Honorees
Susan Musinsky
Susan has dedicated her career to building communities committed to social change. Currently, as director of Root Cause’s Social Innovation Forum, she works to connect social impact investors with nonprofits that are developing promising solutions to social problems in the areas of economic development; education; the environment; health and health care; and youth, family, and elderly issues. Under Susan’s leadership, the Social Innovation Forum has grown from a small volunteer initiative to a respected model for directing resources for solving social problems to the best available approaches. Since 2003, the Social Innovation Forum has worked with 39 social innovators in Greater Boston and helped them to attract more than $5 million in cash and in-kind resources. Currently, the Social Innovation Forum is also working with the OneStar Foundation in Texas to bring its model to Dallas.
Susan was previously executive director of the National Conference for Community and Justice's (NCCJ) Boston office, where she ran the LeadBoston community development program and grew the organization three-fold. She has served as a consultant to the Greater Boston Arts and Business Council when they began their Business on Board leadership program and has participated on many local boards. She was a founding board member of the City School and is a current and founding member of the Watertown Community Foundation's Board of Directors. Susan was instrumental in starting and building the community block party program for the foundation which builds social capital in Watertown. She has also served on the local school council and supported the local public schools in a variety of ways. Susan is an active member and past chair of the Congregation Beth El Tzedkah Hevra group which distributes money to Jewish causes worldwide. She holds an Ed. M. from Harvard and a B.S. from UVM. She lives in Watertown with her husband, David Krieger, and their two children, Rebecca and Eli.
Saskia & Paul Epstein
Paul Epstein
Born 60 seconds before Theo, Paul is, technically, the middle of Leslie and Ilene Epstein's three children. Raised in Brookline with his sister Anya and twin brother Theo, Paul graduated from Brookline High and headed off to Wesleyan a short 25 minutes from Theo and Anya at Yale. While playing soccer and studying classics, he discovered a passion for working with youth when he became a Big Brother. The experience completely changed the direction of his life and he embarked on a career in social work. After working in residential treatment at The Home for Little Wanderers, where he met his wife, Saskia Grinberg, he earned an MSW from BU in 1998. He is currently a Social Worker at Brookline High School where he has worked for 9 years. In 2005, he co-founded the Foundation to be Named Later with his brother Theo to harness the region’s love and interest in the Red Sox in order to raise awareness and financial support for organizations he cares deeply about. The Foundation to be Named Later has provided thousands of youth with the opportunity to go to a baseball or basketball game and given over a million dollars to Boston non-profit organizations serving disadvantaged youth, many of whom he, Saskia, Theo and his wife are personally involved with. In 2008 Paul took a year-long sabbatical to work on Saskia’s and his vision to open the only youth community center in Brookline.
Saskia Epstein
Also raised in Brookline, Saskia began her career at City Year at the age of 17, where she developed a passion for working with underserved youth. After bringing City Year to both Columbus, OH and San Jose, CA, Saskia returned to Boston and while in college, began working with Citizen Schools in its early development. There, she directed one of the organization’s first after-school programs and lead various apprenticeships. While working at Citizen Schools, Saskia took a part-time job as a milieu counselor at The Home for Little Wanderers where she worked with emotionally and behaviorally disturbed youth. This experience deepened Saskia’s commitment to children in the child welfare system and she left Citizen Schools to join The Home full-time. There, she went on to oversee residential programs serving hundreds of children aged 5-23. While at The Home, Saskia also met her husband Paul, and a young girl who Saskia mentored for twelve years. After the birth of their first child, Saskia left The Home and continued her work with child welfare and mental health organizations as a consultant. After Saskia and Paul welcomed a second child into their family, Saskia’s professional interests shifted toward early childhood development and in February 2008, she became the Executive Director of Room to Grow. She is also on the Board of Overseers at the Boston Children’s Museum, Board of Trustees at the Children’s Advocacy Center.
Saskia and Paul live in Brookline with their two children and continue to work together on ventures such as the Brookline Teen Center and Foundation to be Named Later.
