2024 Changemaker Awardees
Each year, the Institute for Nonprofit Practice honors a group of Changemakers within the social impact sector who embody the spirit of service and leadership in their communities. Our aim is to celebrate remarkable individuals who may not necessarily make headlines, but serve as models of inspiration for advancing the common good. Learn more about our 2024 Changemakers below – from across the INP community and beyond.
Vetto Casado Director of Shifting Power & Advancing Justice, The Boston Foundation; INP Alum
Vetto Casado serves as the Director of Shifting Power and Advancing Justice (SPAJ) at The Boston Foundation. Having served for nearly five years and joining the Foundation just months before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vetto played a crucial role in providing key support and leading various bodies of work within the Programs team, including the Covid-19 Response Fund, Chelsea 2021 Participatory Grantmaking Initiative, Boston Neighborhood Fellows Program, Social Justice Ecology Framework, Shifting Power and Advancing Justice, and more.
In his current role, Vetto leads and provides vision to SPAJ, aiming to uplift movement leaders to reclaim their power and strengthen the communities they serve. On April 9th, 2024, his team successfully launched this focus area under The Boston Foundation’s Amplifying Community Leadership pathway. This initiative supports organizations and leaders regionally through multi-year, general operating support funding structures, utilizing emerging trust-based philanthropic practices rooted in wellness, technical assistance, and capacity building, as well as emergency funding and mutual aid principles.
A native of the Dominican Republic, Vetto immigrated to the U.S. at the age of six, settling with his family in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He previously served as the Executive Director of Small Can Be Big, Inc. (SCBB). During his tenure, SCBB expanded its regional profile, providing vital flexible funding resources to over 450 families and averting hundreds of evictions throughout the greater Boston area via online crowd-funded initiatives.
Vetto holds a B.A. in Political Science from UMass Boston and is an alum of Harvard Kennedy School’s Latino Leadership Initiative and the Institute for Nonprofit Practice. In the summer of 2017, he was nominated by the Governor to serve a four-year term on the Massachusetts Latino Advisory Commission.
Sasha Chanoff Founder & Chief Executive Officer, RefugePoint
Sasha Chanoff is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of RefugePoint, a humanitarian organization that partners with refugees to access life-changing solutions and transforms how the world supports them. He is the co-author of From Crisis to Calling: Finding Your Moral Center in the Toughest Decisions, a leadership book about moral decision points that shape our lives. He is a recipient of the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Harvard Center for Public Leadership Gleitsman International Activist Award, the Charles Bronfman Prize, and is a Goodwill Ambassador for the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. He has received social entrepreneur fellowships from the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, Ashoka, and Echoing Green. He is a board member of Network of Engaged International Donors (NEID) Global. He has a M.A. in Humanitarian Assistance from the Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Friedman School of Nutrition, Science, and Policy, and a B.A. from Wesleyan University.
Yi-Chin Chen, MSW Executive Director, Friends of the Children – Boston; INP Alum & Faculty Member
Yi-Chin Chen serves as the Executive Director of Friends of the Children–Boston, an organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty by providing youth facing the toughest challenges with 12+ years of relentless professional mentoring from kindergarten to high school graduation, no matter what. She is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the organization and managing the day-to-day operations. Since joining Friends of the Children – Boston in late 2015, Yi-Chin has led the effort to successfully elevate the organization’s public profile as the ONLY organization in the state of Massachusetts, making a long-term, unconditional, commitment of support to children facing the toughest challenges utilizing a professional mentoring model.
Yi-Chin began her career in youth development nearly two decades ago as a school counselor with the GEAR UP Program at Thomas Edison Middle School and Brighton High School. While working at both institutions, she helped develop and deliver college and career preparation and exploration curriculum to BPS middle and high school students. After receiving her Master’s degree in Social Work from Boston University, she joined the Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF), where she served as an integral member of the organizational leadership team as both the Deputy Director and Interim Executive Director. Yi-Chin was named the New England Patriots’ 2022 NFL Inspiring Change Changemaker. In 2023, she was one of the speakers to take the stage of the inaugural TEDx Roxbury.
As an immigrant born and raised in Taiwan, Yi-Chin is a strong advocate for building a pipeline of leaders of color in the city of Boston. She currently serves on several city and state-wide boards and committees, including Boston Children’s Hospital Community Advisory Board and Massachusetts Nonprofit Network Board of Directors. As a graduate of the Institute for Nonprofit Practice, she serves as a Senior Fellow and a mentor to several up-and-coming nonprofit leaders through INP. In her spare time, Yi-Chin volunteers with several animal rescue organizations and enjoys honing her skills as a photographer.
Jen Faigel Executive Director, CommonWealth Kitchen; INP Alum
Jen Faigel is the Executive Director of CommonWealth Kitchen (CWK), a Dorchester-based economic development organization on a mission to build a resilient food economy grounded in racial, social, and economic justice.
CWK’s core programs include operation of a shared kitchen that is home to 50+ diverse food businesses – over 85% BIPOC-owned, combined with a range of business education and technical training programs. CWK also operates a food manufacturing social enterprise, which helps emerging artisan food businesses scale, and fills a key market gap for small-batch co-packing and processing for regional farms. CWK complements these programs with a robust market development strategy focused on forging values-aligned strategic partnerships to drive sales opportunities for member companies and connect the dots in our largely fragmented, insular, industrial food system.
Prior to joining CWK in 2014, Jen spent 20+ years as an affordable housing and mission-focused commercial real estate developer. In her career, Jen has developed or preserved nearly 1,000 homes and over 250k square feet of commercial real estate. Jen currently serves on the Steering Committee of the Massachusetts Coalition for an Equitable Economy. She’s also a member of the National Council of Development Finance Agencies’ Food Systems Finance Council, and on the Advisory Board for Tufts Food and Nutrition Innovation Institute. A former Barr Fellow, Jen lives by the motto “It doesn’t matter how fast you run or high you jump, it’s how well you bounce.”
Andrés Holder Executive Director, Boston Children’s Chorus
Andrés Holder has over ten years of experience in performing arts management through his work with Gala Hispanic Theatre, Arena Stage, and The Washington Ballet. He has led a portfolio of projects at the intersection of arts and business, focusing on strategic planning, financial modeling, technological implementation, production, intellectual property, labor relations, and real estate. Mr. Holder produced a plethora of performances for The Washington Ballet at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and has produced at renowned venues in D.C. and beyond, including Wolf Trap, Live Nation’s Warner Theatre, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, The Joyce, and New York City Center’s Fall for Dance.
Additionally, he has produced, directed, and designed productions in Panamá’s Teatro Nacional, which garnered him multiple Premio Escenas Awards for Excellence in Panamanian Theatre for his design and directorial work. In 2017, he directed the Central American premiere of the musical “RENT”, in commitment to the furthering of social justice for LGBTQIA+ people in Panamá. He has worked with award-winning artists, including Julie Kent, Charles Randolph Wright, Kathleen Turner, Pasek & Paul, Malcom-Jamal Warner, Ben Platt, Michael Greif, George C. Wolfe, Katori Hall, David Auburn, and more.
Born and raised in Panamá, Mr. Holder moved to the United States to pursue his education at the University of Michigan (UM). He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from UM’s School of Music, Theatre, and Dance.
You can often find him listening to flamenco, gospel, salsa, and Broadway show tunes.
Ruthzee Louijeune President, Boston City Council & Boston City Councilor At-Large
Ruthzee Louijeune, serving her second term as City Councilor At-Large and unanimously elected as Boston City Council President, is a grounded, thoughtful, and inclusive leader. A dedicated public servant, Ruthzee is committed to fostering shared prosperity in Boston with a focus on justice and equity. Born and raised in Mattapan and Hyde Park to working-class Haitian immigrants, Ruthzee’s journey is deeply rooted in the fabric of Boston. Her first job was as a walking tour guide with the youth organization MYTOWN, where she offered a people-centered history of Boston’s neighborhoods. While a student activist, Ruthzee contributed to redesigning the student assignment process under Mayor Menino and served as a Ward Fellow for former State Representative Marie St. Fleur.
As a lawyer, Ruthzee fought for families facing eviction and foreclosure in Boston Housing Court. She defended voting rights in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, helped elect progressive prosecutors nationwide, and served as the senior attorney on Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign. A fierce housing advocate, she drafted agreements that secured millions of dollars for first-generation homeowners as a member of Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA).
In her first term as a City Councilor At-Large, Ruthzee chaired the Committee on Civil Rights and Immigrant Advancement, where she successfully advocated for the expansion of the Office of Returning Citizens, won financial support for immigrants and new arrivals, stood up for the rights of our LGBTQ+ siblings, and convened marginalized communities for a civil rights forum to tackle pressing issues together. After a federal court order returned the proposed district map to the council, Ruthzee successfully led the redistricting process to pass a new map.
Additionally, she served as Vice Chairs of the Committee on Government Operations and Housing and Community Development. In these roles, she advocated for affordable housing and accessible homeownership, resilient, energy-efficient school buildings, teacher diversity, and more supportive services for students – all in an effort to address racial justice and equity. Her advocacy resulted in budget wins for communities too often overlooked.
Ruthzee makes history as the first Haitian American elected to Boston municipal government, the U.S. city with the second largest Haitian population per capita, and the first Haitian American to serve as President of the council. An alumna of Boston Public Schools, Columbia University, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Ruthzee is trilingual, fluent in French and Haitian Creole, with conversational proficiency in Spanish. Her multifaceted background and unwavering dedication to serving her community make her a transformative leader shaping the future of Boston.
Sandra M. McCroom President & Chief Executive Officer, Children’s Services of Roxbury; INP Faculty Member
Sandra M. McCroom is an inspiring leader who has been leading Children’s Services of Roxbury (CSR) since 2015. Under her leadership, the organization has experienced double-digit revenue growth and earned prestigious awards like the 2018 Peer Provider Recognition Award by the Massachusetts Provider’s Council. Sandra’s leadership at CSR has also resulted in the purchase of the organization’s Roxbury headquarters in January 2021. Sandra’s vision is to demonstrate the strength and resilience of the families served by CSR. She is rooted in her upbringing as the daughter of civil rights activists and inspired by causes and initiatives that change the trajectory for communities of color. Before joining CSR, Sandra served in the state government as Undersecretary for Criminal Justice in the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. She oversaw the Department of Correction, the Sex Offender Registry, and Parole Boards. Her cross-sector experience has taught her the importance of nurturing and supporting children to prevent them from ending up in the child welfare or criminal justice system. The Massachusetts Provider’s Council has recognized Sandra’s leadership, awarding her the Board Chair’s Award in 2020. Sandra enjoys painting, listening to music, and spending time with her 82-year-old mother.
Simar Singh Chief Program Officer, RefugePoint
Simar Singh is a humanitarian and nonprofit leader. She currently serves as the Chief Program Officer for RefugePoint, a global humanitarian agency working to advance lasting solutions for refugees. She has 18+ years of experience in creating partnerships and developing policy and standards of practice to improve the lives of people affected by war and other crises. Prior to joining RefugePoint, she worked at Conflict Dynamics International and the Watchlist on Children in Armed Conflict. Simar is a skilled facilitator and has designed and delivered training on child protection, humanitarian access, and humanitarian negotiation for UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs. She has overseen programs and projects in several humanitarian and emergency settings, including Afghanistan, Colombia, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda, and Yemen. Her work has been published in Forced Migration Review, Humanitarian Exchange, and the UN Chronicle. Simar is a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Square Theater in Cambridge, MA. She holds a graduate degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and an undergraduate degree in International Relations from Mount Holyoke College. She is originally from India and lives in Boston with her husband and her dog.
Sue & Bernie Pucker 
Marc Skvirsky