自慰视频

First of all, congratulations on being selected to receive the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award. What does this award mean to you?

Thank you. Receiving this award feels so meaningful. When I was at 自慰视频, I was surrounded by people who were deeply committed to making the world better. Professors cared about justice, classmates challenged and supported each other, and field instructors showed me what social work looked like in real life. That experience shaped everything that came after in my career. To be recognized by that same community now reminds me how those early influences continue to guide me in my work and in how I try to lead.

Erin McAleer, MSW鈥�05, president and CEO of Project Bread, nominated you for this award. How would you describe the impact she鈥檚 had on your career?

I first met Erin when I was at 自慰视频SSW. She had completed the same program a few years before me and had even done the same field placements that I was doing. When I graduated and was job searching, I interned for her and learned from her work lobbying for nonprofit clients at the Massachusetts State House. Watching her in action taught me what it meant to combine strategy with purpose.聽

I followed her career as she moved into state government, and when she later became president and CEO of Project Bread, I knew she would expand the organization鈥檚 leadership in policy and advocacy. I was excited to be part of what she was building. Erin has taught me so much about leadership, especially how to balance vision with pragmatism and how to create space for others to lead with confidence and clarity.

How did your experiences at 自慰视频SSW prepare you for a career in nonprofit leadership?

自慰视频SSW taught me how to think about change, not just as an idea but as something that has to be built with people. I learned to look at the bigger systems that shape people鈥檚 lives while staying close to the realities of those living within them. That balance has guided my work ever since. Whether I was supporting advocates fighting for health care reform or sitting with families navigating an unimaginable health diagnosis, 自慰视频 gave me the foundation to approach leadership with both strategy and empathy. It shaped how I understand my responsibility to use whatever influence I have to make systems work better for people.

As chief policy officer at Project Bread, you have led major efforts across Massachusetts to make sure people have enough to eat. You鈥檝e successfully advocated for permanent universal school meals for all K鈥�12 students, expanded access and benefits for SNAP and Pandemic-EBT鈥攁 federal program that provided food assistance to families with children who lost access to free or reduced-price school meals during COVID-19 school closures鈥攁nd supported policies for immigrants and families disproportionately affected by hunger. Since joining Project Bread in 2019, you have grown the policy team, built an MSW internship curriculum, and co-authored key legislation, including An Act Regarding Breakfast After the Bell, a Massachusetts law enacted in 2020 that requires public schools with 60 percent or more of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals to offer breakfast after the school day has started. In addition to this, you led the Feed Kids Coalition, mobilizing over 4,200 advocates to secure permanent universal school meals, and the Make Hunger History Coalition, uniting policymakers, providers, businesses, and individuals with lived experience to craft policies aimed at ending hunger in Massachusetts. What would you say is your biggest accomplishment to date, and what is your ultimate professional goal?

My proudest accomplishment has been leading the successful efforts of the Feed Kids Coalition to make universal free school meals permanent in Massachusetts. We set out to pass a piece of legislation and build the support needed to make it happen, but it quickly became something bigger. The idea that every child should have access to food in school no matter their circumstances resonated so deeply that it brought people together from every background and perspective. It became a movement. Before this change, too many kids were going without the nutrition they needed at school because their families, though struggling, earned just above the limit to qualify for free meals, or because the paperwork was impossible to keep up with. The system was broken, and kids were the ones paying the price. We went into this campaign understanding that it was very ambitious and not knowing how long it would take, but we knew it was exactly the kind of systems change that would make a real difference. Now every child in Massachusetts has access to two free meals a day at school with no applications, no stigma, no barriers. When we work together, ending hunger is entirely possible. That is the ultimate goal: for Massachusetts to become a place where no one goes hungry.

自慰视频SSW has named Accompaniment in Action as its theme for the new academic year, emphasizing listening, kinship, and walking alongside others. How do you practice accompaniment in your work at Project Bread?

For me, accompaniment means showing up with humility, curiosity, and respect. It means listening to people who know hunger firsthand and making sure their experiences shape the work we do. That is a priority in our work, inviting those voices into every conversation about policy and advocacy. Some of the most meaningful moments in my career have come from those discussions, when someone shares what navigating a broken system feels like and we start to see what change could look like through their experience. Those times taught me that accompaniment is about being present, listening, and working together toward a shared goal.

Alongside your professional roles, you have been an active leader in the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, co-chairing the Political Action for Candidate Election Committee, organizing major advocacy events like Legislative Education and Advocate Day, and leading workshops on effective lobbying. Aside from your responsibilities at Project Bread, what do you find most rewarding about your work, and how do these activities reflect the idea of accompaniment?

Outside of my work at Project Bread, I try to use my social work skills to connect to each of the different communities I鈥檓 part of. I look for ways to stay connected to the social work community, such as through membership and opportunities with the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. In my own town, I have worked on a resident group focused on expanding housing opportunities, and I serve on my children鈥檚 school site council to help improve the learning experience for all students. In each of these spaces, I draw on the same practices that guide my professional work: listening, organizing, and working with others toward a shared goal. What I find most rewarding is the connection that comes from bringing people together to build or drive something forward. That is what accompaniment looks like to me in everyday life.

Is there anything else that you would like to add?

I am deeply grateful to 自慰视频SSW for the foundation it gave me, not just in knowledge but in values. The people I met there helped shape how I lead and how I work for change. From standing beside patients and families fighting for care, to serving my community as a local elected official, to leading a statewide effort to end hunger, I carry those lessons with me. This recognition means a great deal to me because it comes from a community that shaped who I am and the kind of leader I hope to be.