(August 28, 2017 – Somerville, Mass.) Typical of most transitions, back-to-school is an exciting time that can present challenges. Families settle into new routines and build new relationships with teachers, children, and their parents. Like other families during this time of year, the Parenting Journey family is also in transition as we onboard a new leadership team.
We are pleased to announce that Imari Paris Jeffries has accepted the role of Executive Director and will lead the organization’s efforts to expand and enhance our impact on families and communities. Paris Jeffries will spearhead a collaborative leadership model which includes himself and a team of five managing directors representing all areas of our programmatic work.
To view bios of our entire exceptional staff, click here.
Imari Paris Jeffries joined the Parenting Journey team in February 2017. He brings a wealth of experience from the nonprofit management, community activism, education reform, and social justice sectors to his role as Executive Director. Previously, he was Chief Executive Officer of Italian Home, a behavioral health organization in Boston. He also served as COO of Jumpstart, a national early education organization and interim CEO of Boston Rising, an anti-poverty initiative. Imari has a strong commitment to giving back and serves as a Trustee of The University of Massachusetts System and was recently appointed by Governor Baker to the Black Advisory Commission. A member of the Appalachian Mountain Club Board of Directors, Imari has previously served on the boards of the African American Federation of Greater Boston; Save the Harbor, Save the Bay; Massachusetts Mentoring Partnership; The Edward Brooke Charter School; Third Sector New England; and the Elizabeth Peabody House. Imari is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Arts, Masters of Education, and Masters of Arts. He is currently pursuing his PhD through the Higher Education Administration Program. He enjoys the outdoors with his family and you can often find him in the Blue Hills Reservation or the Arnold Arboretum.
Ty Bellitti, Managing Director of Operations, joined Parenting Journey in 2015. With more than sixteen years of experience leading operations, training and mentoring of diverse teams, Bellitti delivers quality assurance expertise to improve results and achieve greater impact. He comes to Parenting Journey after a long tenure in the travel industry. Most recently Bellitti served at Grand Circle Travel, a Boston-based travel company which provides impactful intercultural experiences to significantly affect the quality of life for both travelers and their hosts. There, he was responsible for operations and quality assurance of twenty-six international offices and hundreds of partners. He is an active member of the local community and previously served as a board member of the Cambridge Community Art Center and the Cambridge Babe Ruth League, where he also invested more than twenty years as a youth coach and mentor. Bellitti has a strong commitment to helping others and giving back to the community and regularly donates his time and photography services to local groups and individuals to promote arts education and family bonding.
Erica Brunner joined the team at Parenting Journey as their Managing Director of Strategy in June 2017. She comes to the position with over eight years of experience in external relations for direct service non-profits, politics, and issue advocacy. Most recently, she developed and led a national campaign to recruit and mobilize over 20,000 new members across the country in support of polices that protect women and families. She has dedicated her career to advancing access to health care for everyone through political and cultural change, and is particularly interested in the intersection of health and social justice. Erica has worked at NARAL Pro-Choice America, Health Care for All, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Health Volunteers Overseas. She holds a Bachelor of Science from St. Lawrence University in Biology and Gender Studies.
Carolina Grynbal brings over twenty-five years of experience in the nonprofit and public sectors to her role as Managing Director & Senior Adviser. She has extensive experience in organizational planning and development, management, leadership development and strategic planning and evaluation. She has been involved in program design, development and implementation initiatives spanning the range from prenatal and early childhood services, adolescent, adult and senior services, to community development. Carolina has provided clinical psychotherapy services to children and adolescents with a special emphasis on Latino families. She also has extensive experience as a human services trainer. Carolina holds a Masters degree in Social Work from the Ehrenkranz School of Social Work at New York University and a Masters degree in Nonprofit Management from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University. Carolina has served as Adjunct Lecturer at the Wagner School and is a lecturer in Gender, Race and Class Studies at PACE University. She also served as co-chair of the board of the Soto Velez Cultural Center in Manhattan. Originally from Venezuela, Carolina is fluent in Spanish.
Duncan Remage-Healey, Managing Director of Institutional Advancement, comes to Parenting Journey after over fifteen years in leadership and management positions in the nonprofit world. For the last seven years, he led teams in both fundraising and program development at Boston Arts Academy at the intersection of arts and public education. Before that Duncan held leadership positions in development and program management at Habitat for Humanity Greater Boston, and has worked for many different sectors including homelessness, biological research, higher education, and public interest research. Prior to his experience in the non-profit world, Duncan was the Director of Administration for a small environmental consulting firm in California. Duncan is a graduate of Clark University with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and International Relations, and a Masters in Public Administration. He is thrilled to be a part of the Parenting Journey team.
Eleanor (Ellie) Zambrano, Managing Director of Programs & Clinical Director, is an independently licensed clinical social worker with a specialization in family and couples therapy as well as Latino mental health. Ellie previously was the Director of Family Therapy at Lynn Community Health Center where she focused on the integration of specialty family and couples behavioral health services within a primary care setting. Ellie has an extensive background working in a senior leadership role in nonprofit organizations with an emphasis on program and service delivery development and the training and supervision of new and seasoned behavioral health professionals. Ellie has also been an adjunct faculty at Cambridge College and Boston University teaching graduate level Counseling Psychology and Social Work students in the area of multicultural and cross cultural counseling. Ellie continues to see couples and families in private practice in Lynn, MA.
Ellie earned a Masters in Clinical Social Work at Columbia University in New York City. She is a native New Yorker and moved to Massachusetts in 2006. Ellie is bicultural and bilingual (English/Spanish). She is Ecuadorian American and lived in South America where she taught English to high school students. Ellie lives with her two young daughters on the North Shore and enjoys spending time by the ocean with her family. She believes in understanding family as a cultural system and the diversity in parenting as well.
ABOUT PARENTING JOURNEY
Parenting Journey, a multi-service family support agency headquartered in Somerville, MA, offers powerful programs that help parents build safer, stronger families and trains professionals nationwide to implement its high-impact approach. More than 2,100 facilitators have received training and 52,000 parents raising almost 151,000 children have benefited from Parenting Journey’s unique curriculum. Parenting Journey programs have been replicated in nearly 500 locations throughout Greater Boston, New York, Florida, New Hampshire, and Washington, D.C.
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