People

Beverly L. Hall became the 15th appointed superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) on July 1, 1999. She has worked actively with the community to gain support for public education in the city of Atlanta. Hall is credited with transforming the 102- Atlanta school system through a comprehensive reform agenda. Every elementary school in Atlanta made adequate yearly progress in 2008 under the provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind law, and graduation rates at several high schools have risen sharply. Prior to her post in Atlanta, she was state district superintendent of the Newark public schools, the largest school district in the state of New Jersey. Born in Jamaica, West Indies, Hall immigrated to the US upon completion of her high school education. She was awarded an honorary PhD from Oglethorpe University and earned a doctorate of education from Fordham University.

Beverly A. Morgan-Welch serves as the chief executive of the oldest and most visible African American history museum in New England located on Bostons Beacon Hill and Nantucket. With four historic sites and collections that preserve the powerful past of African Americans from the Colonial Period through the Abolitionist Movement, the museum provides Black Heritage Trail tours, exhibits and education programs that illuminate and share a liberating American History. Beverlys career spans three decades of experience in not-for-profit management and corporate philanthropy. She has served as the Executive Director of the Greater Hartford Arts Council, Director of Development at the Wadsworth Atheneum, and Assistant Dean of Admission at Amherst College. Beverly was also the Manager of Community Relations at Raytheon, a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Hartford, and Secretary of the Connecticut Mutual Life Foundation serving the companys Corporate Social Responsibility Department. As a volunteer, her achievements include serving as Co-Chairperson of the Inauguration of the Honorable Deval Patrick, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and raising funds for the Bishop Desmond Tutu Southern African Refugee Scholarship Fund. A graduate of Smith College with a major in Theatre and Speech, in 2009, she received the Smith Medal awarded to graduates who, in the judgment of the trustees, exemplify in their lives and work the true purpose of a liberal arts education. Currently she is a Member of three distinguished history institutions: the Antiquarian Society, the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Historical Society. Beverly Morgan-Welch, the widow of the Reverend Mark Welch, resides in Andover, Massachusetts with their daughter, Alexandra.

Jiménez works at the intersection of justice, economic development, and community development. She has carved out a unique path focused on building systems where equity, cultural memory, and collective power can thrive. She holds a Master’s in Urban Planning from Boston University and is a trusted community strategist and consultant to mission-driven organizations. Her work has supported a range of civic and community initiatives, including contributing her expertise to the City of Boston’s Rent Stabilization Advisory Committee.

Bhaamati Borkhetaria is a reporter at CommonWealth Beacon.

Bianca Hillier is a reporter for The World.

Bianca Vázquez Toness is the Managing Editor and Correspondent for K-12 Education at WGBH Radio. She has covered everything from technology to immigration to presidential elections, but keeps coming back to stories about kids and schools. She's worked for Minnesota Public Radio, WBUR and Bloomberg News. She was a 2016-2017 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.

M. Bilal Kaleem is the Executive Director of the Muslim American Society of Boston (MAS Boston). MAS Boston, the largest Muslim organization in New England, operates the newly completed, $16 million Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center. Bilal received his B.Eng. and M.Eng. from MIT, and is currently pursuing graduate study in sociology and religion at Boston University with some coursework at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. His focus is Muslim civic engagement. He also serves on the board of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO), the Massachusetts Immigration and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), and the Center for Jewish Muslim Relations (CJMR). He has also served as a mentor at the Somali Development Center serving youth from Somalia.

Bilal is currently engaged in an entrepreneurial venture (GEO2 Technologies), after having spent time in strategic management consulting at The Boston Consulting Group. GEO2 is an advanced materials company, commercializing novel substrate technologies for filtration and other uses. He is one of the co-founder and am presently the VP of Product Development. Prior to BCG, Bilal received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the guidance of Professor Mario Molina. His research focused on atmospheric chemistry, particularly the microphysics of the tropospheric inorganic aerosols, the fate of soot in urban environments, heterogeneous nucleation of particulates, cloud condensation properties of organics and soot, and thermodynamics of nanometer-sized organic and inorganic particles.

Bill Briggs writes for MSNBC.com, covering business, travel, and health. He is the coauthor of Amped: A Soldier's Race for Gold in the Shadow of War (Wiley, 2008). He earned seven national writing awards for the Denver Post, from investigative journalism to humor pieces. His articles ranged from an exposé on a sexual predator coaching youth basketball to a series of stories revealing dysfunction and financial irregularities within the U.S. Olympic Committee. Briggs also has written for the Financial Times, the Miami Herald, and the Nashville Banner, covering business, sports, health, travel, and crime. Briggs has one daughter, Andrea, a college student. He lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife, Nancy.

Bill Bryson has said of his origins, “I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.” In 1973 he settled in England and wrote travel articles for the English newspapers The Times and The Independent. In 1989, he published The Lost Continent, a sidesplitting account of his road trip across small-town America. In 1995, he moved his family back to the States, so his children could experience "being American," but returned to the UK in 2003. Since then, he has written several more books, including notable bestsellers, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir, A Walk in the Woods, I'm A Stranger Here Myself (published in Britain as Notes from a Big Country), and In a Sunburned Country (published in Britain as Down Under).