Board of Directors – Haiti Projects

Pierre Valette, Chair

Pierre Valette is currently the VP of Content and Communications for Athena health. Prior to his work at Athena health, he served as the Executive Producer of Children’s Programming for WGBH from 1999-2008. Pierre worked as VP of Quest Productions from 1991-1999 where he contributed to the development and production of a wide range of PBS and network series.

Kathleen McDonough, Vice Chair

Kathleen McDonough, is President/CEO of Community Health Network (Holliston, MA), which she purchased in 2001 from our Founder, Sarah Hackett. Like Sarah she has a professional background in nursing, public health and home care, and has been involved with Haiti Projects for over 10 years. She will be on the Executive and Finance Committees.

Susan M. Gately, Treasurer

Susan M. Gately has been an economic and policy expert specializing in the telecom arena for more than 30 years. Her consulting firm, SMGately Consulting, LLC (SMGC) was founded in January, 2011 and caters primarily to very large users (Fortune 500 Companies) of communications services. Susan lives and works in Pembroke, Mass.

Patricia Chute

Patricia Chute, for the past eleven years, has been a volunteer in Educational Development for the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation and has served on the SBHF Board as well. She has made many trips to Fond des Blancs and looks forward to continuing to serve the community there as a member of the HP Library/Education Committee.

Kenneth Horak

Kenneth Horak spent 20 years in FEMA Region 1 (New England), most recently as Associate Director. His background is in disaster preparedness; he was directly involved in many recovery efforts in the Region as well as post-Katrina and the Northridge Earthquake in California: he was also responsible for oversight of Region 1 anti-terrorist response after 9/11. Ken will work on the Library/Education Committee.

Dale Joachim

Dale Joachim is on the Technical Staff at MIT Lincoln Labs, where he is involved in airport runway optimization. A PhD in Electrical Engineering, he has also been involved in One Laptop per Child, the MIT Media Lab, and numerous other commercial and academic endeavors. He will work on the Library/Education Committee.

Robert Russell

Robert Russell is an MD with background in nutrition, and is currently Professor Emeritus at Tufts Medical School. He has served on the Boards of the USDA Human Investigation Committee, the FDA, National Institute of Health, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the American Board of Internal Medicine. He will work on our Clinic Project.

Eileen Freitag

Eileen Freitag’s career spans 40 years in home health care, 22 of those at Visiting Nurse Association of Boston. While at the VNA of Boston she rose through operations positions to Vice President of Admissions and ultimately, President and CEO. She now serves as a Partner and Director of Strategic and Marketing Consulting for Fazzi Associates.

Jim Farmer

Jim Farmer is an Instructional Technology Specialist serving 8 school districts at Okefenokee RESA, in Southeast Georgia. He was born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1985. He taught and worked as a Technology Integration Specialist for Broward County Schools. He is an advocate for using technology to engage and inspire all facets of teaching and learning.

Alisa Kuno

Alisa Kuno is a part-time strategic Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer for a number of privately held companies. Prior to becoming a consultant, Alisa led the mergers and acquisitions function for Sapient Corporation. Alisa has held a variety of other general management, finance and strategy roles throughout her career. Alisa earned her MBA from Stanford University in 1996. Prior to that, she graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1990 with a BA in History and East Asian Languages & Civilizations.

Ligmie Preval