Personnel

MICHA JOSEPHY, Executive Director; Boston, Massachusetts.

As Executive Director, Micha is responsible for executive leadership, program development, capitalization, and operations. He first joined CFNE in 2010 as a Program Manager, helping raise grant and loan capital, managing compliance reporting, and new program development. Micha first joined the co-op movement as an Oberlin Student Cooperative Association member and later coordinated the development of Boston Community Cooperative’s first housing co-op. He has a background in nonprofit financial management and community organizing, and holds a BA in environmental studies from Oberlin College and an MS in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University. He has also participated in the Opportunity Finance Network’s leadership training program.

DORIAN GREGORY, Deputy Executive Director; Northampton, Massachusetts.

As Deputy Director, Dorian partners with the executive director to achieve CFNE's mission and vision, directs lending activities, and manages finance and administration.  Dorian joined CFNE in 2014 as a loan and outreach officer. A CPA with almost 20 years in public accounting, including as a senior manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, she has provided finance, audit, governance, and business advisory services to a variety of companies in industries as diverse as higher education and health services, manufacturing, transportation, and technology.  Her lifelong dedication to social and economic justice has driven her work on environmental and renewable energy campaigns, community organizing with a low-income and poor peoples' rights organization, and as a battered women’s shelter hotline volunteer and board member.  Dorian obtained a BA in Mathematics and Philosophy from George Mason University, her MA in Philosophy from SUNY at Stony Brook, and concentrated accounting studies at the UMass-Amherst Isenberg School of Management. She currently serves on the board of her local food co-op and teaches Taijiquan (Tai Chi).

TIFFANY BROWNING, Loan Administrator and Bookkeeper; Bangor, Maine

As Loan Administrator and Bookkeeper Tiffany supports our lending team in closing and servicing loans, portfolio maintenance, and bookkeeping. Based in Maine, Tiffany has worked in the banking industry, and most recently served as Loan Administrator for a non-profit, CDFI mortgage and small business lender. She is on track to complete her undergraduate degree in business administration – accounting from the University of Maine  – Bangor in spring 2022.

MAGGIE COHN, Loan & Outreach Officer; Roxbury, Massachusetts.

As the Southeastern Loan and Outreach Officer, Maggie visits current and potential borrowers, providing technical assistance and administration of the loan portfolio, and markets the Fund in Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut and eastern Massachusetts. Maggie comes from work with Boston non-profits, including the Mission Hill Health Movement; the Boston Collaborative for Food & Fitness, which addressed issues of food access and access to physical activity in low-income neighborhoods; and Mission Hill Main Streets, which engaged business owners and local residents in strengthening and improving the local commercial district. In the 1990s, she worked at Red Sun Press, a democratically-controlled commercial print shop in Jamaica Plain. Developing a lasting interest in community development, she left Red Sun to pursue a degree in Community Economic Development. Maggie currently serves on the boards of the Cooperative Development Institute, the Back of the Hill Community Development Corporation, and the Mission Hill Link. She is a member of the Boston Building Resources and several food coops. Maggie holds a BA from UMass Boston in Studio Arts and a Master’s Degree in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University.

CAROLYN EDSELL-VETTER, Cooperative Business Support Officer; Boston, MA.

Carolyn joined CFNE in March 2019. As the Cooperative Business Support Officer, she works with Spanish- and English-speaking applicants and borrowers to assess project feasibility and connect with culturally-appropriate technical assistance resources. Carolyn came to CFNE after 19 years with A Yard & A Half Landscaping near Boston, MA, where she led their conversion to a worker-owned co-op and served as co-CEO from 2014-2019. Carolyn serves on the board of the Cooperative Development Institute, and has been involved in coops since living in a cooperative house in college. She holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from Cornell University and an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School. Carolyn, her partner Jesse, and their two boys enjoy running, dancing, and growing ridiculous amounts of food in their small urban garden.  The daughter of a Cuban immigrant, Carolyn is particularly interested in using cooperatives to create social and economic justice for immigrants, BIPOC, and others who have faced structural barriers to bringing businesses to scale.

REBECCA FLETCHER, Loan & Outreach Officer; Northampton, MA.

Rebecca comes with 14 years nonprofit experience at Equity Trust, Inc., where she guided multi-year projects to keep farms in the food system. She worked with farmers, land trusts, and communities to protect the on-going affordability and use of these farms, with a focus on helping groups to use innovative ownership structures for land and housing, to spread the benefits of ownership and access more broadly and equitably. For five of her Equity Trust years, Rebecca provided management for the Equity Trust Fund, a $3.5 Million revolving community loan fund making loans to farmers, affordable housing groups, and nonprofit organizations. Along with five other individuals, Rebecca was also a core organizer in the effort to launch Grow Food Northampton, a food security and sustainable agriculture nonprofit. She served on the founding board and as Treasurer through the fledgling nonprofit’s thunderous 6-month capital campaign to raise the funds to acquire the 121 acres of prime agricultural land that became the Northampton Community Farm. Rebecca’s work has given her a deep appreciation for how the capacity of community-controlled enterprises is often limited by access to affordable capital.

CHRIS LINDER, Loan & Outreach Officer; Bangor, ME.

Chris Linder joined CFNE as the Loan Officer covering Maine in 2021. In that role he underwrites loan applications, conducts outreach, supports current and potential borrowers, works with community based organizations, and provides business technical assistance. Chris has 25+ years of operational and consulting experience in community development finance, microfinance, and commercial banking, including financing for small businesses, nonprofits, and agriculture-related businesses, and is always seeking ways to increase access to finance for all, especially the underserved. Previously, he directed MaineStream Finance, a nonprofit lender/CDFI based in Bangor, Maine focusing on home and small business lending. Chris has led teams providing technical assistance to financial institutions on enterprise development, product development, social performance, and digital finance in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, including South Africa, Lebanon, and India. He also served in various team and leadership roles in commercial banking and consulting to secure financing for healthcare institutions and other nonprofits along the US East Coast and started his career working in microfinance and cooperative finance in Mali, West Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer. Chris holds a BA in business administration and economics from Rhodes College (Memphis, TN) and an MBA from Babson College/Olin (Wellesley, MA).

VIKAS MANGIPUDI, Loan & Outreach Officer; Burlington, VT.

Vikas joined the Cooperative Fund in early 2022 to support lending to cooperatives in Vermont and New Hampshire. He was born and raised in Nashua, NH and has settled into a life of cooperative development in the Burlington, VT area, including having served as the treasurer of the Vermont Solidarity Investing Club, a board member of the Vermont Real Estate Cooperative, and as a member of multiple other food, housing, and investing co-ops. He comes to CFNE from a professional background in software development and data science, most recently at a mid-sized employee-owned (ESOP) software company. Vikas is a lifelong learner who studied Statistics and Sociology at Boston University as well as Accounting at Champlain College.

JOE MARRAFFINO, Loan & Outreach Officer; Ithaca, NY.

Joe joined the Cooperative Fund in early 2021 to support lending to cooperatives in New York State. He worked previously as a Program Manager for the Democracy at Work Institute, coordinating Workers to Owners, a national collaborative of organizations working to transition small businesses to democratic employee ownership. Prior to that he was the Finance Manager for consumer-owned GreenStar Food Co-op in Ithaca, and before that a baker and cooperative developer for the worker-owned Arizmendi Bakery and Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Joe has served on the boards of the Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives and the California Center for Cooperative Development, and helped organize the Upstate Cooperative Summit. Joe has an undergraduate degree in Literature and Creative Writing from SUNY Binghamton, and a master's degree in Culture, Ecology, and Sustainable Communities from the New College of California.

JOHAN MATTHEWS, Community Engagement Facilitator; Schenectady, NY.

Johan joined the CFNE team in January, 2021 as our Community Engagement Facilitator. In this role, he develops supportive ecosystems and provides technical assistance to ensure that communities traditionally excluded from economic investment can engage in cooperative enterprise. He joins CFNE after almost a decade of facilitating community-based economic engagement strategies throughout the Capital Region of NYS, where he still serves as a trusted collaborator and coach to local leaders striving to create equitable change. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from SUNY at Buffalo, a Certificate of Graduate Study in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from Rockefeller College, as well as an M.S. in Strategic Design and Management from The Parsons School of Design Strategies. As a Caribbean immigrant, Johan is especially interested in using cooperatives to create social, racial and economic justice for those who have faced structural barriers to self determination and shared ownership.

JOSIE SHAGWERT, Administrative Manager; Providence, RI.

Josie joined CFNE in February 2020. In her role as Administrative Manager she supports the organization by creating and maintaining administrative systems for accounting, investor relations, and portfolio management as well as by helping with investor and funder compliance activities. For nearly 20 years Josie has specialized in strengthening the administrative and financial capacity of organizations with a social, economic, or racial justice mission. Her previous roles include Director of Development for the Regional Environmental Council, an environmental justice organization in Worcester, MA, and Executive Director for Fuerza Laboral, a worker and immigrant justice organization in Central Falls, RI. In 2019 she returned to the U.S. after five years in the Middle East serving as Director of Development for the Center for Civil Society and Democracy, a Syrian-led peacebuilding and women’s empowerment organization.