Meet the Staff

Executive Director

Maria Dykema Erb, (she/her/hers), 617-353-3424

Make an appointment with Maria

Maria is a natural collaborator and community builder who is passionate about helping first-generation students succeed. She joined the Newbury Center as its inaugural director in December 2020, bringing nearly three decades of experience in diversity and inclusion work, student recruitment and retention, academic and student affairs. Most recently, she was co-director of diversity and student success at the Graduate School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Maria received her MEd in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Vermont and her bachelor’s degree from the University of New Hampshire. One of five siblings raised on a Vermont dairy farm, Maria is the first person in her family to have gone to college and the only one to have completed a four-year degree. “Having been a first-gen student myself,” she says, “I want to be the person I needed back then.”

Faculty Director

Anthony (Tony) Abraham Jack, (he/him)

Dr. Jack is the Inaugural Faculty Director of the Newbury Center and Associate Professor at Boston University. His research documents the overlooked diversity among lower-income undergraduates: the Doubly Disadvantaged—those who enter college from local, typically distressed public high schools—and the Privileged Poor, or those who do so from boarding, day, and preparatory high schools. He has earned awards from the American Sociological Association, American Educational Studies Association, Association for the Study of Higher Education, Eastern Sociological Society, and the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Dr. Jack has held fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation. In 2020, Muhlenberg College awarded him an honorary doctorate for his work in transforming higher education. The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students is his first book. His second book project, When Campus Closed: How Elite Colleges Are Still Failing Disadvantaged Students, is due out in 2024.

Associate Director

M.C. Damm, (STH ’21) (they/them) 617-353-3401

Make an appointment with M.C.

M.C. is a community-minded educator who strives to make the college experience accessible, hospitable, and inclusive.  Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, M.C. received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and Spanish from Hope College before moving to Boston, where they completed a master’s in global and community engagement at BU’s School of Theology.  Having worked with preschool-aged children, graduate students, and everyone in-between, M.C. uses their training in developmental psychology to create programming that is fun, innovative, and practical.  M.C. joined the Newbury Center as the Assistant Director in January 2022. They say, “as a student, I needed the support of friends and mentors to navigate the highs and lows of higher education. It is an honor to support our first-gen students and to walk alongside them on their educational journeys.”

Program Administrator

Ahnna Reyes, (she/they), 617-353-3422

Ahnna champions the importance of personal, collective history and desires to help connect folks to a rich, supportive community. Ahnna started their career with a bachelor’s degree in history and was a first-generation master’s student at the University College London for museum studies in 2018. Their public history profession and dedication to narrative has taken Ahnna from her hometown of Franklin, TN, to London, and, finally, to Boston. After spending the majority of their life supporting young people, Ahnna is passionate about encouraging the uniqueness of each individual’s story and where their journeys will take them next. As the daughter of a first-generation Latino college grad, she notes: “If I can be the strong hands and supportive care that my dad would have benefited from, then it is my absolute joy to offer that aid to this next generation of students.”

Assistant Director

Katherine Lawlor (she/her), 617-353-3212

Make an appointment with Katherine

Katherine is a caring educator who enjoys planning outside-of-the classroom experiences for the first-generation community. She is a triplet from a rural community in Virginia and a first-generation college graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Liberty University and a Master of Education in Student Affairs Practice in Higher Education from the University of Virginia. Katherine’s educational journey was impacted by medical and financial circumstances, so she’s passionate about connecting students to resources. She notes: “My mentors in college presented me with opportunities I was unaware of, so I enjoy goal setting with the first-generation college students I mentor.”

Assistant Director

Rosemary Ferreira (she/her), 617-353-3215

Make an appointment with Rosemary

Rosemary is passionate about creating spaces that validate and empower students who have been historically and continuously excluded from higher education. Driven by her own experiences as a first-generation, working-class student of color, Rosemary has served as an educator and scholar-practitioner in Baltimore and Washington D.C., her hometown of New York City, and her parent’s homeland of the Dominican Republic. Rosemary earned her M.Ed. in Student Affairs from the University of Maryland, College Park and her B.A. in Environmental and Urban Studies from Bard College. She says “Often times as a first-generation student, I felt like I was just trying to keep my head above the water and survive. I want more for us, I want us to thrive, to be embraced with love and community as we navigate this higher ed journey.”

Student Staff

  • Elizabeth Donahue (CAS) (she/her/hers)
  • Jairo Zelaya (COM) (he/him/his)
  • Malia Montalvo (COM) (she/her/hers)
  • Sydney Boothe (SPH) (they/them/theirs)