Who We Are?
Over the course of our history, we have connected the world of sport with social-impact-driven research, education, and advocacy through programming and global community engagement. The Center has historically aimed to transform the culture of sports from competition to inclusion and to promote a paradigm shift that sports are more than just the scoreboard.
Due to its central place in society, the visibility and stature of athletes, and the extent to which its worldwide audience cuts across gender, race, and socioeconomic lines, sports can bridge cultural gaps, resolve conflict, and educate people in a way that few other activities can.
History
Founded in 1984, Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society is one of the world’s leading social impact organizations. Through empirically-proven training and solution-based advocacy, the Center uses the power of sport to create inclusion, challenge the institutionalization of racism, prevent interpersonal violence, provide trauma support, and provide tangible skill sets to circumvent the micro-aggressions of negative normative culture and instead create a new paradigm of empowerment, personal validation, leadership skill acquisition, workforce development, public service, community engagement, and economic empowerment.
We have developed curriculum and delivered training to Major League Baseball, for the NFL, at the South African World Cup, to every branch of the military, for the NFLPA, to every major college conference, to police departments, community groups, and non-profits, to over 140 high schools in Massachusetts in partnership with the Attorney General and the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation, and to hundreds of other high schools; locally, nationally, and internationally
Our Team
Our staff is comprised of former athletes who are dedicated to using sport as a vehicle to promote positive social change.
Staff Members
Dan Lebowitz
Executive Director
Dan Lebowitz has served as the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society since October of 2008. He is the third executive director in the Center’s 30+ year history. Lebowitz’s tenure has seen a wide spectrum of work, from a partnership with the NFL around sexual harassment prevention to a solidified position as one of the most sought-after resources for capacity-building and leadership education to sport and social change organizations. During his time the Center has done primary violence prevention work with Major League Baseball, the military, the Boston Police Department and other community engagement entities involved in positive youth development and normative culture change.
Lebowitz possesses an extensive background in the design, development, and implementation of educational and employment programs aimed at opening opportunity for urban youth and the many underserved and diverse populations of the City of Boston. Throughout his career he has worked in and or managed a myriad of programs toward this end, including Brandeis University’s Transitional Year Program, the Waltham Group, Upward Bound, the City of Boston Employment and Economic Policy Administration, the Boston Private Industry Council’s Boston Compact Initiative and Summer Jobs Program and the Department of Transitional Assistance’s Housing and Housing Services Division for the Homeless.
Disabled as a youth, Lebowitz used the medium of sport to shed leg braces, become a competitive body builder, coach high school basketball, and direct a performance training business in which his clients included world class speed skaters and professional athletes. This history cemented his belief in sport as the embodiment of inclusion and as a common ground foundation for the positive development of social change. Lebowitz embraces the notion that sport bridges the divisiveness of politics, offers conflict resolution to adversaries, and brings a sense of community to the disenfranchised.
Nicolette Aduama
Sr. Associate Director of Operations
Nicolette Aduama has been a training consultant with the Center for eleven years and is currently the Senior Associate Director. She has oversight of program operations, curriculum development, assessment, and trainer development. Nicolette is a passionate educator with two decades of experience in higher education focused on program management, equitable access, student empowerment and success, and sustainable social impact.
Magali Feruzi
Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Magali Feruzi, the Center’s Director of Operations and Partnerships, has 15 years of nonprofit finance experience. With a focus on youth development through sport and a passion for social justice, she oversees program strategies and operations. Feruzi’s role involves overseeing program strategies and managing operating procedures to drive social change.
Carl Barrows
Associate Director of Operations, Training, Community Partnerships and Events
Lisa Markland
Lead Consultative Trainer
Lisa Markland, a Northeastern University graduate, and former collegiate athlete, has a background in social services and program coordination. With 15 years of experience in social justice work, she joined the Center for the Study of Sports in Society as an Assistant Director of Training, focusing on programs like Mentors in Violence Prevention.
Rachel Moo
Consultative Trainer
Rachel is a facilitator who looks to connect the world through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion through social justice-driven research, education, and advocacy using programming and community engagement. She aims to build community that is founded on inclusion and collaboration.
Rachel is an avid sports fan and her previous work allowed her to promote a paradigm shift that sports are more than just the scoreboard and believes sport can bridge cultural gaps, resolve conflict and educate people in a way that few other activities can.
Winston Daley
Consultative Trainer
Jeff Lopes
Consultative Trainer
Jeffrey Lopes is an educator, law enforcement practitioner and social justice champion. He is a believer that social justice, law and order and safety, are not compartmentalized abstracts and opposites but achievable intertwined policy outcomes. He is the President of a statewide Minority Law Enforcement organization, Non-Profit Founder, Boston Police Detective and Doctor of Law and Policy with keen experiential expertise in directing large-scale impact leadership initiatives designed to create intersectional success outcomes specific to public safety and socially-just equity. He is a policy and programmatic thought-leader with proven ability in ideating, innovating and implementing solution-based, state-level, engagement and empowerment responses that create the common-ground requisite for socially-just procedures, practices and pathways to collective safety. He is a Bridge Builder and Peace Builder.
Kerline Desir
Consultative Trainer
Sandra Menee
Consultative Trainer
Sandra Menee, a Dorchester native, currently serves as vice president for the non-profit We Got Us Inc. which provides education in financial literacy as well as negotiations for contracts related to coaching and other athletic agreements. In addition to being an educator for Boston public schools, Sandra also coaches boys high school basketball at Brimmer and May. Using the platform to send many young men to continue their education and athletic careers over the last 18 years, Sandra has dedicated herself to the city of Boston’s youth where she currently resides. Graduating in 2015 from the college of professional studies, Sandra has a deep rooted history with Northeastern serving as the head equipment manager for athletics the last 14 years before stepping down in 2023. A competitor herself, having competed during her undergrad years in both basketball and softball, she brings a wealth of experience and compassion to our trainers.
Join Us
If you’re interested in joining a community of professionals who love sports and social justice, check out these ways to join our team.
Internship Opportunities
Our Internship Program allows students and individuals from any academic discipline the ability to gain hands-on experience working on Center projects. We welcome both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as adults who have an interest in sports, social justice, education, and health development to apply for the internship program.
Trainer Opportunities
Depending on areas of expertise, Training Consultants will plan, deliver and debrief high-quality training to a wide range of service populations including high school students, school administrators, teachers, and parents in our signature programs.