This spring, Lesley welcomed two new members to the Board of Trustees.
Susan Luick Good, a Cambridge native, has more than 40 years of experience in consulting and management with a focus on strategy development for multinational organizations. Although she did not attend Lesley, Good has been aware of the university’s influence and growth over the years, particularly in the area of education.
“I have always known Lesley as being the gold standard in education,” said Good, whose two daughters benefitted from Lesley-educated teachers.
Good, who lives with her husband in Cambridge, is a founding partner of Newbridge Management Advisors and a senior adviser to the Aviador Group. Beginning her career at a time when gender parity in the workplace was even rarer than today, Good recalls seeing clear inequities in compensation and job opportunities offered to women. These experiences prompted her to be a part of positive change in her work and volunteer roles.
As an alumna of Harvard Business School, Good strove to improve opportunities for women in the workplace as a leader in that school’s W50 Project that focused on gender and leadership in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of women being admitted into its full MBA program.
Good is also active in the Cambridge community and is a board member of UNICEF USA New England.
On the Lesley board, she will combine her involvement with higher education and her management background to advance Lesley’s mission.
“In my view, smaller private universities like Lesley play an absolutely critical role in the landscape of higher education in the U.S.,” Good said. “They can offer a vibrant and connected community with more personalized learning opportunities for all students.”
Good will serve on the advancement and campus planning committees.
Also joining the board is Mark T. Williams, a financial risk management expert, author and faculty member at the Boston University Questrom School of Business.
“I believe deeply in the transformational role Lesley University has played since its founding in lifting up and providing opportunities to generation after generation of students,” says Williams, who lives with his wife, two daughters, three goats and 12 hens in Newton.
Over the last 30 years, Williams’s primary areas of interest have included risk and investment management, business ethics, financial technology, and diversity and inclusion and financial literacy. He is the author of several books and has provided guest commentary for numerous media outlets. Recent pieces have covered topics on a prescriptive approach to reducing college related student loan debt and improving the accuracy of Major League Baseball umpires in calling balls and strikes. In 2015 he co-founded FitMoney, a nonprofit focused on providing free financial literacy curriculum for grades kindergarten through 12.
Williams said he wants to lend his financial and risk management skills to Lesley and has already been tapped for the board’s finance and investment committees. He would also like to contribute to Lesley’s ongoing work in diversity and inclusion.
“Universities can play a key role in improving and shaping the society we want, not just what currently exists,” he said.
