Board of Trustees and Advisors

Board of Trustees

Carl Hobert, Wayland, MA

Founder, CEO, Ex-Officio Trustee

Joanne Hoffman, Carlisle, MA

Chair of the Board

Joanne Hoffman, retired in June 2009, after a 40-year career in education, the last 15 as Head of Moses Brown School in Providence RI. In addition to teaching English, she held several administrative positions during her time in independent schools, including Assistant Dean of Students, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, Academic Dean, and Associate Head of School. She also served on the Commission on Independent Schools of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and as the President of the Board of the Association of Independent Schools of New England.  Currently, Joanne is volunteering her time at Beacon Academy in Brookline, MA, and she also is serving on the Boards of the Asheville and Community Preparatory Schools.

Daniel Kagan, Freeport, ME

Treasurer

Dan, a partner in the Portland, Maine-based law firm Berman and Simmons, LLC, is actively involved in all aspects of the firm’s statewide practice, with a special emphasis in serious personal injury, products liability, and nursing home malpractice. He is a frequent speaker on tort law and trial advocacy at legal education seminars and has authored many legal articles.   Dan, educated at Middlebury College and Boston College Law School, has served civil justice through his work on the Board of Governors of the American Association for Justice (AAJ) since 1998 and the Board of Governors of the Maine Trial Lawyers Association (MTLA) since 1996.  Currently he is MTLA's President-elect.

Anna Afeyan Gunnarson, Lexington, MA

Anna has recently served seven years on the board of the Lexington Education Foundation, first as V.P. of Grant Programs and later as V.P. of Planning and Evaluation. Anna received her M.S. in Biochemical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, and worked as a process engineer and project manager for Alfa-Laval AB Biotech Center before moving to the US in 1988 to take on a position in process development for the Schering Plough Corporation. After leaving her engineering career, Anna has devoted her time to raising her four children as well as volunteering for the Lexington Public schools and several nonprofit organizations. Anna is currently contributing her time and knowledge to the Lexington Education Foundation advisory board, the YerazArt Foundation for young musicians board, the Winsor School Corporation, and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.

Will Hobert, Chicago, IL

Will Hobert founded WH Trading LLC in 1994 and currently serves as its Managing Member. He began his career at Cooper Neff and Associates in 1988 as an options clerk at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and continued as an FX floor and OTC FX options trader in all USD FX and FX cross rates products. As Managing Member at WH Trading, Will oversees risk management, employee training, operations, and strategy development. He also trades actively across a broad spectrum of asset classes. Over the last few years, he has guided the firm through a major expansion into automated trading, which now complements the firm’s floor trading operations. Will graduated from Wesleyan University in 1985 then spent 2.5 years circumnavigating the globe as crew on numerous sailboats before moving to Chicago to pursue a career in the trading industry.

William J. Cleary III

A 1985 graduate of Harvard University, Bill played professional hockey in Europe and completed a program of study at the University of Paris-Sorbonne before beginning his insurance career as a commercial underwriter for Novato, CA based Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. Upon completion of this multi-discipline training program, Bill entered the brokerage side of the insurance industry and worked as an account executive until 1991, when he and his father created Cleary Insurance, Inc. Bill has served as President of Cleary Insurance since its inception, and has overseen its growth into a full service brokerage firm.

Alexandra McCall

President and Co-founder of Woven Journeys, Inc., a non-profit organization which specializes in service learning travel to developing countries with parents and teens. Alex worked for several years in independent school development at Fay School and St. Mark's School, both in Southboro, MA. She served on the Alumni Board at Fay school for 4 years. She volunteered her expertise to City Year, a Boston Based non-profit organization, co-charing and then supporting the development and organization of their annual fundraising event. She was for 3 years President of the Wayland, MA Art Council. Alex is currently contributing her time to serving as Board member and buyer for the Dedham Woman's Exchange, a non-profit gift shop which gives proceeds back to the community, and Planned Parenthood of Boston.

Board of Advisors

Stephen Bosworth 

Ambassador Bosworth is Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and served as President Barak Obama's United States Special Representative for North Korea Policy (2009-2011). He has served three times as a U.S. Ambassador, to South Korea (1997–2001), to the Philippines(1984–1987), and to Tunisia (1979–1981). In 1987, he was recipient of American Academy of Diplomacy's Diplomat of the Year Award. He is currently a member of the International Board of Advisors for the President of the Philippines, and is also a member of the boards of International Textile Group and Franklin Templeton Investment Trust Management Co. (Korea). He is a member of the Trilateral Commission. He has held teaching and oversight positions at various colleges and universities: Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (1990–1994); Linowitz Chair of International Studies, Hamilton College (1993); Trustee, Dartmouth College (1992–2002), and Chairman of Board of Trustees, Dartmouth College, (1996–1999). He holds an A.B. (1961) from Dartmouth College.

Nadia Alam, Cambridge, MA

Nadia Alam is a Research Associate at the New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC) where she conducts studies and analyzes data related to educational policies and practices.  Prior to joining NEASC in 2004, Alam received an Ed.M with a concentration in international education policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.   Alam has been actively involved with Youth Outreach Developments in Literacy (YOURDIL), a volunteer-run nonprofit that raises money to build schools in the most impoverished areas in Pakistan.  She previously taught workplace-ESL to immigrants in Massachusetts and spent a year teaching English in Japan through the Japan Exchange & Teaching Program.

Eve Horowitz, Lexington, MA

Eve Horowitz is a Partner in the Boston-area law firm Archstone Law Group P.C. She is one of the Boston area's preeminent specialists in corporate, regulatory, and transactional matters for clients in the health care industry, having practiced in the field for over 30 years. She advises physician practice groups, IPAs, PHOs, RHIOs, and individuals; hospitals, clinics, and faculty practice plans; HMOs; and numerous for-profit and nonprofit businesses with health care-related considerations. Particular areas of expertise include business formation, sale and reorganization; corporate relationship structuring and restructuring; HIPAA, fraud and abuse, and regulatory compliance; tax exemption qualification and maintenance; and providing advice on a wide range of operational, transactional, and strategic matters. Eve has published extensively, including Managed Care Contracting: A Practical Guide for Health Care Executives (Jossey-Bass Publishers), and she speaks before local and national audiences. Eve has operated her own business and served on the boards of major for-profit and nonprofit corporations, enabling her to bring a practical, value-driven focus to her role as adviser to both corporations and individuals.

Vicki Rellas, Shrewsbury, MA

Vicki Rellis has more than 20 years of leadership experience building companies and guiding executive teams/management. As an accomplished corporate strategist and marketer with vision and expertise in business performance, she has overseen notable enterprise growth in the investment, retail, and general consumer goods sectors. Her achievements have been featured in the Wall Street Journal as well as other business media.

Hardin Coleman, PHD, Dean of the School of Education, Boston University

Hardin Coleman is the current Dean of the School of Education at Boston University. His research focus is the development of school counselors, family therapy, supervision, advanced clinical courses, and spirituality in counseling. He has also published numerous articles appearing in the Journal of Counseling Psychology, The School Counselor, the Psychological Bulletin, and Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. His clinical focus is lower-income African American families with a particular interest in adolescents. He is the editor of the recently published Handbook on School Counseling.

Meg Milne Moulton, Concord, MA

Meg Moulton is Vice President for Advancement of ASSIST.  She is also Founder & Principal Consultant, Marketing & Enrollment Associates, as well as Co-founder of and former Executive Director of the National Coalition of Girls' Schools (NCGS). Her work with NCGS has helped to document the value and raise the visibility of schools for girls over the last almost 20 years. She has exhibited enterprising leadership in identifying areas of educational opportunity for girls and girls schools and provided marketing, communications and strategic guidance to close to 100 independent schools and organizations.  In 2009 she was awarded the National Association of Independent School's Global Citizen of the Year.  Her commitment to global citizenship continues in her work with ASSIST.

Walter Swanson,Wilbraham, MA

Walter Swanson is Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial & Global Studies and the Director of Summer Programs at Wilbraham & Monson Academy in Wilbraham, MA. He is a graduate of Middlebury College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and is very active working with other independent schools in evaluating effective global citizenship programs.

Steve Hayes, Falmouth, ME

Steve is General Manager and Vice President for Nelson and Small, a Portland based distribution company.  He brings a unique perspective to the Board having served in the private sector in executive positions for many years and having provided guidance as the Executive Director for Axis of Hope while both he and the organization were in transition periods.  He obtained a bachelors degree from Linfield College in Oregon and a Master of Education degree from the University of Vermont.