FamilyAid Welcomes Ruthanne Fuller and Katherine Gergen Barnett, MD, to Board of Directors
FamilyAid is proud to announce the appointments of Ruthanne Fuller and Katherine Gergen Barnett, MD, to its Board of Directors.
Ruthanne Fuller served as Mayor of the City of Newton from 2018 to 2025, making history as the city’s first female mayor. During her tenure, she championed affordable and diverse housing, strengthened public transit infrastructure and prioritized equity and opportunity for vulnerable residents. Fuller was a strong advocate for FamilyAid’s Family Navigation Center and Annex, and advanced two-generation strategies to support families in need. She also launched Newton Thrive to promote economic mobility and implemented full-day kindergarten for the first time in Newton’s history.
Before serving as Mayor, she was elected citywide to four terms on the Newton City Council, where she served as Vice Chair of the Finance Committee. Her career also includes senior leadership roles at WGBH and Temple, Barker & Sloane, and extensive board service. Fuller holds degrees from Brown University and Harvard Business School.
Katherine Gergen Barnett, MD, serves as Vice Chair of Primary Care Innovation and Transformation in the Department of Family Medicine at Boston Medical Center, an Associate Professor at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, a recent Associate at Harvard’s Center for Primary Care, and a Health Innovators Fellow at the Aspen Institute. In her role, she focuses on engaging community partners to increase health and wellness and address medical distrust in traditionally marginalized communities.
Dr. Gergen Barnett is a frequent media commentator and accomplished writer whose op-eds and scholarship highlight solutions to pressing challenges in American health care, including its interconnectivity with homelessness and housing policy. She holds an MD from the Yale School of Medicine and completed her residency in Family Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine.
“We are thrilled to welcome both Ruthanne Fuller and Katherine Gergen Barnett to FamilyAid’s Board of Directors,” said FamilyAid President & CEO Larry Seamans. “Ruthanne’s decades of public leadership and her firsthand commitment to expanding housing access and supporting families make her an invaluable voice at the table. Katherine’s deep expertise in health equity and whole-family wellness brings a vital clinical and community perspective to our work. Together, they strengthen our mission of ending family homelessness.”
