Title: Chief Executive Officer

Major areas of responsibility: Strategic Planning, Agency Governance, Board Development, Community Relations, Policy Advocacy, Supervising Management Team, Financial Management and Fundraising

Relevant background: Teronda Ellis brings decades of experience as an entrepreneur, small businesswoman, real estate developer and lifelong resident of Boston to serving as the JPNDC’s CEO. Ms. Ellis’ leadership is informed by her experience in the private sector, working internationally for one of the world’s largest corporations and as a for-profit real estate developer in Boston’s neighborhoods. Her personal and professional experience allows her to bring an equity lens to all aspects of real estate and economic development.

Since joining the JPNDC in 2007, Ms. Ellis led the development of multiple complex housing developments that created and preserved more than 500 affordable homes in Jamaica Plain, Roxbury and Dorchester. Prior to joining the JPNDC, she also worked at IBM developing on-line learning tools used in many countries with diverse cultures. Ms. Ellis also worked as commercial real estate broker and in the public sector, where she worked for the City of Boston’s Fair Housing Commission.

Ms. Ellis brings keen insight into the ways a community development organization can nurture people and places from her experiences growing up in public housing in the South End. Her passion for human development is informed by her experience as a parent, raising two children, and as a daughter, raised by an artist who was also one of the first women employed in the building trades.

In 2020, the Board of Directors selected her to be the Chief Executive Officer of JPNDC. Read the announcement here.

Year started at JPNDC: 2007