Forum Network

Katherine Silbaugh is a Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law and is widely recognized for her pioneering work on gender, family care, and household labor. She is a leader in the legal literature on the relationship between work and family.

James Nichols-Worley was the lead petitioner for expanding the local voting age to 17 years old in his hometown of Southborough, Massachusetts.

Kelly Siegel-Stechler is a Senior Researcher at CIRCLE, the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University's Tisch College of Civic Life. Her research is centered on civic development and political socialization in schools.

Andy X. Vargas is the State Representative for the 3rd Essex District (Haverhill) in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He is a member of the Massachusetts Black & Latino Legislative Caucus and was previously elected to the Haverhill City Council, taking office at age 22 and serving as the city’s first Latino elected official.

James Eldridge has served as State Senator for the Middlesex and Worcester district since January 2009. Senator Eldridge previously served as State Representative for the 37th Middlesex district. He serves as the Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary and the Senate Vice Chair Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.

Dr. JoAnn E. Manson is an endocrinologist, epidemiologist, and Principal Investigator of several research studies, including the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL; PI with Dr. J. Buring since study inception in 2009); the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS, PI with Dr. H. Sesso since 2014); and others. Her primary research interests include randomized clinical prevention trials of nutritional and lifestyle factors related to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer and the role of endogenous and exogenous estrogens as determinants of chronic disease.

Richard R. Verma serves as the Deputy Secretary of State for Management & Resources. In this role, he acts as the Chief Operating Officer of the Department, and leads the Department’s efforts on modernization, foreign assistance, and a wide range of workforce and strategic issues. Deputy Secretary Verma previously served as the U.S. Ambassador to India, where he led one of the largest U.S. diplomatic missions and championed historic progress in bilateral ties.

Monica Duffy Toft is Academic Dean and Professor of International Politics and Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Before joining Fletcher, Professor Monica Duffy Toft taught at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Dr. Sonja Kreibich took up her post as the Consul General of Germany to the New England States in July 2022. Before arriving in Boston, she served at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin as the Head of Division for Pan African Issues, Southern Africa and the Great Lakes from 2018-22.

Mustafa Soykurt is the Consul General of France in Boston, held the position of Technical Advisor for European Affairs at Matignon, in the offices of Édouard Philippe, Jean Castex and Élisabeth Borne.

Christian MilNeil has been the editor-in-chief of StreetsblogMASS since its launch in 2019, and was previously a data reporter for the Portland Press Herald in Maine.

John Surico is a freelance journalist who has contributed to The New York Times, Bloomberg CityLab, and New York Magazine's Curbed. He teaches undergraduate reporting on cities at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, and serves as the Senior Fellow for Climate and Opportunity at the Center for an Urban Future.