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The Class of 2013

Samalid Hogan

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Hogan-Samalid
40 Under 40 The Class of 2013
Senior Project Manager, City of Springfield, age 31

Hogan-SamalidSamalid Hogan majored in economics at UMass Amherst and was recruited by a major financial-services firm. But a chance meeting with state Rep. Cheryl Coakley-Rivera at one of the many conferences she attended ultimately altered her career path — and her life.
“She was very impressed with me, was looking for a chief of staff, and offered me a job,” Hogan recalled, adding that she accepted and quickly grew into a position with many facets, especially constituency work, that intrigued her.
“I would be the connector, and I really enjoyed that work,” she said, noting that she would eventually move on to a position with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, handling many similar duties, but on a region-wide basis.
Today, she’s still connecting, but in mostly different ways, involving what she really likes — bricks and mortar. Indeed, in her role as senior project manager for the city of Springfield, she likes to say that she’s “connecting neighborhoods, piece by piece by piece.”
She’s doing this through a number of projects and initiatives, all aimed at revitalizing the city and specific neighborhoods. Her résumé highlights are many, including:
• Serving as project manager for the South End revitalization project, an ongoing, $15 million endeavor;
• Acting as co-lead project manager for the Court Square redevelopment project;
• Serving as Springfield’s Small Business Assistance Program manager, overseeing an initiative that has awarded more than $200,000 in storefront grants to Springfield businesses; and
• Acting as the city’s brownfields redevelopment coordinator, handling environmental site assessments and cleanup projects at Union Station, the Gemini site, and other city-owned properties.
Her involvement in the community is just as extensive and diverse. It includes service on the boards of the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield, OnBoard, the Horace Smith Fund, the Girl Scouts, the Brightwood Community Center, and many others. She’s also District 1 co-chair for DevelopSpringfield/Rebuild Springfield.
Summing up both aspects of her résumé, she said, “I like getting stuff done, and I like being helpful to others and helping improve the lives of other people.” In other words, she’s still connecting, and in ways that are having a profound impact on Springfield and the entire region.

— George O’Brien

Rachel Romano

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Romano-Rachel
40 Under 40 The Class of 2013
Founder and Executive Director, Veritas Preparatory Charter School, age 35

Romano-RachelRachel Romano spent six years working in Springfield’s public schools. But a subsequent stint as a principal at a charter school in Framingham got her thinking.
So she applied with the state Board of Education in 2010 to launch Veritas Preparatory Charter School in Springfield, which opened its doors last fall.
“There’s such a compelling need for high-quality public schools in Springfield,” she explained. “Our school is about closing the achievement gap and getting kids prepared for college.”
Intended to serve grades 5-8, Veritas opened with just a fifth-grade class this year and will ramp up with a new crop of fifth graders each year, reaching full enrollment in the fall of 2015.
“Our mission is to prepare kids for success in college,” Romano said — preparation that includes longer school days and a longer year than other schools, as well as a strong focus on academics, character, and structure. “They’re expected to sit up straight and do every piece of work; they get an hour and a half of homework every night, and they do it. I feel so inspired by our students and how hard they’re willing to work every day.”
Such high expectations, she believes, are critical to student success.
“I had always thought education was an equalizer; I had a decent public education, and I thought everyone did,” she said. “But I later realized that education is not an equalizer for kids growing up in the inner city, but a crippling factor for them; the schools are riddled with low expectations and complacency.”
Romano finds this unacceptable. “Kids are smart, and they should have the chance to go to college,” she said. “I knew we were taking on hard work, but there are other schools in this country doing this, and doing it well. So I thought we could do it here in Springfield.
“Many of our students will be the first generation in their family to go to college, and we’re paving the way for them,” she added, noting that this year’s fifth-graders are called the ‘class of 2024’ as a way to focus them on college graduation. “It’s about creating a vision and making that vision of college success a reality.”
— Joseph Bednar