Klare Shaw to Speak at 2024 Graduation
Influential Educational Leader and Community Builder to Address Graduates at America’s First Trade School
Boston, MA – May 28, 2024 – North Bennet Street School (NBSS) proudly announces Klare Shaw as the commencement speaker for the Class of 2024. The ceremony will be held on Friday, May 31 at the historic Old North Church in Boston’s North End neighborhood.
Shaw is a distinguished Boston leader whose tireless commitment to education, community empowerment, diversity, and social change has left an indelible mark on the city. Her exemplary career spans influential organizations such as the Liberty Mutual Foundation, Boston Public Schools, EdVestors, the Barr Foundation, and the Boston Globe Foundation.
“Klare is an exceptional Boston leader, with her work oriented to education, community strength, diversity, and social change. She has done this through some of the strongest and most influential organizations in the City,” notes President Sarah Turner.
“Her alignment with NBSS values is exemplified by her role on the Board of the Urban Farming Institute, which underscores the importance of skilled work for the betterment of daily lives and community health,” Turner continues. “I am truly excited for our students and School to have the benefit of her insights and experience. ”
The commencement ceremony marks a pivotal moment for NBSS graduates as they embark on their professional journeys, armed with the skills and values instilled by the institution. Shaw’s address promises to inspire and motivate the graduating class as they prepare to make their mark on the world.
“I have long been an admirer of the teaching and learning that occurs at NBSS,” Shaw notes. “With its varied skilled primary programs and hundreds of community education classes, it allows people to sharpen existing skills and to expand new talents that energize the soul and benefit the broader community. This is a wonderful opportunity to salute the storied history of the School and to address this newest group of graduates.”
The School’s 2024 Commencement will see a cohort of nearly 100 new crafts- and tradespeople join a community of over 3,500 NBSS alumni located around the world. The event is closed to the public, but a livestream will be available via YouTube. Watch the full event here.
Watch Klare’s Speech
About Klare Shaw
With over four decades of leadership in public, private, and corporate philanthropy, Klare Shaw’s career began at the State Arts Council (now MA Cultural Council), progressing from program coordinator to department head, overseeing arts education, folk arts, historic preservation, local arts planning, and BIPOC artist funding. She then oversaw Boston grantmaking at the Bank of New England Foundation and became Executive Director (1987-1989), and at the Boston Globe Foundation, she started as a consultant, becoming Executive Director in 1998. At the Barr Foundation (2000-2010), Shaw managed grantmaking in Arts and K-12 education. She later volunteered at EdVestors, contributing to the design and implementation of the Boston Public Schools Arts Expansion Initiative, significantly increasing arts learning for 17,000 BPS students.
Previously, Shaw was a department head at Boston Public Schools (BPS), overseeing community partnerships and extended learning, and served as a Senior Advisor to Superintendent Carol R. Johnson, liaising with City Hall, the funding community, neighborhoods, and school leaders (2012-2014).
Shaw is currently consulting, having stepped down in December 2021 as the National Director of Programs for Corporate Giving at Liberty Mutual. Reporting to the Foundation President, she managed the philanthropy team, overseeing $40M in contributions across Boston, Seattle, Ohio, and Dallas. Employed at Liberty from 2014-2021, Shaw led investments in nonprofits promoting equity and self-empowerment for vulnerable populations.
Board Membership and Nonprofit Employment
Shaw has also held advisory, staff and board roles at numerous local and national nonprofits organizations such as EdVestors (2010-2011), New England Blacks in Philanthropy (2023), The Urban Farming Institute (5 years as Board Chair, 2012-2022), Grantmakers in the Arts (1983-1988), National Endowment for the Arts/Expansion Arts and Education Programs (site visitor and proposal evaluator for several years ‘82- ‘87) and the YWCA-Aswalos House (1970). Shaw was an occasional reviewer for US Trust/Bank of America private trusts (2017 & 2018). She was a member of the national youth advisory group of Funders United to End Homelessness from 2019-2021. CBO nonprofit employment occurred at Action for Boston Community Development (1970-1975), and the Boston Children’s Museum (1975-1981).
Shaw funded and/or helped establish the following local efforts for nonprofits:
- Helped establish the Shelter Technical Assistance Program with the other Boston foundations in the mid 90’s
- Helped shape and implement a local effort on Diversity housed at TSNE Mission Works (the Third Sector New England 1996-2000)
- Black Church Capacity Building Program in the early to mid-200
- Summer Fund, operating support, and TA for Summer Camps via Philanthropy MA (then Associated Grantmakers—reviewer and active advisory member)
- Boston Youth Arts Evaluation Project (BYAEP) in the mid 2005
- BPS Arts Expansion Initiative with EdVestors and the Boston Public Schools
Education
- Jackson University 1972-1976, Majored in Education
- Educational Leadership Week at Harvard University—developed by Grantmakers in Education and Graduate School 2013
- Certificate from week-long program March 2020 Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, ESG and CSR Corporate Strategy and Evaluation for Senior Leaders
About North Bennet Street School
As America’s first trade school, North Bennet Street School is internationally known for its programs that help students to achieve meaningful lives and livelihoods. For more than a century, the exceptional programs, expert faculty, and inspiring community have encouraged individual growth, curiosity, technical mastery, and commitment to excellence.
The School offers career training programs in Bookbinding, Carpentry, Cabinet & Furniture Making, Jewelry Making & Repair, Locksmithing & Security Technology, Piano Technology, Preservation Carpentry, and Violin Making & Repair. NBSS additionally provides over 120 short, craft- and trade-based classes to beginners and more advanced students every year. The School is committed to community engagement, with offerings that range from career discovery programs for youth, to preservation projects with civic partners, to virtual programming and exhibitions for the public at large.
From its founding as a settlement house for immigrants in 1881, the School has trained individuals of all backgrounds from its home within Boston’s culturally rich North End neighborhood. In 2013, NBSS moved to an impressive, 64,000-square-foot facility—an award-winning adaptive reuse project that transformed a former police station and the City of Boston’s printing plant. The School will celebrate a decade in their “new” building this fall.
Additional Materials
NBSS 2024 Graduation Press Release
NBSS Media Kit
