Teresa Soares-Pena
Executive Director
t.soarespena @squashbusters.org
617-373-7366

Teresa Soares-Pena has spent a career implementing effective educational programs for urban middle school age students. Born in the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of West Africa, Teresa immigrated with her family at the age of 11 and attended schools in Providence, Rhode Island, and Seekonk, Massachusetts. She earned Bachelor of Science at Boston University, and went on to complete her Masters in Public Health at Columbia University in 1987 and her Masters in Education at Harvard University in 1993, focusing on school leadership.

Teresa's teaching and administrative career has taken her from coast to coast. Her professional career encompasses multiple educational positions including health and science teacher within the Boston Public Schools and a principal at the Columbia Neighborhood Center in California which included supervising a middle school with 870 students, a preschool, and a health clinic. In addition to her dedication to urban education, she has improved health care for students and their families in underserved communities as a recruiter of physicians to underserved areas in Georgia, managed a teen pregnancy prevention program in Chicago, and developed and implemented programs for eligible migrant students throughout the north central region of Massachusetts. Most recently she served as the principal for seven years at the Dearborn Middle School in Roxbury, Massachusetts, one of SquashBusters' partner middle schools. During her tenure at the Dearborn, students showed continuous improvement in MCAS scores.

Teresa's many experiences in the health and education fields demonstrate a life-long pursuit for improving the lives of children. As the Executive Director of SquashBusters, Teresa looks forward to working to ensure many more successful years for the organization.

Program Staff

Jennifer Lillis
Academic Program Director
j.lillis@squashbusters.org
617-373-5086

Although she grew up in Florida, Jenn attended the University of Michigan and received her degree in political science. She taught environmental education in New England, California, and the Bahamas before returning to school and getting her master's degree in special education. Since then, she's taught in New York City, Monteverde Costa Rica, and Oaxaca, Mexico. Jenn has worked with students from elementary school through high school, and focused on helping struggling students with reading, writing, and math.

She loves teaching and is very excited to be in Boston and to be joining the Squashbusters team. She's also excited to be learning Squash and hopes the Squashbusters students will help her improve.

Doug Lifford
Squash Program Director
d.lifford@ squashbusters.org
617-373-7368

A life long resident of Boston, Doug brings thirty years of squash playing experience to SquashBusters. He is a graduate of Boston University School of Law and Harvard University, where he was co-captain of the squash team and a first team All-American. He has played professionally for twenty years including as a doubles partner with Greg Zaff. He won the National 40 and over men's doubles championship in 2007 with Chris Spahr and he has won multiple state singles and doubles titles.

Doug, along with fellow coaches Luke Hammond and Dan Karlin will emphasize technique, strategy and fitness in their coaching as well as the idea that squash is a thinking person's game. They will require SquashBusters students to learn to think critically about all aspects of their game, and the choices that they make both on and off the court.

Luke Hammond
Squash Coordinator
lu.hammond@ squashbusters.org
617-373-7374

Luke is excited to join the SquashBusters team as Squash Coordinator. He received his B.A. from Kenyon College in Ohio, where he captained the Squash Team, played varsity lacrosse and lead expeditions for the Kenyon Outdoors Club. At Kenyon, Luke studied Environmental Studies as well as Philosophy with a concentration in Classical Philosophy. For the past few summers Luke worked for a youth adventure program leading biking and community service trips in Hawaii, Nova Scotia and along the Pacific Coast.

Jennifer McCann Black
Academic & Community Service Coordinator
j.mccannblack@ squashbusters.org
617-373-5041

Jen grew up in Haverhill, MA and then went on to attend Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH where she majored in Politics, concentrating on American History and Spanish. During college, Jen was fortunate to be able to study abroad in Ireland and volunteer in Honduras. After college Jen volunteered for one year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Camden, NJ. It was while working at the youth development program Hopeworks 'N Camden that she decided to pursue a career in education.

In May 2008, Jen graduated from Brown University with her M.A.T. for secondary education in History/Social Studies. She is very excited to be welcomed into the community of SquashBusters as an Academic and Community Service Coordinator, and looks forward to working with the youth and having them teach her a thing or two about squash!

Matt Mulder
Director of Middle School Academics & Community Service
m.mulder@squashbusters.org
617-373-7371

Matt attended Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.  After graduation, he flew to Kenya on a fellowship to assist in the start up of a school.  He returns to the United States after six months abroad as the new Director of Middle Academics & Community Service for the 6th Grade. He is looking forward to getting to know the new 6th graders in the program, planning their curriculum and service projects.   

Support Staff

Sonja Cantu
Alumni Outreach Coordinator
s.cantu@squashbusters.org
617-373-7373

Sonja joins the team as the Alumni Outreach Coordinator. Her focus will be on providing support and guidance to SquashBuster alumni currently enrolled in private school and college by meeting personally with them, their families, and school personnel. Sonja has a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Boston College with a particular interest in issues of diversity and has worked with children, adolescents, adults and families in school, mental health and hospital settings in the Boston area. More recently, she worked at Harvard University Health Services and Northeastern University Health and Counseling Center attentive to outreach to undergraduate and graduate students of color contending with transitions, cultural adjustments and racial issues at school. Sonja has a bachelor degree in elementary education with eight years experience as a classroom teacher working in public schools in Texas and four years living abroad in Panama with the Department of Defense Dependent Schools teaching children of military families. She also served as a mentor to a member of the original SquashBusters team.

Dominique Farinaux-Dumas
Managing Director
d.farinaux-dumas@ squashbusters.org
617-373-7782

Hailing from Belgium, Dominique attended Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels and majored in Computer Science and Human Science. Later, she moved to the United States and earned her MS in Business Administration at Colorado State. Integrating her interests in both computers and people, Dominique worked for various technology companies, rising to the position of Software Development Manager at Oracle.

As a life-long squash player, active member of the MA Squash association, and fan of kids, she volunteered at SquashBusters and fell in love with the program. Consequently, when she felt a need for change in her life, Dominique left the corporate world and now applies her administrative expertise at SquashBusters.