Board of Trustees

KIMBERLY R. LYLE, Board President, Boston, MA. Kimberly R. Lyle is the Chief Executive Officer at Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation. Prior to her work in community development, Kimberly worked in several capacities in financial services, tech, and higher education. Perpetually curious about humanity and human societies, Kimberly received a Master’s in Public Policy from Tufts University and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Rutgers University. Kimberly also serves on the board of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC).

BONNIE HUDSPETH, Board Vice-President, Putney, Vermont. For more than a decade, Bonnie led Co-operative Development for the Neighboring Food Co-operative Association (NFCA), a network of more than 45 food co-ops and startup initiatives with a combined membership of over 160,000 people across Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York. Prior to joining the NFCA, Bonnie served as Project Manager for the Monadnock Food Co-op, creating the founding organizational structure and overseeing pre- operational development and fundraising to open a co-operatively owned grocery store in Keene, NH. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of Vermont, and Masters in Sustainable Community Development from Antioch University New England.

ANDREW DANFORTH, Board Treasurer, Foxborough, MA. Andy is a financial consultant, specializing in social enterprise, cooperatives, alt energy and affordable housing. He has almost 40 years of diverse experience in real estate, lending, finance, M&A, and IT. He was founding Director of the Cooperative Development Institute’s NEROC Program, which assists manufactured housing cooperatives in the purchase and operation of their communities. He is co-founder and Managing Director of Circinus Group, which is a portfolio social lender and commercial conduit and provides financial and systemic consulting services to the international residential finance community. During his career, he has been an executive of two public companies, worked with 12 of the 20 largest US banks and Wall Street brokerages, served as a Liquidating Officer of the FDIC, and has assisted local lenders, government agencies, Indian tribes and regional non-profits. Internationally, he has worked on projects in Canada, Australia, the UK, and in several South Asian countries. Andy is a CPA and has been a board member since 2003.

JONAH FERTIG-BURD, Board Clerk, Durham, Maine. Jonah Fertig-Burd joined the Sewall Foundation in 2020 as a Community Partner providing leadership for Food Systems Programs. Over the past 18 years, Jonah has built deep, collaborative relationships; developed new nonprofits, cooperative businesses, and collaboratives; worked in restaurants, food pantries, and farms; advocated for food and farm policies; and helped to grow racial equity in the food system. During the past 6 years at the Cooperative Development Institute (CDI), Jonah worked with farmers, fishers, cooks and food producers to form cooperatives, particularly New American farmers in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine and the Northeast. He helped start New Roots Cooperative Farm, Maine’s first New American owned co-op, and Maine Farm & Sea Cooperative, the first multi-stakeholder foodservice co-op in the country. Jonah has consulted with co-ops in Maine and across the region, assisting them in developing democratic governance and management, business plans, raising funds, and more. Prior to CDI, he co-founded Local Sprouts Cooperative, a worker-owned cafe and catering business. He’s also on the board of Land in Common Community Land Trust. He was a 2018 BALLE Local Economy Fellow, 2016 Democracy at Work Institute Worker Cooperative Developer Fellow, Food Solutions New England Network Leadership Institute graduate and Sustainable Food System Leadership Institute graduate. He loves to cook, make art, play music and walk in the woods. He is also a farmer and co-owner of Celebration Tree Farm & Wellness Center a multi-stakeholder cooperative in Durham, Maine, where he lives with his wife and two children.

CLARK ARRINGTON, Wyncote, PA. A 2021 Cooperative Hall of Fame inductee, and a 2022 recipient of the 53^rd Malcolm X Black Unity Award he is currently the General Counsel of Obran Cooperative LCA, a worker owned Mondragon styled conglomerate and a Senior Fellow with Seed Commons, a CDFI cooperative enterprise lender composed of a national network community based affiliated local technical assistance providers. He served as a member of the CFNE board in the 1990’s when he was Chair, General Counsel and Capital Coordinator of Equal Exchange. Prior to working at Equal Exchange, Clark served as General Counsel to the ICA Group. Subsequently he lived in Tanzania for 15 years working for the African Development Foundation, Kampala International University, and the Open University of Tanzania. He also served as Special Counsel to the Mkono & Co Law Firm that represented Julius Nyerere and the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania. He has a BA in Sociology from Pennsylvania State University and a JD from the University of Notre Dame Law School. He is licensed to practice law in PA, MA and MS.

ALFRED ‘DUKE’ BOUCHARD, Albany, NY. Duke is the CFO at River Valley Food Cooperative, Northampton, MA. From 2002-2016 he was employed by Honest Weight Food Cooperative in Albany, NY, first in the role of Assistant Financial Manager and then as Chief Financial Officer & Co-General Manager. In 2013, the Albany Business Review named Duke “CFO of the Year.” He is an active participant in the National Co-op Grocers Association, working on the Risk Management committee to review financial performance and proposed expansion projects for NCG member cooperatives. He has a B.S. in Finance from Siena College in Loudonville, NY.

AMETHYST CAREY, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Amethyst (she/her) is a Co-op Developer and Seed Commons program lead at Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA). Before joining PACA, Amethyst served as a Co-op Organizer at the Center for Economic Democracy (CED), where she coordinated a multi-stakeholder economic justice initiative advancing policies, financing, and technical assistance to grow worker ownership across Massachusetts. Prior to her work with CED, she had the privilege of supporting resident and community engagement at Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative’s nationally recognized community land Trust, Dudley Neighbors Inc. Amethyst is a Board Member at CoFED, a national nonprofit supporting young Queer and Trans people of color in the practice of cooperative economics and values through food and land.

JUAN LEYTON, Roslindale, Massachusetts. Juan is Director of Organizing for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) where he helps communities negotiate with banks for community benefits agreements under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Prior to joining NCRC, Juan was most recently at Madison Park Development Corporation. He is the firmer director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts and City Life/Vida Urbana. He was a Barr Foundation and MIT Community Innovators Lab fellow. He holds Masters Degrees in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University and in Public Policy from Tufts University. He also has a long time passion for cooperatives, having studied in Mondragon and now teaching a class at Tufts in cooperatives.

ALIANA PIÑEIRO, Boston, Massachusetts. Aliana is the Impact Director at Boston Impact Initiative. In that role, she works with BII’s portfolio companies to effectively measure and manage their impact. She is interested in how impact investing can evolve to become more just, equitable, and inclusive. Before joining BII, she worked as a researcher at the Global Impact Investing Network publishing practitioner-oriented research for impact investors around the world. Previously, she was an impact evaluator for organizations operating in Latin America, including RUNA, a social enterprise in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Originally from Boston, she began her career in asset management, spending several years at ClearBridge Investments in New York. Currently, Aliana sits on the organizing committee of the Massachusetts Solidarity Economy Network. She received an MA in International Affairs from The New School and a BA in International Relations from Boston University.

JON RESKE, West Springfield, Massachusetts. Jon recently retired from a 20-year tenure as a senior manager and Vice President of Marketing at the UMass Five College Credit Union, which has 34,670 co-op members and assets of $412 million. He has skills in marketing and strategic planning. Jon has a B.S. in Business Administration from American International College and an M.B.A. from Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

DANIEL ROSS, Holyoke, Massachusetts. As CEO and principal of DAISA Enterprises LLC, Daniel specializes in supporting development of sustainable and equitable food & environmental enterprises, working with entrepreneurs to strengthen strategies and access capital, as well as the mission-driven investors and funders wanting to maximize their impact. He is co-founder and Director of eKutir Global, scaling cutting-edge mobile technology proven to increase yields and sustainability for 60,000 smallholder farmers India to partners worldwide. Daniel is Visiting Assistant Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at Hampshire College and as Chief Operating Officer at Wholesome Wave he launched the Investments program, connecting “food hubs” with impact investment capital. Daniel was Executive Director of Nuestras Raíces, a grass-roots organization to promote economic, human and community development in Holyoke, Massachusetts through projects relating to food, agriculture and the environment. He has helped community members start small food and agriculture businesses, launched Energía worker a nonprofit and worker-owned energy-efficiency services company employing formerly incarcerated young people. He holds an MBA from MIT Sloan, MIT Sloan Fellow for Innovation and Global Leadership, MIT Legatum Fellow for Development and Entrepreneurship.