Board of Trustees

Stephanie Pierre-Louis is Managing Director of the Mid-Atlantic region for National Equity Fund (NEF), a leading nonprofit Low-Income Housing Tax Credit syndicator, lender, and equity investor in multi-family affordable housing.  Prior to joining NEF, Stephanie dedicated over 16 years across several critical markets with Bank of America’s Community Development Banking Group.  Stephanie’s interest in charter schools stemmed from a prior role where she led the efforts to expand the Charter School Lending platform nationally.  She became passionate about serving charter schools that focus on closing the achievement gap for underserved communities of color once she learned firsthand of the impact these public schools were having on student outcomes.  She has served the KIPP MA Board/Committees since 2017 and became Board Chair in 2021.   

Stephanie enjoys traveling, 39 countries and counting, and is a financial literacy advocate/volunteer.  She is originally from New Jersey, but currently resides in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and bulldog, Biggie.

Matt has been involved with KIPP since 2012, joining the board in 2016 and serving as Chair of the Finance Committee before becoming Vice Chair and Chair of the Governance Committee today.  The child of a teacher, Matt’s passion for new ideas, education and technology started at a young age, dating back to coding with an Apple IIe.  Professionally, he was drawn to venture capital as it provides the opportunity to work closely with entrepreneurs leveraging technology to solve challenging problems.  Today, he values the opportunity to be a partner to founders, developing strong relationships, reasoning through strategic issues, and supporting them in building impactful companies.

Matt works as a Partner at Innospark Ventures in Boston focused on investing at the intersection of computational intelligence and major industries such as healthcare, life sciences, business and education.  Matt has worked with early stage technology driven companies since 1996, from formation stage all the way through IPO and beyond through different roles.  As a venture investor and angel, either through his firm or individually, Matt has invested in over 100 companies.  Prior to Innospark, Matt was an investor with Ascent Venture Partners (2002 – 2021) and Norwest Venture Partners (1998 – 2000). Before Norwest, Matt helped execute both IPO and M&A transactions at Alex Brown & Sons (1996 – 1998), a leading technology investment bank in the 1990s.

Matt was a double major in computer science and economics at Yale University.  He later earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (Tuck Scholar).  Matt was also an Overseer at the Boston Museum of Science and an advisor to the Sarah Greenwood School in Dorchester.

Paul is responsible for investment origination and asset management for AEW’s series of Opportunity Real Estate Funds. He leads the firm’s hospitality group with responsibility for investment origination and asset management for all hotel investments in North America and has been involved in transactions with all of the major hotel brands. Additionally, Paul is also responsible for office, retail, residential and industrial acquisitions in the greater Boston, MA., Chicago, Il., and Washington, D.C. regions. Since joining AEW in 2004, he has been involved in over $1.5 billion dollars of equity and debt related real estate transactions. Additionally, Paul currently manages a portfolio of investments with a gross value of approximately $750 million. During his tenure at AEW, Paul has been involved in acquisitions, dispositions, financing, capital restructurings, development and asset management for a wide variety of commercial real estate product types across North America. Prior to beginning his commercial real estate career, Paul was a professional musician and a teacher at, and director of Harvard University affiliated Child Care Centers. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and is a graduate of Tufts University (B.A.) and Boston University School of Management (MBA). Paul lives in Winchester with his wife and two sons. He continues to be an active musician and coaches multiple youth sports.

Nikki is the Executive Director of KIPP Massachusetts. Nikki joined the KIPP MA Team and Family in 2013 as a 6th grade humanities teacher at KIPP Academy Boston Middle School. Nikki has spent her professional career teaching in and advocating for public schools. She has over 20 years of classroom experience in elementary, middle and high school.

After serving as the Dean of Students at KIPP Academy Boston in 2014, she became the School Leader in 2015. Under her leadership, KIPP Academy Boston experienced some of the highest student growth in the state of Massachusetts, including three grade levels performing among the top ten schools in the KIPP Network with the highest reading growth on the Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment

Nikki’s accomplishments as a teacher include being the first Black classroom teacher to earn National Board Certification in the state of Virginia. She was also one of two teachers chosen to represent the state of Virginia at the National Teacher Forum in 2000 held in Washington, DC. She also has nearly 10 years of experience working in educational non-profit organizations focusing on teacher quality issues and minority community outreach including overseeing a multi-million dollar partnership with The Tom Joyner Foundation to increase the number of fully licensed teachers of color in high minority, high poverty districts.

Nikki is a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic University (1991) and Virginia Commonwealth University (2003) where her graduate research around Teacher Leadership led to the creation of the VCU Center for Teacher Leadership.

Nikki is the proud mother of her two children: Adrianna and Jordan, both of whom are teachers at KIPP Boston.

Paul Maleh, President and CEO, has been an integral member of CRA’s management team for more than a decade. Before becoming President and CEO in November 2009, Mr. Maleh served as the Company’s Chief Operating Officer. In that role, he was responsible for all areas of the company’s global consulting operations and the administrative functions of marketing, business development, and human resources. Prior to that appointment, Mr. Maleh led CRA’s Finance Practice through a period of unprecedented growth.

In addition to his management experience, Mr. Maleh is a recognized authority in the application of financial and economic theory to complex business matters. He has directed research concerning business valuation, securities litigation, breach of contract, bankruptcy, and general business damages. Mr. Maleh has consulted on these matters in a range of industries, including telecommunications and high-tech, energy, computer hardware and software, pharmaceuticals, investment banking, retail, and sports and entertainment.

Mr. Maleh joined Charles River Associates in 1989 as an associate in the Energy Practice.

Tom is the President of Kate Farms, a medical nutrition company that offers plant-based formulas designed for improved tolerance with organic ingredients and without dairy, soy, gluten, corn or nuts. Prior to Kate Farms, he was the CEO of Cartera Commerce, a venture-backed, Boston-based loyalty marketing company. Prior to Cartera, Tom was CFO and later CEO at Imagitas and a consultant at Bain & Co. He attended Dartmouth College and Harvard Business School. Tom is married and has two children.

Doug joined the KIPP MA Board in 2014, where he Chairs the Compensation Committee and serves on the Teaching and Learning Committee. Doug is a Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer at New Profit. In addition to managing New Profit’s finances and internal operations, Doug has worked closely with several of New Profit’s portfolio organizations, including Achievement First, iMentor, KIPP, Year Up, and currently serves on the boards of Leading Educators, New Classrooms, and UnboundEd. Prior to joining New Profit, he worked as a program and logistics officer with Save the Children, where he was part of a team that started up field operations in the Sudan, and created and managed a multi-million dollar relief and development operation. Doug has served on the boards of a number of growing organizations, including Venturcom, iMarket, and Computers for Youth. He graduated from Princeton with a BS in engineering, and received his MBA from the Stanford Business School, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Michael is currently serving his fifth year on the KIPP MA Board. In his five years on the board, Michael has seen KIPP MA grow from one middle school serving nearly 320 students in Lynn, MA, to two districts in Lynn and Boston, MA serving nearly 1,900 students in grades K-12. He is a partner in Goodwin Procter LLP’s Private Equity and Technology Companies Group, and focuses his corporate finance and securities practice on private equity and venture capital transactions, mergers and acquisitions, public securities offerings and representing emerging growth companies. He advises a variety of companies in industries including software, information technology, telecommunications, information services, biotechnology, healthcare, financial services, and retail. Michael is listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, The Best Lawyers in America, Boston’s Best Lawyers, and has been recognized as a Massachusetts “Super Lawyer.” Michael is a graduate of Boston University School of Law and Boston University Graduate School of Management.

As the CEO of Igloo Software, a Toronto-based provider of digital workplace software as a service. Mike is responsible for all facets of the business. With over 25 years of executive leadership experience, Mike has a proven track record of delivering great results for customers, employees, and investors. Prior to joining Igloo, Mike was the CEO at payments fintech Brightwell where he led the transformation of the company’s product and a rejuvenation of its go-to-market efforts, resulting in a 4x growth in the company’s user base and revenue. Prior to that as COO of Paycor, Mike helped the provider of HCM software as a service grow revenue 5x to over $100 million. Mike has been an engaged supporter of public education for many years, first as an elected member of his local Ohio district School Board (2014-2018) and later as a member of KIPP Metro Atlanta’s Board (2018-2020). Following his own public-school K-12 experience, Mike graduated from Colgate University and later from Harvard Business School. Mike and his wife Sally live in Sudbury, having moved to greater Boston in 2020 to be closer to their 3 grown daughters. Mike is an avid skier, sports fan (starting to warm up to Boston’s teams!) and owner of a (slightly neurotic) rescue dog and (attention-seeking) rescue cat. “I am very excited to partner with KIPP MA’s Board, Staff and Teachers to support their work to enable every Kippster to pursue the future paths of their choice.

Shenkiat (Shen) Lim is the Chief People & Equity Officer at Education First Consulting, a national strategy and policy organization with unique and deep expertise in education improvement and reform. For the past decade, Shen has held senior human resource roles at mission-driven organizations, including Teach For America, City Year, New Profit, and the Scratch Foundation. Other professional experiences include product development at Fidelity Investments and management consulting with the Hay Group (now Korn Ferry). 

Shen’s journey in social justice began as a Teach For America corps member, when he spent two years teaching fifth grade social studies in rural Mississippi. Since that time, Shen has been committed to supporting the work of organizations that seek to ensure that all kids have the opportunities they deserve.

Shen is on the boards of KIPP-Massachusetts where he chairs the people committee, and Ellis Early Learning where he chairs the HR committee. In his spare time, Shen plays violin with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra. He is a graduate of Harvard University and received his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.