
about BFY 2025
Throughout its history, Trinity Boston Connects (TBC) has been a beacon of hope, healing, and guidance for young people. That legacy lives on through our Youth Development & Leadership (YDL) Pathway. Grounded in our three Essential Community Practices – racial equity, trauma-informed care, and restorative justice – the YDL pathway creates vital spaces for healing and growth for Boston’s young people of color. As challenges to our vision of an equitable Boston continue to rise, we are called to deepen our commitment and expand our impact with even greater hope and resilience.
Healing Can’t Wait. Not another election cycle, year, month, day, or moment. Right now, youth of color in our city are grappling with the ongoing trauma of systemic racism – in schools, at home, and in their communities. As the world around us continues to shift, the path to equity becomes increasingly uncertain. We cannot afford to wait for change – we must create it, now, together.
We invite you to stand with us on Thursday, June 5, 2025, at the 18th Annual Bostonians for Youth Gala. This year, the fierce urgency of now compels us to lift Healing Can’t Wait as both our theme and collective declaration.
Come celebrate, strategize, and learn more about how TBC is building on decades of healing and how you can get involved in our YDL programs. We are reinvigorated, refreshed, and reaffirming our commitment to Boston’s youth.
Join us!
event details
DATE + TIME
Thursday, June 5, 2025 • 6PM
EVENING SCHEDULE
Reception
Dinner + Program
Leader of Change Award
QUESTIONS?
Contact Jennifer Fallon: jfallon@trinityconnects.org
Honoring Petrina Martin Cherry
Petrina Martin Cherry is a seasoned health equity professional and the Vice President of Community Engagement & External Affairs at Boston Medical Center Health System, leading strategic initiatives aimed at advancing healthcare equity, economic mobility, workforce development in healthcare and the life sciences, and addressing social determinants of health. Known for her expertise in building strong, collaborative relationships, Petrina has been instrumental in developing community-based programs that provide access to healthcare to under-resourced communities, raise awareness of Sickle Cell Disease, support BMC’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, promote mental health and wellness, women’s health, reduce recidivism, and foster sustainable empowerment in historically underserved communities.
Petrina was appointed by Mayor Walsh in 2020 to the City of Boston’s COVID-19 Health Inequities Task Force and by Governor Maura Healey to the Council on Black Empowerment and Mass Cultural Governing Council and serves on the board of directors of The Boston Foundation, The Boys and Girls Club of Boston, Boston Arts Academy, The Urban League of Eastern MA (Emeritus), and the Advisory Board of the American Hospital Association. TBC’s Leader of Change Award is one of many prestigious awards achived, including The Disparities Solutions Center of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Disparities Leadership Program Award, The Boston Celtics Heroes Among Us Award, The American Hospital Association Foster G. McGraw Prize, and The Leadership Brainery’s Change Can’t Wait Medal of Equity Award.
Hosted by Paris Alston
Paris Alston is the host of GBH News Rooted. She was previously co-host of Morning Edition and The Wake Up podcast at GBH News. She has done live coverage of Massachusetts’ elections, the unveiling of the Embrace monument to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, the 2023 national NAACP convention, where she interviewed Vice President Kamala Harris, and the 2024 Celtics Championship Parade. She also does community-based reporting for her award-winning original series “A Walk Down the Block,” and produces regular segments for the original mental health series “Wake Up Well.”
Before joining Morning Edition, Paris was a host of the NPR podcast Consider This, produced in conjunction with GBH and WBUR. She also served as the host of GBH’s digital series Keep it Social about social media trends, targeted at millennial and Gen Z audiences. Prior to that, she broke into the industry as an intern at UNC-TV in North Carolina and NBC10-Philadelphia and a producer at GBH and WBUR. She has reported on stories from Southeast Asia, Morocco, Panama and Brazil.
A North Carolina native, Paris is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied media and journalism and global studies. She recently earned a Social Impact MBA from Boston University. She is a member of the Boston and National Associations of Black Journalists and has worked extensively with print, digital, video, audio and social media.
2025 Host Committee
Jeannette Fiala, Co-Chair
Mass General Brigham
Dennis Tyrell, Co-Chair
Ashmont Counseling Associates
The Reverend Morgan S. & Missy Allen
Trinity Church in the City of Boston
Michael Curry
Mass League of Community Health Centers
Eric Esteves
Boston Main Streets Foundation
Dr. Rufus Faulk
Roxbury Community College
The MIX Boston
State Representative Brandy Fluker-Reid
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
House of Representatives, 12th District
Annissa Essaibi George
Big Sister Association of Greater Boston
Charles George
Compass
Gabriel Gladstone
Fisher Phillips
Imari Paris Jeffries
Embrace Boston
Danielle Johnson
Spark FM Online
Debbie Johnson
GlaxoSmithKline
Judith & Mark King
Trinity Church Parishioners
Dr. Aisha Miller
Related Beal
Tamara & Brandon Odom
Converse
The Fessenden School
Mike Parker
Flagship Energy Partners
Louise Burnham Packard
Dr. M. Lee Pelton
The Boston Foundation
Monica Roberts
Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts
Nancy Rachel Rousseau
Black Economic Council of Massachusetts
Christopher Smart & Shari Loessberg
The Arbroath Group
MIT Sloan
Chris Smith
Boston After School & Beyond
Judy & Bill Steul
Trinity Church Parishioners
Adrian Walker
The Boston Globe
Sandy Zamor Calixte
Monica Zeno-Martin
Parenting Journey
Thank You to Our 2024 Sponsors
* denotes Trinity Boston Connects, Board of Director
Presenting Sponsors
$25,000
Anonymous (2)
Janet and Dave* Aldrich
Judy and Bill Steul
Leading Sponsors
$10,000
Allison and David* Donelan
Judith and Mark King
Shari Loessberg and Christopher Smart*
Louise Burnham Packard and Murray Metcalfe
Rodman for Kids
Jeanne and Dan* Ross
State Street Corporation
TJX Companies
Pam Warren and Peter Lawrence
Resiliency Sponsors
$5,000
Robert Ellis Alan
Margret Cooke* and David Crowley
Stephen Hendrickson and David McCord
Barbara and Amos Hostetter
Justice Resource Institute
Laura McTaggart and Tom Nolan
Martha and Mike Parker
Elizabeth* and Robert Smith
Jeanne and Don Stanton
Empowerment Sponsors
$3,000
BECMA
Shelby Cabral Smither*
Marty Childs
Prime Buchholz
Jill* and Read Norton
Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius, LLP
Addie Swartz and Joel Rosen
Trinity Church in the City of Boston
Mentoring Sponsors
$1,000
Ronald Akie and David Mooney
Kenzie Bok
Elise and Pierce Browne
Connie Coburn and James Houghton
Leslie Colburn
Martha and Robert Cowden
Cummings Foundation
Kathryn and David Dahl
Jeannette and Josh Fiala
Paul Finnegan
Sula Fiszman
Elisabeth Frost and Paul Zintl
Charles L. George*
Global for Good
Katherine Gross
Kathleen Hirsch and Mark Morrow
Charlene and Charles Hyle
Vincent James
Debbie* and Chris Johnson
Michael Miles
Liz and Keith Morgan
Liz and Keith Morgan
Nina and Marshall Moriarty
Ruth Morris and Peter Kelly
Emily and Chuks Okoli
Sheila and John Peterson
Tricia and Chris Schade
Darryl Settles
Lynn and Peter Smiledge
Margot and Olie Thorp
Marlene and William Walch
Adrian Walker*
Pam Waterman* and Michelle Coleman
Institutional Sponsors







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