Community Endowment of Lexington

Clerk

Ann, and her husband, David Sheehan moved to Lexington in 1997, after Ann completed her doctorate in clinical psychology at Boston University. Professionally, Ann trained and worked in the Greater Boston area through Harvard Medical School and The Cambridge Hospital, concentrating in child and adolescent psychology, with an academic focus on the topic of resiliency. Over the past decade, she has been active in and on the board of numerous community non-profit organizations, including the Cary Library Foundation and the Lexington Education Foundation. Ann has also been involved with both local and state political campaigns, chairing and working in communications and strategy. An Atelier member at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts, Ann has exhibited her photography locally at Cary Memorial Library and the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society, as well as the DeCordova Museum School in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and the Atelier and other showcases at the Griffin.

Elizabeth Brach, Ph.D. and her husband Jose Marcal moved to Lexington in 1983 and have had 4 children go through the Lexington Public Schools, for all or part of their educations.  Elizabeth is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and holds a Ph.D. in Child Development from Tufts University.

Following years of clinical practice, she started her own company as a federally certified woman owned small business, Brach Evaluation and Consulting, LLC. She worked as a grant-writer, project developer, and evaluation consultant to universities and non-profits to support federal or state reporting requirements on their funded projects.  Most projects that she worked with addressed educational equity issues relating to gender, race, and ethnicity in school districts and state educational agencies.  Clients also included federally funded magnet schools, statewide mentoring initiatives, and family support programs.

Serving on the Outreach Committee for the past 3 years has been a wonderful opportunity to learn about and support local initiatives that benefit the Lexington Community.

Co-Chair

Yifang Gong has been a Lexington resident for 20 years. He raised two children, both going through Lexington public schools. In March 2021, He became a town meeting member and joined the Town Celebration Committee in April. From the beginning of 2022, he joined the board of CAAL. He came to the US 30 years ago as a student studying jet propulsion. He has worked in academia and industry for over 20 years and co-founded a company in China more than ten years ago. He became a member of the outreach committee of CEL in fall 2021. He is active in the grant review process and reaching out to Chinese and other Asian communities. In his leisure time, he enjoys cooking and gardening.

Erta Hysenbegasi is a sales and marketing executive with twenty years of experience in the healthcare space. With a focus on health equity and improving access to mental health resources, Erta has held leadership positions at Aetna, Tufts Health Plan and Boston Medical Center. Prior to that, Erta was the Director of Major Gifts for the Susan G. Komen foundation, the world’s largest foundation dedicated to finding a cure for breast cancer. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Erta has a passion for languages is fluent in Italian, Spanish, French and Albanian. She has been active in many non-profit boards including as a former Board of the Mary Christie Institute and the Advisory Board of the Tufts Institute for Global Leadership. Erta moved to Lexington two years ago and is thrilled to support the town’s vibrant non-profit community.

Elizabeth Kochi has been a resident of Lexington since 2012. She and her husband Stefan have two children who have attended Bridge School, Clarke Middle School, and Lexington High School. Since moving to Lexington, she has become an active member of the community, including volunteering with the local PTO. Both of her children have been part of the William Diamond Jr. Fife and Drum Corps, where she oversees membership recruitment and assists with fund raising. She has been an active parent of Boy Scout Troop 160, where she helps with the planning of the annual Patriot’s Day Pancake Breakfast. She has also been a Board Member of the Lexington Historical Society since 2020 where she has served on the Fund Development Committee, Executive Committee and most recently became Second Vice President of the Historical Society. Elizabeth recently joined the Lex250 Music & Arts Committee which is planning events for the Lexington Semiquincentennial celebration. She joined the Community Endowment of Lexington in 2018 and has served as a Board member since 2020 as well as serving on the Advancement Committee, Outreach Committee, and the Grant Review Committee.

Elizabeth has a master’s degree in education. She taught History and Social Studies at Southington High School in CT where she also served on the Legislative Commission of the Connecticut Education Association. Currently, she works as a Donor Relations Ambassador at THD, Inc. in Lincoln, MA. As part of this position, she supports large nonprofit clients where she helps the clients develop meaningful engagement strategies to increase donors’ revenue and deepen their relationship with the organization and mission.