Key Note Speakers:

Patricia (Trish) Gannon is Executive Vice President, Finance & Planning, and Chief Financial Officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston.  She provides strategic leadership for the organization and direct oversight of all financial functions, ensuring long-range sustainability as well as fiscal stability for the agency’s programs and Clubs.  She manages a range of activities to support the financial, facility and technological functions of the agency, including relationships with auditors, vendors and insurance companies.  Formerly Trish served as VP for Fiscal Affairs and CFO of Merrimack College, and spent ten years at the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency.  She began her career as Assistant to the CFO at Boston’s Children’s Museum, and has served on boards and committees for several nonprofit organizations.  She is a member of the Sawyer Business School Alumni Board of Directors.    Trish holds a BA in Economics from the College of the Holy Cross and an MPA from Suffolk University.

Elizabeth B. Smith

Elizabeth B. Smith has been the Executive Director of The Hyams Foundation, Inc. for the past eighteen years.  The Foundation supports a variety of efforts to increase access to affordable housing, promote civic engagement and increase success among teens within low-income communities in Boston and Chelsea.   Before coming to Hyams, Ms. Smith was Director of Policy at the Massachusetts Department of Social Services, and she worked at the Illinois State Budget Bureau and the University of Chicago.    She formerly chaired the Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s (LISC) Boston advisory board and has provided leadership to other major collaborative funding initiatives.    She currently serves on the board of Associated Grant Makers, Inc. and as a trustee of the John C. Chaffin Educational Fund in Newton, Massachusetts.  She also serves on the Council on Foundations’ Advisory Committee for Executive Programs. Ms. Smith holds Masters degrees from Boston University, Graduate School of Management and the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration.

Celeste Wilson

Celeste Wilson, is co-Executive Director of the Arts & Business Council of Boston.  She has spent most of her working life creating and advocating for programs that lead to greater prosperity for the arts. Two of her successes at the Arts & Business Council are Business on Board through which business professionals are educated in all aspects of Board service and placed on the Boards of art organizations, and Strengthening Your Organization which teaches nonprofit administrators how to manage their Boards.   Formerly, Celeste was the General Manager of the C. Walsh Theatre at Suffolk University and in Florida she was Director of Public Relations, Audience Development and Corporate Sponsorship for the Broward Center for the Performing Arts; Managing Director of the Hirschfeld Theatre; and Director of Public Relations and Marketing for Burt Reynolds Jupiter Theatre. She currently serves on the Board of the Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts Sciences and Humanities (MAASH), a state wide lobbying and education organization.   Celeste received her Executive MBA from Suffolk University, and her BA in Theater from Florida Atlantic University.

Mark Kripp

Mark Kripp is the Director of Finance and Interim Vice-President for Operations for Oxfam America. He joined Oxfam America in July of 2005 after working most recently as the Vice President of Finance for Spryance Inc, a socially progressive organization with operations in India and the United States. Prior to that Mr. Kripp was the founder and principal of EJE Associates Consulting. In this capacity he directed financial activities of multiple organizations, including corporations, foundations, and the Hospital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti. Mr. Kripp has over 25 years of extensive and varied experience with all aspects of finance, and has brought the weight of that experience to bear in Oxfam America’s operations department. In addition Mr. Kripp has served as a Graduate Lecturer at Northeastern University and on the Board of Directors and various Board Committees of the Grant Foundation/Hospital Albert Schweitzer, American Leprosy Missions (Greenville, SC) and is former Treasurer of the Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School (Franklin, MA).Mr. Kripp received his MPA from Suffolk University, and his BS in Economics and Finance from Bentley College.

Michael D. Weeks

Michael D. Weekes is the President/CEO of the Providers’ Council, formally known as the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers, the state’s largest human services trade association. As the chief executive officer for the Council and its subsidiary, the Human Service Providers Charitable Foundation, he is responsible for policy development, operations, legislative advocacy, membership development and creating an agenda for improved state and federal policies for providers and the people they serve.  He has served as the elected board chair of the National Council of Nonprofit Associations and co-chaired the Nonprofit Congress. He is the elected board vice president of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network.   Prior to joining the Providers’ Council, he served for four and half years as the deputy commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Social Services.   He is a founder of Massachusetts Families for Kids, a partnership between the Kellogg Foundation and communities seeking permanency for children.  Michael received his MSW from the University of Connecticut, and his BA in Political Science from American International College.