Meet the Director

How did you get into this field?

I started in journalism which to me is another kind of public service; I was a journalist for about 15 years. It was a combination of the things that I experienced during a mid-career fellowship at Harvard and the eventual conversations with Deval Patrick when he was a candidate. He asked me not only to come and join his campaign but to come and participate in a different kind of public service and I was inspired and intrigued by his vision of public service, his interest in bringing in a new perspective and new people to public service and to the idea of becoming more civically engaged. From the campaign he asked me to start as policy director in his office, an experience I very much enjoyed and learned from, but by late summer I had developed an interest in the area of how the state serves its refugees and immigrants. That area seemed a perfect blending of many of my personal and professional interests and experiences; having grown up in an immigrant home and community and having covered people and communities that had been displaced from their own homes because of conflict or political chaos or economic misery. Being able to link those experiences, as well as my constant and deep interest in foreign policy and world affairs, to the health of our communities in Massachusetts made this agency a perfect place for me to bring my talents and be able to help contribute.

Who would you consider to be your mentor and why?

I have learned so much form so many generous and talented people that it would be unfair for me to name any one person or even a few people as a mentor. I have relatives like my mom, who has been a mentor for me, in the ways that she is so generous with people. My Wife is in some ways a mentor, even my kids at times teach me a lesson or two about the importance of just enjoying life. I’ve also had professors, bosses, colleagues, secretaries, and even a Governor who I could say that I have borrowed things from, or learned from, throughout my career. I guess I can say that because most of my career has been spent in journalism a lot of my professional mentors have been from that field and I have only more recently started cultivating a new group of mentors who are much more public policy oriented. That has been both exciting, to be cultivating these new relationships, but also a little challenging, at my advanced age, to be learning so much. I think it’s safe to say that I use a very broad definition for mentor because I honestly always look for lessons to pick up from people I meet every day.

What quote do you live by?

I don’t have any one quote, in part because I’ve been blessed to learn from so many patient people.

What has been the most memorable moment of your career?

I’d have to say there are three. One from my career as a journalist, was the time that I spent in the hills of eastern Colombia working on a story about the narco-trafficking industry. The industry had so desolated a village in eastern Colombia that it had rendered the town lawless. The fighting had become so intense and the village was so dangerous that there were no more children living there. The village’s Catholic nuns, who were devoted to teaching the children, instead had taken to going to the nearby river and pulling out the corpses that had washed up and burying them in the cemetery next to their church. We stayed with the nuns in their convent; I spent a lot of time with them.

I had two memorable moments in this new chapter. The first was election day of 2006, when we convincingly succeeded in getting Governor Patrick elected, not just because of the margin of our victory but because of the numbers of people who came out, many of them for the first time, to participate and vote. The last was the time back in September 2007 when I spoke to a group of about 40 newly arrived Kunama Eritreans at the Eritrean Community Center in Boston and had an opportunity to welcome them to their new home here in Massachusetts. Seeing the look of excitement, wonder, curiosity, and probably a little bit of anxiety, as well as relief, in their faces about their new home and country was inspiring. It really emphasized for me how important it is that we as a Commonwealth do all that we can to be as welcoming and supportive of all of our refugees, because you realize all of the tremendous sacrifices that they’re making by coming here and basically starting their lives over.

Can you share an interesting fact about yourself that your colleagues wouldn’t necessarily know?

I have traveled to 29 different countries (including five trips to Cuba) mostly during my time as a foreign correspondent.

Is there anything you’d like people to know about your agency?

ORI is a window to the future of the Commonwealth. More than half of our refugees come from Africa and the former Soviet Union, while more than half of our immigrants come from Latin America and Asia. Massachusetts is fortunate to have one of the most diverse and vibrant refugee and immigrant populations in the world. ORI’s work helps ensure that all of our newest arrivals become happy, healthy and productive residents and citizens.