New Models in Collaboration: A Convening on
Collaboration, Networks and Shared Services

Thursday, April 14, 2011
9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Presenters and Panelists

Keynote Bio

Bill Traynor is currently a strategic advisor to Lawrence CommunityWorks Inc., where he served as executive director for over 11 years. Bill has 30 years of experience in community development and community organizing, working in urban areas throughout the United States. He is the former executive director of the CBA Inc. in Lowell, Mass., where he led a $20 million redevelopment effort, and was the director of community development for CTAC Inc. of Boston, a national consulting firm. In 1992 Bill created Neighborhood Partners and the Neighborhood Partners Fund, which has assisted more than 200 community development efforts nationwide.

During his more than 11 year tenure with CommunityWorks, he has grown the organization from a staff of one and a financial deficit to a staff of over 40 and an operating budget of over $2.5 million, while leveraging over $40 million in public and private project investments for affordable housing, infrastructure investments, a citywide youth network, and a range of family asset building and community organizing initiative. Through his work at LCW and in communities around the United States, Bill has developed an innovative approach to place-making and community building called the Network-Centric Organizing approach.

Bill is the author of numerous articles and handbooks on community development, community organizing and leadership, including the recent Vertigo and the Intentional Inhabitant: Leadership in a Connected World in The Nonprofit Quarterly.

Presenter and Panelist Bios

Michelle Brophy is the associate director for the Rhode Island office of the Corporation for Supportive Housing. Prior to joining the Corporation for Supportive Housing in December 2003, Michelle was employed at Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation where she was the program administrator for the Family Self Sufficiency Program and the Supportive Housing Program. Michelle has worked in the affordable housing field since 1993 and her experience ranges from providing direct services to residents to housing development. She is a board member of the Statewide Housing Action Coalition and a member of the HousingWorks R.I. Government Relations committee.

Michelle received a bachelor's degree in social work from Rhode Island College and a master's degree in human service administration from Springfield College. She also received certificates in family mediation and housing and community development.

Jackie Cefola is the program manager for the NonProfit Center, Boston’s home for progressive social change. Jackie oversees the NonProfit Center’s mix of professional development, networking and wellness activities. She assisted with the concept, development and tenancy of the center’s Shared Space which provides affordable workstations and offices for smaller organizations who co-locate. She consults to organizations interested in shared space and programs through TSNE's Organizational Transitions practice.

She is a co-author of Shared Services: a Guide to Creating Collaborative Solutions for Nonprofits, published by Tides in 2010.

Phillip Davis has led TSNE’s Capacity Building Fund for 6 years. This funding supports networks comprised of 5 or more groups building capacity to make change in their communities.

Phil brings a keen understanding of what it takes to move network forward and will be the moderator for questions for the morning keynote.

Karen Jeffreys is associate director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless (RICH). Prior to joining RICH, Ms. Jeffreys worked at the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence (RICADV) as the director of communications, where, for 10 years, she directed an integrated, innovative model of strategic communications. Under her direction, RICADV was successful in changing public attitudes, developing successful public awareness campaigns, using communications to change public policy and changing how the media covers the issue of domestic violence in the state of Rhode Island.

Ms. Jeffreys has been actively involved in fighting for social and economic justice for over 25 years. Through her hands-on experience with community organizations working on such issues as hunger, homelessness and housing, health care, welfare rights and domestic violence, she has developed expertise in organizing, public policy and public relations work.

Audrey Jordan is currently a loaned executive of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, working in Lawrence and Boston, Mass., with Lawrence CommunityWorks (LCW) and the Boston Rising Foundation, respectively. Audrey currently serves as the director of partnerships, innovation and evaluation (PIE) at LCW, and as an advisor to the Boston Rising community impact initiative.

Her previous 15 years of work experience was in applied research, in particular, participatory evaluation research, first at the Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, and more recently through the Center for Public Policy Survey and Evaluation Research Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. She has a master’s degree in Social Psychology from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., and is a graduate of the Virginia Commonwealth University’s Master of Social Work program, and a graduate of the Virginia Commonwealth University doctoral program.

Deborah Linnell has over 27 years of experience in the non-profit sector as consultant to philanthropic institutions, evaluator, non-profit executive director and board member. She has provided training for international, national and regional non-profit audiences on subjects including fund, board and program development; strategic planning; evaluation; and succession planning.

Deborah is the lead author of the Executive Directors Guide, The Guide for Successful Nonprofit Management and Evaluation of Capacity Building: Reflections from the Field, and the just-released Leadership Guide to Building Comprehensive Solutions to Domestic Violence. She is a frequent contributor to The Nonprofit Quarterly, including the recent You Don’t Need an Empire to Build Strength for Change.

Charlotte Ryan teaches sociology at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and co-directs the Media and Movement Research Action Project with Bill Gamson. MRAP works with unions, domestic violence groups and other under-represented and misrepresented constituencies to document communication inequalities, build communication infrastructure, integrate communication strategies into broader change strategies, and develop and disseminate justice-centered messages.

A former labor and community organizer, Ryan has collaborated with Karen Jeffreys on 4 major projects since 1990: HOME Coalition; Coalition for Basic Human Needs; Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence; and currently, the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless.