Who We Are

I formed the Summit Collaborative in 1999. It provides an alternative working structure for me and my colleagues who devote their professional work to building a more just and healthy society. These talented individuals wear many hats and serve as consultants, educators, entrepreneurs, activists, strategists, researchers, planners and writers. They have their own very successful enterprises but still find it beneficial at times to work under the Summit Collaborative umbrella. I'm proud to call them all friends and colleagues. At any given time there could be just a handful or a large number of us involved in projects. Browse in our About Our Work section to learn more about what we do, who we serve and what we specialize in.  To learn about my work as the collaboratives founder click here. Now a little bit about my colleagues.

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Michael Dechiara

Michael has worked in the non-profit sector since 1985. He has worked on issues of the environment, homelessness and health coverage. His worked has focused on local, statewide and national activities.Michael has extensive management and organizational experience and is seen as an innovative and thoughtful leader. Michael has a dual Masters Degree from Tufts University's Political Science and Urban & Environmental Policy in Public Policy. Among Michael's strengths is his ability to think strategically, to facilitate collaborative undertakings and to understand organizations. 

Kathleen Traphagen

Kathleen specializes in helping non-profits and government agencies build capacity and achieve their mission. Areas of particular skill include facilitating problem solving, goal setting, and strategic planning with diverse groups, grantwriting and written communications, and project management. Kathleen developed expertise in after-school programming, youth development, non-profit & school partnerships, early childhood care & education, and workforce development through 15 years in the non-profit and government sectors. Most recently, she was Executive Director of the Mayor’s Boston 2:00-to-6:00 After-School Initiative, where she provided leadership for citywide efforts to expand and improve after-school programming for Boston’s young people.

Beth Kanter

Beth is a trainer, blogger, and consultant to nonprofits and individuals in effective use of social media. Her expertise is how to use new web tools (blogging, tagging, wikis, photo sharing, video blogging, screencasting, social networking sites, and virtual worlds, etc) to support nonprofit. She has worked on projects that include: training, curriculum development, research, and evaluation. She is an experienced coach to "digital immigrants" in the personal mastery of these tools. She is a professional blogger and writes about the use of social media tools in the nonprofit sector for social change.

Johanna Bates

Johanna has been a non-profit techie since 1999. Formerly a Web Technologist at the WGBH Educational Foundation in Boston, she joined Community Partners in 2002. As CP's Director of Technology Strategy, she helps the organization choose tools and design programs that use technology to advance health care reform in Massachusetts. Johanna has hand-coded, configured and maintained dynamic websites in a variety of open-source content management systems, including Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla and phpBB, and has worked on sites rich in audio and video content. She is fluent in HTML and CSS and can hand-code practically any design template in her sleep.

Michael Stein

Michael is a writer and nonprofit management consultant who works at the intersection of technology, marketing, and fundraising. The author of three books and numerous articles in this field, he recently wrote about uses of mobile phones in civil society for MobileActive. Michael has provided strategic support to numerous organizations on Internet strategy including: The William J. Clinton Foundation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, United Nations Food Programme, The James Irvine Foundation, and American Lung Association of California. Michael's opinion and analysis have been featured in numerous media, including The New York Times, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, National Public Radio, Wired News, TechSoup.org, and The Nonprofit Quarterly.

Michelle Murrain

Michelle has been involved in developing content and applications for the web, specifically for organizational, research and educational purposes, since 1994. In 1995, Michelle started a consulting practice that served the non-profit and educational sectors, primarily in the areas of developing database-driven web-sites, the implementation of Open Source software, and strategic technology planning. She is a nationally recognized leader in the nonprofit technology field. She is on the steering committee of the Non Profit Open Source Initiative (NOSI), and on the board of NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network. She was a past member of the board of Aspiration, an organization that fosters software development in the nonprofit/NGO sector.

Rob Stuart

Rob is a famous "early adopter" who's been leading the way in Internet media and network strategy for numerous political and advocacy organizations since 1995. His focus is to deepen and widen the capacity of non-profits to use technology that motivates and engage those who are sympathetic to their causes. Rob also helped found NPower PA, TechRocks (a supporting organization to the Rockefeller Family Fund), and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. He is former Chair of Taxpayers for Common Sense, and serves on the boards of PennEnvironment, Free Schuylkill River Park and the Eastern Environmental Law Center.Rob was a Paul Robeson Scholar at Livingston College and graduated with Honors in Political Science from Rutgers University.

Jillaine Smith

With two decades' experience supporting and tracking nonprofit use of the Internet, Jillaine helps organizations design and develop communications strategies, and assess and build the organizational readiness to implement their initiatives. From leadership positions in both nonprofits and foundations, Jillaine brings experience in project development and management, training and documentation. She was associate director of the Institute for Global Communications (1989-1996) and developed and led Benton Foundation's program in "Strategic Communications in the Digital Age" (1996-2002).