Our Team

Alma Chislom, President

Alma is a BNCLT resident and leader.  She coordinates the Stewardship Committee, connecting BNCLT board members, the property management company and the residents of our properties. Her association with the land trust started when she lived in a home that was in foreclosure and in threat of being auctioned. Her property is now part of BNCLT.  It is her hope to give back to her community and those who have helped her and her family through organizing in her community to end displacement. When not organizing or teaching peers on housing issues, Alma works as a team leader in the healthcare field.  She has raised 5 children in Dorchester. 

Cindy Heraldo

Cindy Heraldo lives on Park Street close to one of BNCLT’s buildings. She runs a childcare business, works as a beauty consultant, and has been active in her community for a long time. Originally from Trinidad, Cindy has lived in Boston for over 24 years. Cindy is a natural leader. She has taken a lead role with her neighbors and BNCLT to activate the vacant lot next to her building. She is always coming up with creative ideas for things to do in the lot, and has been a fantastic steward of the garden the neighborhood has created over the last 2 years.

Cortina Vann

Cortina is a Community Organizer with Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA) in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She has been working with MAHA’s grassroots group of community members since 1999, and has over eleven years working for financial service organizations. At MAHA, she has staffed campaigns that have led to an increase in the city of Boston’s linkage fee and establishment of an inclusionary development policy, as well as helping to pass the Community Preservation Act (CPA). Cortina is a supporter and volunteer with the Black Economic Justice Institute and member of the Blue Hills Corridor Commission. Before coming to MAHA, she worked at Fleet Bank underwriting small business loans. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Cortina grew up in Roxbury. She received her B.A. in Business Administration: Accounting & Management at George Washington University’s Mount Vernon Campus. She is committed to BNCLT to make sure that low to moderate-income working-class individuals and families have options on where they choose to live and not be displaced from their homes. 

Eloise P. Lawrence, Clerk 

Eloise has been a proud member of BNCLT- formerly COHIF- since 2015. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the Deputy Faculty Director of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau (HLAB). HLAB was one of the founding members of BNCLT that was created in response to the massive displacement occurring from the foreclosure crisis. Lawrence has been working to defend homeowners and tenants since the start of the foreclosure crisis in 2008, when she was working for Greater Boston Legal Services, another founding member of BNCLT.  In her current practice, she represents families who are being displaced from their homes and communities due to gentrification and speculation. In addition to protecting tenants in the courts, she, along with her students, works closely with community organizers to ensure tenants realize their collective power. She started her legal career working on civil rights issues in Chicago Public Housing as a Skadden Fellow. She received a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law in 2002 and a B.A. from Stanford University in 1995.

Eric Boyd

Eric was born and raised in Boston. After being priced out of the South End, he moved to Somerville, where he lived for 20 years. He then moved to Dorchester 16 years ago. Eric was one of the residents who organized to win 6 Humphreys Place after years of legal battles between tenants and the landlord who had sent them no-fault eviction notices. Through their organizing, the tenants prevailed, winning a collective bargaining agreement that allowed them to stay in their homes, which became a permanent reality once BNCLT purchased the building in 2022.  

Following the tenant victory, Eric says: “Don’t give up or give in, ‘cause when we fight, we win. I’m living proof.”

Erica Schwarz

Erica comes to BNCLT with a determination to address the ever worsening housing crisis and with the belief that the only way to create lasting justice is through community organizing and grassroots action. Erica lives in Fields Corner and is active with Dorchester Not for Sale. Professionally, Erica has served as the Community Organizer and then Executive Director of WATCH Community Development Corporation in Waltham, the Executive Director of Southwest Boston CDC in Hyde Park, and as a Program Officer with LISC. Currently, Erica is the Community Project Manager with the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority, advancing real estate projects that support the sustainability of nonprofit services in Cambridge.

Gregory Bialecki, Treasurer

Gregory joined the board of BNCLT (formerly COHIF) in 2015, bringing over 30 years of experience in real estate development within both the public and private sectors. Prior to joining Redgate, where Greg serves now as Principal, Greg served as Cabinet Secretary for the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was actively engaged in promoting mixed-use transit-oriented developments that included multifamily housing. Under Greg’s leadership, his office received the Robert C. Larson Workforce Housing Public Policy Award from the Urban Land Institute in 2013.

Joceline Fidalgo

Joceline Fidalgo is a life-long resident of North Dorchester and has been active in local community organizing since she was a teenager. She was a staff member at the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative for over 8 years, where she served as the Director of Development and Deputy Director. While at DSNI, she led fundraising and organizational development efforts. Seeing the success of the Dudley Neighbors Inc land trust and others in the Greater Boston area have made her very excited about what can be accomplished when community members control land and housing in their neighborhoods. She sees the CLT model as one of the few viable options for fighting displacement and ensuring community control over local development. She is excited to help contribute to BNCLTs growth. She is also an amazing mom to 3yr old, Zaia Maria.

Kathy Brown

Kathy is one of the founding members of COHIF, Inc, and has helped steward our transition to BNCLT, Inc.  She has been a long-time leader in the housing justice movement in Boston. Kathy serves as the Coordinator of Boston Tenants Coalition, and has played a key role in tenants' rights campaigns. She also serves on the board of JPNDC.

Susan Chihambakwe

Susan is a BNCLT resident and active leader. She participated in the CLT Ambassador program, and brings a commitment to leadership and peer learning to share BNCLT's model. Susan is passionate about protecting tenants’ rights, and actively supports tenants in Boston who face eviction, including regularly accompanying tenants in housing court. Susan plays a big role in helping with public policy at Rosie’s Place. She is an artist by trade, dedicating her talents to making clothes and jewelry.

Meridith Levy, Executive Director

mlevy@bnclt.org | 617-237-6044

Meridith Levy joined BNCLT in January, 2020 as BNCLT’s Executive Director. She brings 20 years of experience from the community development sector, with a background in community organizing and planning, and organizational management-- focusing on social and economic equity, anti-displacement, and land use. Meridith began her organizing career in Minnesota using the Community Reinvestment Act to hold banks accountable to family farmers.  She led numerous community planning initiatives and organizing campaigns in Fitchburg, MA and Somerville, MA, helping to win passage of Somerville’s Community Preservation Act; increased Inclusionary Zoning to 20%; and establishment of Somerville’s Jobs Linkage Fee. As Deputy Director of Somerville Community Corporation from 2013-2020, Meridith helped create and oversee SCC’s First Source Jobs Program and the Social Equity Campaign. Meridith studied emerging approaches to community capital and finance as a LISC Rubinger Fellow in 2018. She is excited to be a part of the BNCLT team to help build grassroots power and explore creative acquisition strategies for housing justice through the CLT model. 

MA and MS from Tufts University: Urban and Environmental Policy and Agriculture, Food and the Environment

Markeisha Moore, Resident Leadership Coordinator

mmoore@bnclt.org

Markeisha Moore is a community organizer and advocate focusing on affordable housing (preservation, new build, and policy). She has been part of Dorchester Not 4 Sale (DN4S) for the past five years, and part of the citywide Coalition for a Truly Affordable Boston (CTAB) for almost as long. She has also been a part of multiple community projects including helping shape BNCLT's Membership proposal. 

Lucille Culpepper-Jones, Project and Operations Manager

ljones@bnclt.org | 617-237-0110

Lucille Culpepper-Jones is a long-time resident of the urban community of Boston. She is Vice President of the Garrison Trotter Neighborhood Association. She is also the V.P. of the Trustee Board of Pleasant Hill Baptist church. She is an activist and has dedicated her work to promoting equity and inclusion on all levels for individuals. She also organizes and runs a food pantry in her community church. She serves in several advocacy groups in her community addressing displacement and gentrification issues. Lucille holds a Masters degree in Urban Policy and Planning from Tufts University. She is a proud single parent of two adult children.

Jason Desrosier, Community Stewardship Manager

jldesrosier@bnclt.org | 775-600-2122

Jason Desrosier joined BNCLT in April of 2023 as the Community Stewardship Manager. He brings over 10 years of experience in the community development sector with a background in community organizing, advocacy, and planning. As Community Stewardship Manager, Jason oversees BNCLT’s membership and communications systems, popular education and advocacy efforts, and the organization’s neighborhood planning and organizing activities. Jason approaches his work with an intersectional framework that he has learned through his experience working as an organizer in the Boston area, and the relationships he has built over the last decade in the housing justice space. Most recently, Jason served as Deputy Director at LivableStreets where he supported the Great Neighborhoods Network, a statewide network of organizations and groups representing the intersections of housing and land use, transit, and climate justice. Before that, he served as Manager of Community Action with the Allston Brighton Community Development Corporation where he spearheaded the organization’s resident leadership, policy advocacy, and organizing efforts. He is a graduate of Bridgewater State University, with a Bachelor’s in Urban Sociology and a minor in Social Work, as well as Northeastern University, where he earned a Master’s in Urban and Regional Policy and Planning.

Adrian R. Carillo and Adrian R. Carrillo Jr., Financial Consultants

Adrian R Carrillo and Adrian R Carrillo Jr. are working with BNCLT as financial consultants. Adrian Sr. started Carrillo Business Services over 20 years ago and has been a trusted advisor as CFO to small businesses and non-profits, the role he continues to play for BNCLT.  Adrian Jr. is providing Controller services to BNCLT. He has been with Carrillo Business Services for 14 years and obtained the IRS Enrolled Agent license in 2019.