Anne Driscoll, Founder; President
Anne Driscoll is an award-winning journalist (Boston Globe, New York Times, People, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Huffington Post, Reuters) and a longtime Swampscott resident who has been telling powerful, compelling, engaging and impactful stories through the use of print, audio and video for audiences both in America and Ireland and around the globe. She was the senior reporter for the Justice Brandeis Law Project at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis for 13 years. She lived in Ireland for seven years while investigating wrongful convictions and lecturing journalism at the Irish Innocence Project at Griffith College and the University of Galway as a two-time Fulbright Scholar and organized the first ever International Wrongful Conviction Conference and Film Festival in 2015. After returning to the US in 2020, she served remotely as acting director of the Human Rights Law Clinic at the University of Galway. Her investigative work helped exonerate people on both sides of the Atlantic, including the first posthumous presidential pardon in Irish history awarded by President Michael D. Higgins to Harry Gleeson, who was wrongfully convicted of murder and hanged in 1941. She is a licensed certified social worker in Massachusetts and is the 2016 recipient of the Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice. She chronicled her time in Ireland in a mini-memoir series called Irish You Were Here, is the author of a series of self-help books for preteen girls called Girl to Girl and, most recently, independently researched and wrote The Irish in Swampscott: A Brief History.
In 2004, with civic leaders Mike Devlin and Gerry Perry, she wrote a new town charter for Swampscott to include, among other changes, the role of a Town Administrator. She has been past president of the Swampscott educational foundation SUCCESS (Swampscott United Community Coalition for the Enhancement of Swampscott Schools), past president of ARTS (Arts Resources for the Town of Swampscott), past co-president of the Swampscott Middle School PTO and Machon School PTO, conceived of and launched the Swampscott Yacht Club lecture series Fish Tales from the Fish House, and has served for many years as a town meeting member. She graduated with a social work degree from Salem State College and is proud to have raised her three children in Swampscott.
Tim Dorsey, Founder; Treasurer & Secretary
Tim was on the leadership team of PowerAdvocate – a supply chain data and strategy firm serving the energy industry – where he led their consulting business and served as General Counsel. Throughout his 30+ year career in energy, he also served as Assistant General Counsel at Wood Mackenzie, a leading global data and analytics solutions provider for renewables, energy and natural resources; as an Associate at Vinson & Elkins LLP in Houston; and as in-house counsel with Bechtel Power Corp. and Azurix Corp (a global water company).
Tim was a member of the Swampscott Finance Committee for a decade, acting as Chair from 2019-2022. On the Finance Committee, he experienced firsthand local people making a difference in Swampscott – something he hopes to enable and encourage through the Swampscott Tides. A graduate of Tulane Law School, he did his undergraduate studies in foreign service at Georgetown University. He, his wife, and their son have lived in Swampscott since 2009. Tim’s interests include travel, international politics, skiing, and golf (and collaborating with award-winning journalists!).
Peter Masucci, Founder
Peter Masucci is a creative director and brand developer working his entire career serving local communities. With extensive experience at both WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV, he has assumed diverse roles nationally and locally. As an Emmy Award-winning creative leader, he has helped shape the mission of WBZ-TV News for over 25 years, collaborating closely with esteemed local journalists such as Liz Walker, Jack Williams, Lisa Hughes, David Wade, Bob Lobel, and Steve Burton. In his capacity as a creative director at CBS News and Stations, he plays a role in developing the brand strategies for renowned national news entities like CBS Evening News and Eye on America, as well as numerous local CBS News affiliates nationwide. He is driven by the belief in the power of local journalism to help inform, advocate for, and engage the communities we serve to make them better places to live.
Residing in Swampscott since 2005, Peter and his wife Heather have raised two children, both alumni of Swampscott High School. Actively engaged in community affairs, Peter has been a town meeting member representing Precinct 5 since 2015. Throughout his time in Swampscott he has volunteered his time to coach youth sports ranging from soccer to basketball to flag football.
Katie Katzman, Board Member
Katie Katzman brings a combination of hands-on journalism experience and community leadership to the board. An Eagle Tribune and CBS Boston veteran, she has covered everything from breaking news to long-form features. Katie launched and led one of Patch.com’s first Massachusetts sites, where she managed a team of editors across the North Shore and drove the publication to profitability — giving her a deep understanding of what it takes to build a sustainable local news outlet. Katie has called Swampscott home since 2012, where she is raising her four children and has remained deeply connected to the community through board and leadership roles at Shore Country Day School, Salem State College, and beyond. Katie has also been a Town Meeting member and member of the Recreation Commission. She believes local news is the connective tissue of a community. At a time when local outlets are disappearing across the country, she sees supporting independent local journalism not just as a passion, but as a responsibility.
Claudia Luck, Board Member
Claudia Luck has more than 30 years experience in non-profit resource development, including grantwriting, events, individual giving, capital campaigns and board governance. She is currently Vice President of Affiliate Resources and Leadership Engagement at Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and is responsible for leading its national capital campaigns. Prior to joining the national organization, she was Vice President for Development at Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts for more than 10 years.
Earlier in her career, Claudia was Director of Development for the North Shore Regional YMCA. As a member of its senior leadership team, she played a key role in board governance during its mergers with the Gloucester YMCA and the Marblehead/Swampscott YMCA. She was responsible for several of the YMCA’s capital campaigns that leveraged leadership giving and energized broad community support.
She is currently a trustee for two foundations and is chairing the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lynn’s Grants Committee. Claudia and her husband, Bob, have lived in Swampscott for more than 40 years. During that time, she has been a town meeting member, active with the League of Women Votes, and a founding board member of SUCCESS.
Sandy Sheckman, Board Member
Sandy Sheckman has spent her entire professional career in the not-for-profit arena (except for a very short, but successful stint selling hand painted seashells as a child), and now enjoys her retirement volunteering for those organizations that make the world a better place.
Although she earned a BA degree in Russian Language and Literature from Smith College and a Master of Arts in Slavic Languages from New York University, her heart belonged to the non profits. She earned a Graduate Diploma in Non Profit Business Administration from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada and never looked back.
Professionally, Sandy has held numerous leadership positions, including Executive Director of the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore in Marblehead, Interim Acting Director of the Lynn Museum and Historical Society, and Director of Performing Artist Associates of New England … a unique non-profit artist management that helped launch the career of young artists. She also served as Development Director and Development consultant to several local organizations. During her time at the JCCNS, she developed several signature fundraising and cultural programs, and is especially proud of those which brought the community together for interfaith events.
Her life in retirement includes being a guide at the Peabody Essex Museum, a mediator with the Resolution Center in Beverly, and a member of the Board of Symphony by the Sea. She also served as President of the Board of the Mediation Center. She is delighted to be part of the Swampscott Tides team and looks forward bringing her skills and experience to this important new venture.
She likes to write, having contributed several postings to the PEM connections blog as well as having composed hundreds of limericks (one per day) during Covid. She is ‘bubbe’ to two grandsons, is a longtime partner to Jerry, and has called Swampscott home for 47 years.
Jonathan D. Fitzgerald, Editorial Committee Chair; Board Member
Jonathan D. Fitzgerald is an associate professor of English and coordinator of the professional writing concentration at Salem State University. He is author of How the News Feels: The Empathic Power of Literary Journalists (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023) and Not Your Mother’s Morals: How the New Sincerity is Changing Pop Culture for the Better (RosettaBooks, 2013). With a colleague at the University of Iowa, he’s currently working on his next book about how American Renaissance writers might guide contemporary efforts to restore local journalism.
In addition to his scholarly work, Fitzgerald has worked as a reporter and editor for local and national publications. As a freelance journalist, he has published articles and essays in periodicals including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, WBUR’s Cognoscenti, and others. Fitzgerald earned his Ph.D. in English from Northeastern University and his M.A., also in English, from the University of Massachusetts Boston. More information is available at his website jonathandfitzgerald.com.
Founder & Former Board Member
Robert Powell
Robert Powell, CFP®, RMA®, is an award-winning financial journalist who contributes to publications such as MarketWatch.com, USA Today, TheStreet.com, The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, and AARP. He also serves as the editor and publisher of TheStreet’s Retirement Daily, the editor-in-chief of the Investments and Wealth Institute’s (IWI) Retirement Management Journal, and the host of the IWI’s Exceptional Advisor podcast. He is a co-founder of finStream.tv, a streaming channel focused on short-form personal financial education videos, and an instructor in the Financial Planning Association’s Online Elder Planning Specialist certification program. Previously, Powell was the editor of Retirement Weekly, published by MarketWatch-Dow Jones; editor and publisher of DALBAR’s multi-million-dollar publishing company, which published Mutual Fund Market News, Variable Annuity Market News, The Journal of Mutual Fund Services, Registered Investment Advisor, and Visionaries. Powell also served as vice-chair and chair of the Jewish Journal Boston North.
Beyond his professional achievements, Powell has served or continues to serve on various boards, including the Lynch/Van Otterloo YMCA, Swampscott Council on Aging/Senior Center, Swampscott Contributory Retirement System, Swampscott for All Ages, Seaglass Village, Congregation Shirat Hayam Interfaith Committee, Swampscott 2025 Master Plan, Swampscott Town Administrator Search Committee, Swampscott Little League, Nicholas Green Scholarship Fund, Project SAVE Armenian Archives, Boston University Program for Financial Planners, and Lynn Youth Hockey. He is a member of the Society for Business Editors and Writers. Powell resides in Swampscott, Mass., with his wife and is the proud father of triplet sons and a daughter.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Marquette University and a master’s degree from Boston University’s College of Communication.