About Bridge Forward
Bridge Forward is an economic mobility organization founded and led by people of color. It is designed to help individuals and families experiencing financial hardship and affected by the racial wealth gap, with multi-year financial and coaching support to propel their journey towards stability and wealth building.
We seek to change mindsets by investing directly in those most affected by financial hardship, centering their perspectives and breaking down barriers to access.
Our goals for our participants include long-term financial wellbeing, asset-building, and self-determination. We help participants navigate difficult circumstances in order to get access to existing services. Additionally, we leverage our partners to connect participants with resources as they take ownership over their own financial security.
Bridge Forward’s leadership is proximate to the issues of economic hardship and the racial wealth gap. We have a shared purpose of getting financial support to individuals & families who need it most, creating a bridge forward for families who don’t have a safety net. Our aim is to get support to participants as quickly and easily as possible.
Our Leadership
Our CEO & Founder
Luisa Peña Lyons, CEO & founder
Luisa Peña Lyons founded and runs Bridge Forward after navigating financial insecurity growing up and then successfully making progress on her own economic mobility journey. Luisa was born and raised in Lawrence and Methuen, Massachusetts to immigrants from the Dominican Republic. Her family experienced financial hardship as she was growing up and depended on financial assistance from government programs including those provided by the Office of Transitional Assistance, the Section-8 housing voucher program, Free and Reduced lunch in public school, and the SNAP food assistance program.
As a daughter of immigrants, Luisa saw early on the power of collective support and she in her adulthood has now been able to gain financial stability. She would like to support others in their own journeys, and pay it forward knowing that were it not for the support she received she would not be where she is now.
Michelle Lucas, Financial Coach & Organizational Development
Michelle Lucas is a Financial Coach and founder of Wallet Prosperity, a virtual financial coaching business. Her knowledge and experience in financial coaching enables Bridge Forward to deliver even more impactful results, significantly improving the financial freedom, learnings and success of our participants. At Bridge Forward, Michelle works on Participant Engagement, Stories of Impact, Evaluation and general organizational development.
Michelle loves helping individuals, families, and small business owners learn to confidently manage their money and establish long-term healthy relationships with money. She is dedicated to empowering individuals to manage their finances with confidence. Her expertise spans budgeting, financial goal setting, debt pay-off strategies, credit repair, and fostering a holistic, healthy money relationship. She is very passionate about leveraging her own lived experience to help others reduce their money stress and learn more about themselves in the process.
Our Board & Officers
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Abdi Ali is a public speaker, community organizer, and social justice and civil rights advocate. His most recent work focuses on systemic racism, housing, and immigration issues. To that end, Abdi has been involved in supporting numerous causes, including housing justice efforts through City Life/Vida Urbana, the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic at St. Mary’s University School of Law, and various political campaigns to elect women of color in Massachusetts.
Abdi has also been a strong supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement since 2014 by helping to support rallies and events. He is the co-founder and the lead organizer of the Eastie Antiracism Community Coalition – a grassroots community group advancing equity and racial justice work in East Boston.
Abdi currently works in the financial services sector and holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Denison University.
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Heather Catherwood has worked in state government for the past seven years in public assistance. Heather holds a BA in both Psychology and Biology from Brandeis University. During a year of AmeriCorps service after college, she earned a Graduate Certificate in Leadership from Northeastern University's School of Professional and Continuing Studies. Heather earned a JD from Northeastern University School of Law. She is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts.
Heather has served on the Massachusetts Promise Fellowship Advisory Board and the Alternatives for Community and Environment board. Heather is currently a member of the Massachusetts Black Women Attorneys.
Heather and her spouse have two children and they live in Southern Massachusetts.
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Joel Jaquez is currently Senior Program Officer at M&T Charitable Foundation. Before, Joel was the Associate Director of Partnerships at King Boston, The Boston Foundation. Previously, Joel held positions at the Learning by Giving Foundation, United Way of Massachusetts Bay, WGBH Educational Foundation, Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
Joel is currently the Co-Chair for Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) Boston, and previously served on the board for Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) Boston. Joel is also a New Leaders Council Fellow alumni.
Joel holds a BA in Political Science and Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Boston, and a certificate in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from the Institute for Nonprofit Practice, in affiliation with Tufts University.
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Gloribel Rivas is a long-time East Boston resident who currently serves as the Chief of Staff for Massachusetts State Rep. Adrian Madaro. She is a proud graduate of the Boston Public Schools and the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in History with a minor in English.
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Sibusisiwe Malaba, MPP, MPA, is a seasoned public servant committed to advancing racial equity through public policy and partnerships. She holds 15+ years of professional experience in public affairs and community development.
As Chief of Policy and Impact at the Newark Alliance, Sibusisiwe is responsible for integrating racial equity best practices and advancing policy measures across Alliance programs and partnerships. Prior to the Newark Alliance, Sibusisiwe served as National Urban Fellow in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Department at Prudential. Previously, Sibusisiwe served as Executive Director for the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus (MBLLC) where she was responsible for defining, highlighting, and analyzing issues affecting people of color in Massachusetts. Under her leadership, the MBLLC secured several policy victories in the state budget, criminal justice reform, cannabis regulation, equal pay, and racial justice legislation. Sibusisiwe also held roles in the Office of Senator Chang-Diaz (D-MA), MA Governor Deval Patrick’s re-election campaign, and educational nonprofits. Sibusisiwe is a graduate of Tufts University (MPP) and Baruch College (MPA).
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Wayne Yeh (he/him) is an Asian American community advocate and serves as Policy Director to a Boston City Councilor. He is the former Civic Action Organizer at the Chinese Progressive Association and coordinator for the Massachusetts Asian and Pacific Islander Civic Action Network (APIs CAN).
With over eight years of Boston-based community engagement experience, he is passionate for civic action, coalition building, direct participatory democracy, and policy advocacy. He is dedicated toward uniting, mobilizing, and meeting the needs of communities of color and working-class immigrants. He sits on the Massachusetts Democratic Party executive committee, was a 2020 U.S. Electoral College presidential elector, and is a recipient of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA) Young Champion of Justice Award.
Wayne graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University with a degree in American Studies.
Our Values
We believe in social, racial and economic justice. We acknowledge the ways in which the delivery of traditional social services and the distribution of resources have often contributed to systemic inequities. We seek to disrupt this dynamic by empowering our participants to self-advocate and build a stable financial future for themselves, their families, and their communities.
With this goal in mind, our work is guided by the following values:
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Equity-Centered Approach
Our organization centers the perspectives of marginalized communities. We seek to disrupt hierarchical models and pursue a relational approach to financial support in which we can learn from and empower participants, partner organizations, and funders alike. We welcome donors at all levels to contribute to the fund and encourage community buy-in.
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Access and Transparency
Our leadership, strategy and programming are built with an eye toward inclusion and accessibility. Where possible, we seek to reduce eligibility barriers and burdens on participants. We strive to be transparent and accessible.
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Centering Relationships
We intend to lead with trust, respect, and humility. We believe that prioritizing healthy, open, and honest relationships with our participants, community partners and funders can help us navigate the complexity of our work and our world with greater confidence and effectiveness.
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Self-Determination
We believe our support will be most impactful when we trust participants to know and serve their own needs. As we learn and grow with our community, we will endeavor to ensure that people who have lived experience with issues of financial hardship have a voice in our process.
Our Partners
Land Acknowledgement
Bridge Forward acknowledges the sacred land that we are in currently. This land, home to Massachusett people who still live here today as they have for 13,000 years, is the place of the Blue Hills. We also wish to be good neighbors to all Nations and peoples here in New England, including Abenaki, Micmac, Maliseet, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Passamaquoddy, Pawtucket, Pennacook, Penobscot, Pequot, Wampanoag, and those we have been underrepresented and nearly decimated by colonization.
We recognize the repeated violations of sovereignty, territory, and water that have impacted Massachusett and Indigenous people for the last 400 years and into the present. We extend our respect to citizens of these Nations who live here today, their ancestors who have lived here for over 500 generations, and to all Indigenous people. We also affirm that this acknowledgment is insufficient. It does not undo the harm that has been done and continues to be perpetrated now against Indigenous people and their land, water, and air.
Today, Boston is also home to thousands of Indigenous people from across Turtle Island, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to live and work here.
Our Partners
