Key Staff Bios
Jack Hamilton has served as Executive Director of the Community Action Agency of Somerville since 1983, a position he took after earning an MPA from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. He previously served as Executive Director of CASCAP (1978-1983), an agency that provides residential services for the chronically mentally ill, and the Somerville Community Youth Agency (1973-1978), which provided alternative education, teacher training, drug abuse treatment and prevention, employment counseling, and wilderness and community school programs. He is currently a member of the Somerville Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the Community Health Advisory Council of the Cambridge Health Alliance. Mr. Hamilton is bilingual in Portuguese and English and speaks some Spanish.
Donna Cabral, Director of the CAAS Head Start Program, joined Head Start as a parent in 1978. In staff positions, she served as a Family Advocate and as a Parent Involvement Manager before becoming Director in 1986. Ms. Cabral received the Roberta Helberg Award for service to young children from the City of Somerville. She has been recognized by the Cambridge and Somerville Program for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Rehabilitation (CASPAR) for her education of youth about alcohol and drug abuse. Under her administration, CAAS Head Start received an excellence award from the Administration for Children and Families in 2001 and an award for the fatherhood program in 2002. Ms. Cabral holds an Associate's Degree in Human Development from Wheelock College.
Dennis Fischman, Director of Planning, is the Co-Chair of the Somerville Nonprofit Development Network. From 1998 to 2003, he consulted to community-based organizations including The Haitian Coalition, the Welcome Project, the Mystic Learning Center, Elizabeth Peabody House, and nonprofits including Eagle Eye Institute and the National Association for the Mentally Ill of Massachusetts. A graduate of Yale, Mr. Fischman received his B.A. in Political Science in 1980, and he earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1988. He taught at the college level for ten years, at Rosemont College, Boston University, and New England College, before entering the development field. From 2001 to 2005, he served on the Board of the Organizers' Collaborative, which helps nonprofit organizations use information technology to pursue their missions more successfully.
Melissa McWhinney, Director of Advocacy, is the former Director of the Mayor's Office of Human Services in the City of Somerville (2001-2003). Previously, she had directed the City's Human Right Commission and served as Director of Legal Intake at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. She created and taught a course entitled "You and the Law" to students in English as a Second Language Classes at the Somerville Center for Adult Learning Experiences. Ms. McWhinney earned a B.A. degree at Temple University in 1982 and a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in 1990. She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar.
Maureen Corrigan, the Director of Finance and Administration, served as CAAS’ Assistant Fiscal Officer from 2002 to 2007. She is responsible for grant management, budgeting, payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and general agency accounting. She interacts regularly with program and administrative staff to ensure that purchasing, property control, and personnel actions adhere to funding source guidelines. Before coming to CAAS, she served as property administrator and accountant for investment and architectural firms. Ms. Corrigan attended Bentley College with a concentration in Accountancy.
Last Updated: October 15, 2008
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