BOARD
Barbara Lomax, MSW – is Boston native. She currently serves as a social worker/advocate for
the Committee for Public Counsel. She is passionate about organizing with disenfranchised communities in the Boston area. Particularly addressing gendered violence and youth violence. She received her Master’s in Social Work in 2006 from Simmons College.
Ching-In Chen – Ching-In Chen is the author of The Heart’s Traffic (Arktoi/Red Hen Press, 2009) and a multi-genre, border-crossing writer. Daughter of Chinese immigrants, she is a Kundiman and Lambda Fellow and a member of the Macondo and Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundations writing communities. A community organizer, she has worked in the Asian American communities of San Francisco, Oakland, Riverside and Boston, as well as helped organize the third national Asian Pacific American Spoken Word and Poetry Summit in Boston. Chen is also the co-editor of The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities (South End Press, 2011) and Here Is a Pen: an Anthology of West Coast Kundiman Poets (Achiote Press, 2009).
Heather Wightman – Treasurer
Hez Norton – Is currently Executive Transitions Program Manager at Third Sector New England. Hez previously served as the executive director of Resource Generation, a national nonprofit that engages young adults with financial wealth in social change philanthropy. Prior to Resource Generation, Hez founded and was the executive director of North Carolina Lambda Youth Network. Hez also led the youth involvement program in the North Carolina Governor’s Office and was a program officer for Learn and Serve America with the North Carolina Commission on National and Community Service. Hez brings experience as an interim executive director as well as a consultant to nonprofits in the areas of organizational development and fundraising.
A Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellow, Hez also received a fellowship from the Lyndhurst Foundation’s Southern Community Partners Program. Hez served as a board member of the Funding Exchange Foundation and currently sits on the board of Funders for Gay and Lesbian Issues. Hez is a co-creator and contributing editor to the book Classified: How to Stop Hiding Your Privilege and Use It for Social Change. Hez received a B.A. in public policy from Duke University and a master’s degree in public administration from
Northeastern University.
Jane Rocamora is currently a Clinic Supervisor for the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic at Greater Boston Legal Services. Her background in litigation has included a wide range of human rights, domestic civil rights and criminal law cases. She is a Board Member and member of the Litigation Advisory Committee of the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) and a member of the Coalition on Women’s Human Rights in Conflict Situations, based in Canada’s International Center for Human Rights & Democratic Development.
Marina Livshits, PsyD. brings her experience as a Russian immigrant and seasoned psychologist and domestic violence counselor. She provides a specialized perspective on the Russian and Eastern European communities. Marina uses her Russian language skills, her clinical expertise and intimate familiarity with the cultural context into her own work with families and young people in crisis.
Meiver de la Cruz is a radical feminist PHD student studying the gendered, sexual, imperial, and racial politics of “belly dance” and Arab dance performance in the US. Meiver loves to work with youth, and emphasizes empowerment and the cultivation of self-esteem in her teaching. As powerful leader, trainer and facilitator Meiver helps design our quarterly Global Women’s Forums.
Ramani Sripada – Chair, Ramani is a human rights and social justice activist, who believes everyone should be treated with dignity and respect and have access to resources. She has extensive professional background in public health program development, implementation and evaluation. Ramani has led and participated on a variety of
partnerships, coalitions and advisory committees on local, regional and national levels. She is skilled in community organizing, strategic planning, organizational development, research, and grant writing. Ramani joined Matahari as part of the Fundraising Committee in 2006. In April 2007, she was hired as a consultant to facilitate Matahari’s
strategic planning process. Ramani is now part of the Board and the fundraising committee. Currently, she works as a program officer for MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation, where she oversees Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and Childhood Obesity Initiatives.
Sarav Chithambaram Sarav was born and raised in India (Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu) in the Southern sub continent. He is fluent in Tamil, English and Hindi. Currently he works as a Software Engineer by day for EMC. He acquired his Bachelors degree in Computer Science from Bharathiar University in Coimbatore and MS in Software Engineering from Brandeis University. A lot of his free time is dedicated to working for the GLBT community as an activist. His dedication to this is demonstrated by the fact that he currently sits on the Cambridge City’s GLBT commission as a commissioner and Co-Chair, Fenway Health Institutes Community Advisory Board and Queer Asian Pacific Alliance as a Board
member. Other interests of his include learning Indian classical dance Bharatanatyam and Odissi in Boston to stay in touch with his roots. Recently Sarav released his first documentary film “It’s my life – A South Asian Queer story in USA” (http://www.mediafactorylive.com). He is very passionate about what he does and is always looking to make new friends, new connections and do something new for the benefit of the community. As a Gay community activist he is very passionate about equal rights and creating awareness about the plight of GLBT Community members and their families in US and abroad. He has supported MataHari’s work since 2004 and frequently helps organize
fundraising and other various events for our organization.
Zarina Samai is a graduate of the University of Technology Mara in Malaysia and the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. She has a backround in finance and fundraising and has worked as managers for a variety of non-profit as well as for-profit organizations. In addition she has experience in direct client counseling with women who have suffered from domestic violence. Along with her counseling backround she has actively supervised shelters providing haven for survivors of domestic violence. She brings many skills to MataHari from her previous work and volunteers her time in our fundraising planning commitee. She was born in Malaysia and is busy raising a daughter
and recently gave birth to a baby girl. Some of her hobbies include scuba diving and singing as well as watching American Idol.
