University. He holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation as well as the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees for the Belmont Hill School, an institution focused on developing young boys. Will resides with his wife and daughter in Dorchester.

Sarah currently serves as the Managing Director of Academics at UP Education Network, a school turnaround organization that operates within Boston Public schools to transform chronically underperforming schools into exceptional learning environments. Prior to this role, Sarah was the Director of Secondary Literacy and MLL instruction at UP where she led efforts to implement high quality, standards aligned curriculum across UP schools.

Sarah has held numerous roles within Boston area charter schools over the last fifteen years, including teaching multilingual learners, 8th grade English, and leading departments and teacher teams. In 2011, she was a founding member of Excel Academy Charter School Chelsea, where she helped to grow the school from a 5th grade to a 5-8, and the highest performing middle school in the city of Chelsea by 2015.

As the daughter of two teachers, education has always played a central role in Sarah’s life. Sarah attended the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School, one of Massachusetts’ first public charter schools which paved the way for project-based learning across the country. Parker’s approach to education and the passionate teachers that approach attracted had a profound impact on Sarah, inspired her to teach and set her on the path for a lifelong career in education.

Sarah holds a bachelor’s degree in Government and International Studies from Colby College and a Master’s in Education degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She resides in Boston with her husband and three children and is a proud Boston Public Schools parent.

Francisco Marriott is the Vice President of Finance and Operations at EdVestors, where he is responsible for the company’s finance functions, and oversees human resources and facilities activities. Francisco is a senior executive and entrepreneur with over fifteen years of experience in corporate finance, financial planning & analysis, and management consulting. Prior to joining EdVestors he was the interim CEO of infico, a start-up financial consulting firm specializing in cash recovery. Previously, Francisco was head of finance and operations and co-founder of PlaceMe, a co-living start-up based in Boston. Francisco’s past corporate experience includes work in mergers & acquisitions at CVS Health, valuation of illiquid securities at Wellington Management, and intangible assets and business valuation at EY.

Throughout his career, Francisco has been involved in diversity and inclusion efforts within the corporations for which he has worked as well as at non-profit organizations in the Boston area. He was a member of the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA) Boston Executive Board, and Vice President of Student Affairs of the ALPFA Boston Chapter, and he is a board member of Roxbury Prep Uncommon Schools, a Boston-based charter school.

Francisco holds an MBA in Finance from Brandeis University, an MA in Economics from Boston University, and a BS in Economics and Business from ESPOL in his native Ecuador. Francisco lives in Needham with his wife and two kids, and their dogs Chewie and Leia.

Richard is a fourth generation Californian who migrated to Massachusetts in 1973 to attend Boston College Law School–and never left.  His interest in Boston’s public schools was initially stimulated in 1976 by a year clerking for Arthur Garrity, the federal judge who ordered the desegregation of Boston’s public schools.  This interest was rekindled in 2009 when he attended a Prep For Success dinner at Roxbury Prep.  Since then Richard has served on the Board of Roxbury Prep for multiple terms, including time as the Vice-Chair.

Scott Oran is a Managing Partner and Founder of Dinosaur Capital Partners with 35 years of local, national, and international real estate experience. Founded in 2010, Dinosaur Capital Partners builds sustainable, mixed-income, transit-oriented housing in the greater Boston area.

Previously, from to 2001 to 2009, Scott served as Executive Director of Morgan Stanley where he was responsible for its real estate investing activities in New England and the Mid-Atlantic United States including acquisition, master planning, and permitting of the 26 acres that became the Boston Seaport. Earlier in his career, from 1991 to 2000, he was a Partner and Regional Director of TA Associates Realty, the institutional real estate investment management firm, a Vice President of Fleet Bank in Boston where he managed an REO portfolio, and Director of Acquisitions for Unihab, a Cambridge-based real estate developer. He began his career at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, the management consulting firm.

Scott holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and Urban Affairs from Princeton University’s School of Engineering and School of Public and International Affairs.

From 2011 to 2016, he was a Director and Trustee of Granite REIT, a $3 billion NYSE-listed Canadian multi-national real estate company. From 2011 to 2020, he was Chair of the Board of Brooke Charter Schools, a high-performing public charter school network in Boston, MA. He is currently a trustee and the former treasurer of the non-profit Commonwealth Shakespeare Company which performs free Shakespeare on the Boston Common each summer. He was formerly a trustee of the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology. From 2001 until 2011, he was on the board of NAIOP Massachusetts, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association.

Scott has taught “Fundamentals of Real Estate Portfolio Management” at the MIT Center for Real Estate’s Professional Development Institute.

He lives in Newton, MA with his wife, Meryl Kessler, and dog, Felicity. He has two adult daughters. He is passionate about, though not necessarily skilled at, sports with strings attached: tennis, squash, fly fishing, and kite flying. And after a new hip, bicycling, on car-free rail trails and gravel and away from vehicles, if possible.

Ruven is a Senior Vice President for Morgan Stanley in Wellesley, MA and has been since 2008. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Ruven spent 14 years at Bear Stearns Inc. as a Managing Director/Principal in the private client services division, serving the needs of Ultra High Net Worth Families and Institutional clients.

Ruven has served on the Board of Trustees of Roxbury Prep Charter School since 2018, and most recently accepted the position of Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Roxbury Prep Charter School. Ruven also serves on the Finance, Academic & Leadership, Governance and Development committees. Ruven shares an affinity for education and is passionate about providing opportunities for children of all needs to prepare for and graduate from institutions of higher learning.

Ruven received his BA in Finance/Investments, Entrepreneurial Studies from Babson College. He currently resides in Wellesley, Massachusetts with his wife and three daughters.

Drew is currently a Director of Business Development at Mellon Capital Management, focused on institutional investors in the eastern third of the United States. Prior to joining Mellon Capital Management in 2016, he served in similar positions for 16 years at Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo, and for 7 years at John Hancock Advisors. Drew worked as an investment banker for 10 years in New York and Boston after earning his MBA at the University of Virginia in 1983. He also earned a BA in Economics from Trinity College. He is currently an advisor to LandSake Farm in Weston, MA, a volunteer for Community Servings in Dorchester, MA and a former Scout Master with the Boy Scouts of America. He is a long-standing appointed member of the working group that is investigating opportunities to the properly revive the Josiah Smith Tavern in Weston.

Drew has two adult sons and lives with his wife in Weston, MA.