Forum Network

Dr Manju Sheth is a physician with passion for media and community leadership. She is president of India New England Multimedia and Women Who Win. She is the creator of the esteemed Chai with Manju celebrity talk show series and the prestigious New England Choice Awards. She is also the Director and host of Woman of the Year Gala. She has received numerous awards for her work including from Leadership in Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity from Commonwealth of Massachusetts by Asian and Pacific IslandersCcommission

Jon Abbott was President and CEO of WGBH Boston and a leading advocate for public service media nationwide.

Bob Seay was the transportation reporter for GBH News.

Susan Bellows was a Senior Producer at American Experience.

Dr. Alice Colegrove serves as the Director of Homeless Youth Services at the MA Executive Office of Health and Human Services. With over 25 years of dedicated experience in public health, housing, street outreach, and behavioral health, she is a leading voice in Massachusetts’s efforts to prevent and end youth homelessness.

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.