BOSTnet Staff
Maryellen Coffey – Executive Director
phone: 617.720.1290 x 201
email: coffey@bostnet.org
Maryellen Coffey has been the Executive Director of BOSTnet since 2001. Maryellen expanded the core work of the organization by adding the Engaging Families, Community Afterschool, and LOYD Initiatives in 2002. With the Board of Directors, she led the strategic planning process resulting in the organization’s name change to BOSTnet. She currently serves as an advisor to the statewide Massachusetts Afterschool Partnership (MAP), a policy effort to increase and institutionalize public resources for out-of-school time in Massachusetts, and to the Massachusetts Afterschool Research Study (MARS), a statewide study aimed at documenting program quality. She is a board member of Achieve Boston, an effort to develop standards to professionalize the out-of-school time workforce. Coffey is also a board member of Boston Child Care Alliance, an advocacy group focused on early childhood services in Boston and served on the Early Education for All advisory board, a campaign to implement universal preschool in Massachusetts.
Michael Bennett – Research Director
phone: 617.720.1290 x 240
email: bennett@bostnet.org
Michael Bennett has over fifteen years of experience researching and writing for a variety of governmental, private and non-profit organizations. His research has ranged from American social and cultural history to management theory and organizational dynamics. Michael has contributed to academic journals, professional conferences and Web-based curricula. He began his career at the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania where he helped developed community-based exhibits and educational outreach programs. Prior to moving to Boston in 2004, Michael spent five years in Washington, DC, working with the National Park Service and most recently established a consulting firm in Vermont. Michael has two school-aged childrencurrently enrolled in the Boston Public School system who participate in after-school programs in the city. Michael is a volunteer coach for the Jamaica Plain Youth Soccer League. He graduated with an M.A. in American Studies from the University of Notre Dame.
Manosi Datta – Program Director, Evaluation and Operations
phone: 617.720.1290 x 210
email: datta@bostnet.org
Manosi Datta has a decade of experience working for housing and education initiatives through community-based, regional and national organizations. As Program Director-Evaluation and Operations at BOSTnet, she develops systems for program delivery and evaluation. Previously, she directed the Community After School Initiative (CASI), working with programs to strengthen capacity, and developed Net Benefits, a pilot networking and collaboration initiative to explore economies of scale in the after school field. Prior to BOSTnet, she contributed to replicating elements of BELL after school programs nationally, as it grew from 1,000 to 7,000 children served. Manosi managed a $1.9 million HUD Housing program at the Housing Partnership Network, providing technical assistance to a national network of 34 housing programs. She serves on the G.I.R.L.S. Project/GirlTV Advisory Board and is a Children’s Defense Fund Emerging Leaders Fellow. A degree in Urban Systems and International Development from McGill University in Montreal provides her with a unique perspective on U.S. and Canadian public policy.
Peter Griffin – Project Director
phone: 617.720.1290 x 230
email: griffin@bostnet.org
Peter C. Griffin grew up in the Hudson valley, received his BA. in History from Vassar College and his MS.ed. from Bank Street College of Education in the Museum Education program. Since 1996, he has had experience in education from kindergarten to college in various settings, having worked for LaGuardia Community College, The New-York Historical Society, Harvard University’s Project Zero, The New York University, and The Indie Programs, a media education organization working with “at risk” middle and high school students to teach filmmaking and media literacy. Outside of work, Peter is active in visual arts, owning a gallery in Catskill, New York as well as participating in community media projects involving youth and local filmmakers.
Monica Zgola – Executive Assistant
phone: 617.720.1290 x 232
email: zgola@bostnet.org
Monica works on administration and communications for the organization. Prior to her arrival at BOSTnet, she worked in direct care/child advocacy in a pre-independent living program for adolescent males at Communities-for-People in Somerville, MA. Monica has also worked in daycare, pre-school, summer camp, and after school programs in Upstate New York, along with high school tutoring in Cambridge, MA. Monica received her bachelor's degree in psychology from Binghamton University in New York State and enjoys working for mission-based, non-profit organizations.
BOSTnet’s Board of Directors
Kerry Carey, Project Consultant, Sovereign Bank
Board Clerk
Jane Feinberg, FrameWorks Institute, Communications & Media Strategy
Deborah Fung, Program Officer, The Paul and Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation
Deirdre Hobson, Public Policy/Consultant & Parent
Board President
Bob Monahan, Director of Operations at Julie’s Family Learning Program
Roosevelt Smith, Executive Director at Urban Dreams
Board Vice President
Paul Stuka, CEO of Osiris Partners
Board Treasurer
Onyen Yong, Director of Information Technology/Assistant District Attorney, Middlesex County DA's Office
