Historic Boston Inc. names MYTOWN’s Crockett and Suffolk’s Woodson to board

Boston, MA Historic Boston Inc. has named two new members to its board of directors, Karilyn Crockett, MIT lecturer, author and founder of the youth-focused educational nonprofit MYTOWN; and Brooke Woodson, director of trade partner diversity at Suffolk Construction Co.

The two newly named members joint 14 current members of HBI’s board, which give direction to the 59-year-old non-profit development and consulting organization that preserves valued historic structures in Boston by introducing new uses.

“HBI’s staff and members of the Board are delighted to have two new members, who bring vast experience and expertise in both construction and urban policy and planning,” said Kathy Kottaridis, executive director of HBI. “They will help us further our mission of saving important historic buildings in Boston, finding contemporary uses for them and in the process reinvigorating the city’s neighborhoods.

Woodson is an experienced senior executive with more than 25 years in the non-profit, public, and private sectors. He serves as director of trade partner diversity at Suffolk Construction, a prominent Boston-based building contractor that provides preconstruction, construction management, design-build, and general contracting services to a variety of clients.

Crockett studies large-scale land-use changes in 20^th century American cities and examines the social and geographic implications of structural poverty. Her recent book, “People before Highways: Boston Activists, Urban Planners, and a New Movement for City Making,” published last year by UMass Press, investigates the 1960s-era grassroots movement to halt extensions of the U.S. interstate highway system through Boston’s neighborhoods and the geographic and political changes in Boston that resulted from that activism.

HBI’s current projects include the St. James African Orthodox Church, in Roxbury, Mass., and the Upham’s Corner Comfort Station in Dorchester. Recently completed projects include the 1834 Alvah Kittredge House in Roxbury; the 1786 Fowler Clark Epstein Farm in Mattapan; and the 1911 Roslindale Substation, in Roslindale Village.

Historic Boston’s first project, in 1960, was the Old Corner Bookstore on Washington St.

Multicultural Youth Tour of What’s Now (MYTOWN), which Crockett cofounded, is an award winning, Boston-based, educational non-profit organization. MYTOWN hired public high school students to research their local and family histories to produce youth-led walking tours for sale to public audiences.

Crockett recently concluded four years of service with the mayor’s Office of Economic Development as the director of economic policy and research and the director of Small Business Development for the city of Boston. She is a lecturer in Public Policy & Urban Planning in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Woodson previously worked as vice president of programs at Madison Park Development Corp., one of the leading community development corporations in New England. In his role at MPDC, Woodson oversaw operations at Hibernian Hall and in communications, civic engagement and government relations.

Before that, he served as the director of the city of Boston’s Small and Local Business Enterprise Office for 20 years.

HBI’s board of directors include Kathleen MacNeil, principal of Millennium Partners Boston; Barbara Boylan, vice president of The Druker Company; Michael Durand, principal of Back Bay Development Group; and Felicia Jacques, vice president and managing director of development at Maloney Properties.

Also, Brian Awe, associate at DLA Piper; Emily Axelrod, former director and Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence winner; Richard Beal, president of Perry Brokerage Associates; Julie Paul Brown, principal of North Bay Company, Inc.; Michael Feldman, president and CEO of Feldman Land Surveyors; and Cheis Garrus, chief financial officer of the Museum of African American History.

The board also includes James Labeck, founder and CEO of Tend LLC; Derek Lumpkins, director of Neighborhood Partnerships and Programs at Northeastern University; Paul McDonough Jr., attorney at Goulston & Storrs; and Henry Moss, principal of Bruner/Cott Architects and Planners.