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Jess Miller

By
Jess Miller
Class of 2026

Comedian and Founder, The Kind Squad

She Leads Thousands of People Whose Small Gifts Make a Big Difference

Jess Miller has survived plenty of struggle.

She lost her mother to a divorce when she was 8, then had a traumatic experience in the Army, then lost her mother again — this time permanently, to suicide — a few years after that.

But difficult experiences can be motivators, too — in her case, to spread kindness in a hard world.

“Being kind is just caring about people, right?” she said. “If you’re kind, you actually care about doing good things for other people. That’s kind of my philosophy.”

It’s a credo that led to Miller performing stand-up comedy starting about 15 years ago and turning those shows into benefits for local nonprofits — and, eventually, to her creation of the Kind Squad. First a Facebook page launched in 2015 and now an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit, it’s essentially a collection of people who gather online to donate to fundraising drives aimed at helping people in need — or just making someone’s day.

Miller explained the humble origins of the organization. In 2020, during the pandemic, she wanted to do something to contribute to the community and started a campaign called Art Kits for Foster Kids, posting about it in the Facebook group to solicit donations.

One member expressed interest in donating, but mentioned not having enough money to pay her own water bill. Miller calculated that, if 100 people donated $3 each, they could help cover the bill. So they did, and the model was born — what is now thousands of people who take up the call for small donations that collectively add up, leading annual campaigns ranging from Art Kits for Foster Kids and Mother’s Day Flowers for Foster Moms to the pre-holiday Western Mass. Toy Drive, which, this past December, collected more than $100,000 in toys, which were distributed in partnership with numerous agencies.

“The Kind Squad is built on a simple but powerful mission: to show children and families in need that they matter — and that their community truly cares.”

In all, the Kind Squad has raised approximately $300,000 not just for those annual campaigns, but for one-time requests that come in from across the region — and the entire U.S., for that matter.

“Maybe this homeless shelter needs a little jungle gym. I literally write everybody’s donations out, I buy the stuff, I put the receipt out — 100% in, 100% out. And that’s kind of how we’ve been. It’s micro-philanthropy — just people who want to give.”

Karin Jeffers, president and CEO of Clinical & Support Options (CSO), who nominated Miller as a Difference Maker, appreciates how the spirit of the Kind Squad goes well beyond helping others and speaks to the meaning of kindness itself.

“The Kind Squad is built on a simple but powerful mission: to show children and families in need that they matter — and that their community truly cares,” Jeffers said. “The Kind Squad has helped literally thousands of children and families, providing toys, essential items, emotional support, and moments of joy during some of the most difficult times of their lives. Jess leads this work with no expectation of recognition or reward. Her motivation is purely selfless: to make a real difference, one family at a time.”

Long before Jess Miller launched the Kind Squad, she was using her comedy platform to raise funds for nonprofits.Photo by Bob Zemba, Simple Truth Imaging

Long before Jess Miller launched the Kind Squad, she was using her comedy platform to raise funds for nonprofits.
Photo by Bob Zemba, Simple Truth Imaging

Jeffers pointed out the recent toy drive’s haul and its “extraordinary impact” on families. “She ensured that countless kids experienced the magic of the holidays — many for the first time. But Jess’s work goes far beyond gifts. She understands that what families often need most is reassurance: the knowledge that they are not forgotten, that someone sees them, and that kindness still exists. By showing up with compassion, consistency, and heart, Jess delivered something even more meaningful than toys — hope.”

That’s real impact — generated by a true Difference Maker.

 

Early Stages

Miller’s foray into performing in public didn’t get off to the most auspicious start — she tried out for America’s Got Talent.

​“I didn’t do comedy; I sang. And I killed the song. I literally killed it. Not in a good way, but in a very, very bad way,” she recalled. “But I had fun, and I wanted to do that again. I love performing.”

So she took some acting classes — “because I really sucked” — and eventually landed a part in the musical Rent at Exit 7 Theater in Ludlow. She enjoyed that a lot, but had an itch for comedy, so she took a comedy class at Carolines in New York City, then tried some improv in Boston.

Progress was slow — she auditioned for another musical as well, but didn’t get cast — before one of her teachers gave her some advice: “if you want to do comedy and you’re not getting gigs, book yourself — post your own shows.”

So around 2013, Miller produced her first comedy show — a fundraiser for foster kids for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC). In fact, comedy benefits were the model right from the start — make people laugh, raise money for a good cause.

“Then I started doing monthly performances called the OMG! It’s Only Wednesday comedy show. Every month, we would try to do something to benefit the community. So, if it was bringing a can of food, you’d get five bucks off a ticket. Tickets were already cheap. But bring a coat, bring in hygiene products, you get five dollars off a ticket,” she explained. “I think, when you’re in business, you should be grateful that people support you, and try to give back to your community.”

A few years later, she opened up a venue in downtown Springfield, called the OMG! Comedy Club, that ran into issues with the landlord, and that project eventually shut down. “That was just before COVID, though, which may have been a good thing,” she said.

Which brings her story to 2020, when the Kind Squad — due to that woman reaching out about an unpaid water bill — started to become more than a Facebook page. “It just stacked up from there. We’re close to $300,000 at this point, just doing little missions like that.”

The week before she spoke with BusinessWest, Miller and her team of volunteers had completed a coat collection for a homeless shelter, and they’re constantly receiving other requests from far and wide that the Kind Squad community, currently about 2,700 strong, quickly responds to.

Miller’s wife, Stephanie Greenberg, partially explained why foster kids and foster moms are so important to the nonprofit’s work.

“I think it’s important to be able to give to kids because they don’t have a voice — especially foster kids. I mean, they get nothing. I used to be a teacher, and when they get moved, they just get a trash bag full of whatever they had in their house that they were able to grab at the time. And it’s just sad to see that. So anything we can do to make their lives, especially the holidays, a little happier for them, I think it’s good.”

Kim Dougherty, a volunteer with the Kind Squad, said the model works because each individual commitment is very light — the power is in the accumulation of all those tiny donations.

“It’s not a matter of, ‘oh my God, we need to give 100 bucks.’ You can give $1.25, and if we all give $1.25, look at what we can do. It gets infectious because you want to spread it to everybody else — to say, ‘hey, look at this. It’s minimal; it’s really not a lot.’ How many people can throw a dollar aside? Most of us can. So I think the simplicity of it was what drew me in — it’s not going to take all my time. It’s not going to take a ton of money. It’s simple. And that’s why it works.”

“And if you can’t give a dollar,” Greenberg added, “it’s not a big deal — there are other missions and other ways you can help. Like, for the toy drive, people brought in their gently used Christmas bags, and we can use them next year. That was a game changer.”

 

Kind Words

Sometimes Miller asks herself a troubling question: “why is it so hard to be kind?” And she realizes that the best way to answer it is, simply, to model kindness, showing others that it’s not that hard after all.

“In 2020, after George Floyd got killed, I was just like, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ Like, on a national or global level, what can one person do? But on a community level, a local level, you can do a lot.”

And some of it goes beyond the micro-philanthropy.

“In addition to toy drives, food drives, and fundraising campaigns to help families in need, Jess and Steph and the Kind Squad have helped families dealing with children diagnosed and going through treatment for cancer, using her Kind Squad page to gather emotional support, physical donations, and volunteers to support the family and visit them in hospitals,” Jeffers noted in her nomination.

“Jess has an exceptional ability to mobilize generosity and unite people around kindness,” she added. “She pours her time, creativity, and personal energy into the Kind Squad, building trust with families and inspiring others to give, volunteer, and care. Her leadership has created a ripple effect that continues to strengthen the community long after any single event ends.”

“I post it, and then people donate, and if we can get enough money, then the mission is completed — and we do that over and over and over again. But it never comes from me. It’s always from the Kind Squad.”

Amid the surprising success of December’s toy drive, Miller teamed up with organizations like the MSPCC’s Kids Net program, CSO, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, and others — “basically, we partner with whoever needs toys.”

And now, she’s thinking bigger. “If I can get the systems in place the right way, I have an idea for the Great American Toy Drive, which is all of America, all helping foster kids. It’s either me going on tour or getting at least 50 other comics involved from all 50 states, and then doing the toy drive on one night.”

She then looked around at the small, rented office in downtown Chicopee that the nonprofit calls home, and thought about the long week spent moving $100,000 worth of toys to people and organizations in need.

“If I have my own space, then I’ll be able to do a lot more. This is not big enough for us to do $100,000 worth of toys. But we have to stay small until we can afford it — because we really haven’t done a lot in terms of income. It’s mostly small grants. They’re not even grants, just very small donations to get us through. In 2024, it was tough because the focus went from helping people to paying for the space. I’m like, ‘this doesn’t feel right.’”

But since then, the volunteers — a core team of eight, plus about 30 who help with the toy drive — have eased the load significantly, allowing Miller to dream of what might be next in her mission of kindness.

“I don’t know what I’m doing. I have no clue. I jump in and I’m like, ‘I’ll figure it out,’” she told BusinessWest. “I post it, and then people donate, and if we can get enough money, then the mission is completed — and we do that over and over and over again. But it never comes from me. It’s always from the Kind Squad.”

Still, it’s gratifying to be called a Difference Maker.

“I like to make a difference. I want to make a difference,” she said. “I guess that’s what I’m getting at. I think I just want people to know that they’re not alone — and that a lot of people feel the same way. And I’m surrounded by those people. If you’re part of the Kind Squad, that means you have some humanity in you, and you care what’s happening in the world.”

Darby O’Brien

By
Darby O’Brien
Class of 2026

Owner, Darby O’Brien Advertising

This Unconventional ‘Mad Man’ Has Always Been Ready for a Fight

Darby O’Brien

Photo by Bob Zemba, Simple Truth Imaging

They call it the Fishing Buddies Lodge.

It’s a very informal meeting space within the suite of offices for Darby O’Brien Advertising in South Hadley, and, obviously, it is decorated to look like a fishing cabin.

It is crammed, as in crammed, with collectibles and wall art that start to tell the story of the founder of this company. There are bobbleheads, baseball gloves, New York Yankees and Mickey Mantle merch (he’s a long-time fan of the team and grew up, as many his age did, idolizing #7), a scale model of the Bluesmobile, various photos of JFK, countless mugs, hats, and, on the wall, a framed, autographed photo of Ken Osmond, famous for playing the insincere flatterer and provocateur Eddie Haskell on the classic sitcom Leave It to Beaver.

“I was a fan of Eddie’s — he was the king of mischief,” said O’Brien, the Holyoke native who shares that trait with Haskell, one of many that make him a unique character, in every sense, and contribute to his being named a Difference Maker.

Others include creativity — his ads certainly stand out as different and, generally speaking, effective — as well as genuineness, sincerity, and a passion for getting involved, often with underdog groups and causes.

“On the way out, Jeremy grabbed me by the arm and said, ‘will you fight for us? Because we can’t fight.’ I said, ‘yeah, I’ll fight to the finish, because this is wrong.’”

With that last one, there is a long list, everything from efforts to reopen Holyoke’s reservoirs to fishing and bring back his childhood baseball team, the Elmwood Jets, to lobbying against the quarrying of a local ski area with his ‘Mount Tom, I Don’t Dig It’ campaign; from early efforts to thwart casino gambling in Springfield to a campaign protesting the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council’s (EDC) decision to hire a Tennessee-based firm to rebrand the region for tourism efforts, rather than use local marketing talent.

And then, there was the Phoebe Prince case.

Prince was a student at South Hadley High School when she took her own life after persistent bullying. O’Brien is credited by many with taking the case to a regional, national, and even international stage, attention that eventually led to charges against several students and the passing of anti-bullying legislation at the state level called ‘Phoebe’s Law.’

Soon after the matter starting getting press, O’Brien remembers getting a call from Prince’s parents, Jeremy and Anne, asking if they could meet with him.

“On the way out, Jeremy grabbed me by the arm and said, ‘will you fight for us? Because we can’t fight,’” he recalled. “I said, ‘yeah, I’ll fight to the finish, because this is wrong.’

“No one was standing up,” he went on, adding that he pressed the matter, despite repeated warnings that it would be bad for his business and, eventually, several death threats.

But as with other cases in which he’s gotten involved, he’s ignored such warnings and plowed ahead. Indeed, while he likes to say he’s gotten involved in most of the issues listed above “by accident,” those who know him well say otherwise.

“He literally does not back down from a fight or a wrong,” said John Garvey, a friend and fellow marketing firm owner. “And he encourages other people to not back down when they see a wrong.”

This is certainly the case with a weekly blog of sorts that he started at the height of the pandemic as a way to keep people connected, informed, and even entertained, and also to generate dialogue on the issues of the day.

While some offerings are whimsical, such as taste testings (fruitcake and Twinkies, for example) involving his grandson, Flynn, others are poignant and thought-provoking, such as a recent tribute to his brother David (known to most as ‘Moon’) who died last month, a remembrance of one of the students shot at Kent State in May 1970, who died recently, and sharp criticism of Newton officials for making a man take down an ice rink he created in his front yard during COVID because he lacked a special permit.

“Imagine doing that to kids during this COVID-19 winter?” O’Brien asked rhetorically. “Jackasses. Look the other way and let the kids have good, clean fun, will ya?”

Such sentiments, and the williness to express them, help explain why he’s a true Difference Maker.

 

Getting the Message

O’Brien said he took note of all the things marketing experts said not to do as he was starting his business — such as not getting involved with retail or political campaigns — but, by and large, he ignored them.

Indeed, among his first clients were the men’s clothing store A.O. White and Holyoke mayoral hopeful Marty Dunn, who was waging an underdog (there’s that word again) campaign to unseat long-time incumbent Ernie Proulx.

“He was a sure-shot loser because Ernie Proulx had been mayor for 12 years, he won every ward, every precinct, and had a reputation for demolishing Irish candidates,” O’Brien recalled, adding that he drew inspiration from boxer Sugar Ray Leonard’s ‘stick-and-move’ tactics to defeat Marvin Hagler and ran a successful campaign that he called “a real strong statement about being creative.”

Suffice it to say that O’Brien has been doing things his way — not the way the experts advise — since he started his company — and, actually, long before that.

Like when he was in high school — actually, several of them, as it took him six years and several institutions to earn a diploma. He said he joked to his frustrated father, a vice president with the construction firm Daniel O’Connell’s Sons, “dad, the longer I’m in school, the smarter I get.”

He added that “I hadn’t really thought about advertising, although I was kind of a promoter as a kid.” But he was eventually “discovered” by the owner of the local firm Bewick Advertising.

“He called me, hired me, and put me in charge of new business, which I knew nothing about,” O’Brien recalled, noting that he eventually started his own agency in 1980, taking with him many of his clients from Bewick and focusing on the goal of getting more of the larger businesses in the region to use local marketing talent.

Over the course of roughly 45 years in business, O’Brien has made his mark in many different ways, starting with his approach to marketing — which is to almost dare clients, and potential clients, to look beyond what would be considered safe — something he laments that very few are willing to do now.

His ads can certainly be defined as different and creative, to the extent that the phrase ‘Darby ad’ has entered the lexicon, a reference to something bold — and at times controversial — that stands out.

One of the many marketing initiatives that could be described with the phrase ‘Darby ad.’

One of the many marketing initiatives that could be described with the phrase ‘Darby ad.’

Like the billboard featuring a Hot Table panini and the headline ‘Bite Me.’ Or the billboard for lawyer Raipher Pellegrino with the words, ‘The Iceman Sueth.’ Decades ago, there was a newspaper ad for the Springfield Civic Center promoting a tennis match at the then-Springfield Civic Center between Springfield native Tim Mayotte and Czechoslovakian Ivan Lendl. The headline read, ‘On February 9, BayBank Invites Tim Mayotte Back to Springfield to Bounce a Czech.’

As O’Brien tells the story, Lendl called the event organizers saying that was backing out of the match due to the ad, which he considered offensive, then started laughing, saying he was just kidding.

Then there’s the ad O’Brien put together for a group opposing casino gambling in Springfield. Featuring a picture of a masked man pointing a gun at the reader, it took the headline, ‘If You Build It, They Will Come.’

“You hire Darby because you want ideas,” Garvey said. “You don’t hire Darby to run your ideas by him. And for God’s sake, don’t fight him on the creative — because that is holy ground.”

Peter Rosskothen, the serial entrepreneur who has been a client of O’Brien’s for more than 30 years and worked with him on campaigns for the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, the Delaney House restaurant, and his current venture, Delaney’s Market, agreed — sort of.

In fact, he has fought him on creative content on a few occasions, but most of the time, he’s been talked into ads that were, well … different.

“He likes to push the envelope, and he makes a difference with his uniqueness,” Rothkossen said. “He’s very bold, and he tells me as a client that I’m being too conservative. I like that — I like the fact that the material tends to be different and stands out.”

 

Taking a Stance

While his marketing and advertising impact has been noteworthy, so too has O’Brien’s work within the community, much of which has involved young people, Holyoke, or some combination of the two.

Such as his efforts to reopen the Paper City’s reservoirs to fishing, a campaign that featured a group he created called the Fishing Buddies, and some escapades involving O’Brien and Peter Jourdain in Blues Brothers-like outfits. He said this effort started by accident when he and an acquantaince, who fished the reservoirs when they were young, tried to relive old memories several decades later and were chased off by police.

The Fishing Buddies Lodge

The Fishing Buddies Lodge at Darby O’Brien Advertising is crammed with collectibles that speak to O’Brien’s interests — and passions.
Photo by Bob Zemba, Simple Truth Imaging

“There’s no reason why inner-city kids can’t fish out here,” he said, adding that, while the fight was ultimately unsuccessful, despite widespread support — the reservoirs remain closed to fishing — he had some fun and gave people something to think about. And that could be described as his MO.

It was the same with the EDC’s decision to hire a Tennessee firm to rebrand the region. After the ad campaign was created, O’Brien famously challenged then-EDC President Allan Blair to a winner-take-all ping-pong game in an ad that appeared in BusinessWest.

“I told him that if he beat me, I’d shut up and he could put me on his board, and that if I beat him, he’d give the work to the local talent,” said O’Brien, adding that, while Blair never responded, he got his point across, and had some more fun.

With the Phoebe Prince case, though, his involvement was taken to new and far more serious levels.

Encouraged by his father, who thought South Hadley officials were trying to sweep the matter under the rug, O’Brien reached out to Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen and went on the record for a piece titled “The Untouchable Mean Girls,” which was essentially the first news story to suggest that bullying was the root cause of Prince’s suicide.

“All hell broke loose,” recalled O’Brien, adding that national and global media were soon all over the story. Soon thereafter, he met with Prince’s parents and committed to do whatever he could to generate more press and hold those responsible accountable. And in the months and even years to follow, he was the subject of threats to his business, health, and life.

Rosskothen said he’s one of many who have, over the years, advised O’Brien that it might not be good for his business to get involved — with the Prince case, but also many of the other issues he’s become entangled with.

“A conversation like that with Darby is a pretty normal conversation because he pushes hard,” Rosskothen said. “As a friend, I sometimes tell him that; he listens, but that doesn’t mean that he follows the advice.”

O’Brien continues to push for what he considers right in his weekly blog, which he calls “Keep Up Your Dukes,” something he said repeatedly to a close friend during his recent cancer fight.

He acknowledged that the more common phrase is ‘put up your dukes,’ a nod to someone that you’re ready to fight and that they should bring it on. His take is different — meant to say that one should always be ready to fight when necessary.

He’s always been that way, and that’s what makes him a Difference Maker.

Rachelle Hannoush

By
Rachelle Hannoush
Class of 2026

Director of Youth, Violence Prevention, and Court Support Programs, YWCA of Western Massachusetts

She Has a Passion for Improving the Lives of Women, Children, and Families

Rachelle Hannoush often talks to teenagers about red flags and green flags in relationships — because, at that young age, it’s easy to mix up the two.

“Say a guy is isolating you from your family, isolating you from going to your volleyball practice. And when I ask about it, you say this is actually a green flag because it shows that they love you and want to spend time with you,” said Hannoush, whose title — director of Youth, Violence Prevention, and Court Support Programs at the YWCA of Western Massachusetts — hints at the many hats she wears there.

In this particular part of her conversation with BusinessWest, she was explaining the ‘prevention’ part of her job, especially an initiative called the HERE (Healthy and Empowering Relationship Education) Project, which helps students between ages 12 and 18 how to navigate everything from dating violence to gang activity to sex trafficking risks.

“We go into schools and teach youth different curriculum that enhances their skills on healthy relationships, violence prevention, bystander intervention. Like, if you see something, what do you do? Who do you talk to? How do you stay safe? And also, how can we have healthy relationships? What are the green flags? What are the red flags? During high school and middle school, a lot of things happen. So it’s really equipping them with skills to be able to make good decisions as they get through those teenage years.”

“What empowers our work and makes the biggest impact is when different organizations work together. And I see that here at the Y — all the departments truly live its mission, which is to empower women.”

Hannoush said prevention is effective — and is more important than ever in the age of social media and the extra pressure it places on kids.

“They can see, ‘oh, she got to go to the Caribbean for April vacation,’ or ‘she got this purse,’ or ‘she’s hanging out with this friend, and they didn’t invite me.’ There’s much more transparency and knowledge, and sometimes it can be very toxic.”

Another of Hannoush’s roles involves supervised visitation centers in Hampden and Hampshire counties, which provide secure, neutral visitation services for families experiencing domestic violence, divorce, custody, and probate issues. The program provides a structured environment for children to connect and visit with their non-residential or custodial parents.

Rachelle Hannoush says her own early struggles as a high school student in Lebanon have influenced the significant empathy she has for teenagers today.Photo by Bob Zemba, Simple Truth Imaging

Rachelle Hannoush says her own early struggles as a high school student in Lebanon have influenced the significant empathy she has for teenagers today.
Photo by Bob Zemba, Simple Truth Imaging

“We ensure an environment that’s safe; the most important thing is the child in that scenario,” she explained. “We want the child to have this special bond with their parents, and supervised visitation creates an environment where the parent can connect or the caregiver can connect with the child in a safe environment.”

The third leg on the stool of her job description is working with SAFEPLAN, which provides vital court advocacy services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking in five area district and probate courts. These advocacy services include assistance in obtaining restraining orders, harassment orders, safety planning, and resource and referral information.

“In each of the courts, there’s a SAFEPLAN office and a SAFEPLAN advocate. And anyone that is looking to do a restraining order or harassment order, the advocates help them,” she said. “Sometimes we’re making referrals to other community organizations, or for other programs within the YWCA.”

So … it’s definitely more than a long job title for Hannoush — it’s a lot of work. And that’s not even touching on some of her other community-centered projects outside the YWCA (but we will touch on those a bit later).

But she’s gratified by her copious responsibilities at the YWCA, where she started working last September after years of being connected to the nonprofit as a volunteer and advocate.

“It’s amazing work, and I’ve always been a fan of the YWCA, even before I started working here,” she said. “What empowers our work and makes the biggest impact is when different organizations work together. And I see that here at the Y — all the departments truly live its mission, which is to empower women.”

 

Humble Beginnings

Hannoush grew up in Lebanon, and to say she encountered struggles in school would be an understatement.

“The reason my family moved was because I was, you might say, the troubled child. I remember to this day, my principal telling my mom, ‘don’t bother with her; she will be nothing in life.’ And I had to redo my freshman year because I failed it. I was going through a lot back then — just teenage stuff — but nobody stopped to ask, why is she doing this?’” she explained. “I think that’s why I care so much — that experience really informed my work. But I didn’t come to that conclusion until much later.”

First came a dramatic turnaround when her family settled in Holyoke.

“It was my sophomore year of high school, and the change in school environment shifted me to become almost a straight-A student,” she recalled, adding that she still derives motivation from her high school experience in Lebanon. “That principal’s words will never leave me — I will be something, and I will do my best, and I will always be looking for more.”

Those years also gave her a deep empathy for the challenges of young people, which is why she found herself working in early education.

Her path there wasn’t exactly linear; she originally went to school for nuclear medicine. But she loved spending time with the children during internships at Boston Children’s Hospital, and when she had her first child, she began to understand the critical role of early education for a working parent — and its cost and access challenges — and she began to explore that as a career.

“I love science, so I was able to blend science with motherhood and education,” she said. “I started as an assistant teacher and then went back to school and got my teacher certification, then lead teacher certification, then director certification. And that started my educational leadership journey.”

A few years later, in 2019, Hannoush found herself developing a passion for professional development and also came across across the Children’s Trust, a Boston-based organization that addresses child abuse and neglect, which was looking for trainers.

“As early educators, as caregivers, we’re mandated reporters, which means, if you see something, you have to report it. My staff had always taken the mandated reporter training, but the training only shows you how to report; it doesn’t teach you how to respond. Like, if a child comes and discloses something to me, what’s the appropriate thing to say? That caught my attention and started my journey deep diving into prevention.”

The Children’s Trust eventually appointed her outreach coordinator for Western Mass. “I would reach out to different schools, different programs, anyone serving children, to say, ‘hey, we will give you training on how to create policies and procedures that ensure safe environments for children.’ Then I started doing parent workshops. With everything I do, the child is always center.”

“Rachelle has spent years working on the front lines and behind the scenes, creating systems of support and bridging gaps between agencies, schools, nonprofits, and families. Her ability to mobilize networks, build trusting partnerships, and bring diverse sectors together demonstrates the very essence of making a difference.”

That mindset led Hannoush to create an organization called Rooted Leaders, which partners with area schools, early education programs, and youth-serving organizations through parenting workshops, educator workshops, leadership services, and coaching and consulting programs.

“You cannot act in silos when you are serving children and families,” she told BusinessWest. “And if you want to have a really big impact, the impact comes from working together.”

The COVID years, especially, posed challenges for educators.

“Social and emotional development got really bad. So a lot of support was needed within the classrooms when we came back. I remember, when we came back into the classroom after COVID, the kids had to be in what I called islands. I’m like, how do we keep 3-year-olds separated? So we created islands. I got different colored rugs and it was like Pirate Island, or Lego Island, and each child got to have an island per day.

“That takes creativity and planning; we knew that it wasn’t right, but it’s what we had to do,” she added. “So how do you make it fun and exciting so children don’t feel it?’”

 

Willing to Serve

Hannoush has taken on other civic responsibilities as well. As president of the Massachusetts Assoc. for the Education of Young Children, she represents thousands of early educators across the state, advocating for policies and professional supports that strengthen the early education workforce.

And her commitment to young women is further amplified through her role with the Hampden County Commission on the Status of Women, where she champions opportunities, safety, and leadership development for girls and young women across the county.

“Her voice and advocacy contribute to meaningful conversations and initiatives that uplift the next generation of leaders,” said Lauren Kidrick, a registered behavior technician with Beacon Mental Health Services, who nominated Hannoush as a Difference Maker.

Hannoush is also an adjunct professor at the Urban College of Boston, a role she took on after earning her master-of-education degree last spring from Bay Path University. “One of my goals was to teach in higher education. I’ve been doing professional development, and I’m training everywhere, but I really wanted to experience the higher ed field.”

This depth of commitment impresses Kidrick. “Across all her roles — nonprofit leadership, statewide advocacy, higher education, and community service — Rachelle has spent years working on the front lines and behind the scenes, creating systems of support and bridging gaps between agencies, schools, nonprofits, and families. Her ability to mobilize networks, build trusting partnerships, and bring diverse sectors together demonstrates the very essence of making a difference.”

Hannoush said she’s not afraid to say no, but she also makes sure time with family comes first, noting that she and her husband, Ziad Hannoush — “my support and cheerleader from day one” — make sure their children, ages 13, 10, and 6, come first.

She’s also quick to credit others in her life, from her mother, Carol Tatarian, to her grandfather, George Tararian, for their influence on helping her overcome obstacles to success.

“My grandpa was a big supporter of mine,” she recalled. “He always really believed in me, regardless of what was happening at the school in Lebanon. He would say, ‘you are smart; you just have to put your mind to it — never give up.’ And he would spend hours teaching me, doing homework and preparing me for tests. So, whenever I succeed in something, he’s always there with me.”

That said, “I’m still figuring it out as I go,” Hannoush went on. “I do the best that I can today. I don’t think 10 years from now; I think one day at a time, one month at a time. Wherever I see an opportunity to make a difference, to help someone, I take the opportunity — because that’s what stays. That’s our legacy — our legacy is our impact.”

And that’s why she’s able to take on so much, to be a true Difference Maker — because helping others succeed, as others helped her, is deeply meaningful.

“Entrepreneurship has given me the ability to dream beyond survival and focus on legacy,” she said. “I come from a place where nothing was handed to me, and that reality fuels my passion to build something meaningful for my family, my children, and the community I serve. I want to show that it’s OK to want more, to pursue different goals, and to redefine what success looks like. Breaking generational cycles means not only changing our circumstances, but also creating access, hope, and opportunity for the next generation.”