Maggie CohnMaggie Cohn (Vice Chair)

Maggie is the Southeastern New England Loan and Outreach Officer for the Cooperative Fund of New England, a Community Development Finance Institution founded in 1975. She has served as the Executive Director of local non-profits, working for the Mission Hill Health Movement; for the Boston Collaborative for Food & Fitness with a broad array of community organizations, institutions and municipal agencies; and for Mission Hill Main Streets, working with local businesses and residents to improve the commercial district. Previously she worked at Red Sun Press, a worker-controlled commercial print shop in Jamaica Plain. She serves on the board of the Back of the Hill Community Development Corporation and is a member of Boston Building Resources, Harvest Cooperative Market and the Dorchester Community Food Co-op. She holds a BA from UMass Boston and a Master’s Degree in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University. She shares her home with her husband and three elderly cats, and prefers to travel by bike.

 

Nick Clark

Nick is the President of the Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society, which operates three large-format grocery stores and two auto service centers in Vermont and New Hampshire. As a founder and board member of Livable Real Estate Cooperative, he spearheads efforts to combat the pressing shortage of affordable housing by fostering local collaboration. Nick’s experience includes municipal government as a former member of the Selectboard for the Town of Thetford, Vermont—where he served as Chair. He enjoys understanding and addressing multifaceted challenges, from workforce housing initiatives to strategic planning and budget management. With a dedication to community development, Nick thrives on maximizing organizational efficiency and pioneering innovative solutions to tackle even the most daunting obstacles.

 

Carolyn Lagomasino Edsell-VetterCarolyn Lagomasino Edsell-Vetter (Board Chair)

Carolyn is a Latinx Cooperative Business Support Officer at the Cooperative Fund of New England since March 2019. She works with Spanish- and English-speaking applicants and borrowers to assess project feasibility and connect with culturally-appropriate technical assistance resources. Previously, she was a worker-owner for 19 years and co-CEO for 5 years of A Yard & A Half Landscaping Cooperative in Waltham, MA. In 2013, she led the conversion of A Yard & A Half Landscaping to a worker-owned co-op, allowing the primarily Salvadoran immigrant employees to purchase the company from their retiring boss. Carolyn has been involved in co-ops and consensus communities since living in a cooperative house in college. She graduated summa cum laude in Religious Studies from Cornell University and holds an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School. She was also a graduate of the 2015 Boston cohort of Inner City Capital Connections. Carolyn, her partner Jesse, and their two boys enjoy running, dancing, and growing ridiculous amounts of food in their small urban garden. The daughter of a Cuban immigrant, Carolyn is particularly interested in using cooperatives to create social and economic justice for immigrants, BIPOC, and others who have faced structural barriers to bringing businesses to scale.

 

Brittany Henderson (Staff Rep)

Brittany Henderson (she/her) is a SHRM-CP certified human resources professional with expertise in both operational and strategic HR business practices, including talent acquisition, employee training, performance management, employee relations, benefits, and payroll. Brittany has a passion for diversity, equity, justice and inclusion with a constant commitment to helping others achieve their goals. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Virginia State University and has worked in the HR field for 7 years with proven success in creating cultures of collaboration and implementing change to achieve workplace excellence.

 

Matthew Lewis (Treasurer)

Matthew is a citizen of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik with strong experience and expertise in non-profit, community development financial institutions. He is the Director of Operations at Four Directions Development Corporation – a Native American led organization dedicated to improving the social and economic conditions of the Wabanaki tribes in Maine. Matthew has over a decade of experience working with Municipal, State, Tribal, and Federal Governments administering revolving loan funds and carrying out community development projects. He believes the cooperative model perpetuates individual and group growth and is a fantastic succession alternative. In his spare time, he enjoys crafting Excel formulas, tinkering with electronics to automate tasks around the house, and exploring the Maine woods with his wife.

 

Heiny MaldonadoHeiny Maldonado

Heiny Maldonado has a background in International Business, Urban Planning, factory work, and over 12 years organizing experience. She initiated Fuerza’s Injured Workers Committee, the Popular Education program, organized numerous wage theft actions, and was responsible for member development, and leadership training. Heiny has significantly broadened Fuerza’s organizational alliances, including building a strong relationship with unions culminating in Fuerza’s membership in the RI AFL-CIO and broadened Fuerza’s organizational alliances, leading to the POWER Network partnership, and initiation of the Worker-Owned Cooperative program. She has been publicly recognized repeatedly by the RI State Legislature for her contributions to empowering the Latino immigrant community, by the City of Central Falls on International Women’s Day and was an honoree of the RI Labor History Society in 2017.

 

Libby O'FlahertyLibby O’Flaherty (Staff Rep)

Libby O’Flaherty is a Cooperative Development Specialist under CDI’s NEROC program. Prior to joining CDI, Libby worked with the Prison Birth Project and Community Action’s Family Center, providing wrap-around care to high needs families in Franklin and Hampden counties, as well as the first point of contact for evacuees to Franklin County following Hurricane Maria in 2017. Libby has developed a workshop on compensatory options for rural survivors of Intimate Partner Violence which has been presented to the Department of Health, among others. Libby is a graduate of Tufts and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and resides in Franklin County, MA.

 

Carlos M TeuscherCarlos Masashi Teuscher (Clerk)

Carlos Teuscher (he/him) is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School. At Suffolk, he directs the Transactional Clinic, which provides free transactional legal support to worker cooperatives, housing cooperatives, community land trusts, and other community-based small businesses and nonprofit corporations in Massachusetts. Carlos is deeply committed to economic justice and loves how his work allows him to implement solidarity economy principles and values in community enterprises that are often led by immigrants, women, and people of color.