Board of Directors

The WRAP board is comprised of WRAP community members, medical school students, nurse practitioners, educators, and many other talented people.

Lesa McWalters, Executive Director

Lesa McWalters became Executive Director in 2017, after serving on the Board since it’s inception in 2009. Lesa is a founding member of WRAP and has enjoyed the journey of working side-by-side with refugees from Burma who have resettled in Worcester. Because of her work with refugees in Worcester, Lesa returned to college to earn a B.S. in Urban Studies, and a Master of Science in non-profit management from Worcester State University. Lesa lives in Millbury with her husband, and has four grown children and two beautiful granddaughters. In her spare time, Lesa enjoys playing golf, reading non-fiction books, and spending time with family and friends in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Paw Wah

Paw Wah was born in Burma in 1967 in a Karen village. She attended school through ninth grade in the town of Kyaukkyi. Paw Wah and her family moved to a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border in 2000. In the refugee camp she worked for AMI as a home visitor; she also helped new arrivals and residents with malnutrition. She taught women about breastfeeding. Paw Wah and her family arrived in Worcester, MA in 2008, where she has continued to do community service (such as helping feed victims of the 2011 tornado in Springfield, MA). In 2016 Paw Wah was selected as one of six Worcester Hometown Heroes by Worcester Magazine.

Jillian Steacy

Jillian Steacy is an aspiring doctor working as a research scientist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She is no stranger to Worcester as she earned a B.A. in Biology with a pre-medical concentration and a French minor from the College of the Holy Cross. Jillian first came to WRAP as a volunteer and youth mentor hoping to learn more about refugee populations living in Worcester. Overtime, Jillian was fortunate enough to form meaningful connections and to gain new friendships with Worcester’s Burmese population. Given her passion for children, Jillian later took on the challenge of coordinating WRAP’s Children’s Program and has enjoyed every minute since!

Meme Tran

Meme Tran began volunteering with WRAP in 2013 and became a board member in 2015. Meme graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013 with a BS in Biological Sciences, and is currently pursuing her Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. As a child of Vietnamese refugees, she finds that working with WRAP is a great learning experience and brings her much fulfillment. She is very interested in continuing to work with underserved and underrepresented populations in the Worcester area as a future physician.

Oo Reh

Oo Reh came to Worcester in 2009 from a Karenni refugee camp on the Thailand-Burma border. He came with his wife, Jae Meh, and his son, Htwa Peh. Since arriving in the US he has been helping his extended family and other Karenni community members as they struggle to start a new life in Worcester. He uses his English language skills to provide translation and to help them understand how things work in this country. Oo Reh is studying part-time at Quinsigamond Community College to earn his Associate's Degree in Art and Psychology so he can transfer to a four-year university. Currently he works as a telephonic interpreter with Language Line Solutions and BayState Interpreters. He is also available on-call as a live interpreter at UMass Memorial.

Maithili Rao

Maithili Rao joined WRAP earlier this year as a volunteer mentor and has taken on the responsibilities of the Education Coordinator. Her interest in working with underserved populations started in college when she had the opportunity to travel to a remote area in India and study the impact of working conditions on the health of factory workers. Although a small player in a large movement to change working conditions, the experience shaped her career interests. Over the past 25 years, Maithili's work in Healthcare has gravitated towards population health initiatives that help underserved, co-morbid, and high-risk populations. She has worked extensively with clinical staff to design and evaluate innovative programs that solve for underlying social determinants of health with the ultimate aim of improved quality and efficiency.

Nathan Yingling

Nathan (He/Him/His) is a second-year medical student at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He graduated from The University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2018 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and Biology. Nathan started out as a volunteer, coordinating the WRAP Youth Mentorship Program and now serves as co-leader of the Youth Group. Nathan finds WRAP to be the most fulfilling experience he has had since starting medical school and is grateful to be recognized as a WRAP Board Member.

Page Cassidy

Page Cassidy is a student at the University of Chicago and graduate of Bancroft School in Worcester. She began volunteering with WRAP’s children’s program in 2016 through her school. She has now stepped into a larger role helping to coordinate WRAP’s education programming. Page is committed to helping bridge learning gaps that many of the students face and working toward creating sustainable programming that sets the WRAP children up for success.

Anushay Mistry

Anushay Mistry is a rising fourth-year student at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Biology and Community Health at Tufts University and began working as a Clinical Research Coordinator at Boston Children’ Hospital while completing her premedical coursework. After completing her medical degree, she plans to complete her residency in pediatrics before pursuing a fellowship in infectious disease or critical care. Anushay began volunteering at WRAP in the spring of 2018 through the Family Medicine Community Health Summer Assistantship program at UMMS and became a board member in the fall. She loves working with the youth group and looks forward to becoming a pediatrician to continue working with underserved youth populations.

Vincent Sullivan-Jacques

Vincent Sullivan-Jacques received his M.Ed. in Religious Education from Boston College in 2008. He holds a BA in Theology with minors in Health Sciences and Film Studies from Boston College. After completing his undergraduate degree, Vinnie served as an AmeriCorps member at Peace Games where he taught K-8th grade students peace-making and conflict resolution skills. At St. Peter-Marian High School, where he worked for the seven years, he taught courses in religion and economics, with a special emphasis coordinating social change projects. Over ten years, Vinnie has planned and overseen the Campus Ministry SEND Service Immersion trips, where he has helped students grow in faith through service learning. As the supervisor of the Social Justice Ambassadors, a team leader for the Environmental Sustainability Committee, and Volunteer Assistant Coach with the Men’s Lacrosse team, he has served the Assumption University community in many different ways. He currently works in the Community Service-Learning Office as the Partnerships Coordinator and the Reach Out Center Director. He enjoys spending time with family, being active in social justice activities around Worcester, volunteering with friends at WRAP and coaching lacrosse. Vincent now lives in Worcester, MA with his wife and four children.

Noraishah Yusuf

Aisha is a sophomore at Burncoat High School. She and her family arrived in United States in August, 2015 and she has been an active participant in the Worcester Refugee Assistance Project(WRAP) ever since. She volunteers her time as an assistant with the Children’s Group and she recently became a Board Member. She is enthusiastic about pursuing career in the STEAM fields.

Omar Taweh

Omar Taweh is a current student at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the PURCH track, a program that focuses on underserved population health. Prior to beginning medical school, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Neurobiology and Human Rights, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Connecticut in 2019. After working in refugee health and in communications with IRIS (Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services) in New Haven, CT, he received a Fulbright Research Grant to Jordan in 2019 to study adolescent refugee mental health. In his free time, Omar is a surreal photographer, an avid advocate for justice, and potentially over user of social media. He serves as one of the co-leaders of the Youth Program and is grateful for the privilege to support the WRAP youth both as their friend, and as a Board Member.

Vanessa Avalone

Vanessa is a first-year medical student at UMass Medical School in the PURCH track, a program that focuses on underserved population health. She graduated from The University of Vermont in 2017 and received a Fulbright grant to teach English in Malaysia in 2018. After serving as an English Teacher in rural Malaysia for 10 months, she moved to Worcester where she sought to continue ESL work with Southeast Asian populations. Vanessa started out volunteering at WRAP’s afterschool program and became involved in ESL tutoring. She now serves as co-leader of the newly founded Adult Group. Vanessa is incredibly grateful for the friendships she has made through WRAP. She is honored to continue to be a part of WRAP as a Board Member.

Honorary Board Members

Meredith Walsh, Co-Founder

Meredith Walsh, MPH, NP-C worked on the Thailand-Burma border for five years as technical advisor for reproductive health at Mae Tao Clinic, Burma Medical Association, and the Adolescent Reproductive Health Network. She conducted translational research to apply evidence-based outcomes to improve the quality of facilities-based and community-based health care for displaced people from Burma on the Thailand-Burma border. She received a master of public health with a focus on international health and development from Tulane University and an advance practice nursing degree from the University of Massachusetts. She is one of WRAP's founders and she currently works as a family nurse practitioner in Memphis, TN.

Courtney Temple

Courtney Temple began volunteering with WRAP in 2010, and founded Youth Programming as well as the Teen Mentoring Program in 2013. She served as Youth Coordinator from 2013-2017, and has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2014. Courtney received her B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience from Northeastern University, and her M.D. from UMass Medical School. She is currently a resident physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at UMass with continued interest in working with underserved refugee populations in the Worcester community.

Michael Forhan

A founding board member of WRAP, Michael Forhan has spent much of his life working in the international arena. After a decades long career in the international educational travel industry, he successfully established two companies in Rangoon, Burma from 1994 to 1997. In the summer of 1998, Michael traveled to the Thai-Burma border, where he met Dr. Cynthia Maung for the first time and received her permission to feature her in a documentary film. Meeting Dr. Cynthia, coupled with his growing awareness of the enormous needs of the Burmese refugees and migrant workers living along the Thai-Burma border, inspired Michael to enlist the support of several Boston-area trauma therapists to establish Burma Border Projects, Inc. as a tax-exempt, charitable organization in 1999.