Board

Board

Are you passionate about walking, transit, the environment? Do you want to help make Massachusetts more walkable? Join us!

We recently completed a self assessment of our board’s strengths and weaknesses. Through that, we identified several areas as those of greatest need: most notably the fields of legal, finance, operations, human resources, technology, development, public health, climate resiliency, and DEAI. 

We are also looking for people from all backgrounds and demographics across the state to fully represent the diverse communities in which we work, not just in the Boston area, but from the Hilltowns, throughout the Merrimack Valley, and down to the Cape.

If you’re interested in getting more involved, read the roles & responsibilities of a board member & fill out our interest form on this post.

Board Leadership


Betsy Johnson
Board President
Betsy Johnson is currently from Springfield, MA, after living for many years in Boston’s South End. She has for over 40 years been community organizing related to pedestrian safety, neighborhood development, urban growing, recycling and composting, and air quality. She is the convener of WalkBike Springfield. She is a former teacher and worked for the American Lung Association, MassAudubon, Boston Garden Futures, American Community Gardening Association, Chefs Collaborative, and “green” engineering companies. She holds a BA from Smith College, a MAT from Brown University, and a MBA from the University of Missouri.

Betsy serves on the board of WalkMassachusetts because pedestrian advocacy is a unique cause. Walking improves not only health, but also our environment. WalkMassachusetts’ tagline of “Community, Mobility, Access” says it all!


Linda C. Sharpe
Board Vice President
bio to come!


Tony Wain
Board Treasurer
Tony Wain is a retired Senior Lecturer at Babson College in Managerial Accounting. He earned a B.S. from Claremont McKenna College, a B.S. from Stanford University, and his M.B.A. from Harvard University. Tony joined Babson faculty full time in 1999 after 10 years of management consulting with Touche Ross & Co. (now Deloitte) and 20 years of financial management with Digital Equipment Corporation/Compaq Computer Corporation. Tony is a Board member and Treasurer for WalkMassachusetts. He was a two-term member of the board for Community Action Partners (CAP) of the Harvard Business School Association of Boston. He recently stepped down as Treasurer for Native Plant Trust. Tony currently consults through CAP with local nonprofit agencies in the areas of general management, business plan development and management control systems.

Tony joined WalkMassachusetts when Betsy Johnson, a good friend for over 50 years, needed a Treasurer! As a lifelong walker he also felt compelled by its mission to make everyone in Massachusetts feel safe, connected, and valued on our streets.


Pui Chi Wong

Board Secretary
bio to come!

Board Members


Rounaq Basu
Rounaq Basu is the Manager of Multimodal Planning and Design at the Boston Region MPO, as well as a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT. His research interests include sustainable city planning, integrated urban systems, and relationships among mobility access, economic opportunity, and quality of life. He is particularly interested in ways to reduce dependence on private automobiles without forgoing their accessibility benefits in order to facilitate sustainable metropolitan growth as well as transportation equity. His work draws on a wide variety of analytic methods to inform public policies in the mobility, housing, and land use sectors. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Urban Science and Planning and dual Master’s degrees in Transportation and City Planning from MIT, and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from IIT Bombay.

One of his interests is to plan urban transportation systems that are safe, affordable, accessible, and sustainable for all users. To successfully realize this vision, scientific research must translate into policy action and one of the most effective ways to make that happen is through advocacy. He is delighted to be able to contribute to the efforts of the fantastic WalkMassachusetts team in making every street in Massachusetts a safe place to walk.


Marion Davis
Marion Davis is an independent writer, editor and communications strategist working mainly on international climate and sustainable development issues, plus a few projects with local nonprofits. A newspaper reporter and editor for the first 15 years of her career, she developed a passion for climate justice, including equitable and inclusive urban climate action, as a senior communications officer for the Stockholm Environment Institute. She has also served as communications director for the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

Born and raised in San José, Costa Rica, she is a proud Latina, a city lover and a lifelong urban walker who destroys heels and often wears holes into her shoes. She lives in East Somerville with her husband, two cats and multiple bikes, and joined Walk Massachusetts because she’s passionate about reclaiming the streets for people, so we can all walk (and bike) safely and comfortably.


Nina Garfinkle
As principal of Garfinkle Design since 1987, Nina Garfinkle has over 30 years of experience building brands through corporate identities, logos, annual reports, and websites. Nina extended her less-is-more philosophy to “Street Interface Design” making options to walk, bike, and take transit easier for people through signage/wayfinding systems, maps, educational materials, and advocacy development.

Nina has lived in the South End for 34 years. Active in her community, she is past board president of LivableStreets Alliance and Governance Committee Chair and currently serves on the board of WalkMassachusetts, where she chairs the Communications Committee. She is a former Membership Chair and Vice President of the American Institute of Graphic Arts/Boston Chapter and a founding member of the virtual community SouthEnd.org. She earned a BFA in Graphic Design from Boston University’s School of Fine Arts.


Paula Gold
Paula Gold is currently Chief Regulatory council of Plymouth Rock Assurance Company, a personal lines auto and homeowners company, before that she was a senior Vice President of New England Electric Company. She has also served in Governor Mike Dukakis’s cabinet as Secretary of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations and served as an Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Public Protection Bureau for Attorney General Frank Bellotti. Her first government position was as Commissioner of the Department of Public Utilities. Before her Government service Ms Gold was Litigation Specialist with the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and a Managing Attorney with the Boston Legal Assistance Project. She is a graduate of Boston University and Boston College Law School.


Stephanie Grady
Stephanie Grady is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Environmental Health at the Boston University School of Public Health. She is currently studying the impacts of transportation noise on aging populations. Prior to this, Stephanie worked at Brigham and Women’s Hospital on an epidemiologic study examining the effects of air pollution on health in Veterans with COPD. She also has received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Texas A&M University and a Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology from Columbia University. She is passionate about blending research with advocacy to answer critical public health questions.

Stephanie is excited to be part of WalkMassachusetts and hopes to implement aspects of her public health training into practice. She has a strong interest in understanding how to collaboratively and sustainably change our built environment to foster better physical and mental health outcomes. She is a fervent advocate for more accessible, walkable, and safer communities and aims to translate existing research into action.


Ann Hershfang
Ann Hershfang was Undersecretary of Transportation for Massachusetts from 1983 to 1988 and a board member of the Massachusetts Port Authority (1974 to 1981) and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (1988 to 1998). From 2009 to 2014, she chaired the Oversight Council for the Massachusetts $3 billion Accelerated Bridge Program, which aimed to repair 200 structurally deficient bridges over 8 years. She was a Loeb Fellow in 1989 at Harvard Graduate School of Design. In 1990, she cofounded WalkBoston, the first pedestrian advocacy group in the United States.

In 1990, she cofounded WalkBoston (now WalkMassachusetts), the first pedestrian advocacy group in the United States.


Sharvi Jain
A resident of Massachusetts for nearly five years, Sharvi is an urban designer at a private
firm in Boston. She earned a Masters degree in Architecture and Urban Design from
Columbia University. While in school, she assisted at a public housing project for crime
prevention through design under a program launched by NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal
Justice.

A true sidewalk enthusiast, she believes that an active public life is paramount for
individuals, especially women, to feel safe and independent on the streets. She argues
that well-designed pedestrian infrastructure can transform streets into extended living
rooms, fostering stronger communities. This, in turn, has the potential to address urban
loneliness, a burgeoning public health crisis in the US.


Anita Johnson
Anita Johnson is a recently retired Assistant United States Attorney, District of Massachusetts. Prior to that position, which enforces and defends federal law, she served in the Justice Department Office of Consumer Litigation, the Environmental Defense Fund, and, out of law school, with Ralph Nader’s Health Research Group. She is a member of the Brookline Pedestrian Advisory Committee, an elected member of Brookline Town Meeting, and a Board member of the Brookline Greenspace Allliance.


Ginny LeClair
Virginia LeClair is an environmental professional with over 23 of experience working in the
field of sustainability for consulting companies, nonprofits and local governments. Virginia has held positions with The Boston Harbor Association, the Town of Brookline, the Town of Dedham and most recently consulted for the Towns of Hingham and Cohasset. Virginia has worked with many communities to create Climate Action Plans, which act as roadmaps guiding them towards a sustainable future. She has experience in waste reduction and recycling, stormwater management, carbon emission calculations, energy efficiency, transportation planning and land and resource management.

Virginia also serves on the board of the Center for EcoTechnology and the Cohasset Open Space Committee. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Hobart and William Smith College. Virginia looks forward to bringing her expertise in grant writing and land and transportation planning to WalkMassachusetts.


Namita Raina

Namita Raina is Director of Communications at The Greater Boston Food Bank. She has 20 years of communications and marketing experience in a range of fields: nonprofit, government, education, civic engagement, museum/attraction, tourism, and media. Namita has held positions at the USS Constitution Museum, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, WBUR, and the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. Her consulting clients have included the National Parks of Boston/National Park Service and the Cambridge Office for Tourism. Namita is board chair at Public Montessori in Action International. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Communication and a Master of Business Administration, both from Boston University.

Namita joined the WalkMassachusetts board because she is deeply committed to the organization’s mission, vision, and values. She is honored to have been selected for the board and looks forward to working with her impressive fellow board members and the outstanding staff.


Stefanie Seskin
Stefanie Seskin has been a fan of the organization for almost two decades and is excited to support WalkMassachusetts as a board member. She is inspired by the new strategic plan and adopted mission and its emphasis on partnerships and people. Stefanie currently works for the City of Boston, helping to plan, design, and deliver projects that make streets safer for everyone. She was previously with the National Complete Streets Coalition, where she helped build the movement for safer streets nationwide. Stefanie lives in Boston’s South End.


Sumeeta Srinivasan
Sumeeta Srinivasan is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. Her research interests are in understanding inequity of access to health, transportation and infrastructure. She teaches courses on spatial models and Geographic Information Systems. She earned her PhD from MIT, her Masters from UIUC and her undergraduate degree from IIT Kharagpur. In her spare time, Sumeeta can be found walking on any available sidewalk and likes to experience transit in every city that she visits. Sumeeta is looking forward to combining her hobbies with her research at WalkMassachusetts.


Carol Steinberg
bio to come!


Katharine Sullivan
Katharine Sullivan comes to WalkMassachusetts with an operational mindset and a joy for exploring local neighborhoods by foot. She currently serveson the Business Operations team at Pembroke, a real estate affiliate of Fidelity. She brings over ten years of professional experience in the marketing, operations and technology space to her role at WalkMassachusetts and is excited to lend that lens and expertise to make Massachusetts more readily accessible and safe.


May Vaughn
bio to come!


Liz Williams
Liz Williams is the Director of Equity and Climate Policy in the Office of Transportation Planning at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). She is an experienced social scientist and policy coordinator, and before coming to MassDOT in 2018, held positions with the MBTA, the UMass Donahue Institute, the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, and the American Institutes for Research. Liz is a sociologist with a Bachelor’s degree from Clark University, a Master’s degree from George Washington University, and a PhD from Northeastern University.


Deanna Wu
Deanna Wu is a public health professional with eight years of experience working in local public health. She currently works for the Melrose Health Department, managing a state grant that aims to strengthen public health capacity and programming through shared staffing and funding. Prior to this, she worked at the Hudson Health Department and Cambridge Public Health Department. Deanna received a Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy Management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Deanna is an avid bicyclist and is passionate about active modes of transportation. She joined the WalkMasshusetts board to help positively impact our built environment for improved health outcomes for all. Deanna is thrilled about this opportunity and she’s looking forward to learning from and working with the other board members and staff.


Emma Rothfeld Yashar
bio to come!