Board of Trustees

JUAN LEYTON, Board President, 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.

JONAH FERTIG-BURD, Board Vice President, 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.

ALIANA PIÑEIRO, Board Treasurer, 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.

NATASHA LATOUR, Board Clerk, Northampton, Massachusetts. Natasha has served as Director of Marketing for River Valley Co-op since 2014, leading media relations, branding, advertising, social media, and website development, along with sponsorships, events, and charitable giving. With over 24 years of retail experience—14 at River Valley Co-op—she brings a balance of creativity, storytelling, and technical expertise that has helped grow the co-op into a two-store operation with more than 16,000 owners. In 2014, Natasha launched the Food For All program, a needs-based initiative providing a 10% grocery discount to individuals eligible for SNAP, WIC, or SSI. The program has expanded from 148 participants to over 2,000, reflecting her commitment to food access and equity. In 2023, she partnered with a local nonprofit to secure $220,000 in federal grant funding to support food-insecure families while prioritizing purchases from BIPOC-, LGBTQ-, and women-owned local food producers. Natasha graduated Magna Cum Laude from Westfield State University with a B.A. in Marketing and earned a Master of Management, Co-operatives, and Credit Unions from Saint Mary’s University with a 4.0 GPA.

BONNIE HUDSPETH, 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.

JULIAN MCKINLEY, Queens, New York. Julian is Democracy at Work Institute’s Co-Executive Director for Partnerships and Growth, guiding DAWI’s organizational growth, strategic partnerships, and research, and communications. Having led various initiatives focused on family financial stability, regenerative economics, and employee ownership, Julian’s work lives at the nexus of relationship building, storytelling and tangible solutions for a more equitable economy. Prior to his co-executive director role, Julian served on DAWI’s leadership team, overseeing the organization’s communications and data work. He has trained cooperative developers in the U.S. and East Africa, helped lead New York City’s Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative, and developed strategies to better reach the growing ecosystem of worker cooperative developers. Julian has a BS in communications from Springfield College. He lives with his family in Queens, NY and is a certified master composter.

KIMBERLY R. LYLE, 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).

LAUREN DUFFY, Northampton, Massachusetts. Lauren has worked in credit unions for over 20 years, joining UMassFive College Federal Credit Union (UMassFive) in 2005 and rising to its senior management team in 2014, where she currently holds the role of Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer. In 2018, she was appointed by UMassFive’s CEO to serve on the Board of Directors for the credit union-owned Member Advantage Mortgage Company and was elected its Chair in 2021. Lauren is a 2019 winner of the BusinessWest 40 Under Forty award for being “a strategic thinker and an instrument of change” throughout her early career. Her professional passions include leveraging the cooperative business model of credit unions to create access to financial well-being for all, and modernizing the credit union experience for the next generation of member-owners. Lauren grew up in Rhode Island and completed an undergraduate degree in Psychology at Mount Holyoke College, where she met her wife, Liz. They now reside in Northampton, MA with their two sons. Each September, Lauren raises funds for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts through participation in their Will Bike 4 Food event, riding either 25 or 50 miles, depending on how her knees are feeling.

NORA GOSSELIN, Providence, Rhode Island. Nora is the Market Development and Acquisitions Specialist in CDI’s NEROC Program. They joined CDI in 2019 as a Cooperative Housing Specialist, and moved into the Market Development and Acquisitions role in 2021. Prior to joining CDI, Nora lived in a co-op for four years. During that time, they worked as the treasurer, housing coordinator, and as an intern with the North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO). Nora has a BA in Urban Studies, and wrote a thesis focused on the regulatory and cultural barriers that face housing cooperatives in small cities. They have also worked as a waitress, barista, bookstore clerk, volunteer radio DJ, and coordinator/counselor for a music education program. They live in Providence, RI.