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Molly McKinney, Ball Consulting Group, LLC
Phone: 617-243-9950; Email: molly@ballcg.com
RIZE Massachusetts Appoints Chief Program Officer and Associate Program Officers
BOSTON, Mass. (June 18, 2024) – RIZE Massachusetts Foundation (RIZE), an independent nonprofit foundation solely dedicated to funding and creating solutions to end the overdose crisis in Massachusetts, today announced the recent appointments of Jennifer Tracey as chief program officer, along with two new associate program officers, Annmarie Benedict Pagliano and Elizabeth Kinnard.
The program team will manage the strategic growth and implementation of RIZE’s programmatic initiatives, focusing on grants administration, community building and thought leadership. They will work closely with stakeholders to strengthen relationships, networks, philanthropic partnerships, strategic coalitions, and in support of the foundation’s innovative approaches to preventing overdose and increasing access to treatment. The team will lead the implementation of comprehensive evaluation and learning strategies to understand and strengthen the foundation’s impact.
“Our grantmaking and programmatic initiatives are the primary function of our organization and we are excited to welcome Jen, Annmarie and Elizabeth to the team,” said RIZE President and CEO Julie Burns. “They are all accomplished professionals with deep appreciation and passion for RIZE’s mission, vision and values.
“Their experience in program design, grantmaking practices and evaluation will be a tremendous asset for our mission, especially as we launch the Mosaic Opioid Recovery Partnership,” Burns added. Mosaic is a public-private partnership between RIZE and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health specifically designed to support communities and populations that have been historically underserved and have experienced a high rate of opioid-related overdose deaths through support from opioid settlement funds.
Tracey previously served as the inaugural director of the Boston Mayor’s Office of Recovery Services (ORS), the first municipal substance use recovery office in the country that leads all substance use recovery policy and initiatives for the City of Boston. Prior to her tenure at ORS, she served as the director of youth and young adult services for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Bureau of Substance Addiction Services (BSAS) developing age-appropriate recovery services for young adults, including the first young adult residential treatment programs, and helped supervise the opening of Massachusetts’ first recovery high schools. Tracey started her career at BSAS as Boston regional manager, overseeing substance use prevention, intervention and support services throughout the city’s neighborhoods.
Tracey served on the Opioid Recovery and Remediation Fund Advisory Council, where she was instrumental in developing recommendations for the expenditure of the Opioid Recovery and Remediation Trust Fund to mitigate the impacts of the opioid epidemic in the Commonwealth. The Dorchester resident earned a bachelor’s degree from Providence College and holds a master’s degree in social work from Salem State University.
Pagliano previously served as grants management consultant at Disability Rights Fund, helping redesign grantmaking processes. She served as migration narrative executive at Social Change Initiative in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she designed and lead a multimillion-dollar grantmaking program to increase the communications capacity of non-governmental agencies welcoming migrants across Europe. Throughout Pagliano’s 14 years at The Atlantic Philanthropies (USA) Inc., she directed grant programs seeking criminal justice reform and protecting human rights.
Pagliano volunteers as a strategy and grantmaking advisor for a fund at the Tides Foundation. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and earned a master’s degree in fine arts from The New School.
Kinnard will focus on monitoring, evaluation and learning in her new role at RIZE. She previously served as associate director of implementation science on the HEALing Communities Study at Boston Medical Center, focused on reducing overdose deaths in Massachusetts through community-engaged research. Kinnard also served as a research analyst in the behavioral health research division of RTI International, conducting research on disparities in access to naloxone. She supported state and national organizations in substance use disorder advocacy as a program associate for Community Catalyst.
Kinnard earned a bachelor’s degree in public health and a master’s degree in behavioral and social health services from Brown University. She holds a master’s degree in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley.
About RIZE Massachusetts
RIZE Massachusetts is solely dedicated to funding and creating solutions to end the overdose crisis. Guided by those with lived experience and unafraid of new ideas, RIZE is building networks, designing programming, and supporting community partners who are using novel approaches to preventing overdose and increasing access to treatment. Learn more at rizema.org.
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