About Us

Communities Without Borders is a non-governmental organization established as a corporation in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Not-for-profit 501c3 designation was established in December of 2004.

Board of Directors

Richard Bail, M.D., M.P.H., President

RICHARD BAIL, MD, MPH founded Communities Without Borders in the year 2000 after extensive work as a consultant in Zambia for UNAIDS to estimate the costs of the Zambian National HIV/AIDS Programme. Dr. Bail has been an active member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and Physicians for Human Rights. In 1985 he was co-founder of Trust Through Health, a non-governmental organization dedicated to the purpose of Soviet-American co-operation to improve health in developing countries. From 1991-1993 Dr. Bail worked for the World Health Organization in the African Regional Office as Health Strategy Coordinator. During that time he traveled widely in Africa and consulted on health policy. He has served as consultant to UNICEF, the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development and the Rockefeller Foundation. He is also a founding member of the Watertown Youth Coalition.

Dr. Bail is board certified in Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College, Dartmouth Medical School, and the Harvard Medical School. He received his MPH degree from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1989. He served as Chief Resident at the Boston City Hospital. He is a graduate of the Center for Community Responsive Care Program in preventive medicine. Subsequently he became a faculty member at the CCRC and taught applied epidemiology and community health. He has been a faculty member at the Harvard Medical School in the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention since 1970, teaching primary care, clinical epidemiology and community health. He has been an adjunct professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, teaching health policy of developing countries. From 1983-1987 he was Chairman of the Physicians Council at the Harvard Community Health Plan. He is currently practicing community oriented primary care at the Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates health center in Watertown, Massachusetts and at the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center.

Peter Lloyd, Treasurer

PETER LLOYD has been treasurer since 2003 when he studied the situation in Zambia and evaluated effective methods for CWB assistance. He interviewed government officials and the leaders of several NGOs as well as meeting with our partners there. Mr. Lloyd has been active in the financial budgeting and oversight for the First Society in Newton, where he has been finance chair, chair of the board of investment and managed fund-raising activities.

Peter is currently a principal with Bay Resource Corporation, a management consulting and investment firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has a wide range of experience in financial analysis and planning largely, but not exclusively, in the for-profit sector. Prior to Bay Resource Mr. Lloyd spent 13 years with The Boston Consulting Group, a recognized global leader in corporate strategy, consulting to large corporations. Peter also worked for British Petroleum in the UK where he graduated from the University of Cambridge.

Peter Smith, Clerk

PETER SMITH is the Clerk on the board of Communities Without Borders, was formerly the Co-chair of the Coalition for a Strong United Nations and currently is a member of their board of directors and sits on their executive committee. He is on the Advisory Council of the United Nations Association of Greater Boston and served as a Delegate to the National Summit on Africa in Washington, D.C. Peter has been active with the First Unitarian Society in Newton having served for three years as Co-chair of the Social Action Committee and three years on the Board of Trustees. He is the Massachusetts Bay District Envoy to the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office. He was active in his neighborhood association and is the Past President and a member of the Board of Directors of the Green Decade Coalition/Newton, a grassroots environmental group. He is the Coordinator of the core group for 20/20 Vision in the Fourth Congressional District in Massachusetts, a national environmental and peace legislative lobbying organization. He has been active with the Architects for Social Responsibility Committee of the Boston Society of Architects. He has attended the United Nations Habitat for Humanity Conference in Istanbul in 1996 representing the Boston Society of Architects. He was active with Beyond War, and served on the Bioregional Council of the Foundation for Global Community and on the Administrative Team for Peace Child Boston.

Alvin Jacobson

ALVIN JACOBSON is a member of board of Communities Without Borders and serves as our primary liaison to our host communities in Africa. He is an active member of First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Lexington, Massachusetts, where he chairs the Social Action Committee. He is also a long-time member of Amnesty International where he is actively involved in human rights issues.

Al is the founder of Hartwell Associates, Inc., a management consulting company located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Hartwell specializes in assisting firms in business development, and knowledge economics, particularly in the financial services industry. Work recently completed by Hartwell Associates involved an engagement by the Corporacíon Andina de Fomento (CAF) in Latin America. Prior to founding Hartwell Associates, Al worked at Bank of Boston, Abt Associates, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds a PhD. and MA in Sociology from Cornell University, and a MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. His publications have appeared in a number of business, trade and academic journals.

Al lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife. He has three children and a grandson.

Brita Gill-Austern

BRITA GILL-AUSTERN, M.Div., Ph.D., is the Austin Philip Guiles Professor of Psychology and Pastoral Theology at Andover Newton Theological School and faculty director of the Faith, Health and Spirituality Program at Andover Newton. She is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. She has been deeply involved in issues related to cross cultural education for the last several years taking students to Central America in cross cultural immersion experiences. She has co-edited the volume Feminist and Womanist Pastoral Theology and published articles and chapters in the field of pastoral theology. Her most recent article “Practices of Exclusion in the Global AIDS Crisis: The Fire that Keeps Burning” will be published in the Journal of Pastoral Theology in June.

Jane Ndulo, CWB Envoy To Zambia

JANE NDULO is Community Without Borders envoy in Zambia. In this role she is the principal liaison with our non-governmental organization partners, and, especially, with the children and women whom we support in the squatter compounds. She visits the family support homes regularly and has direct personal relationships with the leaders of these communities. She also acts as our financial agent in Zambia and represents us with larger international organizations such as USAID.

Jane is a career nurse with a passionate commitment to improving the education and well-being of the orphans and vulnerable children we support. Jane’s mother and father were committed to her education at a time in Zambian history when most girl children did not have educational opportunity. Jane succeeded eminently well. She graduated from the nursing program at the University of Zambia, and eventually, before she retired several years ago, became the head of the department of post basic nursing there. Many of her former students now hold important posts in Zambia. Jane also holds a Masters Degree in nursing from Boston University. She has carried out and published research on sexually transmitted diseases in collaboration with the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. A unique and inspiring part of Jane’s education was working with Mother Theresa in Calcutta with street children.

Jane has performed a vitally important role for CWB over the last five years. It has been critical that CWB have a reliable and committed leader in Zambia, who can oversee all of our programs and activities. She is well connected in the international community of Lusaka, as well as with the non-governmental community. Jane is one of the original founders of the Society of Women and AIDS for Zambia. Jane also has vital connections to the academic community of the University of Zambia.

Sharon Sisskind, Executive Director

SHARON SISSKIND joined CWB in December, 2007 and was appointed Executive Director in May, 2008.

She has been actively involved with non-profit organizations for many years. She served two terms on the Board of Directors of the All Newton Music School, including two years as Co-President. She continues to serve on the Finance Committee. She was Chair of the Membership committee of the Neighborhood Club from 2003-2009. She also served as Treasurer, Vice President of Fundraising, and Vice President of Membership for the Peirce School PTO during the 13 years she served on the Board. She is the secretary for Section E at the Harvard Business School. She is a member of the Performing Arts Committee of Bay View, Michigan.

Sharon was a founding partner and president of the Equinox Group with offices in Lexington, Massachusetts and London, England. Equinox Group provides management consulting services to pharmaceutical and medical device companies to estimate the market potential for a new drugs and devices. Prior to founding the Equinox Group, Ms. Sisskind worked at Decision Resources as a portfolio manager and then helped launch DR’s consulting business. She worked at Arthur D. Little as a senior consultant and at Boston Scientific as a Product Director.

She holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University’s Technological Institute and a MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Sharon lives in Newton, Massachusetts with her husband, Arthur Anderson. They have three children.