Who We Are
We are a group of private-sector leaders coming from local companies, nonprofits, higher education, and philanthropy working to ensure educational success for Greater Hartford students from high school through post-secondary degree-completion.
Our Mission
To close the opportunity gap in Greater Hartford and build a viable talent pipeline for our region and state.
Our Vision
We envision Hartford as the state’s leading talent hub, with our city’s young people well placed in careers and the cycle of poverty ended.
What We Do
We work with public-private sector partners to identify gaps in services and provide support where it’s needed.

Paul Diego Holzer
Executive Director
Paul has led the organization since 2011, bringing a combination of education, nonprofit management, and entrepreneurial experience to bear on the daily oversight of Achieve Hartford’s endeavors.
Prior to graduating from the Yale School of Management with his MBA in 2009, Paul was Director of Higher Education at the Latin American Youth Center, Washington DC’s leading youth development organization, where he directed four college preparatory programs targeting “first-generation” students.
Paul was a founding board member of the YouthBuild Public Charter School, Washington DC’s only bilingual vocational school, where he served as an administrator and teacher. Paul also administered over $480,000 in post-secondary education scholarships through Washington DC’s New Futures Scholarship in a six-year period, and ran social enterprise ventures for Breaking Ground, New York City’s premier supportive housing provider.
He earned a Bachelor’s of Arts in English focused on African American and Native American Literature as well as his Secondary Teaching Certification from Dartmouth College in 2000.
Chris Marcelli
Director of programs
Chris has worked in Institutional Effectiveness, where he built and implemented a new system for the assessment of co-curricular programs, conducted financial projections and peer institution analyses, and administered a $10,000 mini-grant fund.
Prior to that, he worked in Performance Management at the Department of Children and Families, where he gained experience with the Results Based Accountability framework and collaborated with the staff of the CT General Assembly’s Committee on Children on the RBA Report Card project.
Chris has a B.A. in Sociology and Economics from Central CT State University and a MPA from the University of CT


Theresa Sullivan Barger
Grant Writer / Communications Manager
Theresa is an award-winning journalist whose stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Hartford Courant, Family Circle, and several national business, health and higher education magazines.
In her early years as a Courant staff writer, she covered crime in Hartford and got to know the city’s neighborhoods. She has worked as a freelance writer and editor since 2007. She has provided writing services as a consultant to Achieve Hartford! since its beginning.
Theresa has a B.A. in English literature from Marist College.
Who Backs Us

Board Chair
- Ted Fleming
- VP Talent Development
- CVS Health

Board Treasurer
- Jim Bedard
- CFO
- UnitedHealthcare Northeast Region

- Niasia Williams
- Mechanical Systems Engineer
- Pratt & Whitney

- Melissa Melonson
- Co-Founder and President
- Lumi Luxe Agency

- Eric Stone
- Founder, CEO
- Clear Path Ventures

- Thom Cranley
- Principal
- Ernst & Young

- Ellen Last
- Co-Founder
- Sprint 52

- Stefanie Chambers
- Professor of Political Science
- Department Chair
- Trinity College

- Courtney Kunzelmann
- Secretary, VP Head, Retirement Strategic Marketing
- Prudential