Meet the Staff

Executive Director

Maria Dykema Erb, (she/her/hers), 617-353-3424

Make an appointment with Maria

Maria Dykema Erb, M.Ed. is the Inaugural Executive Director of the Boston University Newbury Center which was established to foster the holistic development and success of first-generation undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. Maria has over three decades of higher education experience having worked at the University of Vermont, Elon University, Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and currently at Boston University.  She has worked in a broad range of areas including Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging; student recruitment/admissions, enrollment management, academic advising, retention, and outreach; academic dean’s office and graduate/professional school program administration; and student affairs/life.

As a Korean transracial adoptee, Maria grew up in a Dutch immigrant family on a dairy farm in Vermont.  Going to college was not the common pathway for her rural community, but Maria knew that would be her key to future opportunities.  Throughout all of Maria’s career, the common theme has been providing access to higher education for all students either directly or indirectly in her job responsibilities.

As a proud first-generation college graduate, Maria holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New Hampshire and Master of Education degree from The University of Vermont (UVM).

As a higher education and student affairs practitioner, Maria has shared her scholarship through numerous presentations and book chapters.  Most recently, she has chapters in: Know That You Are Worthy: Experiences from First-Generation College Graduates; A Handbook for Supporting Today’s Graduate Students; A Practitioner’s Guide to Supporting Graduate and Professional Students; and Fostering First Gen Success and Inclusion: A Guide for Law Schools (in press).

Faculty Director

Anthony (Tony) Abraham Jack, (he/him)

Anthony Abraham Jack (Ph.D., Harvard University, 2016) is the Inaugural Faculty Director of the Boston University Newbury Center and Associate Professor of Higher Education Leadership at Boston University.

His research documents the overlooked diversity among lower-income undergraduates: the Doubly Disadvantaged­—those who enter college from local, typically distressed public high schools—and Privileged Poor­—those who do so from boarding, day, and preparatory high schools. His scholarship appears in the Common Reader, Du Bois Review, Social Problems, Sociological Forum, and Sociology of Education and has earned awards from the American Sociological Association, American Educational Studies Association, Association for the Study of Higher Education, Eastern Sociological Society, and the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Tony held fellowships from the Ford Foundation and the National Science Foundation and was a 2015 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellow. In 2016, The National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan named him an Emerging Diversity Scholar. In May 2020, Muhlenberg College awarded him an honorary doctorate for his work in transforming higher education.

The New York Times, Boston Globe, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Huffington Post, The Nation, American Conservative Magazine, The National Review, Commentary Magazine, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Times Higher Education, Vice, Vox, and NPR have featured his research and writing as well as biographical profiles of his experiences as a first-generation college student. The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students is his first book. It is available in English and Chinese. His second book project, Class Dismissed: When College Ignore Inequality and Students Pay the Price, was released in August 2024.

Associate Director

M.C. Damm, (STH ’21) (they/them) 617-353-3401

Make an appointment with M.C.

M.C. is a community-minded educator who strives to make the college experience accessible, hospitable, and inclusive.  Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, M.C. received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and Spanish from Hope College before moving to Boston, where they completed a master’s in global and community engagement at BU’s School of Theology.  Having worked with preschool-aged children, graduate students, and everyone in-between, M.C. uses their training in developmental psychology to create programming that is fun, innovative, and practical.  M.C. joined the Newbury Center as the Assistant Director in January 2022. They say, “as a student, I needed the support of friends and mentors to navigate the highs and lows of higher education. It is an honor to support our first-gen students and to walk alongside them on their educational journeys.”

Program Administrator

Ahnna Reyes, (she/they), 617-353-3422

Ahnna champions the importance of personal, collective history and desires to help connect folks to a rich, supportive community. Ahnna started their career with a bachelor’s degree in history and was a first-generation master’s student at the University College London for museum studies in 2018. Their public history profession and dedication to narrative has taken Ahnna from her hometown of Franklin, TN, to London, and, finally, to Boston. After spending the majority of their life supporting young people, Ahnna is passionate about encouraging the uniqueness of each individual’s story and where their journeys will take them next. As the daughter of a first-generation Latino college grad, she notes: “If I can be the strong hands and supportive care that my dad would have benefited from, then it is my absolute joy to offer that aid to this next generation of students.”

Assistant Director

Katherine Lawlor (she/her), 617-353-3212

Make an appointment with Katherine

Katherine is a caring educator who enjoys planning outside-of-the classroom experiences for the first-generation community. She is a triplet from a rural community in Virginia and a first-generation college graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Liberty University and a Master of Education in Student Affairs Practice in Higher Education from the University of Virginia. Katherine’s educational journey was impacted by medical and financial circumstances, so she’s passionate about connecting students to resources. She notes: “My mentors in college presented me with opportunities I was unaware of, so I enjoy goal setting with the first-generation college students I mentor.”

Assistant Director

Rosemary Ferreira (she/her), 617-353-3215

Make an appointment with Rosemary

Rosemary is passionate about creating spaces that validate and empower students who have been historically and continuously excluded from higher education. Driven by her own experiences as a first-generation, working-class student of color, Rosemary has served as an educator and scholar-practitioner in Baltimore and Washington D.C., her hometown of New York City, and her parent’s homeland of the Dominican Republic. Rosemary earned her M.Ed. in Student Affairs from the University of Maryland, College Park and her B.A. in Environmental and Urban Studies from Bard College. She says “Often times as a first-generation student, I felt like I was just trying to keep my head above the water and survive. I want more for us, I want us to thrive, to be embraced with love and community as we navigate this higher ed journey.”

Student Staff

  • Sydney Boothe (SPH) (they/them/theirs)
  • Alyssa Ciniglio (Wheelock) (she/her/hers)
  • Elizabeth Donahue (CAS) (she/her/hers)
  • Christian Gonzalez (CAS) (he/him/his)
  • Jenna Hansen (Wheelock) (she/they)
  • Melanie Hernandez (SAR) (she/her/ella)
  • Herani Hiruy (CAS) (she/her/hers)
  • Addison Landon (COM) (she/her/hers)
  • Malia Montalvo (COM) (she/her/hers)
  • Alvin Sun (QST) (he/him/his)
  • Jessica Wu (CAS) (she/they)
  • Yuna Yi (SAR) (she/her/hers)
  • Jairo Zelaya (COM) (he/him/his)