Leadership
Board of Directors
President
Gina Despres, MA
Retired educator
Vice President
Marybeth Ferrarini, RN, JD, CPHRM
Southcoast Health
Treasurer
Lissa Singer, APRN, MBA, CPC-I
First Physician Corp
Secretary
Kate C. Miller, MPP
Representative Antonio Cabral, Massachusetts House of Representatives
Members
Barbara Beckmann, LICSW
Child and Family Services, Inc.
Zachary Boyer
Coastline Elderly Services
Michaela DeMattio, MA candidate in Clinical Psychology
Bridgewater State University
April C. Funches
Bristol County District Attorney's Office
Darcy H. Lee
Samaritans Southcoast
Ex Officio
Jocelyn M. Oliveira, CISR Elite, CPPL, CPIA
Partners Insurance Group LLC
Anna Schierberl Scherr, PhD
UMass Dartmouth, Brown University
Staff
Leadership Team
Darcy H. Lee - Executive Director
Darcy H. Lee began her career at the John F. Kennedy Library and Foundation in Boston, going on to work as Press Aide to U. S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, after which she worked in fundraising and as a consultant for different organizations including Clark University, Orchard House - Home of the Alcotts, Pilgrim Hall Museum, and the Women's Fund of Southeastern Massachusetts, among others. She served the Plymouth County region as Executive Director of Mayflower RSVP.
Lee is the author of two books - the award-winning Ghosts of Plymouth, Massachusetts (2017) and The Fantastic, Fabulous, Funny, and Factual Follies of a Facebook Friend (2010).
She serves on the boards of the Fall River Area Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Department of Children & Families, the Rotary Club of Fall River, and the Mattapoisett Museum. Lee is a member of the National Association of Crisis Organization Directors and the New Bedford Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She is a 2018 graduate of Leadership Southcoast and a Paul Harris Fellow through Rotary International.
Lee has a BA in history from Marymount College at Fordham University and lives in southeastern Massachusetts.
Christine Rizza - Volunteer Manager
Christine Rizza, a lifelong resident of Southeastern Massachusetts, comes to Samaritans Southcoast from the Fall River YMCA, where she served as the Member Services Director and Livestrong Director, an intense program for cancer patients, as well as running the Diabetes Prevention Program and Dance program.
She was the owner of Somerset Dance Center for 20 years, a school of dance for people of all ages and all levels of dance. Rizza served proudly as a member of the Dance Teachers Club of Boston and the Dance Masters Association. After selling her business in 2006, she went to work for the Dighton-Rehoboth school department in the field of special needs working one on one with elementary school-aged children and doing in-home ABA therapy in the community. She also runs a successful art business teaching adult and children art classes and selling her artwork.
Rizza's volunteer experience includes SouthCoast Serves, the Veterans Association of Bristol County, St. Vincent’s Services, Boy Scouts of America, and developing a robust and active cancer survivor alumni program with more than 100 members.
She brings a lifetime of experience motivating and supporting people through her work as a teacher, trainer, and coach. A suicide loss survivor, Rizza is passionate about suicide prevention and sees this position as an extension of her personal mission to help others.