Theodora is committed to CLF’s prosperity. Her motivation is personal; as she comes from a family of small business owners across Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Georgia, and Alabama, she understands the importance of fostering independently-owned small businesses in Cambridge. Her family, which immigrated to the U.S. northeast at the turn of the 20th century from Greece, has started small businesses that include family-owned Greek restaurants and diners, a carpenter’s business, an insurance company, small-scale real estate businesses, a high-speed digital imaging, video-based instrumentation, and motion analysis business, and a composting business, among others. All of her aunts and uncles, as well as her parents, are small business owners.

Theodora graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School with a Master in Public Policy, where she studied International Trade and Finance. Beforehand, she worked in Turkey and Iraq on a Fulbright Fellowship, and in Morocco and the West Bank with non-governmental organizations on issues of community empowerment, conflict resolution, and poverty alleviation. Theodora graduated from Harvard College with a B.A. in Philosophy and Government, and minors in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Modern Standard Arabic, and Modern Greek. Theodora has studied French, Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Greek, Arabic, Spanish, and Modern Turkish. She lives in the Harvard Square area with her partner, Wael. You can connect with Theodora by email: Theodora@cambridgelocalfirst.org.