The Massachusetts Association of
Community Development Corporations

Joe Kriesberg is the President and CEO of MACDC.  He first joined MACDC in 1993 as Vice President and served in that capacity until he became President in July 2002.  He oversees the agency's advocacy work with public and private sector entities, its capacity building work with members, its long term strategic planning, it collaborations and partnerships and internal operations. He has launched several innovative new programs at MACDC, including the Mel King Institute for Community Building, the GOALs Initiative, the biennial MACDC conventions and the Community Development Innovation Forum – a collaborative process to identify and implement strategies to help the field adapt to the changing context for its work. During his tenure Joe has led the association's legislative advocacy work. He has helped to pass many important bills through the Massachusetts Legislature, including the groundbreaking Insurance Industry Community Investment Act (1998,) the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (2000,) the Small Business Technical Assistance Program (2006,) a comprehensive anti-foreclosure law (2007) and a new law to help preserve so-called “expiring-use” affordable rental communities (2009.)   Joe serves on the board of several state and national organizations, is frequently asked to speak on community development issues and trends here and around the country, and writes about these issues on the MACDC blog. http://blog.macdc.org/

Prior to working for MACDC, Mr. Kriesberg worked for eight years on energy and environmental issues for non profit organizations in Washington, DC and Boston, MA. Mr. Kriesberg has a B.A. from Binghamton University (New York State) and a J.D. Degree from Northeastern University in Boston. He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar.

He lives in Boston, MA, with his wife, Dina Brownstein, and their two children, Joshua and Michael.

Shirronda Almeida, Director of Membership Initiatives, assists CDCs in improving their capacity as community resources and serves on MACDC’s management team.  She manages the Alliance – Advancing Community Development by Confronting Racism, the Community Development Mentoring Program and recently spearheaded the launch of The Mel King Institute for Community Building in May, 2009.

Before working at MACDC, Shirronda worked on various local and statewide youth development, organizing, prevention and public art programs.  She holds a Master's degree in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education where she focused on adolescent Risk and Prevention and social change.  She received her B.A. from Simmons College in International Relations and minored in Spanish. 

Shirronda also enjoys traveling, dancing, practicing yoga and reading.

Pam Bender, Senior Organizer, engages MACDC members in advocacy work and provides support and capacity building to CDC organizers.

Pam has over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, with a focus on community organizing, leadership development and organizational development.  Prior to working at MACDC she worked at Management Consulting Services, Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp and the Massachusetts Tenants Organization.

Pam is very active in Jamaica Plain where she lives with her long-time partner.

Don Bianchi is the Senior Policy Advocate at the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.  Don promotes MACDC’s public policy agenda, fosters working relationships among the public, private and nonprofit sectors, and assists CDCs in building capacity. 

Prior to working at MACDC, Don served as Hilltown CDC’s Housing Director for over 8 years, where he led the CDC’s initial foray into housing development and successfully developed affordable rental and ownership housing for families and seniors.  Don holds a master’s degree in urban and environmental policy from Tufts University.  He has over 25 years experience in affordable housing development, lending and policy.

Don lives in Northampton with his wife and daughter.

Rosa Nin is the Office and Membership Coordinator at MACDC.  Rosa began at MACDC as an office assistant.   Before joining MACDC, she worked at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She graduated from Fenway Pilot High School in 2005.

Rosa is a long time resident of Jamaica Plain and lives there with her family.

Allison M. Staton is the Director of Advocacy at the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.  Ms. Staton joined MACDC in April 2007 and is responsible for leading MACDC’s legislative work in the State House.  Since joining the organization, Allison helped lead the effort to pass the most comprehensive foreclosure prevention law in the country in November 2007.  In 2009 she successfully led the budget campaign to secure funding and reopen a lead paint abatement program.  She coordinated MACDC’s 2009-10 Campaign for Our Neighborhoods efforts to fund small business assistance in low-income communities, assisted in the passage of an “expiring use” law to protect affordable housing and helped pass another foreclosure relief bill to aid tenets.

Prior to joining MACDC, she was the Director of Advocacy at The Women’s Union (now Crittenton Women’s Union).  She co-led the Workforce Solutions Group and managed the Family Economic Self-Sufficiency (FESS) project which documents the true costs of raising families in Massachusetts to influence public policy and workforce initiatives.  

From 1996 until January 2005, Ms. Staton worked at Health Care For All as an organizer, policy analyst, department manager and communications director.  Ms. Staton coordinated the 1996 legislative campaign to expand children’s access to health care with tobacco taxes (the model for federal SCHIP) and created a teen-oriented outreach campaign about the availability of health coverage.  She facilitated the overhaul of the organization’s image including the web site and logo.

Prior to her advocacy work, Ms. Staton taught elementary school in New Orleans through Teach For America.  She has her B.A. from Skidmore College and M.S. from the Harvard School of Public Health.  She lives in Dedham with her husband, 11 year old twin sons and 7 year old daughter.

Julie Tschirhart is the Program Coordinator at MACDC. She assists with program development and promotion for MACDC’s Mel King Institute for Community Building. She recently received her B.A. in Sociology & Anthropology from Middlebury College and is originally from Detroit, Mich. Julie is interested in the intersections between race, place and space and excited to gain experience in the community development field with MACDC. Julie also enjoys singing, cooking and traveling.