Teri Williams is President and Chief Operating Officer of OneUnited Bank, the nation’s largest Black-owned bank and award-winning Community Development Financial Institution. Under her leadership, OneUnited Bank has consolidated four banks and launched a digital platform to create a powerful national brand supported by innovative technology, products, and services.

Williams brings 30 years of financial services expertise from premier institutions, including Bank of America and American Express, where she was one of the youngest Vice Presidents. She holds an M.B.A. with honors from Harvard Business School and a B.A. with distinctions from Brown University.

Beyond banking, Williams co-founded the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts and serves on multiple boards, including CCC Intelligent Solutions, the 79th Street Corridor Initiative in Miami, and The Partnership for Miami. She is the author of I Got Bank! What My Granddad Taught Me About Money, a financial literacy book for urban youth.

Williams has been recognized as one of the 150 Most Influential Bostonians by Boston Magazine, 50 Over 50 by Forbes Magazine, and received The Trayvon Martin Foundation 2025 Champion for Justice and Peace Award.

Elected in November 2010, Russell Holmes represents Massachusetts’ Sixth Suffolk District, which includes a portion of the communities of Dorchester, Mattapan, Hyde Park, Roslindale, and Jamaica Plain.

At an early age, Representative Holmes learned the importance of community involvement from one of his first mentors in life, Lenzer Evans. Mr. Evans owned Brigham’s Ice Cream in Mattapan Square, which provided the first employment opportunity for many young people in the community, including Representative Holmes. Mr. Evans taught all his young employees that work was not just a means for getting ahead, but that they must also leave the community better than the way they found it. From the small corner bench in his shop, Mr. Evans met with state and city leaders to discuss policy and public affairs. Mr. Evans encouraged Representative Holmes to participate as well.

Representative Holmes remembered the lessons of his youth about the importance of community and purchased his first home in Mattapan. Soon after, he began to get involved in public service and civic activism when he decided that the streets in his community could use some upkeep. Enlisting the help of his neighbors, Representative Holmes grew his street cleaning initiative into a community-wide operation that culminated in a partnership with Mayor Menino.

As a community leader, Representative Holmes has worked passionately on issues related to local economic development, education, and public transportation. He chaired the Mattapan Library Task Force, which brought Boston’s first new public library since 2001.

In 2007, Representative Holmes chaired the Mattapan Economic Development Initiative (MEDI) and was an instrumental force in developing a new set of building codes to attract businesses to the community. More recently, the team won a federal Main Streets designation for Mattapan Square. This accomplishment will allow the community to tap into city funds to repair storefronts and improve buildings. In addition, the community will develop a holistic marketing strategy for the surrounding business district.

Representative Holmes enjoys volunteering. In addition to teaching Sunday school at the church of Christ in Roxbury, Representative Holmes has mentored 18 to 22 year-olds, serving as a male role model and coach on the transition from adolescence to adulthood. He has tutored elementary, high school, and college students on academic and life skills and has served as a Big Brother in Big Brother Big Sisters.

He graduated from Boston University with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1992, and he received his MBA from Northeastern in 2000. He currently works as a Certified Financial Planner with Baystate Financial Services. When he is away from the State House, you can usually find Representative Holmes working on local initiatives, teaching Sunday school with his wife Sheree, and knocking on doors to listen to the concerns of his constituents.

Chet Atkins is a founding partner at Tremont Strategies, a bipartisan government relations firm serving clients at state and federal levels. With decades of public service experience, he brings vision and trusted counsel to drive outcomes for organizations across the Commonwealth.

Chet represented Massachusetts’ 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving on the House Appropriations Committee as well as the Public Works, Ethics, and Budget Committees. Before Congress, he served over a decade in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and State Senate, where he chaired the Senate Ways and Means Committee and led reforms that modernized the Commonwealth’s budgeting process.

He serves on boards including Oxfam America, Amnesty International, and the Greater Lowell Community Foundation. He has also supported emerging democracies worldwide as an election observer in countries including Cambodia, Albania, and Peru.

Sidney Baptista worked at a Big Four accounting firm with financial success but felt unfulfilled. He found purpose in running and saw an opportunity to build something that mattered.

In 2017, Baptista founded the Pioneers Run Crew in Boston, deliberately creating space for a diverse running community in a sport that often feels exclusive. The crew gained recognition from major brands by 2020.

When brands offered sponsorships, exposure, and gifts, Baptista faced a choice. He turned them down. He wanted creative control and community ownership, not just someone else’s platform.

That decision led to PYNRS, a Black-owned running apparel company launched later that year. PYNRS designs streetwear-inspired running gear with inclusive sizing and sustainable materials. For Baptista, the company represents more than athletic wear. He sees PYNRS as a vehicle for building generational wealth and closing income gaps that have kept Black entrepreneurs locked out of the outdoor industry.

PYNRS joined REI Co-op’s Path Ahead Ventures, gaining mentorship and funding to scale its impact. As a solo founder, Baptista remains committed to ownership, diversity, and community. He believes PYNRS is building a movement that reshapes who belongs in outdoor spaces and who profits from the industry.

Founder and CEO of And Still We Rise, LLC, Dr. Holmes is a licensed psychologist and consultant who identifies as Black, African American, queer, cisgender woman, and a third-generation immigrant. She is a psychoanalytically and trauma informed black feminist and womanist psychologist with training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and biofeedback-informed interventions. 

Dr. Holmes has completed two Bachelor of Arts degrees from Seattle University, a Master of Science degree from Pacific University, and a Doctorate of Psychology degree from Pacific University in Oregon. Her pre-doctoral internship was at the Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center and postdoctoral training was at the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy where she studied psychoanalytic theory. She then graduated from the Postgraduate Fellowship Program at the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis. Dr. Holmes is licensed to practice psychology in Massachusetts and Washington state. Dr. Holmes is also a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program and the United States of Women Accelerator Program.

Dr. Holmes serves on the board of Community Conversations: Sister to Sister, as well as the board of The Equalizer Institute. She has published and presented on the topics of race, class, gender, sexuality, intersectionality, intergenerational trauma, and engaging in difficult dialogues.

Dr. Holmes is a recipient of the 2015 Pacific University Community Service Award and was a Multicultural Concerns Committee Scholar for the American Psychological Association’s Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (2019-2020). Her favorite pastimes include traveling to countries in the African diaspora, trying locally-owned restaurants, and spending time with her partner, children, and dog.