Board Chair

Katlyn Morris, PhD, joined our Board of Directors in fall 2024. Katlyn is the worksite organizer for resident doctors at the UVM Medical Center, with SEIU's Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR). She is committed to supporting justice and dignity for working people, their families, and our community through union advocacy. Katlyn participated in Family Room programs with her two sons when they were younger and experienced how critical community connection is for caregivers and children. Katlyn is excited to join The Family Room's Board to give back to the organization that she cares so much about.

Linda Lai Nga Li, LICSW, is a dedicated social worker, educator, and advocate with nearly 20 years of experience supporting families and advancing culturally responsive practices. She earned her MSW from the University of Vermont, where she also teaches as an adjunct faculty member. As the founder of Centering Affinity to Thrive (CATT) LLC, Linda specializes in culturally appropriate mental health services, DEI training, and clinical supervision. Fluent in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, she works extensively with refugees, immigrants, and marginalized communities. She chairs the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee at NASW and serves on The Family Room board. Outside work, Linda enjoys cooking, baking, snowboarding, and traveling with her family, including two beloved cats.

Communications Committee Member

Carolina connected with the Family Room in 2015 through her job as the Garden Education Manager at the Vermont Garden Network. Her professional career has focused on guiding children and adults in garden-based learning with an emphasis on using ecological practices to grow nourishing food and strengthen communities. She brings substantial knowledge in the non-profit sector, along with experience working with people from diverse age groups and backgrounds. Carolina was born and raised in Mexico City and deeply values her bilingual and bicultural upbringing. Her motherhood experience, along with professional training in Waldorf early childhood education, have given her a profound appreciation for young children. Carolina lives in Burlington with her partner and their five year old son.

Communications Committee Chair

Belen works as an independent Graphic Designer and Illustrator. She is from Guadalajara, Mexico, and came to Burlington, VT in 2014. Her family found a place in the Family Room in 2019, which worked out to provide a strong framework of support in community, friends, and education that allowed her to more easily weather the trials of being a new parent, especially being far from her family that she loves. Belen has been on the Family Room board since 2022. She believes that supporting the positive development of children and their families is the foundation for building a stronger community and is interested in using her position to learn and share her experience and knowledge that will contribute to this goal. She loves hiking with her husband and daughter and playing board games at home. Another passion of hers is caring for her garden, where she loves to grow peppers, tomatoes, and tomatillos that later uses to make salsas. Lately, she has been very interested in learning about food preservation techniques. She aspires to combine these interests, in her quest to find the ideal salsa recipes to share with friends and savor during the chilly Vermont winter months.

Preferred pronouns: She/her

Treasurer of the Board, Finance Committee Chair

Amity is a CPA and partner at JMM & Associates, a public accounting firm in Colchester, VT where she specializes in auditing not-for-profit organizations. Before becoming a CPA, Amity had a checkered professional past doing everything from teaching English in Taiwan, to digging test pits with an archaeological firm, to being a church secretary.

Preferred pronouns: She/her.

Finance Committee Member

Lindsay is the Executive Director of Philanthropy at the UVM Cancer Center. She works with patients and their families, community members, and alumni of the UVM Larner College of Medicine to raise money for patient care, education, and research.​ She is passionate about the importance of positive early childhood experiences, family connections, and community.

Preferred pronouns: She/her.

Emily Robbins, Ed.M., joined The Family Room board in June 2026. As a professional in the field of Human Development, Emily worked across developmental contexts including public and private schools, youth and adult prisons, youth program quality assessment, and affordable housing, before becoming a stay-at-home parent. Emily is passionate about advocating for practices, programming, and policies that encourage and empower intentional and developmental adult-child interactions across systems in everyday practice. She and her husband love bringing their young children to programming at The Family Room, where so many of these rich human interactions take place. 

Andrea Green is a newly retired pediatrician and an Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine. She is the former Director of the Pediatric New American Program and Pediatric Global Health at the Galisano Children’s Hospital at UVM. She is the Past Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Community Pediatrics and the current Vice President of the Vermont Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. In 2019, she partnered with the Family Room to create the Building Strong Families clinic, a community-based pediatric medical clinic dedicated to robustly supporting children in immigrant families and addressing non-medical drivers of health. She is passionate about supporting families in raising children who thrive and is a strong advocate for the Family Room, having witnessed firsthand the impact of its programs and staff.