College Crusade of RI adds board members, elects officer lineup

PROVIDENCE – The College Crusade of Rhode Island, the state’s largest and most comprehensive college access program, recently elected four new board members – Willie Borkai, Alaina Restivo, Kim Perry and Jessica Marfeo – to three-year terms.

Willie Borkai of Providence has devoted his career working in youth development, community development and the behavioral health field. Borkai works as a program coordinator in workforce development at Lifespan. He and his colleagues provide job opportunities for undeserved populations, and he coordinates two of the department’s youth programs.

Borkai, a proud alumnus of Providence public schools, graduated from Feinstein High School and attended Roger Williams University as an intercultural leadership ambassador. He studied psychology with minors in anthropology and sociology. He also holds a master of public health degree in urban studies from Northeastern University.

Alaina Restivo of East Greenwich is chief executive officer of Restivo Consulting, which she formed after serving as vice president of talent and operations at Upserve (previously known as Swipely).

Restivo relocated back to her home state of Rhode Island in 2011 in part to play a larger role reducing educational inequity. As the performance management executive for the Rhode Island Department of Education, she monitored the efficacy of 27 work streams under Rhode Island’s $75 million Race to the Top grant. She earned national recognition for her data-driven approach towards monitoring the grant’s performance indicators.

She serves as an adjunct board member for Trinity Repertory Company. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration in international business and human capital management from The George Washington University.

Kim Perry of Providence graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University School of Law and worked as a business litigator in Boston before joining Fidelity as a risk manager in 2006. Perry held various roles at Fidelity, including the risk management lead for Personal Investments, Fidelity’s retail business, until she accepted a voluntary buyout offer in 2017.

While at Fidelity, Perry was actively engaged in the company’s community service efforts and was awarded Fidelity’s community service award in 2013. She has served on the board for Sophia Academy, a middle school providing low-income girls in Providence with an empowering education, and has mentored students at Skip Nowell Academy and Year Up, taught middle school students through Junior Achievement, and assisted high school students with college essays and interview preparation through College Visions.

Jessica Marfeo of Warwick is the director of product strategy and development for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, where she has launched several innovations within the commercial market segment including network-based products, well-being programs and integrated consumer-directed health programs.

Marfeo previously held a variety of managerial roles in finance and operations at within large-scale retail companies Best Buy and the Home Depot.

A lifelong Rhode Islander, Marfeo is a College Crusade alumna and a graduate of the University of Rhode Island with bachelor’s degrees in communications and political science and a Master of Business Administration. She regularly volunteers through the BCBSRI Blue Angel Community program. The board also elected officers. The slate includes:

• Edwin Pacheco of Warwick, chair

• Meg Geoghegan of North Kingstown, vice chair

• Doug Sherman of Cranston, vice chair

• Joe Monteiro of Lincoln, treasurer

• Eric Shorter of Riverside, secretary

The College Crusade, Rhode Island’s largest college access program, supports about 4,000 first-generation, low-income students in middle school, high school and college each year with the one-on-one advising and year-round programs that focus on academic enrichment, social and emotional development, career education, and postsecondary preparation. The College Crusade also has awarded over $43 million in college scholarships to more than 5,000 Rhode Island students since 2001. Sixth-graders who attend traditional public schools and select public charter schools in Providence, Cranston, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Woonsocket and West Warwick are eligible to enroll in the College Crusade.