A Senior Associate at the Collins Center, Mary Aicardi brings nearly thirty years of experience in public sector human resources administration and labor relations to the Collins Center. She served for more than eight years as the personnel director for the town of Watertown, worked as the assistant personnel director for the Town of Barnstable, and served as an Interim Human Resource Director for the Town of Braintree and Lasell College. She is a management member of the Commonwealth’s Joint Labor Management Committee, serves on the Board of the Massachusetts Municipal Personnel Association as a past chair, and is certified by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination as a trainer of discrimination and sexual harassment prevention. Aicardi has conducted training programs on a wide range of human resources topics, including performance appraisal, progressive discipline, and sexual harassment prevention, and has consulted with many cities and towns as a hearing officer in discipline cases and as an advisor in organizational restructuring. She has also reviewed and modernized classification and compensation plans for more than 50 municipalities. She earned her MPA and BA in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Christa Kelleher has worked in nonprofit, legislative, and political settings and currently serves as Research and Policy Director of UMass Boston’s Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy. In this role since 2007, she has enjoyed building and managing diverse teams to conduct collaborative action research on public leadership and a range of public policy issues. She has worked with several municipalities to advance their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. She earned her PhD in Sociology from Brandeis University.

Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson, PhD, MPH, MA, is an expert on the intersection of race, class and gender in health, health care, and social policy. In addition, she has led DEIA initiatives, research, and programs, in multiple sectors and settings, including municipalities, nonprofits, public and private schools and universities, advisory boards, and healthcare institutions. As Director of UMass Boston's Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy and Graduate Program in Gender, Leadership, and Public Policy, she is committed to anti-racism, equity, and inclusion in her work as a faculty member, executive leader, and researcher.

An alumna of UMass Boston’s Gender, Leadership, and Public Policy graduate program, Dr. Kelly D. Smith is a Collins Center Associate. She is also founder of AEWAS Consulting, which guides individuals, organizations, and communities through data-informed change processes to empower equity and social mobility. Additionally, she serves as a Data Coach with Achieving the Dream, supporting community colleges as they work to diminish equity gaps and improve student outcomes. Kelly earned her EdD in Adult and Community College Education from North Carolina State University. She received an MS in Forensic Science from George Washington University, an MS in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a BA in Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University.

Anthony Ivan Wilson is a Collins Center Associate and has been practicing law in Massachusetts since 2012. During law school he served as an investigator at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. As a lawyer, he represented the City of Springfield in discrimination matters in the Federal Court, State Court, and before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. He also negotiated with the Federal Government on behalf of the City of Springfield during several equity audits that related to the receipt of federal grants. In 2016, he was appointed City Clerk in Springfield, where he addressed several union and equity issues. In 2019, he was appointed City Clerk for the City of Cambridge and led the office through the COVID-19 pandemic.