Maria Lombardo, Ed.D.
Chair, Board of Trustees
Newton Center, Massachusetts
Dr. Maria Lombardo is a professional grant writer, evaluator of educational programs and director of federal and privately funded educational programs. She has worked for universities, school districts, and nonprofit foundations conducting teacher training, directing student, teacher, medical and legal exchanges. Some of her recent experiences include Project Coordinator for the English Language Categorical Training grant and Project Coordinator for the Spotlight Teacher Training Project and the ESL Licensure Coordinator in the Applied Linguistics Department at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Prior to these current positions, she served as the Education Director for the National Italian American Foundation for over 20 years. Dr. Lombardo increased the foundation’s now multi-million dollar scholarship fund, initiated their grant program, conducted medical, legal and women’s conferences and exchanges with Italy, directed grants for parent training, student exchanges and immigrant women’s educational training and provided technical assistance to organizations and colleges seeking to bolster their cultural education programs. Dr. Lombardo was a keynote speaker in many conferences nationally and internationally. She has published extensively on the Italian Language and culture as well as educational programs for second language learners. For her work on the Italian language and culture in the US, she was recognized with the distinguished Marisa Bellisario International Fortune Five Hundred Award, which was previously received by Marina Berlusconi daughter of Silvio Berluscone and San Suu Kyi of Burma/ Myanmar. The awards were presented in Dr. Lombardo’s home country of Italy.
Dr. Lombardo has conducted over 50 conferences on the Holocaust with funded grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities Jewish, German, Polish and Italian organizations. She worked with the US Holocaust Museum and Facing History and Ourselves as well as universities and organizations to conduct the conferences. She authored a book, A Camp Without Walls that describes her father’s plight as a survivor of a Nazi slave labor camp and chronicles Italy’s role during WWII and Italian rescue of Jews. For her work she was awarded the Raoul Wallenberg Award, Educator of the Year by the Association of Italian American Educators, and the Italian Heritage Month Award. She served as a representative of Calabria, Italy and worked with the Italian Ministry of Education.
Dr. Lombardo received her B.S. from Bridgewater State University, her M.Ed. from Northeastern University, and her doctoral degree from Boston University.
