Our Focus Areas
01
Access
Ensuring that people of color can afford to live in Brookline by eliminating restrictive barriers to housing, childcare, early education, recreation programs, food, and other essentials.
02
Inclusion
Ensuring that people of color can meaningfully participate in social and civic life by eliminating barriers to political participation and actively enforcing civil rights protections.
03
Opportunity
Ensuring that the health, environmental, and educational benefits of Brookline are maximized for people of color while creating effective pathways to economic mobility.
Our Team
About BRJE
Our team is comprised of a staff and board dedicated to the betterment of Brookline – we value everyone in our community. Get to know us.
Our Story
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01
Where we started
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02
Where we are
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03
where we’re going
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Other Ways to Give
In addition to online donations, BRJE accepts charitable contributions via Fidelity Charitable electronic fund transfers, through Venmo at @joinBRJE, through donor-advised funds, and via check. To make a donation via check, please mail your gift to:
Brookline for Racial Justice & Equity
36 Thorndike Street
Brookline, MA 02446
Our Team
Meet our Team
Our team is dedicated to seeing change in Brookline.
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Dr. Raul Fernandez
DR. RAUL FERNANDEZ (HE/HIM)
Executive Director
Dr. Raul Fernandez is a public impact scholar. As a Senior Lecturer in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, he studies, writes, and teaches about inequities in education. As Chair of DESE’s Racial Imbalance Advisory Council, he advises the Commissioner of Education on school segregation across the Commonwealth. And, as the Executive Director of Brookline for Racial Justice & Equity, he rallies his neighbors in the relentless pursuit of racial and economic justice.
Dr. Fernandez also served as a member of Brookline Select Board – the first Latinx person elected to that position. During his time there he created a working group to support public housing residents, a Racial Equity Advancement Fund, and a task force to reimagine public safety.
He also is on the Board of Directors of AmplifyLatinx, which is building economic and political power for Latinos, and Commonwealth Kitchen, which supports diverse food businesses entrepreneurs.
Raul lives in Coolidge Corner with his partner Christina and their three kids.
Jean-Luc Pierite
JEAN-LUC PIERITE (HE/HIM)
Vice Chair
Jean-Luc Pierite (member, Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana) is an Indigenous activist and designer with areas of focus in: supporting distributed networks for education; public policy advocacy for racial, economic, and climate justice; and supporting philanthropic foundations committed to diversity and inclusion.
Jean-Luc serves as the president of North American Indian Center of Boston. Jean-Luc has been awarded with the inaugural LaDonna Brave Bull Allard Science Activist Award at The Global Community Bio Summit which is hosted by the Community Biotechnology Initiative at the MIT Media Lab. He is also part of the Global Community Bio Fellows 3.0 and participates in the BIPOC Makers Collective as supported by Nation of Makers. Jean-Luc previously served as co-convener for the Institute for Collaborative Language Research (CoLang) which fosters relationships between academics and community language activists.
Jean-Luc has earned a Master in Design for Emergent Futures from the Institut d’Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. Jean-Luc also earned a Bachelor of the Arts in Humanities with a co-major in Mass Communication and Japanese from Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jean-Luc also earned an Associate of Science in Video Game Design from Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida.
Bob Lepson
BOB LEPSON (HE/HIM)
Treasurer
Originally from a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA, Bob moved to the Boston area to attend college more than four decades ago. He first moved to Brookline in 1983 and has been a full time resident of the town since 1991. Bob is married, has two adult children, both of whom attended the Public Schools of Brookline from K-12.
Since 2017, he has been a member of the Commission for Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Relations (CDICR) and a Precinct 9 Town Meeting Member. He has served on several other Town committees including the CDICR’s Fair Housing and Patterns of Racism committees. Bob focuses his time working on the advancement of racial, economic, and environmental justice while also spending time working to overcome the challenges of the housing affordability crisis in town.
Bob has been a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional since 2004 and is a partner in a fee-only financial advisory firm in Newton. He has been treasurer for two local political campaigns and seeks to promote the broad participation of members of historically marginalized communities in Brookline’s local government.
Giselle Ferro Puigbo
GISELLE FERRO PUIGBO (SHE/HER)
Clerk
Giselle Ferro Puigbo is Chief Development Officer of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay. Her personal mission is to connect people, ideas, organizations, and resources to build more equitable communities. In her 20-year career, she has facilitated, inspired, and mobilized more than $125 million for organizations addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges – like health equity and educational equity – in support of thriving communities. Prior to joining the region’s largest United Way, Giselle was the Executive Director of the Brookline Community Foundation. Giselle previously led development efforts at Health Leads, Teach For America, and Blue Engine.
Giselle is a Miami native, first-generation immigrant from Colombia, and a proud first-generation college graduate. She is a frequent speaker on subjects ranging from the future of philanthropy, equitable nonprofit practices, inclusion and diversity in fundraising, and community-led transformation. She sits on the nonprofit boards of Women in Development of Greater Boston and Brookline for Racial Justice & Equity. Giselle received her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Miami School of Law. She lives in the Greater Boston area with her husband and three children.
Bonnie Bastien
BONNIE BASTIEN (SHE/HER)
Bonnie Bastien is an activist and organizer working for racial justice and equity, prison abolition, and public safety rooted in systems of care, healing, and community self-determination in Brookline and across Massachusetts. In 2020 she co-launched Mutual Aid Brookline to address unmet critical needs in the area as the COVID-19 pandemic hit. She was appointed to the Select Board’s Task Force to Reimagine Policing in Brookline to envision a path to a more equitable form of public safety. Presently, Bastien is a Town Meeting Member in Brookline’s Precinct 5 and organizes in the community and town government to write and pass progressive legislation in Brookline.
Deborah Brown
DEBORAH BROWN (SHE/HER)
Deborah Brown is board president for the Brookline Community Development Corporation. She is also on the board of Brookline for Everyone. A strong affordable housing advocate, she has introduced a host of affordable housing and social justice warrant articles. She has an extensive environmental background. During her professional career, she managed and led a range of programs that included climate justice, environmental education, food justice and tribal capacity building hazardous waste, tribal and federal facility enforcement and compliance programs. She co-authored a book on Brownfields. Prior to the EPA, she was director of Equal Employment Opportunity for the New York Transit Authority, counsel for the Texas Department of Agriculture, and an assistant to the Governor of Texas.
J. Malcolm Cawthorne
MALCOLM CAWTHORNE (HE/HIM)
Malcolm Cawthorne moved to Brookline in 1973 and he is the first of five Cawthornes to graduate from BHS. He has been a teacher since 1993 and began teaching Social Studies at BHS in 1998. In 2015 he co-developed an important course on Racial Awareness and Identity to help students understand the racial complexities of the 21st Century; it has become a cornerstone of Brookline High School’s inclusion and diversity efforts. Malcolm was also a faculty leader of Race Reels, a long-running film series and that brings together faculty, students, parents and community members for “brave conversations” about many aspects of our diverse society. Malcolm has served on the board of The Brookline Historical Society, The Brookline MLK Celebration Committee, The Commission for Diversity, Inclusion and Community Relations in Brookline, The Task Force to Reimagine Public Safety in Brookline, and Hidden Brookline, a project devoted to bringing to light the hidden histories of slavery and freedom in Brookline. He also serves as a SEED facilitator in both Brookline and nationally. SEED is a peer led equity and diversity program founded by equity pioneer Peggy McIntosh and Wellesley College.
Soyoung L. Kim
SOYOUNG L. KIM (SHE/HER)
Soyoung L Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, but grew up in Nairobi, Kenya. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2021, she was a recipient of the Live Arts Boston Grant from The Boston Foundation. She has exhibited in both solo and group shows, including the Boston Center for the Arts, Trustman Art Gallery at Simmons University, and Pao Arts Center. Kim’s work has been written about in the Boston Globe and the Boston Art Review. Her works are included in the public collections of Google, Cambridge.
Dr. Natalia Linos
DR. NATALIA LINOS (SHE/HER)
Natalia Linos is a social epidemiologist, a Brookline Town Meeting Member and Chair of the town’s Advisory Council of Public Health. She has over 15 years of experience working at the global and local levels on some of the most pressing public health challenges of our time: from climate change to structural racism. She is currently the Executive Director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard and co-leads the Center’s two largest programs on racial justice, namely to create an actionable field of scholarship on structural racism and health and make the public health case for reparations. Prior to her role at Harvard, Natalia worked at the United Nations for over a decade in diverse roles, including as the lead on health, climate change and environment for UNDP. She also served as science advisor to the New York City Health Commissioner. She is on the Board of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, and a mother of three young children in Brookline public schools. In 2020, she ran for Congress to represent Massachusetts’ fourth district to bring her skills as an epidemiologist to the COVID-19 response and recovery.
Kimberley Richardson
KIMBERLEY RICHARDSON (SHE/HER)
Kimberley is a licensed social worker, Community Activist, Change Agent, and Mother who works toward making equitable changes for Brookline’s most underserved communities. Kimberley volunteers to serve on various boards and commissions in Brookline and shares her voice, providing the needed representation to ensure that the BIPOC community has a seat at the table. Kimberley’s work to advance racial justice and equity raises the voices of those who are struggling in the Brookline community and ensures they are reflected in the decisions and direction of the Town. Most of her attention is focused on the Boston Housing Authority community where she resides, home to many of the most marginalized people in Brookline. While a single mother of eight children living in public housing. Kimberley earned both her Bachelors in Criminal Justice and her Masters in Social Work.
Want to join our team? Learn more >>