OUR TEAM
Co-Founders and Executive Director
Sandra Rizkallah (she/her)
Sandra Rizkallah, co-founder and executive director of Plugged In, has a degree in film and television from Emerson College.
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Sandra has produced her own documentaries and has worked in the post-production department of NOVA at WGBH.
Tom Pugh (he/him)
Tom Pugh, co-founder of Plugged In, attended Berklee College of Music and has been a professional musician for 40 years.
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Tom has performed with numerous bands, including Frankie Lee,the Doowopp Hall of Fame Rock and Roll All Stars, Southern Revelation, SloBurn and Lois Lane and the Daily Planets. He has played at Boston’s Symphony Hall and the Montreal Jazz Festival as well as many other prestigious venues.
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Tom has also been an audio and video engineer at WGBH in Boston for 30 years.
Associate Director
Dan Croft (he/him)
Dan Croft originally joined Plugged In as Administrative Assistant back in 2011. His role was to help our staff keep every aspect of the organization running smoothly. After one year he became such an important part of the program administration he was given the role of Program Director. In 2023 Dan became Associate Director of Plugged In.
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Dan previously served in administrative and management roles at More than Words and the Asperger’s Association of New England.
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Dan’s interest in organizations that serve and inspire youth began when he was a camper and later a Counselor-in-Training at Paul Newman’s Hole In The Wall Gang Camp.
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Dan lives in Waltham, MA, where he spends most of his free time baking and taking care of his kitty, Toby.
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Dan loves his label maker and is known for saying “rock on!” all the time.
Program Coordinator
Matthew Cunningham (he/him)
Matthew Cunningham has been a teacher at Plugged In since 2022. In 2022 he graduated from Berklee College of Music with a B.M. in songwriting. Matthew is a music theory enthusiast, and he enjoys writing his own rock songs. He spends his time playing piano, drums, or guitar, and listening to progressive rock music.
Outside of Plugged In, he has pursued his passion for music education by teaching music classes at both public and private schools in Dorchester and Somerville (2023), and by music directing the Kennedy Middle School Musical in Natick (2023).
Inclusion Program Coordinator
Francis Hickey (he/him)
Francis, a former Plugged In music teacher, on becoming our new Inclusion Coordinator.
Francis is a Berklee College of Music graduate with a M.Ed in Music Education (Autism Concentration) from Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Francis will work closely with our administrative team and Inclusion Committee to build Plugged In’s capacity to serve students with complex needs while maintaining our high quality programming for everyone.
Francis is an educator, performing musician, and composer. Released in 2023, Seasonal Views From An Apartment Window is his debut record.
Sponsors
