Letter From the President
Two years ago, I attended a roundtable with Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, hosted by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Governor Healey explained that growing numbers of small businesses were moving out of state or struggling to grow because they lacked the support they needed to thrive. While the individual businesses were small, their cumulative impact on the Commonwealth’s economy was not. The governor challenged all of us to come up with solutions that could help small business succeed and our economy grow.
SEED—the Suffolk Entrepreneurship and Educational Development Collaborative—is Suffolk’s groundbreaking response to that challenge.
SEED is a first-of-its-kind, University-run consulting clinic that draws on the combined talents of Suffolk faculty, alumni professionals, and students to provide underserved small businesses with a full suite of business services, including expert guidance on accounting, resource acquisition, and marketing. Importantly, SEED also provides our students with unparalleled opportunities to work with real-world clients dealing with real-life business challenges.
Since it launched last spring, SEED has already partnered with 16 Boston-area small businesses, analyzing their goals and business models, providing tailored consulting, and then working with them closely to translate strategy into action. This comprehensive approach has won praise from Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration, because SEED not only offers entrepreneurs a plan for success, it gives them the tools, resources, and support they need to execute that plan.
SEED is a powerful example of how the University responds to the needs of the marketplace, while also delivering on Suffolk’s twin mission to provide transformative learning opportunities for our students and positively impacting communities. With SEED, we are using our strengths—our location, our intellectual capital, and our commitment to the greater good—to make a real difference in, and for, our community.
You’ll read about other Suffolk difference-makers in this issue, including Robert Notch, MPA ’23, a retired Army colonel who is the founding executive director of Massachusetts’ Office of the Veteran Advocate, charged with improving how the Commonwealth serves those who served.
We’re also proud to mark several significant Suffolk milestones, including the 30th anniversary of our highly regarded clinical psychology PhD program, which has trained a generation of distinguished researchers and clinicians who now help lead labs and treatment centers throughout the country. Likewise, the College of Arts & Sciences Honors Program, which turns 20 this year, has nurtured hundreds of student scholars, just as our Modern Theatre—whose show-stopping restoration and renovation was completed 15 years ago—has showcased hundreds of exceptionally talented student performers. Finally, Rammy, Suffolk’s mascot, turns a very spry 75 this year.
As a valued member of the Suffolk community, you too can be a difference-maker for our students, with your support for scholarships and for the SEED program. This is work we do together, and this is how we leave our community better than we found it.
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fall 2025
Marisa J. Kelly, President
SEED scholars (from left) Jack Raimo, Khoi Vong, and Ruben Cardona-Matul spent the spring semester consulting for Future Masters Chess Academy, which teaches students critical-thinking skills useful in life as well as chess. Photograph by Michael J. Clarke
