Brookline Resident Joins Raising A Reader MA As Board Chair

BROOKLINE, MA — Brookline Resident Daryl Andrews has been elected as the new Chair of the Board for Raising A Reader Massachusetts (RAR-MA), an organization that seeks to close the literacy opportunity gap among young children in under-resourced communities by helping families develop and practice shared home reading habits.

Andrews is a founding partner of Andrews DeValerio LLP and has been a board member of RAR-MA for four years.

“I am honored to be elected to lead the board of Raising A Reader Massachusetts, an organization that does such critically important work in advancing early childhood literacy,” said Andrews in a statement. “I welcome our new board members and officers and am grateful to be supported by such a committed team.”

In addition to electing Andrews as the new Chair of the Board, RAR-MA is also welcoming a new team of officers and four new Board of Directors members.

Officers include Mercedes Dahar, Executive Director of Customer Success at athenahealth, as Vice Chair, Jill Quinby, Audit Partner at Deloitte Touche, as Treasurer, and Brandon Burns, Vice President of Corporate Audit at State Street, as Secretary.

New board members include Maggie Begley, Vice President of Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary at Amundi US, Katy Caldwell, Counsel at Ropes & Gray, Dan Grondin, Senior Vice President & New England Market Leader at PNC Bank NA, and Jeannette Hsu, former investment banker and longtime member on the New England Regional board of UNICEF.

“I am delighted to welcome such exceptional people to our board,” said Executive Director Christine Ward in a statement. “We are fortunate to have such a variety of expertise and passion for our mission. I look forward to their contributions, in many ways, to support our work to build an early literacy foundation for a lifetime of opportunity.”

Raising A Reader Massachusetts launched its program in Chelsea in 2006 and has since expanded to serve over 7500 children ages birth to six and their families throughout Boston, Brockton, Everett, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Malden, Revere, and Springfield.

For more information, visit www.raisingareaderma.org.