**Denise Jillson** is the Executive Director at the Harvard Square Business Association. Jillson has been the executive director of the HSBA since April 2006 and has helped shepherd the neighborhood and its businesses through countless changes. Her personal history in Cambridge runs deep. She raised her family in the city and graduated from Lesley in 2007 through our Center for the Adult Learner while working full time at the HSBA.

**Denise Simmons ** is a City Councillor for Cambridge, MA. E. Denise Simmons, a lifelong resident of Cambridge, is serving on the Cambridge City Council, and has served two terms as Mayor of Cambridge. Denise has spent the past three decades working to better her community – first as the Executive Director of the Cambridge Civic Unity Committee in the 1980s, then as a member of the Cambridge School Committee in the 1990s, and since 2002, as a member of the Cambridge City Council. In 2008, Denise drew national attention when she became the nation's first Black, openly lesbian mayor (and the first Black female mayor in Massachusetts).

**Imari Paris Jeffries ** was named Executive Director of King Boston in June 2020. Paris Jeffries brings a wealth of experience from the nonprofit management, community activism, education reform, and social justice sectors, and has served in executive roles at Parenting Journey, Jumpstart, Boston Rising, and Friends of The Children. He serves as a Trustee of the UMass System, as well as on the boards of USES, Providers Council, and Governor Baker’s Black Advisory Commission. He is a three-time graduate of UMass Boston and is pursuing his Ph.D. through UMass Boston’s Higher Education Program.