Dr. Joseph Abate, an orthopedic surgeon, founded and operates North Suburban Orthopedic Associates, a medical practice concentrating in orthopedic surgery, sports medicine and physical therapy. A native of Medford, MA, Abate is a 1958 graduate of Tufts University, and a 1962 graduate of Tufts University Medical School. Abate completed post-graduate training at Boston City Hospital from 1962-64 and at Boston V.A. Medical Center from 1964-67.

In addition to operating a successful medical practice for more than 30 years, Abate has been active in a number of charitable endeavors. He served as the Chairman of the Friends of the Whidden Memorial Hospital Coalition, was a founder and director of Metropolitan Bank, a trustee at Cummings Foundation's New Horizons at Choate, and was awarded a special Distinguished Service Award by the Eastern Middlesex Association for Retarded Citizens.

A graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Law School, and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, Lawrence S. Bacow, J.D., Ph.D., became the 12th president of Tufts University in September 2001.

Before assuming the presidency at Tufts, he served as chancellor of MIT. As a member of the MIT faculty beginning in 1977, Bacow was the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies, as well as the former chair of the MIT faculty, chair of the MIT Council on the Environment and a member of the boards of the Media Lab Europe and the Cambridge-MIT Institute.

Bacow has lectured extensively in the United States and abroad, and has served as a visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Politecnico di Torino (Italy), the University of Bari (Italy) and Gabriela Mistral University (Chile). He was a research fellow of the Tinbergen Institute of Economics and a member of the Program on Negotiation of Harvard Law School.

He has served as an advisor to the Ministry of the Environment for the State of Israel and to the Cross Israel Highway Commission. Bacow chaired the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and served a term as a gubernatorial appointee to the Massachusetts Hazardous Waste Facility Site Safety Council. From 1985 to 1987, he served as chief operating officer of the Spaulding Investment Company. He is a director of the Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly and a trustee of Wheaton College and Hebrew College.

Bacow is an economist, attorney and recognized expert in real estate and non-adjudicatory approaches to the resolution of environmental disputes, and has authored four books and numerous articles. In October 2003, Bacow was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is an avid skier, ocean sailor, and runner.

Born in New York City, Associate Justice Margot Botsford was first appointed to the Massachusetts Superior Court (Suffolk County) in 1989 by former Governor Michael Dukakis. She is a graduate of Barnard College (B.A.) and Northeastern University School of Law (J.D.), and brings extensive experience to Cummings Foundation's board of trustees. Justice Botsford is the editor/co-editor of several publications, including an early work entitled "Protecting the Rights of Elderly Clients."

On July 26, 2007, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick nominated Her Honor to serve on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the oldest appellate court in continuous existence in the Western Hemisphere. She was then confirmed by the Governor's Council on August 31, and on September 4, 2007 was sworn in before a thousand enthusiastic friends and supporters inside the grand rotunda of Boston's beautiful John Adams Courthouse, where she will serve.

Justice Botsford began her notable career as a law clerk for Supreme Judicial Court Justice Francis J. Quirico. In the private sector, she served as an associate at Hill & Barlow and later was a partner at Boston-based Rosenfeld, Botsford & Krokidas. Before her appointment to the Superior Court, she served as Assistant District Attorney (Chief of the Appeals Bureau) in Middlesex County, and as an Assistant Attorney General (Government Bureau & Chief of Opinions).

Justice Botsford currently serves on the board of trustees for Northeastern University and chairs its committee on graduate education. She served as a member of the Commission on Judicial Conduct and is a trustee for the Katherine Gibbs School and the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union.

Additionally, Botsford has worked extensively with the Boston educational outreach group, Citizens Schools, in helping to expand its services to inner city students, and has held innumerable other appointed and elected positions as well.

State Representative Paul C. Casey is a graduate of Harvard University, with a Masters in Public Administration from Suffolk University and an MBA from Boston University.  He has been a very active participant in state government and numerous community and charitable organizations since the mid-1980s.  Mr. Casey also serves on Cummings Foundation's Finance Committee.

Casey previously served as chairperson for the House Committee on Taxation and on the Advisory Committee on Consolidated Health Care Financing and Delivery.  In his limited free time, he serves as a professional boxing referee.

After earning her bachelor's and master's degrees from Regis College, Carol A. Donovan served as a teacher in the Woburn public school system for 25 years.  A Woburn resident, she recently retired after serving seven terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.  She served as president of the 1991 Class of Legislators and on the Energy and Personnel & Administration Committees.  Donovan was a member of the Special Committee on Foster Care, Treasurer for the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators, and member of the Legislative Caucus of Older Citizens Concerns, the Massachusetts Legislative Children's Caucus (Steering Committee) and the Legislative Tobacco Control Caucus.

Dr. Deborah T. Kochevar is the dean of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, as well as the Henry and Lois Foster Professor of Biomedical Sciences. Prior to her appointment as dean in 2006, she was on the faculty of Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from 1987-2006, serving two stints as acting dean in 2004 and 2005.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rice University, Kochevar received a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Texas A&M University, and a Ph.D. degree in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Her research focus is molecular pharmacology.

Veterinary medical education and teaching are priorities and Dr. Kochevar has received grants for science and math curriculum development and has won several teaching awards, including the Norden Distinguished Teacher Award and the Student American Veterinary Medical Association National Teaching Award in Basic Science.

Kochevar is a national leader in veterinary medical education and is past chair of the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education, the Educational Commission for Foreign Veterinary Medical Graduates and past president of the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology. Kochevar and her husband, John, have two grown children, Chris and Steven, of whom she is very proud.

A 1991 summa cum laude graduate of Yale University, Jason Z. Morris earned a masters degree at Harvard University and then a Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard Medical School in 1997.  He worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at New York University, where he held an American Cancer Society fellowship and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellowship and was published in NATURE.

In 2003, Morris joined the faculty of Fordham University as an Assistant Professor of Biology. He is also the father of Joyce and Bill Cummings two grandchildren.

A 1992 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dartmouth College, Marilyn C. Morris is also a 1997 graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine. She completed her internship at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, and a fellowship in pediatric critical care at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Morris is currently a pediatric intensive-care physician at Children's Hospital of New York (Columbia Presbyterian) and serves as an assistant professor at Columbia University School of Medicine. She has a special interest in the ethical and pragmatic aspects of conducting clinical research in medical emergency situations. In 2007, she earned a Master of Public Health degree from Columbia.

The retired president and chief operating officer of The Boston Globe, Richard C. (Dick) Ockerbloom began his career at the Globe as a Northeastern University co-op student/worker 50 years earlier. After graduating from Northeastern in 1952, he went on to serve the University, as well, over the decades, and is now vice chairman emeritus of Northeastern's Board of Trustees. Additionally, Ockerbloom serves on Cummings Foundation's Finance Committee.

Ockerbloom also holds an honorary doctoral degree from Northeastern, and was recently named to the Arlington (MA) High School Hall of Fame. He has served in a wide range of important public service positions throughout the Boston area. He is also a long-time member of Winchester Country Club, where he reportedly sometimes enjoys working for four hours on Saturday mornings to win two dollars from Bill Cummings.

Jan Pavliska was appointed president and CEO of BankFive for Savings of Arlington, MA, in 1975, where she served until her retirement in 1991. In taking such position, Pavliska became the first woman in the commonwealth of Massachusetts to serve as the president of a banking operation.

Pavliska completed her undergraduate education at Suffolk University and Northeastern University, followed by graduate degree work at Harvard Business School. Quite active in banking industry groups, Pavliska served as the chairperson of the Savings Bank Association of Massachusetts, the National Council of Community Banks and the Savings Bank Life Insurance Board, respectively.

Pavliska has also served in leadership roles in many community service organizations. She was a director of Volunteers of America, the Woburn Boys and Girls Club and Visiting Nurses and Health Care organization, as well as a trustee of Cummings Foundation's New Horizons at Choate. Due to her advanced expertise in financial matters, Pavliska was offered and accepted an appointment to Cummings Foundation's Finance Committee.

Dennis Clarke grew up in Winchester and graduated from Winchester High School and then Harvard University in 1990.  He served as a licensed commercial insurance broker for a subsidiary of London-based Jardine-Matheson, and then as a marketing coordinator for Gordon Brothers Partners, Inc.  In 1992 he became general manager of a small newspaper chain, Community Weeklies, Inc., under Cummings Properties, LLC's former ownership.

Bill Grant grew up in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and received his undergraduate degree in accounting in 1972 and masters in accounting in 1977 from Bentley College.  He also attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1989.  Prior to joining Cummings Properties in May 1998, Grant held several senior management positions at Tweeter, etc. from 1982 to 1989, and was Chief Financial Officer at Rich's department stores from 1989 to 1998.

Dr. Philip C. Kosch, D.V.M., Ph.D. is the retired dean of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, as well as the Henry & Lois Foster Professor of Comparative Medicine and president of Tufts Biotechnology Corporation, a for-profit subsidiary of Tufts University.
Dean Kosch earned a D.V.M. from The Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in physiology from University of California at Davis. He worked as a research veterinarian while serving with the U.S. Army at the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

Kosch joined the faculty at University of Florida's Veterinary School in 1979, where he held professorships in the Department of Physiological Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine, and in the Departments of Physiology and Pediatrics in the College of Medicine. He also served as University of Florida's associate dean for research and graduate studies before joining the faculty at Tufts in 1996.