Joan Wallace-Benjamin to be BUSSW Commencement Speaker

Joan Wallace-Benjamin, Ph.D., Chief of Staff to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, will be the School’s Commencement speaker on May 20, 2007.

In her role as Chief of Staff, Dr. Wallace-Benjamin oversees a staff of over 60; with this team, she works with the Governor to move the Administration’s policy, legislative, and political agenda forward. Her previous experience in management and organizational effectiveness in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors prepared her to assume this important responsibility.

In February 2003, Dr. Wallace-Benjamin assumed leadership of The Home for Little Wanderers, New England’s largest child welfare agency and one of the nation’s oldest, with a history dating back to 1799. Prior to this position, she was a consultant with Whitehead Mann, a global executive recruiting firm; the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts from 1989 to 2000; Director of Operations for Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston; Deputy Director of ABCD Head Start; and a Research Analyst for ABT Associates. She brought to all of her positions a remarkable array of skills that have empowered the organizations she has lead to fulfill their missions of service to children and families, prevention, expert clinical care, outcomes research, and advocacy.

Among the many honors Dr. Wallace-Benjamin has received are the 2005 Pinnacle Award, Achievement in Management–Non Profit, from the Boston Chamber of Commerce; the 2004 Exceptional Women Award for Community Service from Magic 106.7; a 2003 Lady Baden-Powel Good Scout Award from Boston Minuteman Council, Boy Scouts of America; a 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award from Rosie’s Place, Boston; an Academy of Women Achiever’s Award from the Boston YMCA; and a Humanitarian Award from the National Conference for Community and Justice. She was named one of Boston’s 100 Women of Power in the May 2003 issue of Boston Magazine.

Dr. Wallace-Benjamin holds Honorary Doctorates from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Newbury College, in Chestnut Hill. She is a Trustee of Wellesley College and a member of the Board of Overseers for The Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Additionally, she has been a Corporation Member of Northeastern University and a Trustee of Pine Manor College.

Dr. Wallace-Benjamin graduated from Wellesley College with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and received her Ph.D. from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.