TEAM MEMBERS

Meg Baker HeadshotMeg Baker

Administrative Manager
mbaker@mlpboston.org
(617) 336-7500 ext. 451
 
Meg Baker joined MLPB as the Operations Manager in October 2012. Meg has a long history working with nonprofit organizations dedicated to social change. Prior to joining MLPB, Meg worked at The Access Project (TAP), a nonprofit working to strengthen community action, promote social change, and improve health  especially for those who are most vulnerable. At TAP, she was responsible for the day-to-day operation and management of the office including financial management, administrative staff management and space and facilities management. She has also worked at the Asian American Civic Association (AACA) working with their job training programs, providing case management and job readiness assistance.

2018-J CasselmanJeannine Casselman

Legal Advisor
jcasselman@mlpboston.org
(617) 336-7500 ext. 453 
 
Attorney Jeannine Casselman is a Legal Advisor at MLPB. She was previously with the Rhode Island Center for Law and Public Policy and served as the Program Director for the Rhode Island Medical-Legal Partnership from 2011-2016. Ms. Casselman graduated from Roger Williams University School of Law in 2009 where she focused on public interest law. She interned with the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights, South Coastal Counties Legal Services and the Community Mediation Center of Rhode Island. 

J Flacks 2019 pic 3JoHanna Flacks

Legal Director
jflacks@mlpboston.org
(617) 336-7500 ext. 454
 
JoHanna Flacks is the Legal Director at MLPB and in this role links MLPB's workforce capacity-building services to broader opportunities to inform public policy in ways that will reduce health disparities. Before joining MLPB, JoHanna was in private practice, and provided pro bono services to the Cape Cod Anti-Discrimination Task Force in its successful campaign to establish the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission. Prior to that, she served as Assistant General Counsel for the Boston Public Health Commission, and Senior Investigator for the Boston Fair Housing Commission. She began her career as a labor-side employment discrimination litigation associate. JoHanna graduated from the University of Oklahoma College of Law and Brandeis University.

Kate GannonKate Gannon

Legal Advisor
kgannon@mlpboston.org
(617) 336-7500 ext. 457
 
Kate Gannon is a Legal Advisor at MLPB. She previously served as a medical-legal partnership attorney at Community Legal Aid in Worcester and Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, and as a healthcare-based advocate for human trafficking survivors. Building on an undergraduate major in social work, Ms. Gannon graduated from Roger Williams University School of Law where she focused on public interest law. She interned with the Youth Advocacy Division, Citizens for Juvenile Justice, the EdLaw Project, and the Rhode Island Medical-Legal Partnership. 
 

Jeff Gilbert Headshot 2Jeff Gilbert

Partnership Manager
jgilbert@mlpboston.org
617 336 7500 x461
 

Jeff Gilbert is the Partnership Manager at MLPB and a long-time champion of sustainable food systems and health equity. He has previously held evaluation and communications roles with Granville-Vance Public Health and the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle in North Carolina, as well as the Somerville-based urban agriculture company Green City Growers. Jeff is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health and Lehigh University.

2018-K Hurvitz

Kara Hurvitz

Legal Advisor
khurvitz@mlpboston.org
(617) 336-7500 ext. 459
 
Kara Hurvitz is a long-standing MLPB Legal Advisor. Prior to joining MLPB, Kara worked as a Social Services Advocate at the Committee for Public Counsel Services. In that generalist role, she assisted court-involved individuals and families with a broad range of high-stakes needs at the intersection of civil and criminal law. Kara is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, Boston College Law School, and Boston College Graduate School of Social Work.

Morton 2019-1

Samantha Morton

CEO
smorton@mlpboston.org
(617) 336-7500 ext. 455
 
Samantha J. Morton is CEO of MLPB. Ms. Morton is a national expert on the power of justice to advance health, and on the critical role of health ecosystem workforces in partnering with people to meet their health-related social needs (HRSN) and tackling population-level social determinants of health (SDOH) -- all in ways that promote democratization of access to justice and advance health equity for individuals, families and communities. She is leading MLPB's evidence-based integration of legal problem-solving strategies within accountable care, patient-centered medical home, and early childhood sector contexts. In the early childhood domain, Ms. Morton is co-developer of the DULCE intervention published in 2015 and part of the National Team supporting DULCE refinement, spread and scale through the CSSP-convened DULCE Learning Network. Before joining MLPB, Ms. Morton was a litigation associate at Hale & Dorr LLP (now WilmerHale) and a judicial clerk at the United States District Court for the District of Maine. She received her law degree from the University of Michigan School of Law and her BA from Cornell University.

fzhang photoFranny Zhang

Content Lead
fzhang@mlpboston.org
(617) 336-7500 ext. 450
 
Franny Zhang is MLPB's Content Lead. She previously managed communications for several departments at MIT and has worked in the mental health field serving people experiencing homelessness. In her role at MLPB, she draws on her background as a fiction writer, regular contributor to the Ploughshares Blog, and former Managing Editor at Solstice Literary Magazine as well. She has an MFA from Columbia University and a BA in Psychobiology from Swarthmore College.