Board of Directors

Evan Rockefeller has been volunteering with NAMI Massachusetts since 2013. He is a Presenter and State Trainer for the In Our Own Voice Program. He has been Vice President of the NAMI Mass Board of Directors since August 2021, and he currently serves on the Executive Committee and the Justice and Belonging Committee. In his day job, Evan is an occupational therapist with Toward Independent Living and Learning (TILL), Inc., where he works in day programs with adults with developmental disabilities. Evan also volunteers with the Belmont LGBTQ+ Alliance. He lives in Belmont with a pug named Fig Newton.

Alison LeBlanc, MS, PMP, is an experienced development strategist and child health equity advocate with over a decade of experience designing and implementing initiatives to address adverse social determinants of health. Ms. LeBlanc subscribes to the philosophy “nothing about us without us.” To this end, she has extensive experience fostering bidirectional community partnerships and coalition building. She also has a strong track record of building sustainable centers of excellence in safety-net healthcare systems. 

As a disability and chronic disease self-advocate, Ms. LeBlanc has spent years redefining what it means to promote inclusivity and belonging and is dedicated to continually raising the bar for herself and her colleagues. She is currently Executive Director of the Child Health Equity Center at UMass Memorial Health Children’s Medical Center / UMass Chan Medical School; Director of Development for the UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center; and Senior Director of Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Health Equity Programming at UMass Memorial Health.

Ms. Wolfson serves as the Assistant Vice President, Taxation for the Beth Israel Lahey Health network, a health care delivery system with affiliates located throughout eastern Massachusetts. The network is comprised of tax-exempt teaching and community hospitals, physician groups and other taxable and non-taxable entities. In her role Ms. Wolfson is responsible for overall tax strategies and tax risk assessment, advising executive management and handling tax compliance, special projects and other tax matters. Ms. Wolfson also has significant experience in educating others on non-profit tax matters. She has spoken at, served on the planning committee for, and/or served as chair/co-chair for national and regional conferences addressing non-profit healthcare tax issues.

Ms. Wolfson is also a long-time active local community volunteer. In addition to serving as Treasurer and Trustee for NAMI MA, Ms. Wolfson currently serves on the board of, and as a Trustee for, Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh in Newton, MA. She has also served on, and chaired multiple committees at, Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, MA and is a past Trustee/Advisory Board Member of the Wellesley Scholarship Foundation. Previously she held several positions supporting the Wellesley Public Schools including Treasurer of the Wellesley Central Council of PTOs, School Council Member for Wellesley Middle School and Bates Elementary School (Bates) and President of the Bates PTO.

Ms. Wolfson holds a J.D. from Boston University and a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She lives with her husband, has two sons and two dogs.

Monica Luke is a mental health policy advocate focusing on financial barriers to accessing mental health care. Activities include legislative advocacy, parity enforcement and creative approaches to expanding payment models and commercial insurance coverage.

Monica has been a member of the Board of Directors of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Massachusetts for five years and is currently serving as Board Secretary. Monica is on the Steering Committee for CORE Mental Health, focused on racial equity and mental health and is a consultant with Massachusetts Association for Mental Health. Previously, Monica worked in the technology sector including as a technology executive at IBM. Leveraging this long career in technology, she routinely mentors and supports entrepreneurs building mental health apps and is on the Advisory Board of Jeeva Health AI. Monica has a degree in computer science from Wellesley College and is a graduate of the Gender, Leadership and Public Policy program at UMASS Boston.

Heidi Alexander (she/they) is the Director of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Lawyer Well-Being. Heidi is a native of Minnesota, former collegiate ice hockey player, and loves coaching and playing all sports. Most importantly, she prioritizes spending time with her family, including her partner, three kids, and puppy Pepper.

Natasha Pierre is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor currently practicing in Somerville, MA who is currently serving her second year with the NAMI MA Board. She received her undergraduate degree from Northeastern University and her M.Ed. in Mental Health, Addiction, and Trauma studies from Cambridge College. In addition to familial and personal experiences with Mental Health, Natasha has worked with a variety of age groups and populations and has done work both in private and community care. Natasha has served on a local Steering Committee representing 6 communities in MA where she has done extensive work and training around DEI and Mental Health. Natasha is also a Mental Health First Aid Instructor in which she has been training people throughout MA on how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges for over 9 years. She has trained hundreds of people in various communities, churches, and organizations.

Manya Chylinski is a writer, speaker, entrepreneur, and podcast host who uses her experience as a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing to help others understand the importance of trauma-sensitive leadership and recognize the psychological impacts of violence. She speaks about the importance of validating the invisible victims of trauma on stages across the US, including at SXSW and TEDx.

Manya is also the founder of Alley424 Communications, where she helps businesses tell their stories with long-form content; and the co-founder of Project BFF, where she works to empower women and their friendships. She serves on the board of NAMI Massachusetts to help reduce the stigma around mental health and trauma. She is also a commissioner with the Massachusetts Eastern Regional Commission on Women. When she is not working, Manya enjoys yoga, walking, and traveling.

Betsy Post joined the NAMI Mass Board of Directors in 2022. She is also on the board of the Cambridge/Middlesex NAMI affiliate.  She is currently focused on being available for her loved ones.

Betsy is an experienced information professional. She enjoyed a career in college and university libraries where she assisted researchers, organized library collections, and made special collections available online. She holds an M.S. in Information Studies. She enjoys the outdoors and recently finished hiking from the MA/VT border to the MA/CT border on the Appalachian Trail.

My name is Ewa Irena Pytowska. I aspire is to be a peer voice on the NAMI Mass Board which I joined in 2015. My middle name – Irena – means “peace” in Greek which I find quite ironic considering that my life with bipolar illness for over 40 years has been anything but peaceful!

In 2014, I put my history of mental health struggles to good use and became a Certified Peer Specialist. As a member of the NAMI Greater Boston Peer Support and Advocacy Network, I facilitate a weekly support group and offer individual assistance to peers who reach out to me for help. I am also the designated leader of the NAMI Greater Boston affiliate.

Previously a teacher, a staff development specialist and a college instructor, I retired from working for over a decade as an Assistant Superintendent of Schools. I am a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and twice of the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

The city of Boston is my home, where I have lived and raised a family for the past 40 years. I was born and raised in Poland, and speak three languages: Polish, Italian and English. I live in a multilingual and multiethnic neighborhood. My life in Boston gives me deep understanding and appreciation of the strength cultural diversity brings to organizations small and big.

Before joining the board of NAMI Mass, I served for many years on the board of directors of NAMI Central Mass. I have a commitment to give back in the area of mental illness, having survived bipolar depression that nearly took my life. In 2016, I lost my youngest son, Hale, to suicide. My work in the mental health area is dedicated to Hale’s remarkable life.

I served as president of NAMI Central Mass from 2018-2022, and had the privilege of leading a very committed group of individuals in our core mission of improving the lives of persons struggling with mental illness and their families. I taught a Family-to-Family class, and recently became involved with the In Our Own Voice program. I enjoy public speaking, and IOOV provides me with an opportunity to share my story of recovery and hope.

I also serve as president of the board of trustees for the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital. My involvement with WRCH is particularly meaningful to me given that I spent time in several psychiatric hospitals.

I have a diverse background in law, mediation, teaching, and journalism. After graduating from Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law, I practiced law in Washington, D.C. and also served as Adjunct Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law. Currently, I am an instructor in constitutional law with the Worcester Institute for Senior Education at Assumption University and facilitate a Supreme Court discussion group. I also write a column for Northeast Golf magazine.

Jonathan Delman, PhD, JD is principal at Behavioral Health Research Solutions (BHRS) and adjunct Research Professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Transitions to Adulthood Research & Training Center, having developed their highly regarded participatory action research and technical assistance models. Dr. Delman is a researcher, evaluator and developer who currently focuses his work on inequities faced by people of disenfranchised groups with serious behavioral health conditions, establishing participatory action methods that actively include these populations.  Dr. Delman uses a community-based participatory action research/evaluation (CBPR) approach, involving stakeholders in the process from deciding the research question to presenting the data to key policy makers and stakeholders.  He currently has several contracts with universities and government to conduct this work, to guide improvements in vocational service programs, and examine how intersectionality has an impact on health disparities. Dr. Delman has won several national awards with attached funding for continued community-based research, including a 2008 Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leader award, and from NIDILRR in 2018 a Switzer distinguished fellowship to study the vocational needs and preferences of Black young adults with mental illnesses, with a research article published and broadly disseminated.

Born and raised in Western Massachusetts, Dr. Sherron Colgram believes in the importance of giving back to the community she calls “Home.” After graduating from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in 2009, Dr. Colgram completed her OB GYN residency training at Drexel College of Medicine / Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. She is now a board-certified OB GYN hospitalist in the New England area. Her advocacy interests include community preventative health, public health policy reform and community mental health support. Dr. Colgram has a personal commitment to unify the treatment of physical health and mental health while providing transformational patient care. She recently earned an executive Masters in Business Administration degree from the Heller School of Brandeis University in Waltham, Ma. With her new education in social policy and management, she plans to use her clinical leadership skills to nationally decrease social health disparities for underrepresented communities that lead to mental health disorders and chronic diseases. She states, “At this time more than ever, organizations such as NAMI are needed at the forefront to lead the charge for mental health reform and break mental health stigmatization. I believe the future work of NAMI can cross the boundaries of healthcare in understanding the compliance of patients with other chronic medical conditions.” In her spare time, she enjoys art, music, and theater, as well as family time.