BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEMBERS
We help make the world a better place.
The Foundation, acting through its 11 Member volunteer community Board of Trustees, provides grants to a wide range of programs and organizations who maintain a mission to assist with improving the quality of life for the East Boston Community and its residents.
Since its inception, the Foundation has partnered with dozens of local non-profit organizations in awarding over
$7.6 million in grants (through 2013).
AUDREY NAGLE
Audrey serves as the Manager of Charitable Giving Programs at Massport. She started her career at Massport in 2008 as a summer intern in the Community Relations and Government Affairs Department.
Audrey currently manages Massport’s Charitable Contribution Program, Community Summer Jobs Program, Scholarship Program as well as several employee volunteer and donation drive efforts each year.
She is a graduate of Boston Latin School and a lifelong South Boston resident.
CHRIS MARCHI
Chris is a lifelong resident of East Boston.
As Vice President of Airport Impact Relief, Incorporated (AIR, Inc.) for 20+ years.
Chris has worked with youth and community groups in and around East Boston to develop community-based awareness about, mitigation for, and solutions to airport environmental and public health impacts.
DAVID ARINELLA
Dave Arinella is the longest serving member of the East Boston Foundation. He is a 1970 graduate of East Boston HS and a 1974 graduate of Brandeis University. He spent 30 years at the East Boston Court and became the Chief Probation Officer. During his career he has also been the Coach of the East Boston HS swim team since 1980. He has the title as the "Dean of Coaches" as the longest serving coach at Eastie. He is also the longest tenured coach in BPS athletics.
He has three children Jeff, who is a teacher and coach at Eastie, Dante, who is a member of Local 1421 and Victoria is his youngest.
His other activities the East Boston Athletic Board and the Mass. Swim Coaches Association.
fran carbone
Stay tuned for information to come!
gloribell mota
Gloribell Mota (she/her-Ella), was born to immigrant parents from El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.
She is the co-founder and former executive director of Neighbors United for a Better East Boston (NUBE), a grassroots base-building organization that develops abundant leaders and supports social transformation through community organizing and building.
For over 20 years, she has served in various roles in local, state, and national organizations as a trainer, coordinator, candidate, and advocate for social change.
For over thirty years she has been rooted in East Boston, the island she calls home, with her two children Eddie Jr. and Genesis, her mother Maria Argelia, community dog Leia and Kylo the cat. Her greatest joy is dancing, singing, being with family and friends, communing with nature, and communal celebrations. She is currently at Ayni Institute, deepening her facilitation, training, and coaching skills to support social change and a more reciprocal world.
MARSHAL GREENLAND
Marshall Greenland works as the General Manager of Boston Harbor Shipyard and Marina in East Boston, is a graduate of Massachusetts Maritime Academy and holds an MBA from Boston College. In his current role, Marshall works to support over 30 small businesses in East Boston, leads community benefit and outreach programs, and promotes local workforce development programs for multiple trades.
Marshall has over 15 years of professional experience in the commercial maritime industry and is an advocate for local businesses and communities that depend on strong working waterfront industries. He serves on the Board of Governors for the Boston Shipping Association and the Board of the East Boston Chamber of Commerce. Stay tuned for information to come!
jeffrey drago
Attorney Drago is a founding partner of Drago + Toscano, LLP. He has over a decade of experience working in government. For years Attorney Drago held senior positions in the administration of Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the legendary former Mayor of Boston whose tenure spanned two decades. Attorney Drago’s critical positions included service as a Neighborhood Liaison in the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services, Special Assistant to the Mayor, Director of Business Development for the Department of Neighborhood Development, and Political Coordinator for the Menino mayoral campaign. During his tenure at City Hall, Attorney Drago gained invaluable experience and institutional knowledge in the zoning, permitting, and licensing processes.
Specializing in the areas of licensing, government relations, land use, and permitting, Mr. Drago represents a wide variety of clients, including some of Boston’s largest residential developers, hotel chains, telecommunication industry leaders, advertising companies, and cannabis dispensaries. With a demonstrated record of success and client satisfaction, Attorney Drago represents his clients and guides them through the difficulties and obstacles of city and state government. In his real estate practice, Mr. Drago’s clients benefit from his intimate knowledge of the Article 80 process. As a lobbyist, Mr. Drago advances his clients’ interests and advocates on their behalf before governmental bodies and agencies.
Jeff’s civic engagement includes serving as treasurer of the Ward 1 Democratic Committee. Drawing on his government experience, Jeff served as Mayor Walsh’s representative on the board of the East Boston Foundation and sits on the board of City Kids. Jeff also was on the finance committees of Mayor Marty Walsh and Treasurer Deb Goldberg.
Before earning a juris doctorate from Suffolk University Law School, Attorney Drago graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts from Northeastern University.
KANNAN THIRU
Kannan grew up in a farming family in southern India where life was inextricably linked with land and agricultural adages were part of everyday parlance. After an early career in technology, he responded to his calling and returned to his agrarian roots.
In response to the COVID crisis, he co-created Mutual Aid Eastie and served over 5000 meals every week to food-insecure families in an initiative that also supported shuttered restaurants. Under his leadership, Eastie Farm built the first geothermally powered zero emissions greenhouse in the region, a space for all year growing, gathering, and education. Eastie Farm’s Community Supported Agriculture supports small farmers in the region and serves hundreds of families in East Boston all across the economic spectrum in a manner that destigmatizes food insecurity and strengthens local economy. Eastie Farm connects people with nature and with each other, which Kannan hopes is the ultimate antidote to apathy.
Kannan believes solutions to local, current issues are the strongest building blocks of solutions to global, long-term issues. Small projects that serve people here and now motivate them to engage more readily in addressing larger, future issues. At various scales and from various angles, Kannan approaches the crisis of our times, climate change, by prioritizing equity.
During his Fellowship at Harvard, Kannan focused on environmental law, preservation of natural resources, climate-oriented design, and leadership development. As president of Friends of Belle Isle Marsh, he advocates for wildlife that depends on the largest salt marsh in Boston; as an at-large member of Boston’s Community Preservation Committee he helps channel $25M-$30M/yr of public funds towards affordable housing, historic preservation, and open spaces in Boston; as a Boston Conservation Commissioner, he helps regulate development in Boston towards the conservation of its natural assets; and as the Vice Chair of the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts chapter of the Sierra Club, he advocates for policy and action towards environmental justice. By participating in ward and state political committees, he strives to increase civic engagement and electoral participation so we the people can keep the power. He helps young leaders focus on the harder challenge of transformative change, instead of the status-quo-friendly perpetual bandaids. His theory of change is built on his belief that only nature based solutions and the empowerment of those made vulnerable by long standing injustices can help us escape vicious cycles and enter virtuous ones.
nina gaeta coletta
Nanina serves as the Family Center Coordinator at East Boston High School, a position that puts her in daily contact with parents, students and community members with the mutual goal of increasing student and family success. She is a graduate of Tufts University's Urban and Environment Planning Department with a Master's in Public Policy. She holds a B.S. from Suffolk University in Journalism, and prior to her work at EBHS, was a reporter for various newspapers and the Citywide Educational Coalition (CWEC) where she wrote newsletters and special reports on BPS policies and their impacts. Nina also shares a group award from the Associated Press for local reporting.
Nina served on various boards in East Boston, including the Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH), and worked with the agency to start the first schoolyard renovations in East Boston at the Hugh Roe O'Donnell school. This led to other BPS schools improving their schoolyards into gardens and play space.
Nina is a third generation East Bostonian on her father's side, and her mother was a first generation Texan whose parents immigrated to the US from Mexico. She and her husband, Edmund Coletta, raised three children in East Boston, all of whom graduated from Boston Public Schools and are amazing humans.
thomas tassanari
Lifelong resident of East Boston and a Graduate of East Boston High School.
Thomas has aBachelor of Science in Education - Northeastern University and a Masters of Education - Suffolk University.
Chief Probation Officer, Boston Municipal Court – East Boston Division
Adjunct Professor – Bunker Hill Community College
Vice President East Boston Social Centers Board of Directors
Member East Boston Athletic Board
Member E.A.S.T.I.E (East Boston Alliance for substance abuse treatment, intervention and education)
Appointed to the foundation in 2012 by Judge Roberto Ronquillo Reappointed 2014 by Judge John McDonald.