Who We Are
Eos Fellows
Reverend Greg Groover is a native of Freeport, Long Island, and graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. He received his Master of Divinity and Master of Social Work from Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University School of Social Work, respectively. Reverend Groover completed his doctoral work at the New York Theological Seminary.
Early in his career, Reverend Groover worked as an adolescent/outpatient social worker at the St. Luke Hospital in Harlem, NY, as a group worker for neighborhood teens at the University Settlement House in lower Manhattan, and as a social work supervisor for the Edwin Gould Services for Children/United Families of East Harlem, in East Harlem. From 1987‑94, Reverend Groover served as Pastor of Bright Temple A.M.E. Church in the South Bronx. Reverend Groover was appointed Pastor of the Historic Charles Street A.M.E. Church in Roxbury, MA in June 1994.
Reverend Groover is very involved in the Greater Boston community. Presently he serves as the Chair of the Boston School Committee, Vice President and Chairman of the Education Committee of the Black Ministerial Alliance, Chairperson of the Roxbury Renaissance Center, and Co-Chair of the Boston Capacity Tank/Black Church Capacity Building Program Advisory Committee. Additional organizational affiliations include the Boston TenPoint Coalition, Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the YMCA of Greater Boston, and The Center for Collaborative Education.
Glynn Lloyd is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of City Fresh Foods, a food service operation that provides over 4,000 Latin, Southern and Caribbean meals daily to elders, school students, day care, and other institutional clients. Glynn has won such awards as the Small Business Administration’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year, the Boston Black and White Business Profile Award, and Inc. Magazine’s Inner City 100 Award in 2003, 2004 and 2006. Most recently, Glynn received the prestigious Governor’s Inner City Investment Award. City Fresh has been featured on National Public Radio and CNN, as well as in Entrepreneur and Inc. Magazines. Over the years Glynn has chaired the Board of Directors for The Sportsmen’s Tennis Club, The Food Project, and Four Corner Main Streets in addition to sitting on boards of innovative nonprofits such as Red Tomato. Glynn is a graduate of Boston University.
Maurice Miller has devoted his life to developing opportunities for others to reach their self-defined visions of independence. He is the Founder and CEO of The Family Independence Initiative (FII), a unique anti-poverty approach that has had significant impact in San Francisco and Oakland, California. FII works with groups of self-selected, low income communities to challenge and support them in moving their families and communities toward accessing new social networks and financial independence.
Before founding FII, Maurice was the Executive Director of Asian Neighborhood Design (A.N.D.), a multi-service community development agency in San Francisco and Oakland, CA. During his 22 year tenure, the agency grew to a budget of $10,000,000 dollars annually.
Based on his work to promote racial understanding and economic opportunities in low income communities, Maurice was honored by former President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who invited him to sit in her box in Congress during the President’s 1999 State of the
Union Address.
Maurice has authored several articles and policy papers as well as lectured and presented nationally. Current board affiliations include The California Endowment and The Hitachi Foundation. Maurice is a graduate of University of California at Berkeley with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical in Engineering and a Masters of Arts in Design.
Katya Fels Smyth is Founder and Principal of the Full Frame Initiative (FFI). FFI is a national campaign to bring attention, legitimacy and resources to the Full Frame Approach, a currently under-recognized, promising approach to supporting highly marginalized people and communities in making and sustaining progress. Katya advances FFI as a research fellow at the Wiener Center for Social Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Prior to launching FFI, Katya founded and led the Cambridge, MA-based On The Rise, which provides support and community to women with long histories of violence, poverty and often homelessness. In her 11 years there, On The Rise helped over 1,000 women achieve new levels of safety and personal agency. Katya has also co-directed a shelter and worked extensively with survivors of sexual violence.
Katya has been profiled in local and national publications and has received a number of honors for her work. She sits on the selection committees for the Stride Rite and Echoing Green Fellowships, has participated in international training efforts for domestic violence advocates, and speaks and provides consultation on the design and implementation of programs to assist highly marginalized women. Katya is Social Entrepreneur in Residence at Clark University, where she teaches nonprofit management, and is a member of the Massachusetts Governor's Council to Address Sexual and Domestic Violence, co-chairing its systems-integration committee.
Katya graduated with honors from Harvard and holds an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from the Episcopal Divinity School.
Bill Traynor is Executive Director of Lawrence CommunityWorks Inc (LCW), an initiative working to rebuild the struggling city of Lawrence, MA, his hometown. Since 1999, Bill has led a major revitalization effort in Lawrence, bringing over $50,000,000 dollars in new investments to the city and creating significant new grass roots initiatives in family asset building, youth development, community organizing, housing, and community center and open space development - all under the umbrella of a 5,000 plus member network of residents and stakeholders. Through the creation of the Network Organizing Forum at LCW, elements of LCW’s “Network Organizing” approach are being practiced across the country in diverse locations such as Jackson, MS, Silver Spring, MD, Seattle, WA, Chicago, IL, and Louisville, KY.
Bill has 30 years of experience in community development and community organizing, working in urban areas throughout the United States. He was a community organizer for Mass Fair Share in the late 70’s, is the former Executive Director of the Coalition for A Better Acre (CBA) in Lowell, MA where he led a $20,000,000 dollar redevelopment effort, and was the Director of Community Development for Community Training and Assistance Center (CTAC) of Boston, a national consulting firm. In 1992, Bill created Neighborhood Partners and the Neighborhood Partners Fund, a consulting/training firm, as well as an Operating Foundation. Together they have assisted more than 200 community development organizations nationwide as well as many national and local foundations.
Bill is a graduate of UMass Lowell with a Bachelor of Arts and received a Masters Degree in Management from Heller School at Brandeis University. In 1998, Bill was awarded a Loeb Fellowship from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He is the author of numerous published articles and handbooks on community development and community organizing.