Board Chair Samuel Acevedo served as the Executive Director of the Boston Higher Education Resource Center (HERC) from its founding in 1999 until 2022. Sam is also on staff at the Congregación León de Judá (CLJ) which served as the fiscal conduit for the Boston HERC until 2018. The Boston HERC enables at-risk Latino, and other first-generation youth, to gain access to a higher education, break the cycle of poverty, and become leaders in the community. Currently, Boston HERC Passport Coaches are serving over 1,200 low-income, first-generation students of color (and Passport Alumni) in the classrooms of eight critically-underserved BPS high schools (and on college campuses throughout the region). In 2015, Sam was named one of the founding Co-Chairs of the Boston School Committee's (BSC) Opportunity and Achievement Gap Task Force; and Sam was asked to participate in the 2018 BPS Superintendent Search Committee convened by Mayor Walsh. Sam was one of only two non-profit leaders serving on the 11-member committee, and one of only two on this committee who had also served on the 2015 Search Committee. Sam also serves on the Exam School Task Force and the 2021 Boston Public Schools Federal Relief Funds Commission.
Sam has a Bachelor’s Degree from Stetson University (1985); and a J.D., cum laude, from Boston College Law School (1993). Prior to his current role, Pastor Sam served as an Assistant Corporation Counsel litigating juvenile delinquency cases in New York City’s Family Court until joining the staff of Congregación León de Judá in 1999. Sam also serves on the boards of Boston Trinity Academy and of BMA/Ten Point. He and his wife, Marina, were married in July of 2001.
