• Contact Us
• Leadership
• Staff
• Press Inquiries

Leadership

Nancy Owens Hess

Executive Director

Nancy Owens Hess brings many years of experience working in corporations and internationally to her current role at the Elizabeth Stone House. She joined the Stone House in 1998 as the children’s service coordinator and was appointed co-executive director in 2007. As co-executive director of the Elizabeth Stone House, Hess oversees all of the organization’s operations.

Prior to the Elizabeth Stone House, Hess was the executive director and founder of Institute for Transitional Economies, an organization that developed training programs for adult learners from the People’s Republic of China and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Early on in her career, she was the president and owner of CET, Inc. that developed international exchanges and language learning programs with the People’s Republic of China.

Hess holds a master’s and bachelor’s degree in Sociology/Anthropology from Northeastern University in Boston, Mass.

Contact at (617) 409-5406 or nhess@elizabethstone.org

 

Maryann Chaisson

Director of Operations

Maryann Chaisson serves as the Elizabeth Stone House’s Director of Operations. She joined ESH in January of 2004 as a member of the development office. In February of 2005, she was appointed the Program Administrator of the ESH confidential site in Jamaica Plain. Chaisson went on to serve as Program Administrator for both sites until a fire closed the confidential location in August 2007. In 2007, Chaisson was appointed as Director of Operations by the board of directors following a strategic planning process and agency reorganization. 

 

Prior to her joining the Stone House, Chaisson coordinated the Silk Road Gala for the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence and served as Special Events Coordinator for the Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation. Chaisson also brings nine years of experience working for the Bank of New England to her role at the Stone House and holds an Associate Degree in Human Services from Bunker Hill Community College.

 

Contact at (617) 409-5414 or mchaisson@elizabethstone.org

 

Tara Dendy

Director of Adult Programming

The Elizabeth Stone House welcomed Tara Dendy as Director of Adult Programming in October of 2011. Prior to the Stone House, Dendy was the program director at Community Resource for Justice's McGrath House, an organization that serves female offenders referred by the Suffolk county sheriff's department, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Massachusetts Parole Board.

 

Dendy also brings 15 years of experience specializing in working with women and their children through different modalities such as domestic violence, homelessness and substance abuse.  She is a level one licensed alcohol and drug counselor.

 

Contact at (617) 409-5404 or tdendy@elizabethstone.org

 

Jim May

Director of Development

Jim May came to the Elizabeth Stone House in 2005, out of retirement, to help with an application for HUD funds to support the transitional housing program. That project led to another, and then to another and another until he was appointed director of development in early 2012.

 

Jim worked in small businesses most of his working life, and was a founding partner in the business he retired from. The ethos of small business in which the owner can keep the books, do the marketing, as well as sweep the floors and shovel the sidewalks prepared him well for the non-profit world, which sometimes requires all hands on deck when a project needs to be finished.

 

For fifteen years, he held a series of positions focused on marketing. He also was involved in numerous projects funded by various agencies of the U.S. government – hence his familiarity with the process of government grant making. In his private life, he served for nine years on the board of directors of the Milton Foundation for Education, in which position he chaired the grants committee for five years and co-chaired the Celebration for Education, the foundation’s primary annual fundraiser. When he’s not at work, he typically takes a busman’s holiday – co-chairing the annual budget drive for his church, raising funds for accessibility improvements to local buildings, and even putting the arm on his neighbors to support efforts to rebuild the local schools.

 

In short, Jim spends his time asking people for money – now for the Elizabeth Stone House.  Often enough, they give to him.

 

Contact at (617) 409-5417 or jmay@elizabethstone.org

Tanya McLean

Director of Children's Programming

Tanya McLean joined the Elizabeth Stone House as the Director of Children’s Programming in July of 2010 where she oversees all aspects of ESH’s family and children’s programs. McLean specializes in working with children and families that have experienced violence and homelessness. Prior to joining the team at Stone House, McLean directed the therapeutic afterschool program at The Second Step, where she developed a curriculum tailored to the unique needs of children living in the transitional housing program.  

McLean is a LCSW and holds a Masters Degree in Social Work from Boston University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology from Hamilton College in New York.

 

Contact at (617) 409-5412 or tmclean@elizabethstone.org