Board & Advisors
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
STEPHANIE KHURANA
Stephanie Khurana is CEO of Axim Collaborative, a nonprofit organization co-founded by Harvard and MIT that transforms education-to-work pathways by investing in innovative partnerships to ensure every student can thrive in a changing economy. Axim uses catalytic funding to foster collaborative partnerships, build capacity, and scale innovations to strengthen pathways that improve outcomes for millions of learners. These pathways engage students in their course of study, enable them to persist through their programs, and prepare them to excel in their careers. Axim also supports the Open edX Project, the open-source platform and community that empowers education institutions, government ministries, and corporations to offer high-quality, globally accessible courses that connect students with the skills and knowledge they need for academic and career success. Stephanie brings more than three decades of experience in education, venture philanthropy, and the technology innovation space. Before Axim, her work focused on educational access, college success, and economic mobility. She served as managing partner and COO at Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation and as a director on several mission-driven boards. Stephanie also served in numerous roles at Harvard University supporting student academic progress and building undergraduate communities as a faculty dean, and led outreach efforts on several Presidential university-wide task forces. She received her BS from Cornell University and her MBA and MPP from Harvard University. Stephanie and her husband Rakesh live in Newton and have three adult children.
HOPE SUTTIN
Hope Suttin has been actively involved with Step Into Art for many years, joining the Advisory Council in 2012 and the Board of Directors in 2015. After 10 years working at the Carroll School, Hope now runs a private practice teaching reading to students with dyslexia. Additionally, Hope serves on the board of the Greater Boston JCC. Previously, Hope served as board chair of Moving Traditions, as a member of the advisory board at The Trustees of Reservations, as an Overseer at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln and as a member of the museum’s Education Committee. Hope holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s in Education from Lesley University. A longtime advocate for arts and literacy programs for Boston youth, Hope lives in Newton with her husband and has three grown children.
ADVISORY COUNCIL
STEPHEN AMELIA
Stephen Amelia is the founder and president of AGENCY 3.0, a Cambridge-based website design and development firm. Stephen is a web veteran who has helped hundreds of businesses and non-profit organizations leverage design and technology to communicate more effectively with their customers and stakeholders. When he isn’t building websites, he’s chasing his two toddlers and trying to inspire their creativity and love of art.
JANET ECHELMAN
Janet Echelman sculpts at the scale of buildings and city blocks. Echelman’s work defies categorization, as it intersects disciplinary boundaries, from Sculpture, Architecture, and Urban Design, to Material Science, Structural & Aeronautical Engineering, Computer Science, and performance. Echelman’s art transforms with wind and light, and shifts from being “an object you look at, into an experience you can get lost in.” Using unlikely materials from atomized water particles to engineered fiber fifteen times stronger than steel, Echelman combines ancient craft with computational design software to create artworks that have become focal points for urban life on five continents, from Singapore, Sydney, Shanghai, and Santiago, to Beijing, Boston, New York and London. Permanent works in Porto (Portugal), Gwanggyo (South Korea), Vancouver, San Francisco, West Hollywood, Phoenix, Eugene, Greensboro, Philadelphia, Seattle, Columbus (OH) and St. Petersburg (FL) transform daily with colored light. Curiosity defines Janet Echelman’s nonlinear educational path. After graduating from Harvard College, she lived in a Balinese village for 5 years, then completed separate graduate programs in Painting and in Psychology. A recipient of an honorary Doctorate from Tufts University, Echelman has taught at MIT, Harvard and Princeton Universities.Her TED talk “Taking Imagination Seriously” has been translated into 35 languages with more than two million views. Recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, Harvard Loeb Fellowship, Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellowship, and Fulbright Sr. Lectureship, Echelman received the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in Visual Arts, honoring “the greatest innovators in America today.” In popular culture, Oprah ranked Echelman’s work #1 on her List of 50 Things That Make You Say Wow!, and Echelman was named an Architectural Digest Innovator for “changing the very essence of urban spaces.” Radical Softness: The Responsive Art of Janet Echelman, published by Chronicle Books in September 2025, is a 288-page visual compendium of Echelman’s oeuvre which accompanies a traveling mid-career museum retrospective.
CAITLIN HOLLISTER
Caitlin Hollister is the Director of the Teacher Apprenticeship Program at Champlain College where she supports career changers in earning their teaching license. A National Board Certified Teacher, Caitlin spent nine years teaching third grade at the Richard J. Murphy K-8 School in Dorchester, where she established a successful partnership with Step into Art. In 2011, Caitlin received the Boston Educator of the Year Award in recognition of her extraordinary contribution to the children of Boston Public Schools. A graduate of the Boston Teacher’s Residency Program, Caitlin holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Brown University and a master’s degree in teaching from UMass Boston. She has played a vital role in Step Into Art, helping develop and nurture SIA’s thriving third-grade partnership program, which began at the Murphy thanks to her leadership, and which has expanded to numerous other Boston public schools with her help. Caitlin lives in Waterbury, Vermont with her husband and two children.
SUSAN FOSTER JONES
Susan Foster Jones has been a valued teacher and advisor for Step Into Art since 2007, when she was one of SIA’s first interns. A museum educator with over a decade of experience, Susan joined Step Into Art as Senior Educator in the fall of 2014. From 2009 – 2014, Susan was the Director of Education at the Concord Museum in Concord, MA. She continues her work in Concord as the part-time Manager of School Partnerships, working primarily with students from Lowell. Previously, Susan worked with inner-city students from Boston at the Commonwealth Museum, where she taught engaging hands-on history programs. Susan earned a Master’s degree in the Arts in Education program from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a BA in Art History from Mount Holyoke College. She and her husband Tim live in Concord with their sons, Henry and Charles.
LINDSEY KOCUR
Lindsey Kocur is a practicing artist working primarily in mixed-media painting, drawing, and installation. As an independent teaching artist, project manager, and consultant for non-profit youth programs, she devises cross-disciplinary projects that incorporate educational concepts and impart life skills through art in disciplines including painting, drawing, sculpture, and printmaking. She previously founded the Roxbury Prep High School Visual Art Program in Roxbury, MA, where she designed and implemented visual arts programming for grades 11 and 12. Before that, she served as Director of Visual Art at the West End House Boys and Girls Club of Allston, MA. Alongside her other endeavors, Lindsey taught Step Into Art programs from 2013-2018, having first become involved with SIA as an Americorps Teaching Fellow at Mother Caroline Academy from 2009-2011. She holds an MFA in Studio Art from Tufts University in partnership with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, as well as a BS in Studio Art from Skidmore College.
MARLA LIBRATY
Marla Libraty was a founding Step Into Art Board member who served for ten years and now continues on the SIA Advisory Council. Marla helped establish the foundational partnership between Step Into Art and the Newton Mayor’s Office for Cultural Affairs (2005-2010). She subsequently played a key role in developing the Step Into Art reunion program with the Harvard Business School Alumni Association – HBS Kids (2007-2010). Marla is the Director of Development, Parent & Family Giving at UC San Diego, where she leads parent philanthropy encouraging parents to support the University and membership in the UC San Diego Parents Council. She shifted her career into fundraising as she believes deeply in the transformative power of higher education. She led Brandeis University’s parents fundraising efforts and was the Director of Development for the Fresno State Library, the largest academic library in California’s Central Valley. Marla spent over 20 years in the corporate sector in brand strategy and marketing for highly recognizable global brands including Energizer, Barbie and the Stride Rite Children’s Group brands (including Sperry, Merrell, Hush Puppies, Keds and Saucony). Marla’s passion for education and children’s issues, her expertise in building loyalty and consumer/philanthropic engagement programs have made her especially well-suited for her role in Step Into Art. She holds a B.A. in Communication from UC San Diego and an M.B.A. from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Marla and her husband now reside in La Jolla, California and love when their three grown children visit.
SARAH PERRY
Sarah is a consultant to non-profit organizations in the areas of strategic planning, organizational effectiveness, and donor relations. Previously, Sarah served as Executive Director of The Second Step, an organization that provides comprehensive services to survivors of domestic violence. She has also been Executive Director of Harvard Business School’s Community Action Partners, which provides pro bono consulting to hundreds of non-profit organizations in greater Boston. Sarah worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company in New York, where she advised senior executives of major corporations on strategic issues. Sarah holds a BA from Yale University, an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School. She currently serves on numerous boards, including the Anti-Defamation League, The Newton Schools Foundation, Temple Emanuel of Newton, Waypoint Adventure’s Advisory Board, and the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Council at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. Sarah has led pro bono consulting projects for many local organizations, including The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, City Year, Citizen Schools, WBUR, and The Boston Foundation. Sarah lives in Newton with her husband and three children.
KENNETH P. PUCKER
Ken Pucker is professor of the practice in sustainability at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, where he draws upon his background as an operator, advisor, and investor with a focus on sustainability and ESG. He researches sustainability in the fashion industry, examining such issues as the rhetoric versus the reality of sustainability, ESG investing, impact accounting, sustainability measurement regulation, and voluntary corporate action, and he frequently writes about these topics for global media outlets. Pucker spent most of his professional career working at Timberland (formerly NYSE: TBL) where he served as chief operating officer. He serves as an advisory director at Berkshire Partners and is an investor and board member at King Arthur Baking. He is also an adjunct professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and serves on the boards of the Commonwealth School, Mighty Earth, and The High Meadows Institute. Ken graduated cum laude from Middlebury College and received a Master’s of Science in Business Administration from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He and his wife Leslie live in Newton and have two daughters.
JULIE SHERMAN
Julie Sherman is the owner of J Sherman Studio LLC, a boutique graphic design firm in Newton, Massachusetts, which she founded in 2007. Julie’s work and study experience include a strong emphasis on studio arts (photography and painting), art history, museum experience, architectural graphics and textile design. Julie passionately believes in art education, and she and her team create all the graphic design and visual communication materials for Step Into Art. Julie holds a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from Cornell University and a Masters of Science in communications management from Simmons College. She lives in Newton with her husband and two young children.
AMY SILBERSTEIN
Amy Silberstein serves as Director of Development and Donor Services for the Brookline Community Foundation, a foundation devoted to building a more vibrant, engaged, and equitable Brookline. Prior to her current position, Amy worked for 17 years in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations at Brandeis University. As Associate Director of Leadership Gifts, she focused on major gift fundraising in the arts and co-founded the Brandeis Arts Council for outreach and alumni engagement, formed to raise funds for, and bring greater attention to, the university’s fine arts, theater, and music departments. Amy comes from a family with a unique art legacy. Her maternal grandmother, Hilde Gerst, ran New York’s Hilde Gerst Gallery on Madison Avenue for over 50 years. Amy and her mother continue this tradition by showcasing the work of French Post-Impressionist artists and some of the major American artists of our time at the Ruth Silberstein Gallery, which they own and operate. In addition to serving on the Step Into Art Advisory Council, Amy has been an active volunteer for many non-profit organizations in the Boston area, including Cradles to Crayons, Birthday Wishes, and Community Servings. In 2011, Amy co-founded Food To Your Table, a non-profit that provides fresh vegetables to low-income residents of Newton. The goal is to bring food “from those who grow it to those who need it.” Amy holds a BA in American Studies from Brown University. She lives in Newton with her husband and has three children.
VINEETA VIJAYARAGHAVAN
Vineeta Vijayaraghavan is director of civic and academic engagement at the Leadership Now Project, where she enlists the business sector in revitalizing democratic principles and institutions. In her prior role, she was an advisor on innovation working with leading healthcare companies, startups and faculty. She has helped lead local initiatives to expand access to the arts, and improve public and charter schools. Vineeta is author of the acclaimed novel Motherland, which garnered, among other distinctions, a 2002 Alex award from the American Library Association, honoring the best books published for adults with special crossover appeal for teens. She brought her expertise in creative writing to Step Into Art sixth-grade programs for over a decade. Joining English teachers at Epiphany School and Mother Caroline Academy, she invited students to write creative compositions inspired by paintings they had studied with Step Into Art at Boston-area museums. Born in India and raised in the United States, Vineeta received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters.
ELLEN WINNER
Ellen Winner is a professor emerita of Psychology at Boston College and a senior research associate at Project Zero. She has authored five books: Invented Worlds: The Psychology of the Arts (1982), The Point of Words: Children’s Understanding of Metaphor and Irony (1988), Gifted Children: Myths and Realities (1996), How Art Works: A Psychological Exploration (2019), and An Uneasy Guest in the Schoolhouse: Art Education from Colonial Times to a Promising Future (2022). And co-authored five more: Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education (2007), Studio Thinking 2 (2013), Studio Thinking 3 (2022), Studio Thinking from the Start: The K-8 Art Educator’s Handbook (2018), and The Child as Visual Artist (2022). Winner was the editor of the Arts PROPEL handbooks and PI of the Reviewing Education and the Arts Project (REAP). She has served as president of APA’s Division 10, Psychology and the Arts in 1995-1996, and received the Rudolf Arnheim Award for Outstanding Research by a Senior Scholar in Psychology and the Arts from Division 10 in 2000. She is a fellow of APA Division 10 and of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics.