2025 FSPP Officers and Committee Members
Sandip Agarwal was born in India and moved to USA for his PhD in Chemical Engineering. He has been in the Boston area since 2007, and currently lives in Arlington since 2013. Sandip is a self-employed researcher in the field of climate technologies and water desalination. Apart from his research activities which he finds extremely creative and satisfying, Sandip also loves to take part in outdoor activities including snowboarding, hiking, and paddleboarding. Sandip assumed the duties of Treasurer for FSPP in June 2025.
Jenny Aurielle Babon moved to Arlington in 2015 and has been a Massachusetts resident since 2004. Born and raised in Cebu, Philippines, she came to the US for a PhD in Biomedical Sciences and now works in R&D for a pharmaceutical company. Spy Pond Park is her favorite spot in town, and she enjoys taking walks, impromptu picnics and viewing sunsets with her family in the park. Her other interests include singing with the Boston College Filipino Community church choir, running, cycling, amateur photography and trying out different cuisines (both cooking and eating). Jenny served as Publicity Chair for FSPP in February 2019 and assumed the role of VP Co-Chair of Outreach and Communication in May 2024.
Megan Chrisman grew up in Southern California but still managed to become enthralled with the seasons when she moved to Boston as a college freshman and has stayed in the area ever since. She is happy to now be an Arlington resident and considers Spy Pond one of her favorite walking destinations. In addition to serving as the FSPP Recording Secretary beginning in 2021, Megan works in educational technology. Her interests include reading, languages, and slowly learning the electric bass guitar.
Jamie Ciocco has run Trendy.com, a technical consulting and software design company, since 1999. He programs interactive museum installations and designs custom software for clients across the country, including The Smithsonian, McGraw-Hill, the JFK Library and Museum, Hubbell Lighting, Inc., Waters, Inc., and the Georgia Aquarium. Prior to 1999, he was Lead Multimedia Programmer at SilverPlatter Education, where he programmed award-winning educational CD-ROMs and wrote pioneering eLearning software for the web. Jamie received his BA in English & American Literature from Harvard in 1994. He returned to Harvard from 1997 to 2004 to act as Assistant Senior Tutor and Drama Tutor in Residence, running a 90-seat theatre and publishing the House Facebook. While at Harvard, he also programmed an early online Facebook that was referenced in the movie The Social Network. He has been an FSPP VP for Communications and Outreach since 2008 doing newsletter design and layout.
Anna Doctor was born in Boston but spent most of her childhood in Nashville, TN. She earned her degree in Art History in 2018 from Colorado College, an institution that practices “the block system” or taking one class at a time. In between classes, Anna had the opportunity to explore the state and surrounding area through backpacking trips which developed her deep love and admiration for the outdoors. After graduating from college and thru hiking the Colorado Trail, Anna worked in curation at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. She moved to Massachusetts the fall of 2021 to live closer to her family, all residents in eastern Massachusetts. She also returned to school and received a certificate in Graphic Design from Boston University in May 2023. Anna currently lives near Alewife station and loves to bike to Spy Pond Park on the Minuteman Trail. When she is not enjoying the surrounding green areas, Anna does communications work for a small creative business, climbs, and captains two ultimate frisbee teams. She has served FSPP as the Bulk-Mailing Coordinator since November 2023.
Karen L. Grossman is from a small-town northeast of Pittsburgh, PA. She earned a B.S. from Syracuse University, an M.Ed. from Boston University and worked for 35 years as a speech and language pathologist in the Wilmington, MA Public Schools with children in preschool through high school. Karen has lived in Arlington since 1974 and currently resides on the shore of Spy Pond near the park. She enjoys her view of the pond every day and has been involved with the FSPP since 1992. She's been President of the organization since she retired from full time employment in 2004 and served on the Mystic River Watershed Association Board for 10 years beginning in 2009. Karen presently serves on their Development and Herring Run and Paddle Committees. Karen's other interests include singing with the Mystic Chorale and Temple Shir Tikvah, reading, the arts, exercising daily, and traveling the world.
Daniel Jalkut is a California native who has lived in the Boston area since 2005, and since 2011 in East Arlington with his wife and two young boys. He is a self-employed software developer who focuses on consumer-focused applications for Apple platforms including the Mac and iOS. He serves as an Arlington Town Meeting Member. In addition to his interest in technology and civic duties, he enjoys practicing guitar, piano, and singing. He is an avid runner who enjoys Arlington's many open spaces, particularly the bike path and Spy Pond Park. Daniel assumed the position of Membership Secretary doing database entry in June 2017.
Adrienne Landry grew up in Wakefield, Massachusetts, and graduated high school there. In 1971, she left her hometown and moved to Montreal for the adventure of living in another country and expanding her horizons. She learned of programs for older students to enter college and began her educational journey which culminated in a B.F.A. in 1978. She is now a practicing artist and worked for 24 years as an art teacher in Belmont. Adrienne has lived in Arlington since 1990. Her interest in invasive plants began on Monhegan Island, Maine, when, during a five-week painting trip, she decided to give back to the community and get involved with the Monhegan Associates, the local environmental group. Her task was to cut down barberry which grows heartily there. When she returned home, she began noticing and learning about the many invasive plants on the local bike path and began to cut them down. Learning that white vinegar was a natural herbicide, she devised a method for eradicating the plants while not letting the vinegar harm anything else. As part of the StewardshipTeam/Beautification Committee for FSPP, she is removing invasive plants. In 2021, along with others, she started planting native plants in their place.
Betsy Leondar-Wright, a longtime activist for social justice, is an Associate Professor of sociology at Lasell College. She is the author of Missing Class: Strengthening Social Movement Groups by Seeing Class Cultures (Cornell University Press 2014) and Class Matters: Cross-Class Alliance Building for Middle-Class Activists (2005). From 2010 to 2015 she served as the Program Director of Class Action (www.classism.org) where she is still on the board, and has taught sociology courses at Tufts, Harvard and Boston College. She first participated in environmental advocacy during the nuclear power movement in the 1970s. Betsy worked as a community organizer in low-income communities for a decade, including running youth programs at an urban community garden. Betsy has been active in the FSPP since 1997, is a past President and now focuses on children¹s activities and public education through performance and art serving as FSPP Chair for Park Events.
Diana Maggini moved to Arlington in November 2023 to babysit her granddaughter. She was born in Belgium, raised in France, and moved to New York to study English. Diana retired after teaching French for thirty-two years in Louisiana. She loves the outdoors and exercising in the water. Her favorite place here definitely is Spy Pond Park. Diana assumed a position on the FSPP Outreach and Communications Committee in May 2024 and joined the Stewardship Team in 2025.
Julie McBride is currently a web developer at Harvard University where she works on the team developing the platforms that power thousands of Harvard websites. She previously worked for a research and consulting firm on environmental and health and safety related web and software applications. Julie has developed and maintained the FSPP website since 2019. She visits Spy Pond often and enjoys birdwatching at the park and on the pond.
Fred Moses has been a Boston area photographer with over 25 years of experience. He has made both images and computer aided design tools for jewelers. Travel and travel photography are Fred's special loves; environmental portraits of people working, marketplaces, and extremes are favorites. He has taken photos for Spy Pond Park's newsletter and website gallery since 2005. Fred's work is held in private collections internationally and has appeared in juried exhibits at the ACA and the Fuller Craft Museum. Also, he builds commercial websites and was the FSPP Webmaster 2005-2019. He has made marbled paper and silk scarves. During his five-decade technical career, Fred has held management and individual contributor positions in software engineering. Fred has a B.S. & M.S. in Engineering Science.
David Nejezchleba moved to the Boston area in 2023 and has lived in Massachusetts since 2018. He completed his undergraduate career at Mount Holyoke College in 2022 and is currently finishing his master's degree in philosophy at Brandeis University. Spy Pond is his go-to walking destination and he was excited to assume a role on the Publicity Committee in September 2024.
Lally Stowell has worked with inner city youth in NYC and Cambridge and with preschool children in Head Start programs. She taught child development and parenting for many years at Watertown High School and then switched to teaching ESL in Cambridge, first at Centro Presente and then at the Cambridge Community Learning Center where she has been teaching an ESL Family Literacy class since 1993. Lally has also tutored day care providers through ABCD in Boston, mentored/tutored high school students through the Posse Foundation and volunteered at the Food Project. She has been active in helping to eliminate invasive species in the planting beds in Spy Pond Park, coordinating the Stewardship Team/Beautification Committee and was Publicity Co-Chair for the FSPP January 2010-2014. Lally maintains our Memory Books, the record of our community outreach efforts since the beginning of the FSPP.