Worcester Guardian names founding board of directors

Photo | Courtesy of Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce The Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce has launched a free nonprofit news source.

Write a Comment

By Isabel Tehan

Newly launched nonprofit news site The Worcester Guardian has named its founding board of directors, including the current CEO and a former executive from the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce launched the site in September in what it said is an effort to address the decline of local journalism.

The board will oversee financials and resources at the new nonprofit, according to the announcement posted to the Guardian’s website Wednesday, and will be responsible for recruiting new members and public perception.

The formation of the board is an important step in establishing the Guardian’s independence from the Worcester chamber, which contributed $50,000 to launch the organization, said Dave Nordman, former executive editor at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and a journalism consultant for the Guardian, in the website announcement.

Two of the nine members of the Guardian board have ties to the chamber: President and CEO Timothy Murray and Christina Andreoli, the former executive vice president of the chamber.

The seven other members of the Guardian board are Timothy Loew, John Rodriguez, Giovanni Blue, Joseph Kahora, Carl Herrin, Mary Beth Burke, and Emily Trevallion, according to a Wednesday announcement from the Guardian.

Loew, who is co-founder and executive director of the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute based at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, has been named board chair.

Other board members have backgrounds in various industries with ties to the Worcester community. Rodriguez is a counselor at Worcester East Middle School and president of the Worcester Latino Dollars for Scholars. Blue is business development manager at Workplace Resource in Worcester, and Andreoli is now senior vice president of private banking at Berkshire Bank, headquartered in Boston.

Kahoro is a physician assistant at UMass Memorial Health – Harrington Hospital, Herrin is chief of staff to the president at Worcester State University, Burke was a founding member of the Abby Kelley Foster Public Charter School, and Trevallion is assistant vice president of media relations at The Hanover Insurance Group in Worcester.

In its newsroom, the Guardian named Charlene Arsenault, former longtime arts and culture editor at Worcester Magazine, as its first editor in September. Kiernan Dunlop, former reporter at MassLive, will contribute to the site, according to a Wednesday post on X. Other stories published on the site were written by former Telegram sports reporter Bill Ballou and Northbridge author Rod Lee.