The nine members are Timothy M. Loew, John W. Rodriguez, Giovanni S. Blue, Christina M. Andreoli, Joseph W. Kahora, Carl A. Herrin, Mary Beth Burke, Timothy P. Murray and Emily P. Trevallion.
Loew, co-founder and executive director of the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute, will serve as board chair.
The board will oversee the Worcester Guardian’s operations by providing financial oversight, ensuring adequate resources, enhancing the organization’s public standing, and recruiting new board members.
Former Telegram & Gazette executive editor David Nordman will continue to oversee the journalism as the lead consultant. Nordman recently hired Charlene Arsenault as the Worcester Guardian’s first editor.
Nordman says the formation of the board is an important step toward establishing independence from the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce whose $50,000 gift helped establish the Worcester Guardian.
“This is a community effort and the community has stepped up,” Nordman says. “The directors include nonprofit leaders, medical professionals, college professors, high school counselors, lawyers and bankers.
“The board includes people with journalism backgrounds and people without. The board includes lifelong residents and recent immigrants.”
Loew brings relevant board experience from time at New England Public Media, where he was on the executive committee, and the Worcester Public Library Foundation, where he was president.
A graduate of Tufts University, he serves on the boards of the Worcester Cultural Coalition and Southern Worcester County Economic Development Organization. He is also a corporator at the Ecotarium and an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society.
“Speaking for all of us on the founding board, we are excited to help establish the Worcester Guardian,” Loew says. “We know there is a lot of work ahead of us and we are eager to dig in. Worcester is a special place and the more we can all read about its complexities, its vibrancy, its idiosyncrasies, the better.”
Rodriguez is a counselor at Worcester East Middle School, president of the Worcester Latino Dollars for Scholars and on the board of Worcester Comprehensive Education and Care. A native of Puerto Rico, he lived and worked in Great Brook Valley where he was a youth worker, drug elimination coordinator and family coordinator. He’s also a youth minister and religious educator at Saint Joan of Arc Parish, and a founding member of Adelante Worcester and the Worcester Working Coalition for Latino Students.
Blue is a business development manager at Workplace Resource where he is tasked with maintaining strong client relations, implementing new target market initiatives, developing plans for business and revenue growth, and monitoring sales progress. A graduate of Worcester Academy and Merrimack College, he is a member of the Worcester Economic Club, Worcester Diverse Professional Roundtable and International Facility Management Association.
Andreoli is senior vice president of private banking at Berkshire Bank. She was previously president of Discover Central Massachusetts, and chief of staff for City Manager Michael V. O’Brien and the Executive Office of Economic Development. A graduate of Syracuse University, she served as executive director for the Worcester Public Library Foundation, where she helped raise the funds to build four libraries inside public elementary schools. She currently serves on the boards of Notre Dame Academy and Catholic Charities of Worcester County.
Kahoro is a physician assistant at UMass Memorial Health – Harrington Hospital, serving as an internal medicine primary care provider. A native of Worcester and graduate of Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, he also serves as a member of the board of directors at Family Health Center of Worcester.
Herrin is chief of staff to the president at Worcester State University, where he has been employed since 2011. A graduate of Georgetown University, he spent 25 years working in nonprofit organizations in the Washington, D.C., area. That includes roles with the Council on Standards for International Student Travel, Washington Internship Institute and Association for Safe International Road Travel. He was a member of the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation and was elected chair of the Education Abroad Knowledge Committee of NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
Burke, a 30-year resident of Worcester, earned her undergraduate degree from the College of the Holy Cross and master’s degree from Boston College. She was a founding member of the Abby Kelley Foster Public Charter School and served on the MBTA Board of Directors. She was an adjunct professor at Assumption University for 25 years in the politics department, and worked as a research associate and intern director for the Worcester Regional Research Bureau.
Murray has been the president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce since 2013. He was previously elected lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, working alongside Gov. Deval Patrick, after serving three terms as Worcester’s mayor. A lifelong city resident, Murray attended public schools in Worcester, St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury, Fordham University and Western New England College School of Law.
Trevallion is the assistant vice president of media relations at The Hanover Insurance Group, headquartered in Worcester. She has more than 15 years’ experience working in media relations and public relations for a variety of public, private and non-profit companies. A graduate of Framingham State University, she began her career working at the school’s Office of Public Affairs where she found her passion for media.
