By Dan Murphy
As the new Chief Executive Officer of Hill House, Katherine Snider comes to the Beacon Hill community center at a pivotal time for the longstanding organization.
“We are thinking about scale,” Snider said last week in an interview at the Mount Vernon Street firehouse, which serves as headquarters for the nonprofit. “We’ll be 60 years old next year, so how do you continue to scale such a great organization?”
Snider, who started in her current role on Dec. 2, had lived in New York City for 29 years before relocating with her husband, George Schwimmer, to the Charlestown Navy Yard last October. And although she was previously unfamiliar with Hill House, she was certainly no stranger to Boston.
Snider’s paternal grandfather worked in the Charlestown Navy Yard before it was decommissioned in the early ‘70s, and her father was raised in Jamaica Plain.
When Snider’s parents first met, her mother was living at 20 Pinckney St., which was the childhood home of Louisa May Alcott, and as a great admirer of the ‘Little Women’ author, that connection always resonated with Snider.
She was raised in Montreal, where her father was a historian and taught classics at the esteemed McGill University. The rest of Snider’s family remained around Boston, however, so she visited the area often over the holidays during her childhood.
During her 25-year career, Snider has had what she describes as a “diverse career in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector,” adding that in some ways, she considers herself a “generalist.”
Before joining the staff of Hill House, Snider worked for more than 16 years at Good + Foundation, a national nonprofit that focuses on ending multi-generational poverty. She served as the organization’s Chief Executive Officer, after being promoted from executive director – a post she held for 12 years.
Previously she had served as associate director of The Rockefeller Foundation, a global nonprofit that, since 1913, has promoted the well-being of humanity worldwide via promoting sustainability and combating climate change; and as vice president of public affairs for New York City’s Lower East Side Tenement Museum.
Snider said a “common thread” ran through her previous work with Good + Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum as each organization’s “focus was on sustainable urban development and promoting livability for families, with a focus on vulnerable populations.”
Unlike Good + Foundation and the Tenement Museum – two organizations she came to during their respective “nascent” stages – Snider describes Hill House as an “organization with a deep history.”
Snider said she thinks Hill House is currently in a “great” position but added that she now hopes to “move it from great to greater.”
While Hill House has historically served families of means, Snider said the organization is currently building its scholarship program, as well as working on building partnerships with nonprofits that serve underprivileged communities.
Hill House now intends to expand the diversity of the communities, as well as the number of children and families served, along with the breadth of its programming, added Snider.
On a personal note, Snider raised her two sons in New York City – Tobey Schwimmer, now a 20-year old University of Chicago undergraduate student; and Riley Schwimmer, a 19-year-old freshman at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.
“Having raised two kids in the city, I would have loved to have had a Hill House,” she said.
Instead of having to shuttle her kids to an art lesson at one location and then for soccer or baseball somewhere else like she did in New York, Snider said, “Here you have it all under one roof.”
Hill House is looking ahead to ’26 as a milestone year as it will mark the not only origination’s 60th year but also 25 years since it first called the Mount Vernon Firehouse home.
One major challenge Hill House now faces is the Firehouse’s ongoing maintenance, including the pressing need to replace the building’s compromised roof.
“We are the stewards and have to make sure the building is really maintained and getting the TLC it deserves,” said Snider. “We’re starting to plan community celebrations and want to make sure we have got the facility in great shape to expand and open more to the public.”
Hill House is currently undertaking a capital needs assessment, as well as applying for a grant for roof repairs through the city’s CPA (Community Preservation Act) fund, with assistance from District 8 City Councilor Sharon Durkan’s office.
Besides the Firehouse, Hill House are also the stewards of the former police station at 74 Joy St., where the organization shares space with the Beacon Hill Civic Association (BHCA) and the Beacon Hill Nursery School.
Upon starting in her new role with the organization last month, Snider said she immediately struck by how many enduring partnerships Hill House has with other neighborhood organizations, including not only the BHCA and Beacon Hill Nursery School but also Rogerson Communities, the Esplanade Association, and Friends of Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields, among other groups.
“I have never seen the same level of collaboration as I have here,” said Snider.
The annual Hill House’s annual holiday Tree & Wreath Sale took place during Snider’s first week on the job, and she was immediately impressed that Upper Crust Pizza had donated food for volunteers.
“We know that a healthy community is an ecosystem that embraces a multitude of uses including spaces for health, education, shopping, dining, and physical wellness,” said Snider. “We are invested in the livability of our neighborhood, and we feel the same of our neighbors.”