Board of Directors

Grace Cotter Regan

Grace Cotter Regan is the first woman to serve as President of Boston College High School (BC High) in the school’s over 150 year history. Grace has deep roots in the Boston College High School and the Jesuit and Catholic educational communities. Grace has a long legacy with Boston College High School. Her father Jim Cotter first began teaching at BC High in 1960 where he chartered a storied career as a teacher, coach, councilor, athletic director, and fundraiser. Her son Bartley was a three sport athlete graduating in 2012. Grace herself is a graduate of Notre Dame Academy in Hingham, Massachusetts.

She has a BA in theology and sociology from Boston College, an M.Ed. in Student Affairs and Higher Education from the University of Vermont and an MA in Pastoral Ministry and Spirituality from the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. It was at BC that she embraced the Jesuit charism of being a person for others committed to a faith that does justice. After graduating from BC, Grace joined a Jesuit service mission to newly independent Belize, Central America where she taught English and Physical Education at Pallotti High School for girls. She has returned to Belize six times leading service trips for the Boston College Arrupe Service Program and the Boston College High School Hyde Center for Global Education.

Jon Santiago

Secretary

Jon Santiago is a Massachusetts State Representative, emergency room physician, and Captain in the US Army Reserves. He was born in Puerto Rico before moving to Boston with his parents when he was in elementary school. They lived in subsidized housing in Roxbury where he was exposed at an early age to the simultaneous crises of HIV/AIDS and gun violence that were decimating his neighborhood. These early experiences drove him to pursue a life of medicine and public service.

After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin and traveling the world as a member of the Peace Corp and then a Fulbright scholar, Jon returned to Boston to pursue a career in medicine. After graduating from Yale Medical School, Dr. Santiago joined the emergency department at Boston Medical Center (BMC), where he provided care to some of Boston’s most vulnerable communities, including on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Believing not enough was being done to address the critical issues facing his neighbors, especially the opioid crisis, Jon decided to run in 2018 to represent the 9th Suffolk District (including Roxbury, The South End, Fenway, and Back Bay) in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and defeated a longtime incumbent. Since being elected, Rep. Santiago has been a leading voice on healthcare, including combating the opioid crisis and COVID-19, transportation, and climate change. He also remains active in his community through service on several boards of directors, including the South End Community Health Center, Friends of the South End Library, Friends of Titus Sparrow Spark, and the Puerto Rican Veterans Park.

Jacob Citrin

Jacob is the founder and CEO of Cargo Ventures LLC, an owner and developer of logistics facilities throughout the United States and Europe. Founded in 2003, Cargo Ventures LLC focuses on developing and repositioning industrial and office facilities in close proximity to major airports and seaports, the key transportation hubs in our economy. Jacob leads the executive team and has guided the development of over $3.2 billion of logistics and last-mile distribution facilities nationally and internationally.

Prior to founding Cargo Ventures, Jacob had a ten-year career with International Airport Centers LLC (IAC) and its predecessor company. There Jacob led the site selection, acquisition and permitting processes and served on the Management Committee of the company.

Renée Landers

Renée Landers is a Professor of Law, Faculty Director of the Health and Biomedical Law Concentration and the Masters of Science in Law: Life Sciences program at Suffolk University Law School in Boston.

Renée was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance, the President of the Boston Bar Association in 2003-2004, and was the first woman of color and the first law professor to serve in that position. Renée has worked in private practice and served as Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Justice during the Clinton Administration.

Renée has served as the president of the Boards of Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, the Shady Hill School, the Harvard Board of Overseers, and has also served on the Board of WGBH and the Board of Overseers of Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

Dan Rivera

Dan Rivera has spent his entire career in public service, working for non-profit organizations and in government. Catholic Charities, the Mauricio Gaston Institute, UMass Boston, and the Stadium Courts & Market Street housing projects at the Lawrence Housing Authority, where Dan grew up, are among the many organizations he has served. Dan also served as Special Assistant to Lawrence Mayor Patricia Dowling, and in 2009, he was elected to the Lawrence City Councilor as a Councilor-at-Large.

In 2012, Dan was elected to his first term as Mayor of Lawrence and elected to a second term in 2016. As Mayor, he has worked hard to rebuild Lawrence’s public safety departments and reduce crime. He has also worked hard to regain the community’s trust in the City’s financial health, and to bring jobs and economic growth to Lawrence. Dan oversaw the implementation of the state’s turnaround plan for the Lawrence Public Schools which resulted in the creation of the city’s first accelerated studies program and a continued increase in the percentage of students scoring at proficient and advanced levels. This work resulted in increased graduation rates by over 51% from 2014 to 2019.

Dan attended Lawrence Public Schools and after graduating high school, he enlisted in the United States Army 3rd Armored Division. He was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait in support of Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield. After his tour overseas, he returned home and worked his way through college at UMass Amherst, where he completed his undergraduate degree in three years. Dan was the first in his family to graduate college. He is currently President and CEO of MassDevelopment.

Lenworth A. Williamson

Len joins the board with 10 years of experience in education and youth development work. He currently serves as the Program Director at BUILD Boston, overseeing entrepreneurship programming in their partner high schools. Prior to BUILD, he worked at the Pingree School as the Dean of Students, a history teacher, and basketball coach. Coaching local youth basketball teams while playing professional ball overseas after college was the spark for Len to ultimately get into teaching. Be it school or sports, he's an advocate for experiential learning and believes in the power of a growth mindset.

He earned a B.A. in Sociology from Amherst College and an M.Ed. in K-12 Learning & Instruction from Northeastern University.

Jan Saragoni

Jan is President of Saragoni & Company, a Boston-based communications consultancy specializing in media relations, crisis communications, and issues management. Active in a range of educational and nonprofit organizations, she serves on the boards of Massachusetts College of Art & Design and the Harvard Club of Boston, and is a Proprietor at the Boston Athenaeum. She is also a member of the Concord Cultural Commission and has previously served on the boards of the Massachusetts Convention Authority, the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission, the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, and the Executive Committee of Save Venice.

Before founding her firm in 1996, Jan served as director of marketing for the Hynes Convention Center, director of communications for the Massachusetts Department of Public Works, and assistant press secretary in the Mayor’s Office of Communications for the City of Boston. As a correspondent for the Associated Press, she covered local news and politics across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia.

Jan earned a B.A. in American Studies from Amherst College and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. She also attended Cape Cod Community College and completed advanced studies at the University of Perugia. She holds dual American and Italian citizenship and treasures time spent in her adopted second home of Greece.

Cheryl Cronin

Cheryl Cronin served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Boston Public Market Association for ten years until March 2026. The BPMA operates the Boston Public Market, a unique and vibrant civic space which is the only locally sourced market of its kind in the United States.

Cheryl has been a leader in numerous business and nonprofit organizations, with a particular interest in those focused on the vitality of the city and the advancement of individuals and organizations in a variety of sections of Boston and the Commonwealth. She has served on the boards of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, the Greenway Conservancy, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Foundation, the Alliance for Business Leadership and the Board of the National Center for Time Learning/Mass 2020. She served as Chair of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee for the development of “Boylston Square,” Boston, where she guided a lengthy public process involving different stakeholders. She most recently ended a lengthy tenure on the Board of Trustees of the Boston Public Library.

A graduate of Boston College Law School and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Cheryl began her professional career as the first General Counsel of the Office of Campaign Political Finance. She served as Legislative Counsel to the Attorney General of the Commonwealth and played a key role in advancing policies and legislation through the executive branch and the legislature. In private practice for many years after her public service, Cheryl developed one of the leading public law practices in the Northeast. Cheryl served as the General Counsel for the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston and has served as finance chair and steering committee member for many political and civic projects. She was the Massachusetts Legal Counsel for both of President Obama’s national campaigns and served on the national legal team as well as on the Obama National Finance Committee. She is currently on the board of Sail Boston, which is bringing the Tall Ships to Boston this summer.

Cheryl and her husband raised their three children in Back Bay in Boston, where they currently reside.

Heather Wilson

Heather Wilson has spent her career as an early childhood educator, teaching kindergarten and first grade at schools in New York City, London, and Massachusetts, with the bulk of her years at the McCarthy-Towne School in Acton, MA. She holds a BA in Psychology and Art History from Williams College and an EdM from Harvard University.

Raised by an artist mother in a home that valued creativity and experimentation, she brought those same values into her classroom, believing that when children are given room to take risks and explore, they surprise themselves. That belief in the transformative power of encouragement and mentorship is what draws her to The Valedictorian Project's mission.

Outside of education, she volunteers with Household Goods Recycling Ministry and the Acton Boxborough Community Compass, and serves on the Board of a small summer community in New York's Catskill Mountains. She is grateful for the opportunity to support TVP's important work.