Pension Action Center Staff
- Email: pension@umb.edu
- Phone (toll-free): 1.888.425.6067; (local): 617.287.7307
Anna served as PAC's director until fall 2023, when she accepted a visiting faculty position at the University of Massachusetts School of Law. Prior to joining PAC, she served as a Deputy Fair Lending Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where she worked to prevent illegal discrimination in lending. She also served previously as an attorney at the Federal Reserve Board; as an Assistant Attorney General at the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General; and as a Special Assistant at the U.S. Department of Treasury. She earned her J.D. at Harvard Law School, and earned an M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics. In addition to her role at PAC, she is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Massachusetts Law School.
Tyler joined the Pension Action Center from Vermont Legal Aid, where she worked in the Elder Law Unit on matters including housing preservation, Social Security appeals, Medicaid eligibility, debt collection defense, and aid to victims of financial exploitation and abuse. Tyler’s experience also includes an internship at PAC from 2015-16. She is a graduate of Boston College Law School and Smith College, and she is a member of the bars of Vermont and Massachusetts.
Raad Alsowayigh
Legal Clerk
Raad joined the Pension Action Center in the fall of 2023 after graduating from Boston College Law School in May 2023. As a law student he was drawn to public interest work. On behalf of a client facing disability discrimination, he filed an amicus brief which led to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling in the client’s favor. As an intern with the International Legal Foundation, he worked with Tunisian lawyers to improve the country’s criminal justice system. He earned a BA in political science from Penn State University.
Emily has worked with PAC since September 2020. Before that time, she was based in New York City. Over the last ten years, she has worked at Trinity Church Wall Street and The Juilliard School. She is a graduate of Westminster Choir College, St. John's College, Santa Fe, and Phillips Exeter Academy.
Pension Counselors
Blake joined the Pension Action Center in July 2022 as a volunteer attorney. His legal experience includes client and project management across numerous industries. He currently serves as head of legal operations for a residential real estate company. Blake is a 2005 graduate of the Loyola University Chicago School of Law and a 2002 graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Marcia Trenholm
Marcia joined the Pension Action Center as a volunteer in June 2021 after retiring from a career in internal audit and compliance. During her career, she worked for several financial institutions in the Boston area, most recently retiring from the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. She is a graduate of Smith College and Bentley University.
Constance Vecchione
Connie retired in 2019 as chief bar counsel at the Office of Bar Counsel of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers, the attorney disciplinary agency. She had been an attorney with the Office of Bar Counsel since 1980, the last 12 years as chief counsel. She is a 1970 graduate of Brandeis University and a 1974 graduate of Northeastern University School of Law. She was previously a law clerk with the Massachusetts Superior Court (1974-75) and in private practice (1975-80).
Advisory Board
Anne S. Becker*
Winston & Strawn LLP
Kurt Czarnowski
Czarnowski Consulting
Krista D'Aloia
Fidelity
Benjamin A. Gibbons, Esq.
Holland and Hart LLP
Evelyn Haralampu, Esq.
Burns & Levinson LLP
Katherine Hesse, Esq.
Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane LLP
John Kimpel
Retired from Fidelity Investment
Keith S. Kotfica
Health Equity
Andrew Liazos, Esq.
McDermott Will & Emery
Lori Lenard
The Brink's Company
Jacob Mattinson*
McDermott Will & Emery
Amy A. Null, Esq.
WilmerHale
Maria O'Brien, J.D.
Boston University School of Law
Stephen Popper
SageView Advisory Group
Patricia Richardson, J.D.
US Department of Labor
Employee Benefits Security Administration
Jasmin Sethi
Sethi Clarity Advisers
Martina B. Sherman*
DeBofsky Sherman Casciari Reynolds P.C.
Todd A. Solomon, Esq.
McDermott Will & Emery LLP
Christian Weller, PhD
John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, UMass Boston
*Indicates a member of the Illinois Committee