A Legacy of Leadership: Donna Coard
Donna Coard knows more about community action work than just about anyone. After moving from New Jersey to Boston in 1964, she signed on to work at the new nonprofit organization, ABCD, whose employees at the time totaled fewer than ten. Operating without the institutional knowledge or resources we have today, Coard and her colleagues set about working to build Boston’s first community action agency from the ground up.
Over the course of several years, the ABCD team was able to make significant strides in bringing together fragmented movements operating on a neighborhood level to create a comprehensive antipoverty coalition. Coard herself was part of a small team that served as a catalyst for change, frequently meeting with community leaders to listen to their needs and share ABCD’s vision. Decades later, the results are visible for all to see; working in partnership with neighborhood volunteers and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Coard was instrumental in the founding of the Martha Eliot Health Center in Jamaica Plain in 1967.
In 1966, Donna, who at the time was leading ABCD’s field operations division, began working with then Deputy CEO of Planning, an urban planner named Robert M. Coard. Faced with the imposing task of managing the conflicting interests and visions of various factions, Robert proved himself to be an adept mediator. “He was the kind of person who was able to cut through the noise,” Donna recalls. She also notes that he was a true people person, always willing to sit down with someone and listen to their concerns: “He loved people, whether it was a large group, a small group, or one person.”
Robert would go on to become President of ABCD in 1968, and Robert and Donna would marry in 1976. Although Donna left ABCD after seven years to work for the Executive Office of Human Services (where she eventually became the Regional Director for Boston and Brookline), she credits the organization with shaping her values and her understanding of the world. “Sixty years later, ABCD is still my favorite place in the world,” she says. In the face of potential cuts to Head Start and other vital services, Coard’s conviction is as strong as ever. “We can’t lose this,” she says. “When you’ve got something good, you fight for it.”