Merrimack Valley Housing Partnership, Co-chair
The Law Office of Todd D.Beauregard, P.C, Co-chair
Lowell Five Bank
Town of Acton
Town of Lunenburg
Lake Street Advisors
Mass Hire/Career Center of Lowel
Enterprise Bank
Amber is a skilled attorney whose primary areas of practice include Family Law, Bankruptcy and Landlord/Tenant. Amber opened her own practice in 2021 after spending 13 years working for two other local firms in the Merrimack Valley. Amber is passionate about helping people and understands that every client, and their case, is unique. She has a diverse caseload and represents people from various walks of life. Amber understands how much of a financial and emotional strain legal problems can be for a client, and it is her goal to develop a strategy for each client that it is personally tailored to their individual needs. After graduating from college at the University of Colorado, Amber relocated to New England to attend law school in 2005. She proudly serves on the Board of Directors for the Center for Hope and Healing, a non-profit organization that assists survivors of sexual violence. Amber volunteers for numerous pro-bono legal organizations and in her free time she enjoys reading, writing, and travelling.
Cathy Mercado is the Executive Director of Merrimack Valley Housing Partnership in Lowell, MA. She joined MVHP in 2015. Cathy decided to make a career change after buying a home as a first-generation homebuyer. Cathy knew helping others was her purpose by advocating for housing and homeownership opportunities. She also worked as a loan originator with a national bank. Cathy is a tireless advocate for more than two decades, advocates for homeownership opportunities for low-and moderate-income earners. 20,000 families have completed home buyer training program. Cathy has also been a fierce advocate for racial and social justice for our BIPOC communities. Cathy is a lifelong resident of Lowell, MA. Her family moved to Lowell in the 1960s from Comerio, Puerto Rico. Cathy is married and has four children and two dogs. Cathy serves on several boards in Lowell.
She serves on several boards, including the Center for Hope and Healing, Inc., Acre Family Child Care, Fortaleza and Abundant Housing Massachusetts, Citizen Housing And Planning Associates and Lowell Development Financial Corp.
Maria Garay Dodd is a branch manager for The Lowell Five Bank with 23 years of banking experience. She resides in Lowell and attended Lowell High School after moving to the U.S. from Puerto Rico. Maria joined The Center for Hope and Healing board in 2017. Being part of CHH and being able to help in making a difference in survivor’s lives and their loved ones is gratifying for Maria.
In her spare time, Maria enjoys spending time with her family, going for walks, working out, traveling, going to the beach, and reading. She also volunteers as recording secretary for Lowell First Church of the Nazarene where she is a member.
Co-Executive Director, Nadia Madden. Nadia oversees finance, strategic planning and development. Before joining Saheli, she co-founded and served as a board member of WatSan Action, a nonprofit dedicated to helping women and their families access safe water and a healthy environment in Jakarta’s slum communities, and volunteered for the Conservation Commission in Groton, MA. Nadia holds a B.S. from MIT, as well as an M.S. in energy and resources from the University of California–Berkeley.
Ms. Teodorescu has over 25 years of internal and external consulting experience across multiple industries, sizes, and types of companies in the development of talent, performance and engagement programs to meet or exceed their business goals. Serving as the Partner responsible for Talent Management and Human Resources, Tina is instrumental in designing, implementing and overseeing the Firm’s culture, educational programs, organizational effectiveness, and advancing its talent acquisition, engagement, and retention strategies. She utilizes her broad skill set and experience base in the areas of talent and performance management, leadership development, employee engagement and organizational culture to achieve these objectives for the Firm.
Prior to MFA, Tina served in similar roles as Director of Talent Management at Seniorlink and Zipcar, building integrated talent and performance frameworks to support firm-wide growth and company values. She also served as Principal Consultant at Competence Systems and Tufts Health Plan to assist in the design, development, optimization and evaluation of their people management strategy and leadership development programs.
Tina has a master’s degree in organizational behavior management and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology from University of Nevada, Reno. While in college and graduate school, Tina volunteered for two different crisis centers focused on suicide prevention and domestic violence and provided consulting on strategy, culture, evaluation, organizational development and optimization, and talent development and retention for multiple non-profits. In addition to her formal education, Tina has obtained and maintained three professional certifications including: Senior Professional Human Resource Professional (SPHR), Certified Performance Technologist (CPT), and Organizational Alignment.
One of Tina’s personal missions and key purposes is to help others reach their potential. As such, she devotes her professional and personal time outside of work to several organizations including, the Fred Forum – a global leadership think-tank that has a mission to promote ethical, diverse, and inclusive leadership in the world, the Human Resource Leadership Forum, Vistage Key Executive Advisory Group, Women Unlimited – a National Women’s Leadership Development Program, and most recently, serves as a board member for the Center for Hope and Healing and is on the Board Development Committee where she hopes to help CHH, it’s clients, and it’s team further advance their mission and reach their potential.
In her personal time, you’ll find Tina spending time with her 2 children, Alex and Simona, Dog, Riley, and husband, Razvan. She loves to spend time traveling, reading, exercising, doing yoga, and / or just being active in nature, hiking, skiing, biking, and / or going to the beach.