ICIC is a nonprofit research and strategy organization headquartered in Boston. Our team of 23 professionals is led by President and CEO Mary Kay Leonard.

• Matt Camp

  Vice President, Small Business Initiatives

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  As the vice president of small business initiatives, Matt Camp’s primary responsibility is to lead ICIC’s partnership with Goldman Sachs to build and expand the 10,000 Small Businesses Program to scale. Mr. Camp also provides strategic support to ICIC’s corporate partnerships as they relate to small business initiatives.

  Before taking on his current role, Matt was the director of development at ICIC. He established and executed a national strategy to engage public, private and non-profit entities in significantly enhancing business growth in America’s inner cities and was responsible for managing and implementing all activities relating to fundraising, business development and client/donor management. Matt also conducted extensive analysis on the retail and construction, housing and real estate clusters as part of ICIC’s research team.

  Prior to joining ICIC, Matt worked as an independent consultant to organizations focused on educational and economic development issues. He has over 10 years of experience in the financial services industry, having worked as a senior financial analyst at Liberty Mutual and OneBeacon and as a general manager at American International Group.

  Matt holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a bachelor’s in government from Harvard College.

• Nydia Cardenas

  Analyst, Programs

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  As a programs analyst, Nydia Cárdenas' primary focus is the implementation of the outreach, application and selection process for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program.

  Prior to joining ICIC, Nydia worked as a program manager for the New America Alliance, a national non-profit organization comprised of prominent Latino and Latina business leaders. Her primary responsibilities included managing the organization's Pension Fund Initiative and the annual Wall Street Summit. Nydia also completed a 6-month fellowship with the Boston Red Sox focusing on evaluating the team’s fan clubs.

  Nydia hold's a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.

• Mack Davidson

  Senior Analyst, Data

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  Senior data analyst Mack Davidson serves as the administrator of Blackbaud Sphere, ICIC’s constituent relationship management system. Mack also provides technical expertise to help staff develop specialized database applications using other software.

  Prior to joining ICIC, Mack worked a variety of analytical roles at Harvard University, University of Massachusetts-Boston, the Conservation Law Foundation and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

  Mack holds a master’s in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s from Princeton University.

• Mary Duggan

  Analyst, Communications

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  Mary Duggan is the Communications Analyst at ICIC where she contributes to the strategy and execution of the organizations’ communication campaigns. With a focus on small businesses, Mary develops content for ICIC’s social media channels, e-communications, and website.
  
  Prior to joining ICIC, Mary worked as an Economic Development Associate at MassEcon (The Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development). At MassEcon Mary managed communication outreach, planned corporate events, and fostered member relationships.
  
  Mary received a bachelor’s degree in Communications and Human Development from Boston College.
   

• Thomas Goff

  Analyst, Research

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  Thomas Goff is responsible for synthesizing, analyzing and mapping demographic, socio-economic, education, workforce-skill, occupation, commuter, land use, infrastructure, cluster, industry and firm-level data for America’s regions, cities and inner cities. In addition to analyzing data, Thom enjoys bicycling with ICIC’s Initiative for a Companionable Inter City Cycle group to, in and through inner cities.

  Prior to joining ICIC, Thom worked on bicycle and pedestrian planning for the City of Cambridge’s Environmental & Transportation Planning Division and on neighborhood business redevelopment plans in New Orleans’ City Hall following Hurricane Katrina.

  Thom holds a bachelor’s in urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• Kate Haggerty

  Senior Analyst, Programs

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  As a senior analyst for the Programs team, Kate Haggerty provides strategic research, analytical and communicative support related to Small Business Initiatives. Her primary focus is the implementation of the outreach, application and selection process for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program. Since joining ICIC in 2009, Kate has supported a variety of projects in the Communications and Development departments.

  In addition to her work at ICIC, Kate is involved with the DREAM program, a New England-based non-profit organization which supports social and economic development in low-income communities.

  Kate holds a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Vermont.

• Brenda Harley

  Office Manager

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  Brenda Harley is the ICIC office manager and is responsible for managing ICIC Board events, vendor relations and human resources as well as filling out the development team.

  Brenda comes with over 25 years of administrative and operations experience. Prior to joining ICIC, Brenda worked in various administrative roles supporting senior-level executives in both the public and private sectors. Additionally, she sits on several community/civic boards and has worked as a public servant for over 20 years in Massachusetts.

  Brenda holds a bachelor’s in Business Management from Alabama A & M University in Huntsville, AL.
   

• Alexis Hyder

  Manager, Programs

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  As a Manager on the Programs team, Alexis plays a key role in the planning, project management, and communications surrounding the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program, with particular emphasis on the outreach, application and selection processes.

  Prior to joining ICIC, Alexis worked with the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Monrovia, Liberia, assisting officials in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare with program oversight and cross-sector partnership development. She spent several years with the Strategic Partnerships groups at MTV and mtvU, where she designed Emmy and Peabody Award-winning public education campaigns in collaboration with leading non-profits and foundations. Early in her career, Alexis was an Associate in the Public Affairs practice at Burson-Marsteller and a Coro Fellow in New York.

  Alexis holds an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Arts in government from Wesleyan University. 

• Adam Kamins

  Research Practice Manager

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  As a research practice manager at ICIC, Adam Kamins is responsible for managing and executing projects and analyses designed to identify trends in business activity in U.S. inner cities. He has played a lead role in ICIC’s studies of the industrial economy in Philadelphia, federal cluster policy and a number of cluster-specific engagements. These include a study of the role that construction, housing and real estate can play in inner city future economies and an in-depth look at the potential associated with industry clusters that serve their specific neighborhoods or regions.

  Prior to joining ICIC, Adam worked as a senior content manager at Oracle Corp. and as a senior analyst for Analysis Group, Inc.

  Adam holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and an bachelor’s in quantitative economics from Tufts University.
   

• Mary Kay Leonard

  President and CEO

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  As the president and CEO of ICIC, Mary Kay Leonard manages ICIC’s strategic direction and is focused on increasing the organization’s impact on inner city economic development across the U.S. She also directs ICIC’s efforts to engage new corporate and foundation partners, expand recognition and education programs for inner city businesses and leverage the underutilized assets of America’s urban communities to maintain the country’s competitiveness internationally.

  Prior to joining ICIC, Mary Kay served as the senior vice president for The Community Builders (TCB), one of the nation’s leading developers for low-income housing areas, and successfully launched a program to double the earned income level of residents living in affordable and mixed-income housing. Previously, Mary Kay was the interim CEO and chief operating officer of United Way of Massachusetts Bay (UWMB) and, later, the vice president of investor relations for the United Way system where she was responsible for raising more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

  Mary Kay also served as the senior vice president for Work/Family Directions (WFD), which designed and delivered work/life and employee assistance programs for Fortune 500 companies. From 1985 to 1990, she served as the commissioner for the Massachusetts Office for Children and is credited with doubling the agency’s budget during her tenure.

  Mary Kay holds a juris doctor from Northeastern University School of Law and is a graduate of Colgate University with a degree in urban studies. She has completed senior executive programs at Yale School of Management, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School.

• Christina Li

  Senior Analyst, Programs 

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  As a senior analyst on the Programs team, Christina Li provides strategic and analytical support for ICIC programs and manages consulting work with anchor institutions.

  Prior to joining ICIC, Christina was a management consultant at Galt and Company and Novantas. As a management consultant, Christina provided strategic advice to Fortune 200 clients in financial services, consumer products and pharmaceuticals. By applying rigorous financial and quantitative analysis to develop long-term profitable growth strategies, she was instrumental in resolving core financial and strategic issues.

  Christina holds bachelor’s degrees in history and international studies from Yale University.

• Teresa Lynch

  Senior Vice President, Director of Research

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  Teresa Lynch is a senior vice president and director of research at the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) where she is responsible for designing and overseeing a research agenda to promote business development and job growth in U.S. inner cities. The research agenda currently includes projects on strengthening local clusters in inner cities, improving capital access in inner city economies, formulating equitable federal policy that treats inner city areas equitably and strengthening the food cluster in inner cities.

  Teresa is leading a team that is formulating industrial strategy for Mayor Bing’s “Detroit Works” project and was a member of the AIA Sustainable Design Assessment team that produced "Leaner, Greener Detroit". Prior to joining ICIC, she was a member of the MIT research team that produced Global Taiwan and How We Compete: What Companies Around the World Are Doing to Make it in Today's Global Economy.

  Teresa has published work on globalization and corporate strategy, foreign direct investment in the automotive industry, infrastructure investments and economic development and the use of economic models and methods in environmental policy making.

  She is a member of MTC's John Adams Innovation Institute Governing Board and the Boston Fed's Community Development Research Advisory Council.

  Teresa holds undergraduate degrees in economics and public policy from UNC-Chapel Hill and a master’s degree in Regional Science from the University of Pennsylvania.
   

• Nicki MacManus

  Manager, Strategy Consulting Practice

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  Nicki MacManus joined the ICIC in summer 2009, as part of the Harvard Business School Leadership Fellows program. As manager in the strategy consulting practice, Nicki is responsible for advising clients based in inner cities across the U.S., with a particular focus on the role that anchor institutions play in stimulating local economic growth.

  Prior to joining ICIC, Nicki worked as a management consultant at Mercer HR Consulting in Ireland and Monitor Group in the UK.

  Nicki holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in international business from the University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland and the École Supérieure de Commerce et de Management de Tours-Poitiers, France.
   

• Amanda Maher

  Senior Analyst, Communications

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  Amanda Maher is a part of ICIC's communications team, for which she is creating a knowledge management system to help identify the best practices being used by cities nationwide in the inner city economic development arena. Amanda is also responsible for developing content for ICIC’s blog and other social media channels.

  Prior to joining ICIC, Amanda interned with the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s Economic Development Department. Here, she researched existing business incubators and coworking locations, establishing a comprehensive database. In the summer of 2010, Amanda then went to work for the Commonwealth’s Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development as a Rappaport Fellow. In this capacity, Amanda was responsible for reviewing various legislative proposals and conducting research.

  Amanda recently earned a masters in urban and regional policy from Northeastern University, with a focus in urban economic development. Amanda holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Sociology from Boston University.

• Steven Pedigo

  Vice President, Communications and Content

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  Steven Pedigo is the vice president of communications and content for ICIC, where he is responsible for overseeing the engagement and dissemination strategy for the organization.

  Prior to joining ICIC, Steven was the vice president for business attraction and research for Greenlight Greater Portland, a regional economic development organization for the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region. Steven began his career in economic development as the director of research for the Greater Washington Initiative (GWI), a regional marketing organization for the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

  Steven holds graduate degrees from the H. John Heinz III School for Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

• Kyle Parrish Polk

  Senior Analyst, Research

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  As a senior analyst in the research division, Kyle Parrish Polk is focused on identifying the strengths of inner city residents and employers and translating those skills and industrial capabilities into growing markets of the national and international economy.

  Kyle plays a lead role in ICIC’s industrial strategy for Mayor Dave Bing’s Detroit Works Project. He is responsible for identifying, understanding and developing opportunities around Detroit’s competitive and emerging clusters.

  Prior to joining ICIC, Kyle was the bank examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and focused on rating risk management practices and testing institutional conformity with Basel II. Additionally, he has extensive experience as an investment banking analyst within the Mergers & Acquisition group for Deutsche Bank’s Global Corporate Banking Division in New York City.

  Kyle hold a bachelor’s in finance from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA.

• Danelle Radney

  Director, Strategic Initiatives

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  Danelle Radney is ICIC’s director of strategic initiatives, a role in which she focuses on developing and executing the company’s corporate relations strategy.

  Danelle has also worked in corporate diversity at Target Corporation where she held various roles, from managing INROADS – the national diversity internship program – to owning strategy for external diversity recruiting partnerships. During that time, she also sat on multiple non-profit boards.

  Prior to her position with Target, Danelle owned and managed a $70,000 exterior painting franchise. She is an INROADS alum, a Management Leadership for Tomorrow Fellow and a Harvard Business School Leadership Fellow. She sits on the boards of Hesed Consulting, Inc. and Notre Dame High School in Lawrence, MA.

  Danelle holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s from the University of Minnesota.
   

• Judi Reed

  Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Partnerships

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  Judi Reed, the vice president of corporate strategy and partnerships for ICIC, joined the organization in 2010, and is responsible for developing long-term corporate partnerships and relationships for the organization.

  Before joining ICIC, Judi spent many years at Babson College as director of business development for the West Coast Fast Track MBA program. She was also involved with the college’s Center for Women's Leadership and the Steven D. Cutler Center for Finance and Investments.

  Prior to her tenure at Babson, Judi served as the regional director of Frank Russell and Russell Capital in NYC and as the vice president of institutional sales and trading for BankBoston NA.

  Judi holds an MBA from Babson College and an undergraduate degree in international relations from the University of Delaware.

• Lois Rho

  Research Practice Manager

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  Lois Rho is a research practice manager at ICIC where she is responsible for developing and implementing a research agenda aimed at understanding and documenting business trends, capital flows and opportunities for investment and growth across asset classes in U.S. inner cities and inner city companies.

  Prior to joining ICIC, Lois interned with the capital management and advisory services group at Grameen Foundation. She also has extensive experience working as an equity research analyst at Lehman Brothers International and as a quantitative research associate at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey in Atlanta, GA.

  Lois earned an MBA from Yale School of Management and holds a BBA with a dual concentration in finance and marketing from Emory University.
   

• Rachel Rochat

  Research Practice Manager

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  Rachel Rochat is a research practice manager at ICIC where she is responsible for managing and executing projects and analyses designed to understand key trends impacting inner city firms and economies. Her work has touched on several areas, including the food and construction, housing and real estate clusters. She is currently leading ICIC’s work as part of a consulting team focused on developing an economic growth strategy for the city and region of Chicago as well as a related project focused on the development and implementation of cluster strategies that both leverage and impact Chicago’s city neighborhoods.

  Before joining ICIC, Rachel worked as a managing associate in the Strategy Practice at Next Street Financial, where she advised more than 20 private, public, and nonprofit organizations on strategic planning and implementation. Prior to Next Street, she gained several years of experience in both management consulting and small business development. Rachel also played on the Swiss National Women’s Ice Hockey Team from 1998 to 2007 and participated in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.

  Rachel received a dual M.A. / M.B.A. degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School and holds a B.A. in Government from Dartmouth College.

• Alex Rodriguez

  Senior Analyst, Inner City 100

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  Alex Rodriguez joined ICIC in 2008, and manages the Inner City 100 program, a list of 100 of America’s fastest-growing inner city firms. Now in its fourteenth year, the Inner City 100 offers an education curriculum and networking forums for the Inner City 100’s CEOs, helping them to continue to grow their organizations.

  Under Alex’s leadership, the Inner City 100 program has expanded to include record numbers of nominating partners and new companies. Additionally, Alex has organized a variety of local events and panels to keep Inner City 100 winners involved with the program.

  Prior to joining ICIC, Alex worked as a Washington, D.C. staff member for Senator John Cornyn of Texas and on numerous political campaigns.

  Alex holds an MBA from the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from TCU. While pursuing his MBA, Alex served as president of Neeley School’s Honor Code Council and as a consultant for local non-profit organizations.

• Hyacinth Vassell

  Manager, Inner City Capital Connections

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  Hyacinth Vassell manages ICIC’s Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC), a national program designed to stimulate equity capital flow to underserved inner city markets by matching inner city businesses with investors. This program provides growth-oriented inner city businesses with education tools and coaching on the financial options available to support their growth. ICCC also facilitates the connections between inner city entrepreneurs and investors.

  Hyacinth has broad experience in business consulting both as a senior consultant at Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and as an independent consultant. She has led a diverse project portfolio including as re-engineering, process improvement and change management.

  Hyacinth has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
   

• Sathya Vijayakumar

  Analyst

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  Coming to ICIC as a New Sector Alliance Resident in Social Enterprise (RISE), Sathya builds capacity and completes projects across ICIC programs. Working primarily within the Inner City 100 and Communications teams, Sathya provides broad support while also working on a strategic project to optimize social media outreach.
  
  Prior to joining ICIC, Sathya was an APPLES Social Entrepreneur Fellow and co-founded Project Educate to raise educational funds for orphans in the developing world. A recent graduate, he is a proud Tar Heel.

  Sathya holds a bachelors degree in Business Administration from UNC Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School.